I got woken up by a text this morning saying that the grade 4 teacher was off sick so I would be covering his class today. I got to school and had reading with grade 4 and I had to take the register. Not easy when I am still trying to learn names and faces! Luckily it's a really nice class and the kids helped. I had their homework to mark and aother pile of marking that I have been working through to do before I had them again at 10.30am. I then had English with them until lunchtime and the lesson went really well, it's a lot different from working with grade 1, the kids just get on with what you tell them to do! It's still taking a bit of getting used to. After lunch I had more marking to do, then I had to sit in on the calligraphy lesson as apparently the kids are badly behaved in that lesson, but they were all really good today. It has been an enjoyable day and after school a group of us went out for an indian which was nice and I got to catch up a bit more with how everyone else is getting on. It is weird being on the fourth floor as you don't see people as much as I did when I was on the first floor and it's gone from sharing an office with 11 other people to being just me and James so it has been a bit lonely today with James being off sick.
On a different note, the pollution level was 340 today (anything over 300 and we don't let the kids go outside at playtime) and I heard the stupidest comment today that pretty much sums up China's attitude towards health and safety, "it's ok, it's natural pollution". As far as I am concerned, pollution is pollution and if the air is so bad that it makes my chest hurt when i'm walking in it to school in the morning then frankly it's just not safe to be out in. This is very high on my list of things that I hate about China, pollution and also the spitting!
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Monday, 27 February 2012
Monday 27th February
I got to work this morning to find out that there are two members of staff off with the flu and was asked to cover the maths lesson for grade 4. It looks like I have also given James my flu as he looked how I felt on Friday! I still feel a bit rough but I am definitely over the worst of it and hopefully will be better in no time.
I spent the first part of the morning making a start on the mountain pile of marking that needed doing and then before I knew it, it was 9.15am and time for my maths lesson. The cover lesson plan just said to finish the measuring worksheet so I asked James if he had any work that needed finishing if they finished the worksheet early. I am glad I did as by 10minutes into the lesson they had finished the worksheet that was supposed to have taken an hour! I had them doing the work that they needed to finish for their English class with James which was a poetry book and reading tests on the computers. Surprisingly the lesson went well despite the fact they had finished the work in rapid time, there were no behaviour problems and everyone was on task, a good start to the day!
After break I had the same class for English as James was in a meeting and we had a spelling test, which wasn’t easy as they are used to James’ strong American accent and apparently I “talk funny” but as long as I used each word in a sentence they knew or understood, it went ok. I will know for sure once I have marked their tests! I then went back to the office to carry on with the marking and then it was lunchtime. James came into the office and looked really ill and was going home, felt really bad for the guy as I had given him my germs! This meant that I was covering for his social studies lesson this afternoon now though, three lessons in one day!
After lunch I did more marking and I haven’t even scratched the surface of the pile of marking that needs to be done. At 3.15pm it was time for the social studies lesson where the children had all been working on a project where they had to invent a country and today’s lesson was about putting that all together. The lesson went really well and I really enjoyed it. I think that it is a good class (there are 17 students with a few characters that I have been warned about) but I think that they are all good kids and I am really pleased with how today’s lessons have gone. This is probably where I should be a bit wary and not get overconfident, the calm before the storm and all that, but I am looking forward to my next lesson already!
I spent the first part of the morning making a start on the mountain pile of marking that needed doing and then before I knew it, it was 9.15am and time for my maths lesson. The cover lesson plan just said to finish the measuring worksheet so I asked James if he had any work that needed finishing if they finished the worksheet early. I am glad I did as by 10minutes into the lesson they had finished the worksheet that was supposed to have taken an hour! I had them doing the work that they needed to finish for their English class with James which was a poetry book and reading tests on the computers. Surprisingly the lesson went well despite the fact they had finished the work in rapid time, there were no behaviour problems and everyone was on task, a good start to the day!
