Shell in China

Well, it has been another crazy/frustrating/busy week here in China.

The craziness is due to the fact that it is spring, but the weather doesn’t want to go there yet. As a matter of fact, our friends in Lanzhou (the capital of Gansu) got snow at the beginning of the week! Mid to late April is just too far into spring to be having snow if you ask me. We didn’t’ get snow, but it rained and was super chilly here for the first half of the week. Then, suddenly, today it is sunny and warm, which is perfect timing since we did two loads of laundry yesterday and hung them up to dry. Now I can be sure I will have clean AND dry clothes to pack tomorrow.

The frustrating part of the week is due to a phone call we got on Friday night at about 10PM. You see, our 3^rd year students are getting ready to go practice-teach (student teach) in two weeks. When we asked about the timing of their final exams, we were told that they would be AFTER the students got back from their four weeks of teaching. I had already decided to give my oral final exams the same week as my midterms for the second-year students, so I had a plan taken care of for them. Not having exams until a month in the future though meant that Thad didn’t have an exam ready. There was no reason to. But, on Friday night when we got the drop-in visitor from the English department and then phone call a few minutes later, he suddenly had to have an exam ready to go by Sunday night. He thought he had at least another week of regular class, so this came as more than a bit of surprise. So, between working on the slide show that he was putting together for the upcoming COS conference and making an exam for culture class, frustrations ran a bit high. But both are done now…

And of course, it has been busy. Since I am doing my finals and midterms the same week, it means that I have eight classes worth of oral exams to give. The problem is that class is scheduled in a two-hour block, one time a week, but to get through an entire class of exams, it takes twice that amount of time. That means that I am doing exams during all of my teaching times, but then also each evening to finish up the extras. For example, this morning I had exams from 8-10 and then I will have more tonight from 6-10. I am not exactly looking forward to four hours of tests tonight.

The exam for my class is double-pronged. First, the students have to create a television advertisement for the Book Nook. The ad must be at least three minutes long and should encourage students to make use of the room. Then, they must also bring with them a magazine advertisement that they have created in conjunction with their TV ad. I have had some pretty creative ads so far. One group of boys donned fedoras and danced into the room with these little signs they had made. (The fact that two out of the three of them had their signs upside down just made me laugh even harder!) I’ve had lots of songs they have written, as well as some pretty creative setups. A group of girls did a little skit about how the Earth is invaded by aliens who know all about our way of life because they had been secretly studying English and western culture in the Book Nook! Very cute.

The best part of the week, though, is going to be the weekend. Tomorrow night Thad and I are headed to Chengdu, where Peace Corps China is based. It seems crazy, but it is already time for our COS (close-of-service) conference. This is a required meeting for PCVs who are headed home soon. I am assuming it will be a lot of paperwork and job-related things, which in and of itself isn’t so cool, but getting together one last time and hanging out will be tons of fun. (For people not leaving on the same date as us, this could be the last time we see each other.) I know both Thad and I have big plans for the weekend and the conference. His entails playing poker and winning some yuan; mine entails spending that cash in fun ways! Of course, there will be lots of western food consumed throughout the weekend as well.

Finally, not to be overshadowed by COS conference, four of Thad’s senior school classmates are in China as I type! They arrived just a few hours ago in Beijing and will meet us on Monday in Chengdu, at which point we will pick up our tour-guide duties.

This week has been a roller coaster at times, but knowing that we get to get out of town for a few days has made the work a little easier to plow on through.

76 days…not that I am counting…