This term Renee asnd I are both teaching seven classes/fourteen hours of classes a week. This is a normal load for Peace Corps teachers in China. Also, Renee and I both have all sophomore classes. She teaches at Hong He where we now live. I teach three classes here, but four classes in Xing Hu where we used to live. I take the bus three times a week. But as you remember Xing Hu is beautiful and we have friends there among teachers and students. Renee comes once a week to visit and we eat with some students.
Various things break up the time. Renee is working on producing a play of A Christmas Carol in English (a monumental task, by the way, in a land where no schedule ever remains the same for more than a few hours and we have yet to have everyone at a rehearsal and we don't know where and when we will perform. Oh, my! But I figure none of the effort is wasted. The students have had a lot of opportunity to hone their oral English skills.) and I continue to enjoy my tennis and ping pong and tai chi. Then we have a few regular activites - a trip to a big store in Chongqing once a month, English Corner, dinner with students, church, and lots of casual social interactions. One weekend we went to Chongqing to the Anti-Japanese War Museum (War of Resistance against Japan Museum) The curator wants to change the name. I have been working on their English signage.
Then last week we had four days and three nights in Jiangjin. Jiangjin was where we were last summer to teach the teachers. We were invited to come back and visit the teachers , see what they were doing, and share some more ideas. It takes some planning and effort to do this as we had several classes to make up and plans to be made in order to go with everyone's permission.
The visit did not go exactly as we had envisioned. We visited mostly primary schools. At each school one of the teachers gave a demonstration lesson to a relatively small class with multimedia equipment. They did great, but we did not see a typical Chinese teaching situation. Then Renee and I did a lesson. It was Thanksgiving time so we talked about giving thanks and did a song. Then we met with the teachers. At each school they had invited all of their English teachers and other local teachers to come to observe the lessons. In each school we had twenty or so teachers watching us and talking with us. We were surprised to like being celebrities. (Actually, I wasn't surprised. I have always liked being a celebrity:) At each of the schools we were greeted by swarms of kids, some even wanting autographs!
One afternoon we went into the countryside and up a mountain to see a tea plantation and take a wet walk. On the way back we stopped at a school. The students obviously were not used to seeing foreigners. Instead of running towards us, they stepped back from us. Our first attempts at greeting them failed. Finally, one of the Chinese with us took my hand and shook it. Then a few students were brave enough to timidly do the same. Another experience for us.
Another aspect of the trip was to visit with Mr.Li, his bride-to-be Shelly, and Summer. They were the people responsible for us this summer. We had become good friends and looked forward to spending time with them. We enjoyed our visit a great deal. Mr. Li and Shelly have now planned for their wedding to be January 10. We will be going back to Jiangjin to join in those festivities. We feel like matchmakers because we kept urging them all summer to plan the wedding for while we were here and when we would be able to come. They have done it.
Now to get through the holidays so far from home, the hardest part of being a volunteer in China. (Well, other than BEING in China, which never ceases to be an adventure.)
