Only 5 Days of Training

These are the 118 steps (12 flights of stairs) that we must climb every day to get to Aston School. There is also a back staircase which we use when the front door is locked in the evenings, and that only has 112. This is what happens when there is no TV... we count stairs!

This is the view from the living room. I eat breakfast looking at this... very picturesque I'm sure you'll agree. Not. This morning I was certain I heard a distressed dog... that was probably tonight's dinner for someone!!

This is my room (before it got all cluttered up with papers, files, pens, etc etc etc). All the rooms have the same format. Through the door on the left is a nice enclosed balcony which I like to stand on & watch the world go by. When I was jetlagged, I stood out there for an hour at 5am... I was shocked at how many people were up & about! And by 6am the horns had started again. Surprise surprise.

Behind the wooden door frame on the right of the picture is my closet space. It's ok, but to be honest, no closet space is ever enough for me!

This is our living room with our lovely orange sofas. They're new you know. Caroline bought them especially for the new term... at least they brighten the place up!

You can see a small breakfast/dinning table in the backgroud & the TV & DVD player are on the right (not pictured). It's nice that there is somewhere we can all hangout, but sometimes it seems like if the Westerners are in there, the Chinese staff don't come in. Sometimes the do, but not always. And if they're watching something in Chinese they are so apologetic as though there is something else in English we could be watching. It's interesting how different Caroline treats the Chinese & foreign staff; we are quite clearly treated better. Sadly, it would seem that she feels she can replace them easily & therefore can treat them how she wants. Which from hearing her shouting in Chinese in the office, isn't always particuarly nicely.

These are our fish. They were here when we arrived but they didn't have names & so we have adopted them. We named them Mao & Bush (the red one is Mao of course).

When we asked Caroline who fed them she said she didn't know but apparently they were fed rice!! "Chinese fish eat rice" we were told. So we trooped down to the market to buy some fishfood for them & have basically taken them under our wing, saving them from the crazy Caroline!


Training

On Wed, we started our 5 days of training. We observed teachers here such as Pavlina (from the Czech Republic) teaching different age groups. She was very helpful, told us good lesson plans, how to handle a class, etc, etc.

On Thu, I taught my first class - it was only a practice, but it was a real class, so technically, you could argue it was a real class - anyway! It was at the Business College at Anhui Uni (look right); it went well thank god!

It's quite strange teaching as you'll suddenly see a camera phone pop up out of the corner of your eye which can be a bit un-nerving! At the end of my lesson, three students timidly came up to me, held up their phone & asked, "do you mind?" I said no & they were so excited! They crowded round me smiling & doing peace signs. It was all a bit sureal! For many of the students, it is the first time they have seen a foreigner so they get very excited.

I was the last one up to teach & the other Westerners observed our classes & gave us feedback at the end of the class, so that made it more nerve racking. I was shaking to begin with but quickly got it under control & then got into the swing of it. Andy said I seemed like a natural, really comfortable in front of a class - turns out I'm like my mom in even more ways than people at home tell me!

The hardest part is speaking slow enough for them to understand - I feel as though I'm treating them like thickies my talking so slowly, but it is the only way they can fully catch what I'm trying to say. Also, trying not to fill my speech with slang, British phrases, long & complicated words - and this is for the Uni students! Also, they are so shy and reserved that it can be hard to get them to speak; this i simply find frustrating though it varies from class to class.

On Friday, Andy, Neil & I went to the local car company, Chery Cars, & had an informal session with some of the employees there. We call this English Corner & it is just so that they are reguarly speaking English & able t practice more easily. I didn't like this at all. They were painfully shy - even more than the students - & when you did finally get them to speak, they giggled like 16 year old school girls. 30 & 40 year old men giggling! We were all a bit taken aback!

The boss made me feel very uncomfortable though; he said in Chinese to Linda, the Chinese teacher who came with us, that he wanted to talk to me because I 'was beautiful'. I was mortified! Andy & Neil were laughing becuase my cheeks were the same colour as my top! What made it worse was that as he sat across from me, I felt his eyes drifting down which was horrible! I found myself leaning against the table with my arms crossed completely over my chest so that I was totaly unvisable!

I find the attitudes towards women very difficult here. In the bar we went to last week, the owner came & shook all the guys' hands & totally blanked me. At the time, I felt a tad insulted at this, however, now I'm thinking that that is easier to deal with than feeling as though I'm a piece of meat for the taking! Eek!

Out & About

For the beginning of the week, we mainly went out as a crew of foreigners as we didn't really know where we were going & stuff. However, yesterday, I went out on my own to buy stationary supplies & what not from Century Mart (the biggest supermarket in Wuhu). I was happily walking down Walking Street (the main shopping street here) listening to my iPod when a girl falls into step beside me. I turn & look at her, somewhat bemused by her behaviour, & she shouts "hello!" in a very excited manor! I took out my earphones & said, "hello" feeling a little bit unnerved. She basically, was trying to sell me her product which was photos & wanted to practice her English. She seemed excited by the prospect of selling to one of the few Westeners in Wuhu, though I was not so keen as I knew that if I let them, my face would be plastered all over their posters as the Westerner!! I tried everything to get away, feinged I had a class to get back to, but then she merely became more excited because I was a teacher & so could test her English better! She ushered me into the tent, practically taking my hand & dragging me in, sat me down & sowed me all the books of photos. In the end I just got up & quickly said, I'm really sorry, I have a class, I really have to go. She gave me her name & number, offered me Chinese lessons, asked me to call her. I'm sure she was only being polite & was excied by the chance to teach a Westener but I was like, "errr, thank you..." Run Away!!!

