Saturday, September 10, 2011

What a crazy week!

Wow, this week has been eventful! I started classes this week and am still settling into Nanjing. We opened bank accounts this week. I was really worried that it would be stressful, everyone says banks in China are the worst. But, it was actually really easy. We were taken to the VIP area (only time that will ever happen in a bank) and it was quite simple. Now we can get paid! I can't wait! We have also been dealing with getting our Resident Permits for Nanjing. The Health Certificate has been difficult, but will hopefully be done soon. I am really getting settled into my apartment. I am totally unpacked (this is amazingly fast for me) and have started to decorate. I'm also getting used to doing all of my wash by hand. It's kind of a pain, but I will get used to it.

I had 4 of my 6 classes this week. My two writing classes start the last week of September because they are for freshmen. The freshmen just moved in this weekend and then have two weeks of military training. I have one class of Spanish majors and all the rest are English majors. They speak English very well, I'm impressed. I had 80% girls in my classes, just a few boys. Everyone has been very friendly and nice. My students are really great with helping me understand everything. One of them helped me at the post office. I was so glad she was walking by at the right time!

All of my classes are 2 hours, once a week. They are kind of long, but I think that I will be able to fill the time. My easiest class will probably be A/V English with Spanish majors. I have about 40 students right now, but was only supposed to have 19. The course is mostly conversation and some movies, skits, etc. I think it will be a lot of fun! I'm also really excited for the Marketing classes. They are each about 50 students. During the first day, I asked the students what they wanted to learn. So I have a ton of ideas about what to teach and fun ways to get them involved. It is the first time this class is being taught in English, so I hope it goes well. My other class this week was Reading. The class is huge, 90 students, but I have a co-teacher. It was a bit chaotic on the first day, but I think that it will get better once we get into a rhythm. Luckily, a lot of my Marketing students are also in the Reading class. So I will have fewer names to remember and a better chance to get to know them.

Aside from classes and Nanjing assimilation, the week has been pretty boring. We went to Fuzi Miao (Confucius Temple) and did some shopping. You can read about the history of the temple here. We didn't go inside the temple. We just shopped at the little stalls and enjoyed the view of the lake. We made some friends there. There was a group of students who came over and wanted to take pictures with us. They were really sweet and made us feel like celebrities.

Back home, my Aunt Lisa had her baby this week. It's a girl! Her name is Mia Elizabeth and I can't wait to meet her. I'm sad I won't see her for almost a year, but I will hopefully get tons of pictures!

I'm excited for my four day weekend. I definitely could get used to this!

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