I've got Mail! (Marcus)

Yes yes I sure did. In my last class for the day, one of my students finally wrote to me. I have been giving my email address(well one of them anyway - I have many) to most of the classes, thinking it might be a good idea to get a little out of class student/teacher interaction going. So far there's been nothing come in as they're all mostly too shy, but then today I had a letter waiting for me on the teaching podium desk thing. Now this I had no clue what it was, but figured it was a thank-you note or something. It was from one of my students with an english name, Cecilia. I have remembered her since day one as she has very good spoken English and in this job that kind of thing sticks out like a sore thumb. While most students can actually speak quite well when you coax them out of their shells, there are some who are by far and away on a different level, and Cecilia is one of them. Like most of the girls, she's a cute little thing with rosy red cheeks - though probably 17 or 18 years old. Most of the kids in our classes are around that age, but they look more around the 14-15 year old bracket.

Anyhow I read her letter as I walked back to our apartment after my fourth and final class of the day. Friday's are pretty hardcore for me, having the most classes of any given day. The first two are in the morning, then there's a 2 hour break and then another two after lunch. The first two contain an element of 'smart ass chinese males' which I am not overly fond of - but they are teens afterall - and have considerably less life as a teen than any of us did - I keep reminding myself of that. They're not pricks by any stretch of the word - but they definitely have a smart-ass element - some of them anyway. In reality though, they're all good kids. My last two classes of the day are completely different - these guys are well-behaved, have some genuinely lovely students in them and are usually a pleasure to teach. Courtney's ones are pretty much the same Friday afternoon - so to date we have finished both Friday's feeling great - 1. glad the week is over, and 2. teaching gives you this really good feeling when you have pulled off a successful lesson.

Our lesson today was a new one - having been thoroughly over teaching an intro about ourselves(using our photos) and the second lesson on True or False - which was successful, but after like the 9th time, is monotonous to the max. So the new class was a definite success I would say, and was all about Introduction Dialogues. I got it from the site i joined incidentally, and we slightly tailored it to our own needs.

So I was walking back to the apartment - which takes a little while with the campus being so big, and after a brief chat with some more of my students(one of the ones who interviewed me the other day for the school paper), I read Cecilia's note - and i have to say, I actually felt touched by it. An odd feeling really.

There's just something so sweet and innocent about these kids. It really helps motivate us I feel. We were pretty much at rock bottom the other day, in the depths of lesson plan misery, but this feeling of..I don't know, this feeling that you genuinely are really impacting the lives of these kids, it makes you feel wonderful inside. Her letter basically confirmed that. It's just so innocent to the outside world. They appreciate us being here so much that half of them cant even look us in the eye they are so shy because to them we are like aliens. The whole district we live in is like this. We get stared at so much that I still cant believe it. Have they really seen so few foreigners, in what is really a mega-populated suburb?? I swear to god, it's like no-one has seen a westerner here. You might as well paint us green and deck us in fluorescence for how much we are looked at.

After my second last class, I had a nice little conversation with one of the students about the Australian Open - her being a tennis fan. These little random nuggets of advancement pop up everywhere, and they all feel really good. It's like we're slowly breaking down the walls between us and them, and each time we have a small contact, it's as satisfying and enjoyable to us as it is them.

There's also one thing that they absolutely adore - when we use chinese words. I have dropped a few in my classes and they just go nuts for it. They cant believe we can speak some of their language, let alone actually pronounce it properly. Now we're kind of cheeky and drop them purposely - harvesting kudos and praise in quantities that make us beam.

Anyhow, it's time for bed. We will be off first thing in the morning to explore the (hopefully) wonders of Shanghai. Mr Pan has arranged for the school driver to take us into the city so we don't miss the train - he's always looking out for us. He was worried we might have needed assistance finding it - and who am i to refuse a comfy trip into town in the school's van - as much as i enjoy standing in an over-crowded bus while people spit around me and all.

So take a read of this young girls letter and enjoy the innocence of it. It's something we sure as hell don't get much of back home - from us 'western' folk anyway.



And now for something completely different;

The dumplings we made yesterday for International Women's Day were a complete success! Courtney cooked them up tonight for our dinner. There were three left over that she didn't cook as it didn't look like they would stay together - I suspect they were the three I made :(

See? Complete success! A real dumpling conniseur(Jess) would tell you, these are bona fide awesome!

Now as an added treat - the bowl Mr Pan used to take them back to our apartment was from the Canteen. To date we haven't been able to show you a photograph of the lovely bacteria-free environment that is the Canteen as we don't want to offend anyone by potentially poking fun at their daily eatery. This however is now safely back in our apartment and crying out to be photographed. This bowl is what they serve the soup up in. The Chinese love soup with their lunches - or any other meals and slurp it right out of the bowl - no spoon required - simply suck the edge of the bowl for nummy soup goodness. Thankfully I don't like soup - of any kind - and these bowls sure as shit aren't motivating me to drop that habit. The only thing I wish I could see is my Nana's face if she could see us eating off dishes of this....magnitude. The sculpted metal trays we eat the main meal off aren't much better, but at least they're metal and don't show mmmm yum, rust spots!! I don't even want to think where the communal chopsticks we use go when the sun don't shine! And for the record, we have been eating off these for over two weeks now Mum so don't worry, we're not dead, and Courtney's sore throat and flu like symptoms have nothing to do with it! ( I think..anyway..ick) Please ensure you click on this photograph to truly appreciate the quality of this bowl. If anyone is keen to try them, I could probably swindle a few and mail them home, let me know.