Beginning Classes

Hello everyone!

So we've been pretty busy here trying to prepare ourselves for classes. We taught our first classes last Monday and Tuesday and it was a very eye-opening experience. I never knew how much work needed to be done beforehand to have a lesson ready. We thought it would be mostly an introduction day, with us talking about ourselves and the students talking about themselves. Instead, we found ourselves looking at each other a lot, not really knowing what to do next. You have to find a lot of things to do to fill an hour and a half! The students didn't speak up much unelss you specifically called on them. I found I still talk too fast. I feel pretty bad about that one - I talk too fast that even people who speak English as their native language can't understand me (sorry mom!), so I really need to slow it down here.

After the classes made us realize what needed to be done we've just been working on our lessons for this week. Starting this Monday we'll be teaching all the classes (this last week it was only the two). There are 16 classes total, all for an hour and a half each. With the exception of the 3 PhD classes, we only see the students once a week. We're planning on using the same lesson for each class since they are all at about the same level. I think there will be little modifications to fit each class, but thats really to be expected.

Something interesting happened this week - I was offered another job! Two days a week I will be teaching english at an elementary school to 7 year old students. I got all the materials yesterday and have been reading over those because they want me to start on Monday! The book is very progressive, talking about all these different theories of intelligence and how best to help children learn, and I think it might be a little difficult. I guess we'll see how it goes!

While Scott and I were looking at the elementary school so I would know where it was for Monday, we were offered another job! A friend of Echo (the woman from the Department of Education who brought us to China and has been so wonderful since we arrived!) has a group of 8 students who would like private tutoring. They want Scott and I to each take four of the kids for an hour and teach them english! We're still thinking about that one but it sounds like another interesting experience and a little extra travel money!

The people here are really excited to learn english. We saw an ad on a bus today that said "English will change your child's future." When I asked some of the students in my English major class why they wanted to learn some said "to get a good job after college" and another "because my parents told me to." Its very interesting to see how people believe that learning this language will change their lives and really help them.

Well I should get going - we're going to the local street market tonight to look for a walkman. My elementary books came with a tape and I think I need to listen to it first before I try to play it in class on Monday. We might also find some dinner there, although we don't always know what kind of food we're looking at.

Hope you all are well!

Katie

Picture time!

Hello! If you're reading this after getting the e-mail, yay! I finally found a place I can update to with pictures and everything!



So let's begin with pictures:


If you see the picture from the previous post, Scott is holding this pig in the store before we bought it. After we got it home he was not so nice to it anymore. Here you see the pig pillow suspended from the drying rack on the ceiling of the living room. That door you see is to the kitchen. Not too long after this he stuck the pig pillow on top of the air conditioner in our bedroom. He thinks he's funny.



Last Saturday Scott and I went with my friend Maia and Echo (the woman from the Dept. of Education that basically got us here) all travelled to Zhenjiang. Its a town of about 2 million a half hour from here by express train. We went and met the other foreign teachers living there and teaching at the University. We went out and had dinner too. They are all wonderfully nice and funny people. We're hoping next time they can all come to Nanjing for some dinner. We've made plans to head to Zhenjiang again for a thanksgiving potluck (who knows what we'll be eating).


This is the group in Zhenjiang. In the back row we have (from left to right): Echo (she's standing on a chair and she's still not taller than some of the guys), Kellen (from OR), Nathan (from CO), George (from IN), and Matt from Australia. In the front we have Justin (from AK), Liz (from OR), Maia, me and Scott.


This was the sign for our train home. It says train D446 is coming at 8:29pm and its taking us from Zhenjiang and Nanjing. (In the middle line of red characters, the two on the left are the symbols for Nanjing).




We haven't begun teaching yet but I start on Monday. I have one class of English majors at 8am on Monday and the other at 8am on Tuesday. The rest of the classes don't start until the following week because those are classes for post-graduates and PhD candidates and they start later.

Our Anniversary was the second of September so we went out to celebrate. We went to the Confucian Temple here in Nanjing. It has turned into more of a shopping center, entertainment place but it was still really neat.

This is the river at night. You can take little gondola rides down the river. We chose to save that experience for a later date.




We did go on a tour of the Confucain Temple, though most of the signs were in Chinese so we didn't always know what we were looking at. This pagoda was in a garden and arts center at the end of the Temple. It was a really beautiful and serene place. They had traditional music playing. It was really lovely.


Here we are on our first anniversary. We got a little dressed up to go out. We did end up having dinner at McDonald's. It was great.


So classes don't start for a few more days. We going to go to those first classes together, just as a little introduction. I think we're both nervous to really begin so if these go well it'll give us more confidence to really begin the week of the 17th.

Hope you all are well!

Nanjing

Here we are living in Nanjing, China.

So far its great. I just miss the food at home. I want some Southwest Eggrolls. It makes me want them more to write about it.

Here is a picture from here:

This is Scott at Carrefour. Its supposed to be the French version of Walmart but really its just another store with lots of things with tags not printed in english so I have no idea what it is. Sometimes its obvious, sometimes its not. Usually with food, I have no idea what I'm buying.

He's holding my pig pillow.

I hope this posting works. Thus far most blogging websites like this have been blocked. I think I might be able to update this one (as I'm doing now) but not actually be able to see the finished webpage. Don't judge it if it looks silly. I have no idea what it looks like.

More Photos Time!!

This is the main entrance to Nanjing Forestry University. Its where we are living and teaching. We usually use the back entrance near our apartment. Most employees of the school live on campus as do most of the students.

This is the outside of our apartment building. It looks rather run down on the outside but its really a nice place. We enter through that big, green metal door and we're the apartment on the second floor on the left. Those are the windows to our kitchen and bathroom there on the second floor.

I'll include more pictures in the next post.

Right now we're still settling in. I start teaching on Monday with one 8am class and then another 8am class on Tuesday. Thats it for that week. The week of the 17th all our classes begin and both Scott and I will be teaching 8 classes a week (16 classes total at one hour and a half each). I'll let you know how those classes go.

Right now its getting rather late. I wanted to get to bed a little earlier so I can start getting up early to get ready for Monday. When we first arrived here we naturally woke up at 5 or 6 in the morning but now, without jetlag or a real job yet, we've settled into sleeping until 9 or so.

Good night and hopefully there will be more posts on this blog in the coming days!!