I'm looking out of the window of my shabby hotel at Beijing University, and the blue sky is dazzling. When I arrived on Thursday, it was already late - no chance to see that famous Beijing smog. Somehow, I've witnessed not one, but two days of blue sky!
After a looong delay on my flight from Chicago to Beijing, I am finally here. There was no time to rest or get bearings or even get over this delightful jet lag. After getting in around 11pm Thursday night (after originally being due in at 2:40pm), I was beyond exhausted. Naturally, we all met at 7:30am the next morning for orientation, beginning the whirlwind which is TEFL Training at Beijing University. Day-to-day life is now consumed by TEFL courses, Introductory Chinese class, and my Grade 5 class of about 20 students. The day starts at 8:30 and ends at 5:30. This will be the story of the next two weeks.
My teaching partner and I teach the last class of the day; the kids are just as worn out as we are after six hours straight of intensive English classes. One of my favorite things so far is learning the kids' "English names." Each child has an English name that they chose for themselves or were given by a past English teacher. They are often very unusual and/or adorably outdated by American standards. Some of the names from my class include "Singer," "Tony," "Leo," and "Dada." Today I had my first class, and I felt like it went very well. The theme of the day was travel, and my partner and I formed a lesson talking about vacations. Tomorrow's theme is animals; we are teaching about birds.
I wish I had more time to explore Beijing. We're running almost non-stop for the next few weeks, and I don't know when I'll have time to see the sights! The only breaks we'll have are next Friday, when we spend the day at the Great Wall, and on August 20th, when we go to the Forbidden City (and then leave for our 24-30 hour train to Shenzhen). I have, however, gotten to peruse of some of Beijing's street food. Every morning (parked right next to the KFC) I find dozens of carts with a variety of specialties. So far, I've tried tea eggs (eggs hard boiled in tea) and some kind of savory crepe with a spicy sauce and filled with egg, green onion, cilantro and pork cracklin's. Vegetarianism has taken a hit due to my poor delivery of key Mandarin phrases, such as "I don't want pork."
I'm proud to announce that the Mandarin will be improving in the coming weeks! I'm enrolled in an intensive language study of introductory Mandarin, and my professor is excellent. Today we worked on pronunciation; there are so many different sounds, and I literally feel like I'm having to train my mouth to work the way I want it to.
I'm off to celebrate the end of the first day! Lots of love to all xx
After a looong delay on my flight from Chicago to Beijing, I am finally here. There was no time to rest or get bearings or even get over this delightful jet lag. After getting in around 11pm Thursday night (after originally being due in at 2:40pm), I was beyond exhausted. Naturally, we all met at 7:30am the next morning for orientation, beginning the whirlwind which is TEFL Training at Beijing University. Day-to-day life is now consumed by TEFL courses, Introductory Chinese class, and my Grade 5 class of about 20 students. The day starts at 8:30 and ends at 5:30. This will be the story of the next two weeks.
My teaching partner and I teach the last class of the day; the kids are just as worn out as we are after six hours straight of intensive English classes. One of my favorite things so far is learning the kids' "English names." Each child has an English name that they chose for themselves or were given by a past English teacher. They are often very unusual and/or adorably outdated by American standards. Some of the names from my class include "Singer," "Tony," "Leo," and "Dada." Today I had my first class, and I felt like it went very well. The theme of the day was travel, and my partner and I formed a lesson talking about vacations. Tomorrow's theme is animals; we are teaching about birds.
I wish I had more time to explore Beijing. We're running almost non-stop for the next few weeks, and I don't know when I'll have time to see the sights! The only breaks we'll have are next Friday, when we spend the day at the Great Wall, and on August 20th, when we go to the Forbidden City (and then leave for our 24-30 hour train to Shenzhen). I have, however, gotten to peruse of some of Beijing's street food. Every morning (parked right next to the KFC) I find dozens of carts with a variety of specialties. So far, I've tried tea eggs (eggs hard boiled in tea) and some kind of savory crepe with a spicy sauce and filled with egg, green onion, cilantro and pork cracklin's. Vegetarianism has taken a hit due to my poor delivery of key Mandarin phrases, such as "I don't want pork."
I'm proud to announce that the Mandarin will be improving in the coming weeks! I'm enrolled in an intensive language study of introductory Mandarin, and my professor is excellent. Today we worked on pronunciation; there are so many different sounds, and I literally feel like I'm having to train my mouth to work the way I want it to.
I'm off to celebrate the end of the first day! Lots of love to all xx
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