I now have the chance to write while catching my breath after four busy days in Nanning. Last Friday was my first day of classes. It was quite eventful as I had 5 classes (the last one ending past 9pm). The school schedule here is very different from America. The students start their first class around 7:30 am and then proceed until 12pm. Students then eat lunch, followed by a two hour “siesta” or sorts where most everyone in the school takes a nap. With the hot and humid climate here, it’s necessary to take a nap during the sun’s peak hours. Classes resume from around 2:30 until 5:30 and then break for dinner and some downtime. Classes resume from 7:30 until just past 10 at night. They have school six days a week- pretty grueling!
My first class was intended to introduce myself and allow the students to practice their introductions. All the students oohed and ahhed at many of the pictures of my family and friends. If you are reading this fam and friends, you are now famous among a group of about 120 Chinese high school girls! I felt pretty comfortable in my role as a teacher. I always enjoy talking in front of groups. It was difficult to get the students to participate in the way I hoped, however, since they are shy about using their English. The real test will be to draw the students out over these next 7 weeks so that will be confident in speaking English. They must realize that trying and failing is the only way to improve.
I spent Saturday visiting a couple of Nanning’s most popular tourist attractions. The first was a beautiful park surrounding a lake near the center of the city. This park is several miles in circumference, with a landscape that changes drastically every half mile or so. Part of the park was grassy with trees and pagodas- a perfect place to rest. Another part of the park was like an amusement park with games and rides. Still another part had concrete platforms among the trees for people to practice dancing, while others practiced playing instruments of various kinds. In this part of the park, I witnessed a fair amount of western dancing! In fact, some of the swing dancers out here in China would put some of my Chi Psi fraternity brothers to shame, which is saying something!
The second stop was the Guangxi province relic’s museum. This showcased the various pottery and other relics from the province’s ethnic minority groups. For part of the time, I followed one of the museum tour guides as we proceeded through the exhibits. Every so often, the adult tour guide would pass off her duties to one of many younger girls (“interns” you could say) who explained to the crowd a particularly important relic. These girls seemed very young- probably around 12-15 years old. They delivered their speech in a very buttoned up and professional manner. When the tour group proceeded past them, they became 12 year old girls again, running over to their other tour guide friends and laughing and giggling. Was this oppressing their youthfulness? Or was this just a good opportunity to get some work experience? I am still not certain.
On Sunday, I woke up early in the morning to eat BBQ with about twenty of the students and a few of the teachers. When the Chinese eat BBQ, they do not go to a restaurant. Rather, we packed up our own food, which consisted of various meats and vegetables on a stick, and then hauled it down to a spot next to the river which runs through Nanning. Here, we made our own fire pits and grilled the food. While sitting next to the river, I must have taken 100 pictures with the girls that came along. Not to be braggadocios or anything, but it seems like a picture with me is quite a highly prized commodity among the students. After this, we all went to one of the teacher’s apartment to rest and have another meal. Then, we went to a Karaoke place. As you may know, Karaoke is very popular in Asian cultures. It was actually quite fun, contrary to what I expected! I think maybe America should invest in a chain Karaoke store.
After this, I went to another teacher’s home for dinner. As you can probably tell, I have been doing a lot of eating. Chinese people love to spoil guests with lots of food. Although I was actually hoping to lose some pounds over this trip, it looks like I will be gaining some.
......Now, another week of teaching and various other shenanigans…...
P.S. The saga continues with the dog. Oh, and an added twist. There is now a third dog, who is also quite ferocious. Every time I walk to my room I hear a cacophony of loud barks when I am about fifteen yards away from the foot of the stairs, and then hear the dogs sprinting at me. They are then restrained by their leashes. God forbid that the leashes ever break. If I get seriously injured on this trip, it will most likely not be a result of human assault, getting lost or a traffic accident…it will be assault by canine.
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