Our first day!!!!
Well our first day teaching went great! We were both soooo soooo sooo nervous! 65 students in one class is alot to look after, but once we got in there it went great! I know this sounds weird but they are smaller then you think, so 65 chinese students dont take up as much room as 65 american students. Sounds weird, but true!
Well I can say that before my first class I was shaking in my boots. I was nauseus and kept thinking to myself, "what have you gotten yourself into, why would you ever think you could teach in china!!" I was literally about to cry., but then I went into the classroom and all the students looked at me and smiled. They all have such huge smiles. and some of them gasped, took there seats and said huuuuooo its a lady! I think they may have been more scared and nervous about me then me of them. So after seeing there smiles I calmed down and relized, I can do this!
Next I felt a little uneasy again as the network wouldnot work on the computer in the classroom. We are very lucky to be at a school with such technology, but alot of times the computer doesnot work so you always have to be prepared. So I was damn prepared to run down the hall and get someone to help me. I ran to the next door which just so happens to be an office. and who do I find there??? Only 3 men sitting having a chat. I look at them and notice one of them is our non english speaking head head head master. When I say head I mean head he is a very serious man defiently runs the place. chatting with 2 other guys. For one second I think oh shhhh*7*7 t its him, I dont want to look bad! , then my survival speed kicked in and I just looked at one guy and ushered him into my classroom. I made charades type motions of a computer and a no sign meaning its broken. He looked at it and couldnt fix it. Then looked at me and said something in chinese. Somehow I looked at him and in my head I knew he said dont worry someone is coming ( seriously I have not had enough chinese to know this) I looked at him blinked and prayed thats what he said, and started class!!!
In china the students are very respectful. Its awesome, If I become a teacher in America I know I will miss this, but when you want to start class in a chinese classroom you shout Class Begins!! then all the 65 students stand up and say Good morning teacher, you say good morning, you may sitdown, they say thankyou teacher and sit and you start. Its kind of amazing actually. You feel really important! So I started class hoping someone was coming. Then right before I needed the computer, mr mao our computer man friend was there to rescue me!!! I love mr mao!
So its pretty funny the rest of the class went awesome and I am so excited that I did it right!
I think its funny though the head masters daughter in law is our foreign assistant. When he saw me come in frantic to his little meeting he called her and said go help her!! She came running in during my class, I really hope I didnt get her in trouble!

well that was our first day. We also got our cell phone number today. Its crazy you can buy a cell phone number here and pay 4 yuan cheaper if the number has a 4 in it. Why? the chinese think its an unlucky number. Crazy huh? Well we chose one without a 4 we thought a couple extra yuan a month isnt that bad, we have already lost enough face being foreign.

emily
ps I tried to speak chinese today, I said I want to buy an egg plant in chinese, the word kinda sounds like if you were to say ce-a zuh.
the people I was talking to thought I said cheese , like cheese in america. I said no Im speaking chinese, and they all looked at me and said ohhh thats chinese, we all laughed. I need more practice