September 1,2010

Today I taught in China!  It was wonderful, but hot and sweaty.  Air conditioning is not something the Chinese use much! We have units in some rooms and our office.  The westerners come in and flip it on, the minute we walk out, off it goes by the Chinese teachers!  So my hair is in a pony tail today.  I am drinking water and carrying lots of toilet paper with me.  (No TP anywhere, carry your own!)

My classes start at 10:30 for an hour and a half then a nice long lunch for an hour and a half.  I come back to class at 1:30 and finish at 2:55.  It is wonderful.  One class today had 25  pre IB students all 10th graders the other was 3 fantastic HL students.  It is a great way to teach.  One of my HL’s asked me to sponsor the Ice Skating Club, and I accepted!  Can you see me on ice skates?  Zip, zip –boom!

I have a Chinese phone now, so if you need the number just email me.   I wanted a number I could remember, therefore I picked an easy one and was told it was a lucky number!  Yeah a lucky number, but it took longer to process because it was this lucky number, yes an extra hour.  Can you believe that was my luck?

School started with an IB faculty breakfast.  We had fried bread, hot soy milk, meatball bread dumpling, a loaf of sliced western bread all of which was yucky!  They did have instant Starbucks with real milk and a pastry with sesame seeds on top.  That was ok!   Found a little mom and pop cafe outside of the school campus that serves vegetarian food and the menu is in English.  Had sautéed broccoli then beans and mushrooms with fried egg rice and white rice.  Really great.  Learning to use those chopsticks, but picking up a mushroom is not so easy.  Very cheap, three of us ate for 44 RMB or $6.  Plus we had green tea.  I will be eating there again.

Off to yoga class……  It is fixing my back.  The bed I am sleeping on is just about to eat my lunch.  I have my down comforter on top of the mattress then a sheet on top of it.  Some better.

Namaste!