After break I had the same class for English as James was in a meeting and we had a spelling test, which wasn’t easy as they are used to James’ strong American accent and apparently I “talk funny” but as long as I used each word in a sentence they knew or understood, it went ok. I will know for sure once I have marked their tests! I then went back to the office to carry on with the marking and then it was lunchtime. James came into the office and looked really ill and was going home, felt really bad for the guy as I had given him my germs! This meant that I was covering for his social studies lesson this afternoon now though, three lessons in one day!
After lunch I did more marking and I haven’t even scratched the surface of the pile of marking that needs to be done. At 3.15pm it was time for the social studies lesson where the children had all been working on a project where they had to invent a country and today’s lesson was about putting that all together. The lesson went really well and I really enjoyed it. I think that it is a good class (there are 17 students with a few characters that I have been warned about) but I think that they are all good kids and I am really pleased with how today’s lessons have gone. This is probably where I should be a bit wary and not get overconfident, the calm before the storm and all that, but I am looking forward to my next lesson already!
Sunday 26th February
I slept better last night, still waking up every four hours as my medicine wore off and still alternating between hot and cold but not waking up so often. My throat still feels raw from all of the coughing and I have pretty much slept all day. Hopefully I will be feeling better in time for work tomorrow.
Saturday 25th February
I woke up this morning after what was one of the worst nights sleep of my life. I was awake every two hours alternating between freezing cold and sweating. My throat felt raw from all of the coughing and i’ve lost count of how many packs of tissues I have gone through. I felt really ill but I was almost out of water and I wanted some ice cream for my throat so I went to Pinnacle Plaza to buy supplies and send a few emails. I came straight back to the apartment and back to sleep, waking up four hours later as my medicine wore off and I continued that cycle all day and night so I don’t have much else to report.
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Friday 24th February
There was a minor improvement on my sleeping pattern today when I woke up at 4.30am. I hadn’t slept brilliantly as I kept coughing throughout the night and I feel so rough today. I got a taxi to school for 8am and started going through the big pile of marking I had to do while I waited for James to arrive. James had bought me a bagel for breakfast which I thought was really sweet and we made a list of tasks that needed doing. I spent most of the morning laminating and cutting and sticking and feeling sorry for myself as I now have a chesty cough and just feeling really achy.
After lunch I went with one of the admin staff to open a bank account and pay for the internet in my apartment, hopefully they will come sometime next week to connect that. By this point it was 3pm and I just wanted to go home, but I had left my scarf and jumper at school so I had to go back for them and just sat in the office until school finished at 3.20pm. I felt really shivery and when James walked in he said I looked awful and should of just gone home. I wish I had, apparently lot’s of kids have been off school this week with the flu.
I was supposed to be going out tonight with everyone but I cancelled and got a lift home and made myself a hot water bottle and was in bed by 4pm. I woke up every two hours and as my lemsip wore off either freezing cold or sweating and constantly coughing throughout to the point that my throat felt raw. I can’t remember the last time I felt so ill. I’m planning on just staying in bed all weekend to try and kick this in time for Monday.
After lunch I went with one of the admin staff to open a bank account and pay for the internet in my apartment, hopefully they will come sometime next week to connect that. By this point it was 3pm and I just wanted to go home, but I had left my scarf and jumper at school so I had to go back for them and just sat in the office until school finished at 3.20pm. I felt really shivery and when James walked in he said I looked awful and should of just gone home. I wish I had, apparently lot’s of kids have been off school this week with the flu.
I was supposed to be going out tonight with everyone but I cancelled and got a lift home and made myself a hot water bottle and was in bed by 4pm. I woke up every two hours and as my lemsip wore off either freezing cold or sweating and constantly coughing throughout to the point that my throat felt raw. I can’t remember the last time I felt so ill. I’m planning on just staying in bed all weekend to try and kick this in time for Monday.
