The girls and I woke up around 7 AM on Sunday morning. It
was the best night sleep I’ve had in a long time. We got ready and walked to
the boys’ dorm. However, they were quite lazy and got off to a late start.
While waiting for them, we toured the school campus. There were some ladies
sweeping the grounds. There is a basketball court very close by. Red lanterns
are definitely symbolic here. I was feeling a bit dizzy and light-headed
(probably from the time change). Already so early it was very humid outside,
which probably added to my dizziness. We finally met up with the boys and the
Chinese LAC teachers. Since breakfast isn’t served at the school cafeteria, we
decided to walk into town. We stopped at a breakfast place to get Chinese buns.
They were bread filled with either pork or red bean paste. I told myself that I
needed to have an open mind about the food here and try everything that I can.
One of my biggest fears about coming here was the food. The bun actually turned
out to taste really good!
We then walked back to school and went to an empty classroom
to get to know each other. We played an icebreaker game and then talked about
the projects the students were doing. I was put on the sociology survey project
team with Nikki, Jesse, and two Chinese volunteers. It sounded exciting, like
it might be a good opportunity to learn about Chinese customs and culture. Joe
and Keith are on the photography project which also sounds awesome to me.
Jenette and Luke are working on a production class, similar to IOE. Yijia and
Eric are working in the Debate group and Chen is in the Drama group.
We moved to the library to talk about our first lesson for
tomorrow: food. We decided to add pictures to the lesson plan and we
brainstormed ice-breaker games to play with the students in the afternoon.
Lunch was almost like stir fry. It started with rice, then
cooked squash, mushrooms, tofu, chicken, and a spicy mixture of peppers and
beans. I can see why Chinese people are so healthy. The chopsticks were a
challenge at first but we caught on quickly. However, we eat much slower than
the LAC volunteers. I actually love the spicyness of the food – which surprises
a lot of Chinese people.
After lunch we headed over to meet our students for the
first time. They were overexcited to see Americans and took lots of pictures of
us. We gave our students English names and I memorized quite a few of them
today. I teach class with Yijia and Tony (an LAC volunteer). Our class is the
most energetic, which I love. The students loved to hear me speak Chinese and
helped me write characters on the board. Some Chinese boys from another
classroom spontaneously came into my room and gave me a hug. They came up to me
and said “Um, I’m sorry” then smiled and gave me a hug. I thought that was
really cute.
We ate dinner and then started an intense basketball game.
It was so much fun. By the end I felt like it wasn’t physically possible for me
to sweat any more. Jesse threw me to the ground when attempting a layup. It was
unintentional of course J.
After that we all gathered in the boys’ room and played four games of mafia. By
the end of the day a cold shower was absolutely glorious. We fell fast asleep.
-Christine
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