I've come to the end of another Sabbath and tomorrow I will be back in the motion of teaching. Teaching has become much easier in the last couple of weeks. The days are starting to fly by and I feel like I don't have the time to do all the things that I have planned. I want to learn Chinese. I want to get better at video editing. I want to exercise every day. I've learned that my classes go a lot smoother when I have prepared a thorough lesson plan. Maybe thats what I need to do with my time here.
Today was beautiful so I took some video from around campus. I walked around to the corner of the soccer field so I could get a view of most of the buildings. It was just after lunch so the students were in their dorms and the campus looked empty. Right outside of my apartment they have been building a cafeteria for the teachers. I'm amazed with how fast it has been coming along. Two guys were putting up siding on the building so I asked if I could film them. They were very kind and one of them offered me a cigarette. I told them "no, it's ok. thanks" but of course they didn't understand me so I took the cigaret. This is the second time that I have been given a cigarette by someone I have just met. Fortunately for me they haven't offered to light it.
I am really enjoying my geography class and its super easy to think of ways to make it interesting. My grammar classes are a different story. If anyone has any good games that teach grammar principles, I would be grateful. It's about a month until we have a break for Chinese New Years and I still haven't planned where I'll be going. Hopefully Lisa and I will get something figured out when I visit her next weekend. I miss my friends and family back home. I know that I have an awesome opportunity over here so I'm trying to take full advantage of it. Hopefully I'll get a video together pretty soon showing you what life is like for me here in China. I don't just play with stink bugs all day.
Here are a few pics from Thanksgiving till now:
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| The Students : Getting ready for our Thanksgiving Feast |
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| Ashim on the left and Sanny on the Right |
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| Vivian |
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| Our Turkey! Peace Signs from left to right: Trudy, Caroline, Ashim. |
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| Playing pool while we wait for our food. |
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| She's always looking for an opportunity to impress her little bro. |
This past weekend on our way to Shanghai
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| Dinner with the Kays |
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| The friendly guy who was putting up siding. |
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| The gift from the siding guy above (it broke in my pocket). |
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| The campus as seen from the 5th floor of my apartment building. |
Never thought a cigarette in your hand would put such a big smile on my face:) Kind and thoughtful people - going to be awesome to be able to talk to them one day. Looking at your pictures gave me one of the strongest urges that I've had in a long time to live overseas again! On the subject of "Grammar games" wonder if Emily came up with any in Prague? Love the pics and this post! Miss ya but love what your doing! dad.
ReplyDeleteps "bad ju ju comes to people who read blogs and don't comment"
WOW! Shaun! Love the pix. Great photography and composition and color! Nice writing also. So maybe you could write a blog about why the peace sign seems to be so prevalent in pictures there? Interesting... Nice seeing Lisa, too, in your photos. AJ
ReplyDeleteHa! thanks for the comments. Yeah Aunt Joyce, I have no idea where the peace signs are coming from. I thought it was just a stereotype but people seem to love to do it over here.
ReplyDeleteLove the pictures, Shaun.....took me awhile to recognize who was in your pool picture! Have a great weekend!
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