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Speech Team

This past week I have had the opportunity to meet and help the SIAS Speech Team in a variety of ways. They went through an extensive 10 day training session, preparing them for this next year, where they hope to return to their glory days of 2 years ago when we claimed 4 out of the top 5 prizes in a Province-wide competition! The team is composed of the top 20 English speakers at SIAS and they have been a sheer joy to work with. I was able to lead several small groups of them in a discussion of diversity (which is what their first competitive speech covers), then on Sunday afternoon taught a few of them how to play Phase 10 - and then proceeded to lose to one of them! They also have eaten every meal with us in the Peter Hall (foreign faculty building) dining room during their training...typically students are not allowed to eat in our dining hall. Then, this past Wednesday they put on a performance for the foreign teachers - some sang, danced, played the flute, and did skits. I was asked by a small group to be in their skit and had a lot of fun with it. The first picture is missing the 6th and final member of our skit, Drew. And the other picture is of Rachel and I, who I starred with in the skit. I have been in more skits during my 4 weeks in China than I had in probably my whole life! The teachers put on a skit last week for the students and in that one I starred as the Chinese teacher of my class, since Malinda was already gone :-) In addition, we had to do a couple during our TESOL training. Its always nerve-wracking before you perform them, but while you are doing it, it's so much fun!

Chinese Teacher

Well, after 3 weeks of Chinese lessons, its safe to say I will not master it soon...but that is no reflection on my wonderful Chinese teacher, Malinda. She came all the way from Beijing to teach us, which was awesome. The first picture is of our classroom and the second picture is of Malinda and I when my class of 6 took her out to eat. Now I am on the lookout for a student that can tutor me!

I will find out my teaching schedule next Sunday - the day before classes start :-0 But really it doesn't matter a whole lot if I know exactly when I'm teaching...I know I am, so making the lesson plan (which I've already done!!) is the same. I will have 9 2 hour classes, the only question is whether some of those classes will see me twice a week or not. I am eager to get in there and experience it...though I am honestly a bit nervous about it too. But in my weakness, ONE who is greater is shown to be GREAT! Thursday we have full staff orientation, but until then? Freedom :-)

Here I am at our TESOL "graduation" party...it was only a two week course, but hey I'm certified in it now! Whether it means anything apart from here is another question. But I am becoming more and more excited about teaching. This week we are being taught about classroom management, lesson planning and other helpful things by some Great returning teachers! I am so thankful for them, because they aren't going to try and sugarcoat anything - they are doing and teaching the same thing we are. They are simply allowing us to tap into their knowledge and experience, so its cool. Oh and way off the subject, you may notice I got quite a haircut from the picture. Just for future reference, getting a haircut in China is pretty cool. They wash your hair before and after your haircut and it feels like a head massage! I've never had one before, but it was swell. Making it all the more sweet? Only 10 Yuan ($1.24).

I left on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again

Hi, I hope that this will look good - for some reason I can't see my blog, but I can still write from it. This picture was taken last Friday when all of the new teachers had to go to Zhengzhou (pronounced something like jung joe)to get our physicals. Zhengzhou is about 45 minutes to an hour away from SIAS and has a population of people between 6 and 7 million. So after the physicals, we went to KFC for lunch (they have that and McDonalds) and then split into small groups to go shopping. Thankfully each group was provided with at least one Chinese student that also knows English.
One thing about China is that things like food and household items are much cheaper. True it may not be the type of food I am used to...but anyways, yesterday I went to the Waka, a small grocery store on campus, and came away with a sponge, two wall hooks, some q-tips and a coke for 11.5 RMB, which is about $1.40. Not bad.