Week 1 of the semester has come and gone so quickly!
In addition to having the introduction to all of my classes this week, I've also had the pleasure of welcoming two new foreign teachers to the university, "seeing" my brother off (from a distance) on his exciting, once in a lifetime opportunity of touring with his band across the US, and adding a new baby cousin, Sophie Ann, to the family. What an exciting week! :)
Classes this semester are going to be great! My schedule is nicely spread out, my new Year 2 students, who I teach oral English to, are starting at a higher level than my Year 2 students last year started at, so I'm really excited to see their progress throughout the year, as I think last year's students made huge strides in a short period of time. My writing class is smaller than I anticipated (while my oral English class is larger than I anticipated…. Go figure) and they are very eager and willing to try things out, although their writing level is a lot lower than I expected. I was told it's "impossible" to have Chinese students peer-edit, but, on the first day, I had them write an introductory paper and then edit it themselves and give it to a peer to edit. While the corrections weren't always correct, they definitely tried, which is encouraging. We're going to have to spend a few (plus) weeks going over simple things like punctuation, capitalization, word order, etc. It's going to be a challenge for me (and them), but I'm excited for this opportunity.
Kari, the former Peace Corps volunteer I have previously mentioned, came on Tuesday, and on Wednesday night I had the pleasure of meeting with our second new foreign teacher, Bill. Prior to meeting him, I could not find any information on him and referred to him as Ambiguous Bill, but as it turns out, Bill is an open book with many stories to tell. He's in his younger sixties, is very well-educated, has traveled to China a few times with wine exporting, and once came to Guiyang in the early 90s and liked it here so he thought he would come again and enjoy "the other world". He's a very kind and very optimistic gentleman. When I first met him it was at night, but because of the time difference he was wide away. He came up for a cup of coffee and to chat, and at around 12 am I had to say goodbye so that I could get some sleep before meeting a student at 6 am for our morning hike. Well, the next morning, at 5:50, while I was laying in bed debating whether or not I could sleep for an extra 5 minutes, there was knocking on my door. Low and behold, it was Chipper Bill, making sure I did not oversleep.
Yesterday I discovered that my cell phone can text the states, and so my little brother and I text each other a few times while he was on the road. Unfortunately, it costs more to text the states than I anticipated and my phone ran out of money at about 3 am this morning, but it was good to be able to experience Luke's enthusiasm on his trip. :) I woke up then at 6 am again, hiked with my student, returned home and found that beautiful Sophie Ann was born! Afterwards I attended an English faculty lunch to welcome the new teachers, and tonight I will go into the city to welcome our new Peace Corps volunteers, Patrick and Dulce, who arrived in Guiyang last night.
Besides the GRE which is quickly approaching (and I am dreading), I anticipate that this is going to be an exciting, much more pleasant and relaxing (hahaha, did I really just type that?) semester than the last two. Life is good in China. :)
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