Today was the first day of school. My teaching schedule here is something of a joke - at least compared to US standards. I have 8 classes and each class has around 50 students. I see each class once a week for two hours. There are 18 weeks in the semester, so each class will only consist of 18 meetings. This puts my work load at 16 hours a week. While that is at least half of what is common in the US, get this: we work almost twice as much as the Chinese teachers!! INSANITY!!! Tuesday and Wednesday my "work day" is done at 10am!! This week, I will also be working at the middle school (as was planned for last week). For the 4 days I will be at the middle school I will only teach 10 classes of 45 minutes each! The other teachers here do not understand how light of a teaching schedule this is! Granted, I am not sure what a typical American college teacher's schedule is like, but it seems rather light to me.
My 2 classes today went okay. We are still hammering out details such as what books, if any will be used for the classes. Everyone seems to have a different idea. I am teaching 3 classes of oral English and 4 classes of written English to English Education majors. My 8th class is rhetoric (huh?) to so-called undergraduates - the select few who are in a 4 year program here. This is a 3 year school and all of my other students are 2nd years. The freshman don't start school for another 2 weeks as they are doing compulsory military training every day, all day.
It was nice to have something to do today more than getting out of bed. My students seemed friendly but shy. I had one student tell me we are "going to be the best of friends". This is WAY different than my start of last year where a student called me a "stupid white b**ch". Don't think they are total angels though. I had 1 student come 30 minutes late without any materials, students who had no pen but paper (??), people talking while I was talking, people listening to mp3 players, and people's cell phones going off.
In other life news, Bob is trying to redeem himself by petitioning the school for me to get a brand new computer. In the mean time, the campus server is down so we are without Internet. (I am currently in an Internet cafe type thing that is running me 1.5 yuan an hour...roughly 20 cents.) Everything else in my apartment is up and running well which is nice. All of the foreign teachers are here now: 4 Americans, 1 Brit, and 1 Japanese. We are planning a trip to the capital city this coming weekend as we heard they have a WalMart and we are wanting of some American products. After that trip, if there is anything I need, I will send out an S.O.S. email.
Some of the things that I have not seen that I find interesting: tampons, mouthwash, dental floss, deodorant, body lotion, cheese, jelly, and refrigerated milk. They do sell name brand merchandise but it is more than double the price. Funny way of life is that most American products are made in China. Then they are sent to the US. If places in China wants to carry these products, they then have to but them back from the US and ship them back to China. No, it doesn' t make sense, so don't even try!
Some quick cultural observations I have made are as follows:
Note: these are based on my limited experience in a relatively small city.
1. Spiting and burping in public are common and not uncouth.
2. Giving people way more food than they can eat is a show of honor.
3. Nothing is refrigerated - milk, eggs, water, meat, etc. - and "cold" things are just barely cooler than room temperature.
4. Lines might be made but they count for nothing. Shoving ahead of people is the norm.
5. Clothes are meant to cover your body and matching does not matter - utility is king!
6. "Maybe" means you must and "possibly" means not likely.
7. Women cannot drink alcohol unless a man buys it for them. Chinese women do not drink beer.
8. Smoking is accepted everywhere and at any time. It is rude to ask someone not to smoke or to refuse the offer of a cigarette. If you refuse a cigarette, you should apologize until you are blue in the face.
9. You don't really have to take your shoes off everywhere you go.
10. Women wear heels everywhere they go whether or not they are riding scooters, it's pouring, or they otherwise just don't make sense.
11. Diapers do not exist. Little ones are put in clothes that have the back side cut out and they squat like everyone else (I'm hoping/guessing.)
12. Contrary to popular belief, electronics here are very expensive. A digital camera (around 300 USD) costs the equivalent of 900 USD.
13. Ovens, toasters, toaster ovens and the such are not available.
I know that isn't all of the great stuff I wanted to share, but that will do for now. I hope that everyone is well. More picutres will be up soon.
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