On Sundays Penny (a Chinese student at ZUFE) and I take an hour ride on the B1 bus and we go to English Corner at West Lake. I learned today from one of the attendees that this English corner started more than 25 years ago. Park #6 of West Lake is filled with Chinese practicing their English. There will be a few foreigners like myself that will come and answer and ask questions. But I have never been able to meet any of the other foreigners because as you walk into the area you are immediately surrounded by many people eager to talk. I meet a wide variety of ages and field a wide variety of questions. Today one question was about in-vitro fertilization and another one was asking if I like Chinese food. Last week a child around 8 or 9 had a printed out list of questions he asked me. I am not sure if he could understand any of my answers, but he read the English very well.
Last week was my first week of teaching classes. On my first day photographers came in our rooms and took pictures. The students were all crowded around me because I was showing a PowerPoint of my life in photos on my tiny laptop because the room does not have a projection system, just a blackboard and chalk. (Paula told me to buy one on Amazon before I left but unfortunately I did not follow her advice). Anyway, I am now on their ZUFE News web site. Bad photo but I didn’t get to pick it. If you scroll down to the bottom – you can see a picture of Kris the lady from Dalton Georgia.
Kris, Jim and I had another good meal together last night- one dish was called “smells like fish pork” strange name but good spicy pork and vegetable dish (no fish though).
My class schedule has finally been filled. I teach a total of 8 different groups of students (which they count as a full load of 16).
Monday – 2 Conversational English Freshman classes – done by noon
Tuesday – off
Wednesday- 1 Conversational English Graduate student– done by 10
Thursday – 2 Conversation English Freshman classes &
1 Western Culture class – done by 5pm
Friday - 2 Conversational English Freshman classes – done by noon
My Western Culture Class has 60 students in it – but the rest are smaller than 28
Side note – I must be doing something wrong – My tiny washing machine keeps stopping and it is not draining, rinsing or spinning well. It took me 3 hours to do one load of wash which consisted of 1 towel, 1 long underwear top and bottom, 2 pairs of underpants and 1 bra. When I hung the still semi soapy load up to dry and they were still so full of water I now have a puddle in the middle of my living room (uncarpeted) floor.
