Our First Day of Teaching!!

I figured that I should probably write about our first day of teaching before the second one arrives. For the next few weeks we will only be teaching two days a week but if the first day is any indication we will be kept on our toes and completely wiped out by the end of it!

So the day started with a field trip to a hotel with a public swimming pool. We crammed fifty people onto an already full bus! Mitch loved it. I was just hoping not to cause a domino effect. I did notice one interesting thing as we drove along—as each car or biker or pedestrian demands their right-of-way the bus tends to have the last word in the matter. You don't mess with the bus.

Once at the pool we all donned the required and oh-so-attractive swimming caps and we all leaped happily into the water! Or some of us did. Turns out the kids don't know how to swim and somehow Mitch and I became the designated swim teachers of 45 freezing and somewhat frantic Chinese children. It was fun but rather tiring. Going to the swimming pool in China is a little different than in America because of many things but I think the thing the surprisingly affected us the most was that they pay for a certain block of time to get to swim. So despite the fact that all of the kids were shivering their heads off the leaders wanted to get their moneys worth. Now the kids were still having fun regardless of the fact that they were turning blue but Mitch and I had to call it quits when our hands went numb from the cold.

Afterwards we had a return bus trip that was much like the first only this time the fifty extra people crammed onto the bus were all slightly damp.

We rushed home, took showers, attempted to eat some lunch and then headed to the class room.

We started them with basic introductions which they knew the words of but just needed practice conversing. So far that seems to be the main point. Their vocabulary and grammar are actually fairly good but they haven't had much practice speaking it.

After an hour and a half of English we began teaching them music. Basically we seem to be putting English words with concepts that they already know as well as teaching them actual English songs. It may be a bit of a challenge to keep them entertained but I think we are up to the challenge. Our plan for the second lesson is looking great!

By the end of class at 6 we were exhausted but we decided to go to a fancy restaurant for dinner. We wanted to celebrate the success of our first day of teaching and a little something we like to call our 2 month anniversary! So we went to our favorite and most expensive restaurant in Huhehaote! That's right! Pizza Hut! Ahhh, hawaiian pineapple pizza! We even splurged and ordered a chocolate cake to share! (I know, how sweet!)

All in all it was a great day and we look forward to the next time we get to teach!

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