Shell in China

Week one of our final term is just about done. How crazy is that? Although time is flying by, it is also nice to kind of have a clue what it is I am doing around the department. (The teaching wasn’t ever an issue since Thad and I both taught before coming to China, but department workings were, as still are at times, a mystery.)

Our first week back has been a busy one. This term I have eight classes. Two that are new ones (third-year students that up until this point Thad has taught) and all six of my second-year classes. In class, after talking about what it means to be “rusty” at something, we spent the time cleaning the rust off of our English brains. It took some doing, but it was fun to be back with the students again.

I told the students all about our trip to Cambodia and Indonesia. They especially liked the stories of Monkey Forest, the giant bat I held and Thad’s Hamburgerler incident (see his blog for more on that one!)

This week in class we did a fun dialog activity where the students were to imagine that a pig (last year’s animal) and a mouse (this year’s animal) met. They had to come up with what that conversation was like. While many students had fairly tame conversations, I was surprised in one class when the student playing the “mouse” got very angry with the “pig” about the winter weather in China. She was upset that the pig had ruined the Spring Festival that ushered in her year for so many people! It was actually a really good extension on the activity, but it was also amusing to watch. I made the student who was the "mouse" wear the mouse-ears we picked up to celebrate the New Year in Guangzhou. They were a hit, of course!

One thing we did to clean the rust and get English flowing again could not have happened without the Caldwell Rotary Club. Many of the members generously donated subscriptions to various magazines to go in our Book Nook. It took some work to get them here, but they have finally started to arrive at the college. Over the break I had 20+ magazines arrive! We now get everything from ESPN Magazine to Seventeen to Ranger Rick. I brought them to class and introduced the different magazines and then gave students time to look through them and chat about them. After class on Friday I will take them to the Book Nook, which will reopen on Monday.

Speaking of the Book Nook, I have been working on trying to get more books for it. Currently we are at just over 700, but my goal is 1000 before we leave China in July. To that end, I spent time looking for organizations that donate books overseas. While I found many, the majority of them donate the books, but require me to cover the shipping. I was disappointed to not be able to find any other places that were willing to send books for free. With that said, if you have a few young adult books lying around your house that you no longer want, please contact me and I will give you shipping information! It is pretty easy to just throw a few books in a padded envelope and ship them over. I am grateful to everyone who has already done this!

Overall, it has been a great week. It is nice to be back at work and busy again. I am meeting with the president of the Oral English association this afternoon to try and establish a functioning English Corner for this term, we are ready to roll on weekly films starting this Saturday, we are taking students out to hotpot before the film and I had a group of girls over last night to visit and watch Hitch. On top of that the Book Nook is organized and ready to open on Monday and starting on Tuesday Thad and I will have our office hours in the evening. It’s a lot to do, but I am enjoying having a schedule and work to do!

As we start this last term, we are excited not only about the activities we have planned with students, but also that many friends from home are coming to visit. In May, Josh, Jeremy and Justin will come to visit, meeting us in Chengdu and traveling for a week before coming back here to hang out for a few more. Then, in June, once the school year is finished in Idaho, Shannon will come for three weeks and we will try to get as much of China seen as possible on the weekends.

So, enjoy the coming of spring and we will see everyone in just a few short months!