James has now started uni, with classes starting at 8.45 every weekday morning. Luckily this means that he gets to finish at 12. It seems to be a very cosmopolitan class, with students hailing from the US, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, India, Pakistan, Australia and Russia. The language spoken in class by the lecturer is fairly dense and difficult to understand, but the textbook is a bit more familiar. The uni is fairly close, it takes less than half an hour on the bus to get there. James is pretty happy that there are little street vendors out the front of the uni so that he ca pick up a fresh omelette or some dumplings for breakfast in the mornings.
I started teaching last week. My class has a bit of a different make-up to Jamie's. It consists of 6 and 7 year old Chinese children. The ones from Shanghai have a much higher level of English than the kids who have come from the country. They are pretty sweet little things. One said to me 'Teacher, you are very, very beautiful'. Ahh, it's good to have admirers! I am teaching four classes of grade one four days a week. I am really glad I signed a part time contract instead of a full time one as it sometimes takes me ages to plan lessons. Actually, that was probably because the kids still haven't got their textbooks and I didn't get my flashcards until the end of the week, so I ended up drawing pictures of kites and soccer balls and bikes until all hours. It takes me about an hour and 20 minutes to get there on the train and bus, but I'm happy that I only have one year level to teach, so I can prepare the same lessons for them all! Also, I'm pretty lucky to get posted only at one school; some of the other teachers have to travel to two or three different schools every week. I was really nervous on my first day, and the week has had its ups and downs, but I think it's slowly getting better. This weekend we're both taking it easy, watching movies and eating lots of yummy food. We're finding more and more restaurants that we like. We haven't been cooking much at all, actually, which has been a nice change!
We're off to see more of the city now!
Bye bye! Zai Jian!
2 comments:
hi guys,
sounds like you guys are settling in ok. finding all the nooks and crannys, and eating lots of yummy food. mmm... makes me jealous and a tad hungry. keep enjoying urselfs. nathan
Hey! I'm glad that Nat's job is getting better now, you were still a bit unsure about it last time I spoke to you. But it all sounds like its going swimmingly.
But GUESS WHAT? Em bought tickets to see a preview of Hot Fuzz at which Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright will be speaking and answering questions! Wooo! How awesome is that?
Think of a question I can ask that NO ONE else will think of!
Love to ya both
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