Today was randomly Teacher’s Day. Even though I had new classes (as it’s still, unbelievably, only the first week) I was given a card in my first class by Ben, my class monitor. It was really quite sweet.
And at the end of class someone came in from one of my previous writing classes to give me a present! It was a mug with some great well-wishing Chinglish on it. As you can see, the Chinese are big on happiness.
The only other thing of note about teaching on this happy day was that I ended up singing Abba’s ‘Our Last Summer’ to my 3rd year writing class. Mamma Mia style. I had intended to play them the track and get them to try and write down any lyrics they could pick out as the theme was holidays but, naturally, the computer didn’t want to play it. All the girls were pretty excited by this point so I didn’t want to let them down. In my mind it was a great experience for all, although I had to make use of the microphone at the front of the class which hindered the sound quality somewhat. But I did get 3 rounds of applause.
Here’s a sneaky photo I managed to take of a class when they were all busy working today. Of course as soon as the flash went off they all looked up so I had to pretend it was a secret camera only for secret use. But observe the total control I am clearly exerting. Not a single phone or mp3 player out and no one is trying to sneak out the back by crouching low and making a dash for it.
This evening we went out for a banquet with the rest of the staff from the English department. It was full of ‘toasts’ and much merriment and gradually descended into chaos. You couldn’t eat much because as soon as you started someone would come along with another toast. We are just that important. Here’s the 4 of us important Westerners.
Henry, on the far right, is now our ‘best friend’, because he could fill our glasses the most full. Apart from his slightly creepy factor, he was hilarious.
Bob, who this week has been my nemesis, goading me with the promise of a computer and a proper internet connection with his incessant ‘no problem, no problem it will be fixed tomorrow’ policy, had a little too much ‘liquor’ and was extremely happy. Here he is, extremely happy.
Soon after this photo was taken he introduced the ‘juice challenge’ because we ran out of beer, and then sang ‘My heart will go on’ and ‘It’s a long way to Picadilly’ (he was aiming for Tipperary...).
After we’d tried to put Bob in a taxi we headed home to play cards and try some of Chrissy’s ‘Teacher’s Day’ cake. She was pretty proud of it, as you can see.
Then she dropped it.
All in all, Teacher’s Day was a great end to our first week in Pingxiang!
