A Busy Week

It has been a very busy week so entries are abbreviated.

Monday, November 17. Two classes in the morning. Lesson plan this week is on ways to describe physical appearance. In teacher training, we sing songs: Love Will Keep Us Together and If I Had a Million Dollars. What a riot. This evening, I watch The Sound of Music (in preparation for using it in English Corner). Take my cold and headache to bed.

Tuesday, November 18. This morning, I have a wonderful Skype call with Jed for almost an hour. Work on powerpoint presentation for If I Had a Million Dollars. I think I will use as lesson plan sometime. I go to the post office downtown to pick up package from home with mail, books and other miscellaneous things. Then run errands on my bike. In the evening, I cook apples and watch a Mr. Bean film with Rowan Atkinson.

Wednesday, November 19. I teach one of May's classes this morning: Senior 2 (Class G0707). Then I have my own class in the afternoon (which is observed by most of the Chinese English teachers). At about 4:30, Mrs. Tong (head of Senior English department) calls to see if David, Tiffany and I would like to go to dinner. Honestly, I have never been treated to dinner so often in my life. We go to a terrific hot pot restaurant - it's amazing (or maybe it isn't) how many great restaurants are within walking distance of our school. When the hot pot is delivered to the table, it holds 2.5 kilos of fish! Then we get bowls of spinach, sweet potato noodles, tofu, potatoes, and congealed pig blood (I'm not making this up - the Chinese let nothing go to waste) to be cooked in the broth after we polish off the fish!

Such a great group of people: May, Rachel, Mr. Zhang, Jack, Mrs. Tong, Tyler, Jenny, Cynthia, Debbie, Cindy, Laura, plus Tiffany and David. I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful group of colleagues.

Thursday, November 20. I have one class in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the middle of the day, I do some cooking and go for a bike ride. It's been in the 50s during the day so when the sun is out, it's reasonably pleasant. English Corner with Senior 2 & 3 at 5:15; then go to dinner in the cafeteria with some of the students. All week, I have been trying to get ahead on lesson planning for next week and the week after.

Friday, November 21. Two classes in the morning. In one class, the computer is not working so I can't do my lesson plan. It isn't a big problem because I generally try to have something as "back-up" to do in case this happens, but my Friday classes are already one lesson behind (because of classes being previously cancelled for various reasons); now this class is two lessons behind. I feel really bad about not having a chance to "catch them up." English Corner for Senior 1s is cancelled because students are working on research for something? Of course, I don't find this out until I show up all prepared for English Corner! This evening I make a giant pot of yet another incarnation of vegetable soup with beans, carrots, cauliflower, green beans, green peas, onions, garlic, and a can of Progresso tomato/basil soup.