Settling in to China Life

I have now been at my school for about 10 days and gradually finding my feet. I am at Baise Qifu Senior High school. I teach Senior 1 one week and then Senior 2 the alternate week. I have 22 senior 1 classes and 16 senior 2 classes....needless to say I am not even going to attempt to learn the students names. I have 70+ students in Senior 1 and 60+ in senior 2 so by reckoning I teach about 2500 students!!!!!

I dont find teaching such large classes too difficult...you just need to talk a lot louder so everyone can hear. Its really not much different to teaching 30- same work just adapting to a larger group.

After much bleach my apartment is now very clean and comfortable. I've uploaded some photos to give you an idea. Most of my students are fantastic. I was presented with a beautiful chinese fan by one student and the whole class cheered when I accepted the gift. In fact the students clap and cheer when I enter their classroom - the novelty of being the only foreign teacher...I wonder how long that will last????

It is extremely hot here - in the high 30s every day- so I find I get very tired. I am learning to make the most of the chinese "siesta" in the middle of the day. And yes Rin I too would love a bath!!

I finally found the back gate of the school which everyone said to use but didn't tell me how to find it. anyway the bonus is that I found the most amazing food stalls, fresh fruit and vegs and a few shops selling the basics(including alcohol!). I also found the bus stop for getting a bus into the city......haven't ventured in there yet as I'm not sure how to get back and given my chinese is basic at best I'm bound to get lost. Some students are going to take me in on Sunday afternoon which is really nice of them as that is their only free time.

Thats all for now folks....talk soon

• China
• teaching
• new places