October Craziness

This Month has been the month of birthdays in China. We have been going to student's birthday party every week. A few of our close students all had a birthday within one week we had a big birthday party for all of them. Amy and Carrie made an American style cake, we all went out to BBQ and then came back to our apartment for a little dance party. The boys were not in the mood to dance so they sat in the other room and talked. It was a lot of fun.

There are so many new things going on. As of October 13, Mark started his freshman classes. So, that means he has twice the amount of classes then he did before. It also means than on even weeks he has 18 hours of class time plus two hours on Monday nights for a movie and then 14 hours of class time plus two hours for a movie on the odd weeks. Carrie was told Monday that she has a new class as well. She may also take some of Mark's classes because she is still only teaching 8 hours a week. This week Carrie is working with her Cooperator who teaches the same students and is putting on a debate, "Is the prospect of growing old a bleak one?" They will have the debate in each of her classes. We are hoping that this will initiate some good conversation.

We started a Saturday class two weeks ago and have had an amazing turnout. Both weeks we have had about 90 students show up and have had great conversations. The first week Mark lead and talked about business and how to get a job. The last weekend Alex discussed sociology. In this lecture they seemed really excited about the discussion of Karl Marx because they study his work in many of their Chinese classes. So for them to hear a foreigner’s point of view on him and his views intrigued them. Next week Amy and Alex will be talking about poetry and have a small workshop for the students. This topic was chosen because the following weekend, November 1st, we are putting on an Open Mic Night. So we wanted to encourage the students to participate.

The day before the Open Mic Night is Halloween, and we will be having a costume party in one of the big auditoriums here on campus. We are working with the local bakery to make some Halloween styled cup cakes and cookies. Mark is working on the music, so if any one has any suggestions I am sure he will appreciate them.

Last Saturday, October 18th, we had auditions for "Grease." Candice is a theater major and really wanted to use some of her degree while here in China. So, we came together and decided on having a Chinese version of the musical "Grease." We had 6 boys and 25 girls come and try out. The turn out as not as big as we were hoping but just enough for all of the parts as well as technical help like: sound, costumes, stage crew, etc. So, Candice and I spent about 6 - 8 hours going over the audition forms and deciding on who gets what role. We have made our decision and will have our first read through this Saturday. Let’s hope it all goes well. We are not planning on performing "Grease" until the end of the school year, maybe in May. So, well will have a lot of time to work with each student and their English, let’s hope for patience.

Carrie is hoping to travel to South Korea next month to visit her friend Shim Ji Yeon who she meet while she was in London. Last semester they tried to meet up but it never seemed to come together. So, Carrie is hoping to fly to S. Korea on November 19th and then return on the 24th.

So far the weather here has been really nice. Lately, it has been a little chilly in the morning and at night but in the 70's during the afternoon. Today was the first day of rain and hasn't really warmed up at all. All the trees are starting to change colors, but is nothing like Gig Harbor.

Week Five in China

Starting on September twenty-seventh we had a weeklong vacation which started with a sports meet here at our university which all foreign teachers participated in. Mark took second in the Basketball shooting contest and the high-jump. Carrie took part in the 100m, 4 x 100m relay and the long-jump. She placed first in all three. After the sports meet everyone separated on their own adventures. We were planning on traveling south along the east coast to a beautiful city called Qingdao to visit an old student who graduated from our university last year. But with all of China going on Holiday we were not able to get a seat ticket and were unwilling to stand on a train for twelve hours. So, we ended up staying and doing some site-seeing here in our town.

On Tuesday, September 30th, we went to the local zoo and were able to get within feet of many dangerous and not so dangerous animals. It was very exciting. On Wednesday, October 1st a few of us foreign teachers and one of Carrie's old students went to People's Park. People's Park has a bunch of theme park rides and food, as well as open grass fields and beautiful ponds. We spent most of our time playing frisbee and teaching the chinese who passed by how to throw a frisbee. Other than that we spent most of our time lesson planning and visiting with students.

We started classes the week of the eighth and have been busy ever since. Like we said in the last newsletter Mark is teaching six hours right now until the freshmen start and then he will be teaching twelve hours or eighteen hours a week depending whether it is an odd or even week. Carrie has only six hours the whole semester. But, on top of classes our group here at this university has decided to do a weekly English corner on Thursday for two hours for those students who may not have a foreign teacher but would like to practice their English. We have enlisted some students who are a part of the family to come and help us build relationship as well as to give them the opportunity to help speak and translate English.

We have also made a list of bigger events that we will put on each month. In September we will not be doing anything, but in October we will have a Halloween party at our university for all the students. Last year it was really successful. November first we will have an open mic night at a local coffee shop for all three of the universities which ELT Edge is located at. Then in December, we will have a Christmas party. Somewhere in these months we will also have a spelling bee. Last year we had the first spelling be here at our school which went very well. Now that the students have a better idea of what to expect we are thinking it will be that much better this year.