Our Daily Life

I am still having problems uploading more pictures due to "internal problems" but I will write more in the meantime. I thought that you might want to know about our daily life here. So...

The students and I arrive at school by 7:30. They head to their regular classrooms for reading period and then 2 other classes. The schedule here is more like that of a college in that students don't have the same schedule everyday. They also have many more classes than our students do at home. Also the students stay in one classroom all day and all year. The teachers come and go according to the schedule. Each period is 40 minutes with a 10 minute (I think) break between classes.

At about 9:45 all the students go to the playground for morning exercises and/or some kind of announcements. Yesterday the students stood listening to a talk by the assistant principal for nearly 25 minutes telling them how to prepare for next week's final exams - how to prepare mentally and physically... When the students went in the teachers had to stand and listen for another 20 minutes. (This is unusual but there will be some kind of government visit to the school on Friday so they are preparing.)

After morning exercise our group has two periods of Chinese. We have two Chinese teachers - two young men who studied/are studying in the foreign language university. We have another hour after lunch and the two take turns teaching two hours one day and only one the next.

Lunch time is 11:40. Then all the Chinese students go to their cafeteria while teachers, seniors and our group, for now, eat upstairs in the staff area. Our students usually go downstairs to get drinks and junk food (!) and then come up for the "good food". I hope that they will start eating with classmates because that is a more realistic experience for them.

After lunch the Chinese students have about 30 minutes to do sports outside before they go to dorms or classrooms for nap time. Those students who live close enough go home from 11:40 until 3:00. After lunch our group also has time for pingpong or other activities until 1:00. Then we read our literature book for about 30 minutes and then discuss what we have read. Then we have our "meetings" when we discuss what is going on in their lives and/or things that I think we need to discuss. Then the students have another 30 minutes more or less - depending upon how long we talk - to play, eat junk food and talk before our third period of Chinese for the day.

The last class is different every day. We have had art, calligraphy, paper cutting - and yesterday we had Tai Chi. It is harder than it looks! The two boys are less than thrilled with this class but are doing it. I think they may learn something. :)

The students are done with school at 4:30. Some walk home then and a couple wait for their host sisters. In the evenings the students are with their host families. I usually go home from 7:30 to 10:30 at night, depending upon Mrs. Dong's schedule. While waiting I can come to my dorm room where I have internet access.

Every second weekend we will have a group activity on Saturday and in a couple of weeks we will go on a trip sponsored by GaoXin No. 1 High School. I still don't know where we are going, but should get details soon.