The Start of Session Two

A lot to say, but as usual there isn't much time and I'm sure I'll forget some things, too.

Session Two started on Monday. There are 26 kids (well, on the first day it started with about 19, but because we deal with the villages, kids slowly trickle in for the first several days), which Rob and I decided was not worth splitting into two classes. On the one hand, two classes of 13 is nice because each kid gets a lot of attention, but a lot of the games and things we like to play would be really difficult with 13. Also, it's unclear how we would split the kids. They are ages 10-17, but splitting them by age doesn't entirely make sense because they're almost all at the same level. There are a few outliers below and above the average, but the ones who struggle constantly get help from the older ones who know what they're doing, so it all works out.

So, because Rob and I decided to keep just the one class, we split the day. I teach the kids in the morning, which is 8:30am--11:30am, and Rob teaches the kids in the afternoon session, which is from 3-5pm. I chose the morning one because it forces me to get up, get a head start on the day, and leaves a bunch of time in the afternoon and evening to do whatever I want around Anyang. I also like teaching more than Rob does, so I didn't mind taking the 3 hour bulk instead of the 2 hour one. I know myself, and if I taught 3-5pm everyday, I would sleep more and do less. So, this way my day is structured really well and I have more time to go out and about. When I finish teaching, I eat lunch with the kids in the cafeteria (ah, I still need to take a picture of that room and the dishes to show you what it's like), go on the internet for a bit, and then walk home. Normally, Helen and I take a nap, and for the past few days we have gotten up around 3:15pm to go out and do something, before heading to the school at 6:15pm for dinner.

On Monday, Helen and I went off to the grocery store (Angie, I got that milk tea you had in our room last year... mmm delicious), did a little bit of shopping, and took an open-taxi (aka motorcycle with a little cart on the back that you sit in) to see Helen's old High School. I always think grocery shopping in foreign places is interesting, and we spent awhile perusing the different fruits and things. There was a lot of fruit that we definitely don't have in the US, so that was fun. Seeing Helen's high school also showed me how poor the conditions in the school where Rob and I are teaching are. Helen's school is the number 2 school in Anyang, whereas our school is private. Private schools here tend to be poorer with much worse facilities, which is flip flopped from the US, that's for sure.

Then, yesterday Helen and I met Helen's best friend and her best friend's cousin to walk around the old city. Her best friend's grandparents live in the old city, and her cousin lives just across the street from her grandparents. I. Love. The. Old. City. Most of the original buildings are still standing and were built in the Ming Dynasty. We walked all around and Helen's friends showed me their houses. There was a random temple about 800 years old just chilling in her best friend's backyard, and they ran all over the place to get the key so I could see. There was a small gathering of people--it was kind of like being in the village again. Then, a little ways down the road, there was a newly repainted ancient compound in incredible condition... Helen ran off to find out who had the key to get in, and she brought back an old, little man who claimed to be the 26th grandson of a very famous Anyang man who used to live there. The Chinese government is planning to make the area into a park/museum open to the public, but now it's still locked off and is in the process of reconstruction. The old man took us all around, showing us the houses and the temples, etc. There were several big stone carvings from the Song Dynasty. In the Old City, history really came alive for me. It was so neat to see these ancient buildings and carvings that are surrounded by new, metropolitan Anyang. I have pictures I'd like to show you of the Old City, but they're still on my camera, so later. I have no doubt I will go back repeatedly, so maybe I'll have one entry dedicated to just the Old City. Anyway, going with Helen and her friends was fantastic and it just piqued my interest even more. I like her friends, too, and I want to take them out to dinner somewhere in the Old City before I leave Anyang.

Class has been going well. The first day was painful because I tried to do stuff that was way, way, way too easy for them, but now things are looking up and I think I've gotten everyone to respect me, even the 15-year-old boys in the back ("messers," as Rob calls them). Yesterday we did family members (ha, my dear family, I'll have to show you the powerpoint of pictures I used to talk about my family...) and today we worked on neighborhood vocabulary (like "what's in your neighborhood?", etc). Tomorrow I want to do directions. It's nice teaching older ones because with every activity, I can tell them to write 6-8 sentences about whatever we're doing. They have more of a conceptual understanding of English, and that often makes things easier and more rewarding. Sometimes they also work in complete silence, which after teaching the younger ones is like experiencing a miracle.

Ok, I'm going to go walk back to the hotel/hostel/apartment and take a nap. Or "have a rest" as everyone says here.

But time for pictures!

I snapped some photos on the walk home from the school. I'm not completely satisfied with how they've turned out, but they're still worth showing, I think.

Again, on the walk home. Just a restaurant that we pass everyday. One of the "English" teachers, Kitty, saw this photo and told me her brother-in-law owns the place. The chances of that are funny, considering Anyang is 400,000 people.

In the grocery store, Dennis, with Helen. These are different kinds of honey... we didn't buy any, but the honey here is amazing.

Tea, tea everywhere! It actually isn't tea, but flowers and dried fruits and things that you put in hot water to add a little flavor. It was fun to smell the different bags. The colors were great, too.

For all you Pioneer peeps... this is the parking lot at Helen's high school. There are about 2,000 kids and every single one of them who "drives" to school drives a bicycle. Slightly different from our beast of a parking lot, no?

As always, more to come!