This is Restaurant St or, Pheonix St. It is literally lined with Restaurants from one end to the other & when we're in doubt of where to eat, we go here. Sorry it's a bit blury, but it was beginning to rain & we wanted to get in doors before it down poured! (NB: crazy taxi, bottom left, shooting down what in Britain would be a pedestrianised street. Hmmm...)

Western Food!

We caved on Thu night - Patricia, an American lady who works here, had given us a talk about teaching here but it sort of turned into a 'how to survive Wuhu' talk! She told us of a few places which were good hang outs where the few Westerners go and stuff. We came back to the living room & Russell said, "I'm thinking it may have to be F.Y.Old Tree tonight". This is the restaurant that sells steak. I was so happy! I wasn't sure I could face rice for another night!

The steak probably was't that great to be honest, but damn it tasted good! They were so funny the staff; we were trying to explain that we wanted fries with our steaks & they said, "but set menu, it's a set menu". We gave up in the end thinking we weren't getting through.

When the meal arrived, little baskets of fries arrived as well which surprised us. We laughed & said, wouldn't it be funny if they had run out to McDonald's... & low & behold, they were Maccy D's fries!! Well, they tasted very like them anyway. We felt quite bad, but to be honest, we didn't care we were that happy!

The restaurant itself reminded me of a hareem... not that I've ever been in a hareem... anyway! It had huge padded booth seats with tons of cusions, fake ivy around the ceiling, big drapes in the windows with like, a whispy netting thing. Comfy, but a bit odd!

Similarly, tonight I cooked pasta which I then had to eat using chopsticks as we have no cutlery. And interesting, sloppy experience which has ended up in a top cover with pasta sauce! *sigh*

Nights Out In Wuhu...

On Saturday, by the time we had finished training & relaxed & were ready to maybe go out for dinner, none of us could really be bothered. So we went to Century Mart to buy something & bring it back to cook. So, my Sat night was speant buying groceries... not quite my idea of fun!

At Aston Language School (where I'm working) Monday is the day off, however, as we do weekend language classes. So Sunday night is more of the social night. Nevertheless, last night we had the 'Aston Welcome Party'. We went to Caroline's restaurant (this women has a finger in everything it would seem) & all the school staff & some representatives from the businesses we teach came as well. Now, in theory, this was a nice idea. In reality, as the Westerners we kept being dragged off to speak to various different people from different places. We would just sit down again & then Linda would come drag us off to a different group of people. It was, how can I put this... an interesting evening. I had one very awkward question from a man who works at Chery; "what do you think of the one child policy". We have been told that we should avoid all political topics, religion or sex when teaching or chatting to Chinese people as it could get us into hot water. This was difficult to avoid when he was so direct! I ended up sitting happily on the fence replying something along the lines of, "I understand why it is necessary, but I do not know if it is fair".

Thankfully, Andy & Shining (one of the Chinese teachers) popped their heads over the table & said, "do you wanna get out of here". Yes! I didn't realise we were going to 'KTV' - Kareoke. At home, with my friends, and a substantial amount of alcohol, I would happily grab the mic, however, we had a private room & it was very intimidating! Andy kindly chose the song "Barbie Girl" for me & thrust the mic into my hands then & I was forced to sing. That one I took the piss with - what else can you do with that song! Later, they chose Avril Lavigne for me, handed me the mic again & I showed them what I can really do - they were all a bit surprised! tee hee! However, now they'll probably make me stand up & sing every time now. Hmm... not so good.

This is Mirror Lake by night which we pass pretty much every day to get to & from places. It's very pretty with pedelos (which we are yet to try out) on it by day. Hope the photo is clear enough!

Last night, we stopped off at a little square to play on the hover craft style bumper cars. They were brilliant fun but sadly no photos as the lady didn't give me a chance busimply shouted at me in Chinese the instructions on how it worked. As you can imagine, this was very helpful!

This is the view of Mirror Lake from my balcony - sadly partly blocked by the Bank of China building - which has only been renevated on the side that faces the road, so it really is quite a shabby view from my side!

Monday mornings? No, Wednesday is the bain on my life!

I got my timetable on Saturday. I teach at the Medical College at Anhui Uni on Monday mornings for one lesson and Tuesday for three lessons. I also teach at a rural middle school outside of Wuhu called Shui Yang.

I taught at the Medical College this morning - up around 6am as we had to leave Aston at 7:30am in order to get to my 8am class. *cringe* On Tuesdays, it's an 8:40am start, but on Wednesdays, I have to be up at 5am because we have to leave Aston before 7am to get to the middle school in time! 5AM!!! This time doesn't exist on my watch!

We get a Chinese teaching assisstant so that if the class really have no idea what we are saying in English, they can translate for us. We get an assistant at the Uni's for the first week but then we are on our own - eek! At the middle school, however, we always take an assisstant as their level of English is simply not up to lessons in full English.

There are 6 new assisstants at Aston who started this week from the Business College we taught at last week. They were laughing at me yesterday as I was in the office & Wendy said to me, "Bainma is your assisstant tomorrow & he will meet you downstairs at 7:30am" & I went, "pardon!?" Bainma rang me at 7:15 this morning to make sure I was awake! This made me laugh.

I've found normal English caffinated tea though - so I'm ok, I can get up in the mornings! I like Chinese tea, but the lack of caffine is no good for me in the mornings!

My class went well this morning. The Medical Students' English is reasonably good so Bainma really didn't have to do anything. He sat & read his newspaper! The weird thing about the Medical College is that we only see the same class once every two months. Instead, I teach 5 different classes of 50 - 60 2nd year students a week the same lesson plan - that is how many students there are!

Questions

some of you had some questions when you replied to the last post. In answer to "do parents clean up after the kids" - I saw this the other day, somewhat of a surprising site! But it would seem that they make the toddlers squat over the drains. So cleaning up isn't really an issue.