The lessons begin...

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  Yantai, China
Sunday, April 23, 2006

The first few days here were very relaxed which was great after the last few hectic months. I met with Madamme Chen who spoke to me about the timetable and the school routine and showed me around, as well as meeting with other teachers. The staff are all very friendly and eager to practice their English with me; one lady I met was so enthusiastic when shaking my hand I wasn't sure she was ever going to let go! Lots of time was spent catching up on bits n bobs I'd been meaning to do for ages - forms for my PGCE, emails and the travel-blogs etc (hence the sudden mass of entries!) Frustratignly my bank card wouldn't work which was a bit of a downer and meant I couldn't explore or meet anyone because I couldn't make calls - although it was actually quite nice to have an excuse to be lazy for a week! Money all sorted now - so don't worry about little ole me being holed up in my room any longer!

The school atmosphere is so warm, everyone is so inviting

01 Downtown

. It really is the friendliest place I've ever experienced; At times I feel like a celebrity because I'm treated so well and everyone tries so hard to please me! I'm surrounded by smiles from every angle, disembodied "hellos" float after me, curious stares which aren't intended to be intimidating, whoops and whispers when I enter a room - it's somewhat crazy, but kinda cool. The people here are not in any way embarrassed to hold your eye for prolonged periods of time; they openly gawk, which can feel uncomfortable at times, but you begin to realise they aren't being rude;most of them go on to try and communicate in some way. The language barrier makes simple things really difficult at times and takes away some of your independence because you must rely on someone to translate and talk for you, but you learn to get around it - either that, or you accept that some things are out of reach to you here.

One thing I'm getting used to is the food. Never eaten so much rice in my life - it's offered at breakfast, lunch and dinner (actually not sure if it is at breakfast because I haven't been up early enough to make brekkie but I'm sure it would be there!) I'm breathing fire after most meals, so I hurry back to my room for some milk (they have stocked me up on milk to last me a few months!) They also enjoy overloading me with banana and oranges - more than a monkey could handle

02 Claire, Sian and Ben

! Not that I'm complaining - bananas are my new breakfast staple seeing as i never make it to the canteen in time. The unnaturally helpful teachers are extremely concerned for my well-being - they think I'm going to waste away - I'm definitely not in danger of that, that's for sure!

The teaching side of my life here is so great; the classes are a teacher's dream - well, most of them. I'm the only foreign teacher in the school and so I basically have all the ages; I'm with 3 year olds one day and 17 year olds the next. It's actually quite good, gives me a varied timetable to say the least. I literally got cheered when entering the classrooms and everyone was so smiley and polite. My introductory lessons consisted of drawing my name with objects starting with the same letter (Hand/Elephant/Lion/Egg/Noodles) and making them work it out. Then encouraging questions to be asked about objects I'd bought with me - photographs, Asian jewellery, English money etc... so basically a "getting to know the teacher" exercise followed by the students making identity cards so I can get to know them. With the younger classes we sang some songs and did words and pictures for the alphabet. My hardest class is actually a Korean class, because the age range is so vast - basically have all ages between 7 and 17! I also found the 3 year olds quite hard because the communication is so limited; their English stretches as far as "hello, how are you" - and they probably have no idea what they are even saying - but I struggle through

03 Night markets

. The students are really adorable - I'm building an impressive collection of pictures and stickers that have been given to me as gifts, not to mention the oranges,toffees and chocolates - it's so great. If only the boys of BGS were so nice...

Outside of school, now that I have some money to go out, I've been making contact with other volunteers/students. I was introduced to some University students through Jack (GVN contact) - a Swiss guy and a Dutch guy, and through them I've met some other people. Friday was spent at a Chinese restaurant trying not to be the annoying vegetarian with people from China, Japan, Switzerland, Holland, America, Spain and England! Afterwards we went to a Kareoke place - the ones where you have a room with just people you know - very "Lost In Translation" but in China - classic! I didn't have the courage (or enough alcohol in me) to sing, but I did endure some very painful songs courtesy of some of the group - karaoke just loves to kill the good songs!

On Saturday I met with other volunteers - two English girls and an American guy. They showed me around "Downtown" - it's going to be so hard not to indulge in a major shopping spree - excellent clothes, shoes, jewellery and random antique things (that I love so much) everywhere

04 Sian

. Also saw where they lived, watched "Sin City" again (so good) and went for dinner and drinks in this bar that's basically for Westerners to meet other westerners - some of the guys from the previous night were there also, which was cool - forming quite a big group.

Then that brings us to today - went back "Downtown" with Angel, a really lovely Chinese girl, who also took me to Moon Bay, which is a small beach with a statue of a moon with a face;legend says that by touching the seaside sculpture you will have a good chance of falling in love. We also walked around the forts in the falling dark which was really fun - it was built in late Qin Dynasty as defense and has great views.

So as far as first weeks go,it's been pretty good... :)

p.s. I've been rather snap happy this week so expect photos to be posted within about 2 weeks!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

05 Walking to the bars	06 Bella, Sian, Claire, Adriano, MaLong (at back)	07 Angel in town	08 Angel at Moon Bay
10 The Man in the Moon	11 Me and Angel	12 On the Moon	13 Angel on the Moon

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