1. Last week I started taking note of which hand my students write with. No left handers! What is with that I wonder? Is it not an option when learning to write? Nothing that exciting but I just thought it interesting that of the 750 kids I teach not one uses their left hand.
2. Below you will see a photo of a dvd I bought a while ago. For any of you interested, stick with the book which is brilliant, the movie brushed over a lot of things. But that is not my point. What I want you to take note of is the amount of packaging that goes into these things. Now this dvd cost me about 8 yuan, which is just over a dollar Australian. Not a lot of money. So you expect that maybe the quality wont be so good. Well not only is the quality great, but I'm amazed at the amount of packaging. How are they making these things so cheap when there is - a plastic cover, the dvd cardboard box thing, then a replica of the dvd box in a paper, then another paper slip, then a little plastic baggie for the actual dvd!?!
Yes, that's 5 different bits of packaging!
3. On Saturday we finally got around to buying a "proper" mop. Don't fear, we do actually have mops that we use, they are the Chinese variety of bamboo pole with strips of fabric on the end. For some things they are ok, but we have no way of wringing them out so you end up with water everywhere. So, as interesting as all of this is, we decided to buy a squeegy mop like we use at home. We were in the aisle tossing up between the 30 yuan mop and the 90 yuan mop. Of course we figured how is there a difference, we'll just get the 30 yuan mop. Here in lies the problem. China is interesting with these sorts of things, in that a lot of the time you are able to buy incredibly cheap items that are of quite excellent value. Other times, you buy things and you literally cannot believe how poorly made they are, or how they have been designed. The mop is an example of this. See picture below. I put the mop into the bucket of water, and the water turned a nice colour blue as all of the colour leaked out of the mop. Of course I didn't realise this until I slopped blue water all over the floor! Then when I went to wringe it out for the first time, low and behold the plastic bits holding the mop sponge in place snapped. So I didn't even get ONE complete arm motion out of the mop. We shoulda bought the more expensive one! Marcus found it amusing that I was actually surprised by this.
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Broken mop...now in the bin.
4. Mosquitos. Or should that be karma. So you will have read a lot about mossies on our blog, as they have been causing Marcus much grief. They really are everywhere. Last night alone we killed 25+ of the buggers, and that is with the aircon on, the windows closed and blocked, all drains closed etc. Initially I was all, oh these mossies they aren't that bad! That is of course because I don't get bitten by mosquitos. Well well...funny how things change. These ones have gotten a taste for my blood obviously and are having a right old time feasting on me. Currently on my calves (yes, just my calves, not my legs, body, arms etc) I have 28 bites. 28 bites!! I have become a pro with the electric tennis racquet.
5. And finally it is Dragon Boat festival this weekend. It appears that we had Friday off due to student exams, and today we have no classes again, this time I think because the actual public holiday falls today. I'm not entirely sure but I'm happy! Although we did have a fun game planned for the kids today. The school was kind enough to tell us this morning, not after we had gone to class. Although, why they couldn't tell us this on Friday is still beyond me! Nevermind. Mr Pan and his family dropped by on Saturday night to give us gifts for the festival. He gave us a box of Zhongi, which is the traditional rice parcels that people eat for the festival, and throw into rivers (part of the festival history/story). So these little rice parcels are triangles, wrapped in banana leaves which you steam. Inside the rice is supposedly meat, as we were told, but I think it was more like a bean paste type thing. We steamed some last night and they were unusal. We also received a HUGE melon from Mr Pan this time. From the world's smallest melon to the largest! So today whilst we have no classes, we have been invited to have lunch with Mr Shen, the school principle. In the canteen. Oh well, you can't win them all can you!!
6. This weekend saw Senior 3 all sitting their university entrance exams. We really feel for these kids, they work non stop and study so hard. The last couple of holidays that the school has had, all of Senior 3 are still here working away. What has been interesting about the exams, is that they school really has gone to some effort to make the place quiet. Other than sending all the other students home, the bell has been switched off, the school roads have been partially blocked off so cars can only go out the back entrance so as to not go near the student classrooms, and most bizarrely the road out the front of the school has been blocked off by police! We would assume so that honking cars aren't disturbing the kids, as from the classrooms you can hear the road quite clearly at times. On Friday night on our way home, we noticed that parts of the school had tape everywhere - like police tape, blocking sections. When we got to the bridge, it was blocked too, and there were two school desks and chairs at the end. We had no idea why there would be chairs and desks on the bridge. Well turns out some of Senior 1 had to stay at school to be "volunteers" for the exams. On our way back through the school yesterday we stopped to talk to a couple of my students. They couldn't explain why they were there (poor things sitting outside ALL day in the stinking heat doing homework) but we think it was to monitor the area and make sure there was no noise/cars etc. Below you will see a pic of randome kids out with their desks just sitting in the heat.
And that's all for now folks. Happy Dragon Boat/Queen's Birthday holiday!
2 comments:
Man those Chinese dudes are weird. Sticking the poor things outside all day at their desks. Although, l do recall on a number of occassions, wishing that my desk was outside - so maybe not as bad as it seems. Funny none the less. As for the days off - there seems to be one almost every week. Bring back Show Day and Bank Holidays l say. Even with those, we would be nowhere near the amount od days off you kids get. The envy, the envy!!! Thank god for RDO's - may my career go no further. Simone
Not one left hander out of 750 kids is weird. The average is around 12%. In one of my A level classes at school, there were five pupils and each one of us was a lefty. And the two teachers who taught us were also left handed.
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