Thursday 23rd February
At 2.30am this morning I was wide awake and it didn’t matter how much I wanted to, I was not getting back to sleep. I must be a bit run down as aswell as the head cold I started with yesterday, I now have started with a cough. I got up at 6am as I was going over to one of the teachers apartments round the corner from me at 6.30am to use their shower as I still didn’t have any hot water. It felt so good to finally be able to wash my hair! I got a lift to school at 7.45am and went to see Imelda about my hot water and other bits I needed to do.
At 8.30am the handyman and one of the admin staff (the handyman doesn’t speak English so she was a translator) went back to my apartment and I realised that he had turned the gas off at the mains which was why I had no hot water. We then went to register me at the police station and then it was back to school.
It was nice being back and saying hello to the teachers that weren’t out the other night and a few of the Chinese staff that I had become friendly with were really pleased to see me which was nice. I went to my new office on the fourth floor and got talking to James about my new role as his TA/PA.
The first job of the day was to get the office into some sort of order, I opened one of the filing cabinets and instead of there being rows of files in there, paper had just been dumped in all of the 8 drawers! The same went for all of the cabinets and you couldn’t even see the surface of the conference table it was covered in that much paperwork! I honestly didn’t know where to start. I ended up pulling all the paper out of the filing cabinets and putting them into piles and one big pile of paperwork for James to sort through. I made folders for all of the kids in his class for him to keep their work in and folders for other stuff aswell, then I sat James down and we went through the big pile of paper work of what was to be kept and what was to be binned, there were report cards in there from two years ago! The attitude of the day was to be ruthless! By 4pm we had made pretty good progress and there were a few bin bags of stuff to be thrown out, so a good first day!
Throughout the day I had been feeling rough still with this head cold so after school instead of going out for dinner with a few of the girls, I just went home, ordered a pizza and went to bed to try and shift this bug.
At 8.30am the handyman and one of the admin staff (the handyman doesn’t speak English so she was a translator) went back to my apartment and I realised that he had turned the gas off at the mains which was why I had no hot water. We then went to register me at the police station and then it was back to school.
It was nice being back and saying hello to the teachers that weren’t out the other night and a few of the Chinese staff that I had become friendly with were really pleased to see me which was nice. I went to my new office on the fourth floor and got talking to James about my new role as his TA/PA.
The first job of the day was to get the office into some sort of order, I opened one of the filing cabinets and instead of there being rows of files in there, paper had just been dumped in all of the 8 drawers! The same went for all of the cabinets and you couldn’t even see the surface of the conference table it was covered in that much paperwork! I honestly didn’t know where to start. I ended up pulling all the paper out of the filing cabinets and putting them into piles and one big pile of paperwork for James to sort through. I made folders for all of the kids in his class for him to keep their work in and folders for other stuff aswell, then I sat James down and we went through the big pile of paper work of what was to be kept and what was to be binned, there were report cards in there from two years ago! The attitude of the day was to be ruthless! By 4pm we had made pretty good progress and there were a few bin bags of stuff to be thrown out, so a good first day!
Throughout the day I had been feeling rough still with this head cold so after school instead of going out for dinner with a few of the girls, I just went home, ordered a pizza and went to bed to try and shift this bug.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Wednesday 22nd February
On Monday 20th February I started the journey back to China and arrived safely at Beijing airport at 4pm China time on Tuesday 21st February. I was picked up from the airport by James and after a quick catch up I was dropped at my apartment to drop my luggage off and then I was straight back out again to meet the girls for an early dinner at 5pm. It was a bit weird really because I had to go to the supermarket round the corner from my apartment and get some money out as I had no Chinese money on me, then I had to get a taxi to Pinnacle Plaza to meet the girls. Easier said than done, I couldn’t remember how to say Pinnacle Plaza and vaguely remembered the way so I had to direct the taxi driver and at one point we went round in a circle but managed to get to the Mexican restaurant on time. 8 of the teachers had come out to give me a “welcome back” dinner which was really nice of them and it felt like I had never been away! I was fighting to stay awake though and by 8pm I was ready for bed so after putting credit on my Chinese phone, I called it a night and one of the teachers gave me a lift back to my apartment.
