Awesome Training

For the much anticipated update on my week of training in Beijing........

The week was busy and the schedule was packed, but it was awesome and I am even more excited than I was before to begin teaching this program. This curriculum is being taught at several high schools and universities in Beijing, and I had the opportunity to sit in on three lectures - one at a high school and two at two different universities.  The topic for the week at the high school was "Me and My Money," which focused on how to make wise decisions when it came to money.  The students played a game in which they were given $10 to spend between various options.  If they chose wisely then sometimes they got money back.  For example, if a student chose to spend $1 on a healthy family, then they would get $3 back since they would be less likely to have to visit the Doctor for illness, etc.  At the end of the lecture a panel of students (rotates each week, but students are allowed to come every week if they want) then meets with the lecturer to ask questions.  And many of these questions that the students ask are difficult ones, but so good too since many times they led to other doors being opened.  The topic for the week at the universities was "Stress Management" and when a fake test was given in the first 10 minutes of class as a lead in to the lecture, the girl sitting next to me actually starting sweating - which she laughed about 5 minutes later when she found out it had been a fake test.  So, overall I was very impressed with the written curriculum, the teaching of the material, as well as the training that I received in preparation to teach in universities here in Xi'an.  

The rest of this blog is just about the journey to Beijing as well as my one day off, as the main point of this blog was to be about training, so I hope you enjoy.

The trip started with the train ride to Beijing, which was a new adventure for me, and definitely did not disappoint with some interesting moments.  My friends and I unfortunately were traveling on a busy day as the week of celebration from National Day was ending and so many people were returning home from vacation and were going by way of train.  The one advantage we had was that we had purchased soft sleeper tickets, which means that you are in specific train car that has 4 beds per room (2 beds on the bottom and 2 beds above that - like what you find on a cruise ship) and we were guaranteed to get to our seats.  In China people are allowed to buy standing tickets for trains, which literally means they stand or sit in the aisles for anywhere from 8-36 hours depending on the destination, and because of this sometimes people that have purchased tickets for seats cannot get to their actual seat due to so many people being in the way, and end up having to stand for that time as well.  Anyways, for this trip I had the bottom bunk and was able to sleep during the night, but was awakened every hour to hour and a half with the person above me constantly jumping down on my bed to go out of the room for a smoke, bathroom break, etc.  During one of those times I did get the chance to see one of China's bullet trains pass by my train in 3 seconds flat, which was pretty cool.

Once making it to Beijing my friends and I grabbed some breakfast before heading to the hotel to check in.  I definitely got my workout in for the day since China is not really handicap/luggage accessible and requires you to carry your luggage up a few flights of stairs to exit the train station, as well as to get to the subway station.  After checking in at the hotel, a few of us decided to go to the Water Cube Waterpark and spend the day since it was the worst pollution day ever in Beijing and being outside for too long was not the best option.  The Water Cube is where the swimming, diving, water polo, and synchronized swimming events occurred for the 2008 Olympics.  The actual pools where the swimming and diving events, and where Micheal Phelps won 8 gold medals, is still there, but the other half of the building was converted to an indoor waterpark.  The waterpark was amazing and we apparently chose a great day to go as it was not crowded at all.  I definitely tried all the slides, including one with a 40 foot drop.  This slide was crazy - there is a chamber that you step into, you lean against the wall and then cross your arms and feet, the door to the chamber is then closed and locked with you inside, the lifeguard counts down from 3 and then presses a button that drops the floor beneath your feet dropping you 40 feet before being propelled back up 20 feet and then finishing into the pool.  It was fun, but I only did this slide once.       

Well, that's it for now.....will check in again soon with an update on the teaching. 

English Club and Beijing

Since this post is long overdue, it will be a long one. I have a lot to catch you up on, so here goes...

Friday, October 1 was China's celebration of their National Day of becoming the People's Republic of China. The celebration lasts for a week, with most people off from work and the children out of school. Even though the children are out of school from Friday October 1-8 they had to make up for those days by going to school Saturday and Sunday the week before and this coming Saturday and Sunday too. These children really do not get a break from school like we do with fall break, spring break, Christmas, etcetera since they are always having to make it up. This past week we had some beautiful sunny days with nice temperatures, so it was great to be outside.

On Saturday, October 2, I had my first day teaching English at the Little Ant Learning Club. I normally will have seven to ten students, but because of the holiday and some families traveling I only had three students on my first day. Those three students: Jay, Corina, and Arianna (their English names) were great to work with and I had so much fun. I actually was the one to give Jay his English name after his aunt asked me to come up with one for him. His aunt and cousin both had English names with a J, so that is what I came up with. In my first class I worked on shapes and direction with the kids and then we played a game to reinforce what we just learned. After teaching was over I spent some time playing games with the kids in the game room of their club. At one point Jay and I were throwing a ball back and forth, and when I would bounce the ball under my leg back to him, he would mimicking my actions and just smile and say: "This is fun." I definitely have had some frustrations with the lady in charge due to cultural differences in how they approach things, but I can honestly say that working with these kids and seeing them having fun learning English far outweighs my frustrations with everything else.

In other news - on Saturday night I leave with four friends headed to Beijing for our training with the Life Education course. We are traveling by train overnight (my first experience, which I am excited about) in soft sleepers and will arrive early Sunday morning. We will have the day to hang out on Sunday and then training begins Monday morning at 9am. Most days the training will be from 9am - 5pm, but there will be one or two days where we will have the afternoon off and will be doing training in the evenings those days by observing the Life Education course being taught in some Beijing Universities. And then Friday night my friends and I will travel back on another overnight train and arrive back Saturday morning. I will be sharing with you about training once I get back.

And just as a fun side note - I learned last week how to order in Chinese at the Subway restaurant. A new Subway was opened in my neighborhood this summer, so my tutor and I went there for lunch one day last week. When I am at the restaurant I have been able to order by pointing at the menu written in English and Chinese if there was a misunderstanding, but since they do deliver now I have the option of calling, ordering, and having them deliver if I want (I will reserve that option for a cold winter day).

Hope some of you have been able to experience the leaves beginning to change - that is definitely one thing that I do miss seeing. Much love and happiness to each of you.