Well after months of preparation and agonising over what to pack I have safely arrived in China!! I arrived via Guilin to Yangshuo on 18 August at some ghastly hour of the morning....really asked myself what on earth I was doing. Got up the next day and had a walk around the area which is really scenic with no pollution (came as a pleasant surprise given media reports about the problem in China). Day 2 was not a good day- I got mugged in the middle of town at 1030 in the morning- got punched in the face and had a valuable necklace stolen. Needless to say I was one very unhappy lady but the group I am working with were fantastic. They took care of police reports etc and kept apologising profusely. Anyway I have put it down to bad luck and am looking forward with a positive attitude.
I am now at my school and settled into my apartment. I am in Baise city which is in the Guangxi Autonomous Region SW China. I have a great apartment with 2 bedrooms, a study, lounge room, bathroom and kitchen.....very spacious for 1 person!! Needed a bit of a clean up but nothing a bottle of bleach couldn't fix. My apartment is on campus at Baise Qifu High School where there are 4000 students - about 60-70 in each class!!! The school is being expanded so its a bit like a construction site atm. Everyone has been very welcoming and as the only foreign teacher I am a bit of a "superstar".
I was introduced to the students at an assembly which was a bit daunting being faced with 4000 faces but they all clapped and cheered.....have taught 4 lessons so far which have all gone well. A few students have "braved" coming to my door with little presents to welcome me - mainly fruit and photos.
Well back to lesson planning and I'll do a follow up soon. Cheers.
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Sorry to hear about you being mugged!! I can't beleive it.. pickpocketing is quite common, but a mugging! Awful!
Feel for you in front of 4,000 kids.. I had to do a speech in front of 8,000.. The kids and teachers from my school here in Hebei.. I was terrified!!
You're apartment sounds nice! Lucky you!
Know what I miss a lot? A nice hot bath. Showers are good but I'd love a soak right now!!
O well done Katielou....kudos for you too. How wonderful to get such positive feedback. What part of China are you in? North, south east or west?
So far my students have been fantastic- have taught 12 classes so far this week with 4 more tomorrow. Looking forward to the weekend when I can relax and gather my thoughts after a frantic first week. Had a phone call from my senior FAO last night to tell me the students have said I am very experienced and they think they will learn a lot from me....high praise after just one lesson for each class...and certainly a positive boost for me.
Oh Katie, what a scary start to your experience. Well done for facing 4000 at assembly - I thought I was scared talking to 100 at a school here in the UK this year! Hope this turns out to be a fantastic experience for you. I'll be following your progress.
OMG you poor thing...not a nice welcome to China. I know how you feel about being the only foreigner in a sea of Asians...I get stared at every time I go to Indonesia because I am always in the company of an Indonesian....and where we go, they never see white faces. You must feel really special there. ;)
How daunting is it to teach such large classes?
Oh no, so sorry to hear about you being mugged - glad you're still keeping positive though - sounds like everything else has been going pretty well - what are your students like?
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