Halloween is around the corner and I've been living in Suzhou for almost two months now. Of course, moving out of my house in Denver, and saying good-bye to Mia, family and friends was completely traumatic, but since my arrival I've found many great distractions and am happy to be living and teaching in China for a year.
It took about a full week to recover from the jetlag and whirlwind orientation tour in Beijing. Luckily, when I arrived in Suzhou I was told that I would have the first week of classes off to get my bearings and prepare my lessons. The week passed quickly and visiting the gardens and exploring town felt like vacation. While it was certainly nice to have the time, it was also a little nerve-wracking as it prolonged the anxiety I was feeling about stepping foot into the Chinese classroom. By the middle of the week I had to ask for an opportunity to observe a lesson. They obliged and then I was even more nervous...but at least I had a vision of where I was headed.
Six weeks, or lessons later, I'm really starting to have fun with the students. It's hard to complain about much here...the campus where I teach is gorgeous, my schedule is heavenly, and the students, in all my classes except one, are eager to learn and practice their English. I'm teaching the equivalent of 10th, 11th, and 12th graders and have 15 classes per week. The students' schedule is rough...they start at 7:30 a.m. and have nine, forty-minute lessons throughout the day. There's an hour and 45 minutes in the middle of the day for lunch, a nap on the desk, and a start on the homework. They finish at 4:45 and then usually have 3 - 4 hours of homework. They also go to school on Saturday's from 7:30 - 11:30. The teachers have to be at school the whole day, but have a nicer schedule than this, they generally teach two to four lessons per day and spend the rest of their time in an office with other teachers from their grade level and correct papers. Sometimes they take a nap if they need to, the office where I have a desk even has a cot in it.
I've offered to help grade papers and try to spend time in the office with the Chinese English teachers, but I guess because they have a lot at stake with the test scores they never take me up on it. I make myself useful by giving them somebody to practice their English with. Actually, one of the Chinese teachers is teaching me Mandarin three times a week. Mostly we all just get a good laugh out of it, but hopefully I'm learning something as well.
Students take their classes and homework very seriously. I've had a few conversations with both students and teachers about how they're not very happy with the education system. Everything boils down to one final test which determines if they'll get into University. I've been told that in Key schools like No. 10 there are over 1000 students applying and maybe 600 or 700 will get accepted. They take loads of exams along the way and everyone knows exactly where they stand in terms of class ranking based on test scores - it's a lot of pressure. But they've also told me that they still manage to find time to do the things teenagers around the world seem to love: surf on the internet, play basketball and computer games, and listen to music.
A couple of weeks ago a group of eight Senior III students invited me to their English Corner, a club they put together to practice speaking English. I was so impressed when I showed up and they had prepared presentations to share and discuss. One of them had a dvd of award-winning t.v. commercials from around the world; they discussed the message and the humor in several of them. Lots of them were beer commercials, and I kept feeling like maybe I was doing something wrong watching commercials which promote alcohol in a classroom with teenagers.
Are they reckless, or are we overly cautious? Maybe this question only slightly pertains to the beer commercials...but I wonder this a bit in many ways. I don't see much in the way of saftey standards. As I ride my bike in the streets of Suzhou I'm just amazed at how people get to and from work each day in one piece. There's sort of this understood rule that everybody keeps moving and just gets out of the way of whatever's in front of them. I'm pretty much a spectacle when I remember to put on my bike helmet before I leave home.
On the travel end of things I haven't had too many adventures yet. I've made it Shanghai a couple of times, and I'm proud to say it's not such a scary, solo train ride for me anymore. I also ventured to Hangzhou by bus on my own. Traveling on the new highways here is a great way to see the countryside of China...and the way livestock is transported on its last journey.
Hangzhou is a beautiful city. There's a saying that Hangzhou and Suzhou are paradise on earth. Suzhou has its appeal in its classical gardens and culture. Hangzhou is newly built up and renovated and rightly boasts of West Lake. I hope to go back and spend more time there.
I'm finding many challenges traveling, living and teaching in China...many things are a mystery and I just have to go with the flow. Going to a restaurant, mailing a package at the post office, and paying the phone bill all have become challenging projects to accomplish in a day. I went to mail Mom's birthday package yesterday, after they rifled through all the little things I was sending they picked out the L'Ancome face moisturizer I had bought in a knock-off market in Shanghai, and said 'no.' Apparently that one's staying with me, sorry Mom! Protesting or asking why just wasn't an option, and that's the way it is with many things here.
Here's to the big and small mysteries in life!
