Status Quo

Beginning this week, things are going to slowly settle into a nice stasis. :-)

The holiday went very well. I enjoyed the parade (see previous post), did a little housewares shopping, and journeyed to the other side of the city for PCV taco day! Our wonderful chefs A, L, and M did just about everything from scratch except grind the beef. Homemade salsa, tortillas, wonderfully seasoned ground beef, and a delicious dessert made for a day of gastronomic happiness. Even though I've yet to really miss Western food, having tacos was really quite nice. Funny story about getting there: Since it's a long way (2 hours by bus), the three folk in my district decided to share a cab over there. About halfway there, the driver (whose first language is clearly not Mandarin) starts saying something about how we're going to have to get out. We asked him to repeat, and he keeps going on and on about not going into the city--but doesn't stop. In the end, he drove us all the way there. *shrugs*

Classes are going smoothly, as well. The freshmen are super enthusiastic, making their classes fly by. The sophomores make me work a little harder, but it comes out ok in the end. We recently did a lesson on regions of the United States, and it was wonderful and amusing to see their brainstorm list. They threw in Westward Expansion, Lincoln, racial discrimination, corn, and the Houston Rockets. :-)

My writing class, my 11th and final section, will begin this week at last. The students are in their final year of training to become teachers and have been scattered about doing field study for the first six weeks of the term. I've just found out that it's a year long course, so I'm feeling much more positive about the amount of material we will cover and how much the students will get out of the class. I'm quite fortunate that the other sections of the class are taught by another foreign teacher I know, so we can plan lessons collaboratively.

Also, I'm beginning my official tutoring today. I'm eager to begin improving my Chinese in larger steps. The Chinese for doing daily tasks no longer seems like a chore, which is nice, but I'm still really at a loss for small talk beyond introductions and the weather. Hopefully that will come soon.

Finally, I leave you with a couple of gems from student papers:
"I think people should not be so angry with Japan anymore. The past is black and white, but the future is full of colors."
"If I could travel anywhere, I would go to Antarctica. It would be my own small, white world."