Well, for the folks who have tried to follow along, it was an uneventful week on the blog.
For us here in China, it was nonstop:
16 hour flights, metro adventures, lesson planning, food adventures, more lesson planning, bakery trips, relearning how to use a flash drive, Walmart excursions, “evil” air conditioning, and lots of dark chocolate.
Unfortunately, our trip to China has made us painfully aware of our reliance on Youtube, internet, and basic phone functions (“but how will we get ahold of each other if we get separated?!?”). With inconsistent internet, we have spent hours hunting teaching materials that survive the firewalls. Creativity, desperation, sleep deprivation, and a dash of teamwork have kept us alive and thriving as we instruct the students at BCIS. We hope the kids are learning, but we know we are learning too.
A list of things we are discovering in China:
The lines painted on the road are really just lines painted on the road and have no power over the cars who straddle them for miles.
Honking is the new turn signal.
You can get a long way just knowing “Hello” and “Thank you.”
Anyone who thinks teaching is easy has never tried to lesson plan for 4 through 10 year olds who don’t speak their language.
Carbs are the new water and noodles go with everything.
Sometimes the only way to do things is one day at a time.
That midwest humidity is air conditioning compared to the weather here.
If Chinese symbols on American t-shirts are as loosely translated as English words on Chinese t-shirts, we might want to start checking Google-translate (“Eat. Sleep. Recycle.” “Because” “Life and happiness is…” “screw per fiction” “Vbest tea shop” to name a few).
If you're tired enough, you can sleep on plastic board mattresses.
Elevator and metro doors will not stop for you, even if you are American.
You don’t know there is such thing as a Western toilet until you are forced to use an Eastern toilet.
Even if the company is called “strong VPN” you probably can’t get a strong VPN.
If you are lucky enough to get a menu in English and you see the word “Phoenix,” it means you are getting a nice fried chicken foot.
Our first week, we focused on the classics in music, art, and dance. We showed the students ballet, Monet, Mozart, DaVinci, Peter and the Wolf, and our sparkling American personalities. One of our toughest tasks has been to plan engaging lessons for the young students. Though the camp is open to students from kindergarten through eighth grade, our turnout is composed of roughly 20 kindergarteners and 20 other students spread out from first through fourth grade. Allow me to assure you that though there are many differences between America and China, a kindergartener’s attention span is about the same everywhere. It is pushing us to think of new ways to communicate our ideas. They say if you cannot teach something simply, you don’t really know it at all.
All the theory in the world could not have taught us what we are learning in our time here. They gave us name tags, pushed us into classrooms, and sent in the kids. Suddenly, we were the ones at the front of the classroom giving instructions. Our teaching assistants ask us what we need help with or what we are planning. We smile and pretend we have it all together, secretly holding our breath until the lesson is over and nobody died. Week two starts now and hopefully we breath more, learn more, love more, and start to fill the shoes we have been given. We are breaking them in, one blister at a time.