I walked into my apartment and realised that there was no electricity left on the metre. Great. By this point it was 8.30pm and I went to the property office around the corner to put money on the metre and was told that they couldn’t do it until tomorrow. What a great start! I returned to my apartment and had to use the light from my laptop to see so I just put everything on the floor and went to bed. The apartment was freezing because there was no heating, there wasn’t any hot water and no electricity so I couldn’t even do myself a hot water bottle! Luckily I don’t have a room mate yet (will tell that story in a moment) so I used the duvet from that room over the top of my duvet and went to sleep.
So during dinner I found out a bit about the new interns that started last week. There were supposed to be 5, including Analisa who was my roommate and stayed on from last semester. Apparently only 3 turned up! During Chinese New year Analisa just upped and left without telling anybody and didn’t come back, after the school trying to contact her for over a week she sent an email saying “something came up” and that she wasn’t coming back, so I currently have no room mate until they find a replacement for her. The other intern that was supposed to start aswell flew home the day before they were supposed to come out to the school! So the school are not having much luck with interns at the moment. The three that are here are two girls from Norway and a Scottish girl who I will probably meet within the next few days.
Anyway, today is Wednesday and I woke up at 7am and as the property office didn’t open until 8.30am I had to wait until then before I could get electricity. I had been given the day to settle in but soon realised that I can’t get anything done, such as get a bank account or set up the internet in my apartment until the school register me with the local police station. So until then I am going to have to use the wifi at Pinnacle Plaza or wait until I get a school laptop to access emails during the day at school.
I spent today just unpacking and sleeping, I have picked up a cold from the flight and feeling a bit rough but part of that could be down to the fact I have no idea what time or day it is meant to be and feeling a bit dazed from all of the travelling!
I met a few of the teachers after they finished school for dinner and I have just left them to come to starbucks and write this. Early night for me as I start at 8am tomorrow at the school.
I walked into my apartment and realised that there was no electricity left on the metre. Great. By this point it was 8.30pm and I went to the property office around the corner to put money on the metre and was told that they couldn’t do it until tomorrow. What a great start! I returned to my apartment and had to use the light from my laptop to see so I just put everything on the floor and went to bed. The apartment was freezing because there was no heating, there wasn’t any hot water and no electricity so I couldn’t even do myself a hot water bottle! Luckily I don’t have a room mate yet (will tell that story in a moment) so I used the duvet from that room over the top of my duvet and went to sleep.
So during dinner I found out a bit about the new interns that started last week. There were supposed to be 5, including Analisa who was my roommate and stayed on from last semester. Apparently only 3 turned up! During Chinese New year Analisa just upped and left without telling anybody and didn’t come back, after the school trying to contact her for over a week she sent an email saying “something came up” and that she wasn’t coming back, so I currently have no room mate until they find a replacement for her. The other intern that was supposed to start aswell flew home the day before they were supposed to come out to the school! So the school are not having much luck with interns at the moment. The three that are here are two girls from Norway and a Scottish girl who I will probably meet within the next few days.
Anyway, today is Wednesday and I woke up at 7am and as the property office didn’t open until 8.30am I had to wait until then before I could get electricity. I had been given the day to settle in but soon realised that I can’t get anything done, such as get a bank account or set up the internet in my apartment until the school register me with the local police station. So until then I am going to have to use the wifi at Pinnacle Plaza or wait until I get a school laptop to access emails during the day at school.
I spent today just unpacking and sleeping, I have picked up a cold from the flight and feeling a bit rough but part of that could be down to the fact I have no idea what time or day it is meant to be and feeling a bit dazed from all of the travelling!
I met a few of the teachers after they finished school for dinner and I have just left them to come to starbucks and write this. Early night for me as I start at 8am tomorrow at the school.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)