It's been a while...
... but I'm still alive.
I meant to update on Monday, but it's now Friday and I'm just finding some time to update. These past two weeks have been crazy. I think I've taken more mobile phones from my students than I've ever owned (I took 4 from one student)!
In the classroom, discipline has usually been pretty easy to maintain, with few exceptions. One class, I lost the entire class for the last 15 minutes. I introduced something too novel (American money), and there went the class. I invented a game last night and implemented it today in the classroom. In it, students sort words into one of three groups: Either relating to the main word "Smart", "Possible", or "Important". Then they write the word in blue below the main word if it is an antonym, and in yellow if it is a synonym. It went really well. They had a lot of fun (so much so, that they insisted on working through their 10 minute break!).
There's been some drama here, the other foreign teacher is not fitting in well, and doesn't really make any effort to. Often times, it seems that he tries to alienate himself from the staff. He's not very trusting, and at times, has made jokes in bad taste that offended several people.
I'm finding that I'm a little too useful. I can fix too many things, and people are always asking for me to help them fix something... the computer, the bike, the door, etc.
I haven't gotten much downtime, and I''m looking forward to the National Holiday, which lasts a week and starts today. I plan to do very little. Everyone thinks I should travel, but I really just want to stay put and do nothing.
I hope I'll have access to my office so I can get online. We still don't have internet or phone in the apartments.
Speaking of the apartments! Last weekend was horrible!!! My toilet had been on the fritz (e.g. running slow and leaking toilet water onto my bathroom floor) for a few days, but when I tried to get the caretaker to fix it, the men that came told me that "I broke it, and I should fix it". I thought that maybe I misunderstood them since it was in Chinese. I went into town and bought a plunger. I tried to plunge the toilet, but that just made the situation worse. I called for help again, and this time, I had my friends (Jahn and his wife) with me. They told her the same thing, which was then translated into Norwegian, then English. I heard them correctly, "You broke it, you fix it". By this time, I had about a week's worth of schtuff coming up onto my bathroom floor. I was using th shower head (which is on a flexible wand) to rinse the stuff down the drain. But then, my shower broke too. So I had to go over to Jahn's to use the shower and toilet on Saturday. No one would come Sunday. So Monday, I was in a bad mood and went into the office and demanded that they fix my bathroom or relocate me. They said that they'd fix it within the hour... but what they meant was "get bent". So I was fuming. I started to yell at people... in Chinese. I brought them to my commode abode. I let them view and smell. I yelled some more. 2 hours later, they fixed my bathroom, mopped my floor, and fixed some other minor things. I had a long day Monday.
The classes here are really poorly structured and too large. On average, my class size is 41. Students are sorted by age, not ability, so in my G06 (freshmen), I have some students who have very good English, and some who I might as well be speaking in Spanish to. It's a challenge. If I can successfully do this, I think I'll be able to do anything. We're hoping to have an elevator in my apartment building soon (maybe one or two weeks). Then I can move upstairs and have a kitchen and a sitting room!
This school is really run like a high school! There are bells and everything. I think it's kind of sad to treat these kids like they are 14. They're 18-20.
I finally have a computer that is working properly. It's taken over 20 hours of my time (which was between the hours of 8-5) and one reformat of the computer to get it to work properly. But now, I'm almost done configuring it, and it's running so much faster and without all the crashes it was doing.
I think I'll go into town this week and buy some plants. I'd like some greenery. I've been putting off buying wall hangings until I'm upstairs, so my room is so very barren and white. Green will be a nice change.
I meant to update on Monday, but it's now Friday and I'm just finding some time to update. These past two weeks have been crazy. I think I've taken more mobile phones from my students than I've ever owned (I took 4 from one student)!
In the classroom, discipline has usually been pretty easy to maintain, with few exceptions. One class, I lost the entire class for the last 15 minutes. I introduced something too novel (American money), and there went the class. I invented a game last night and implemented it today in the classroom. In it, students sort words into one of three groups: Either relating to the main word "Smart", "Possible", or "Important". Then they write the word in blue below the main word if it is an antonym, and in yellow if it is a synonym. It went really well. They had a lot of fun (so much so, that they insisted on working through their 10 minute break!).
There's been some drama here, the other foreign teacher is not fitting in well, and doesn't really make any effort to. Often times, it seems that he tries to alienate himself from the staff. He's not very trusting, and at times, has made jokes in bad taste that offended several people.
I'm finding that I'm a little too useful. I can fix too many things, and people are always asking for me to help them fix something... the computer, the bike, the door, etc.
I haven't gotten much downtime, and I''m looking forward to the National Holiday, which lasts a week and starts today. I plan to do very little. Everyone thinks I should travel, but I really just want to stay put and do nothing.
I hope I'll have access to my office so I can get online. We still don't have internet or phone in the apartments.
Speaking of the apartments! Last weekend was horrible!!! My toilet had been on the fritz (e.g. running slow and leaking toilet water onto my bathroom floor) for a few days, but when I tried to get the caretaker to fix it, the men that came told me that "I broke it, and I should fix it". I thought that maybe I misunderstood them since it was in Chinese. I went into town and bought a plunger. I tried to plunge the toilet, but that just made the situation worse. I called for help again, and this time, I had my friends (Jahn and his wife) with me. They told her the same thing, which was then translated into Norwegian, then English. I heard them correctly, "You broke it, you fix it". By this time, I had about a week's worth of schtuff coming up onto my bathroom floor. I was using th shower head (which is on a flexible wand) to rinse the stuff down the drain. But then, my shower broke too. So I had to go over to Jahn's to use the shower and toilet on Saturday. No one would come Sunday. So Monday, I was in a bad mood and went into the office and demanded that they fix my bathroom or relocate me. They said that they'd fix it within the hour... but what they meant was "get bent". So I was fuming. I started to yell at people... in Chinese. I brought them to my commode abode. I let them view and smell. I yelled some more. 2 hours later, they fixed my bathroom, mopped my floor, and fixed some other minor things. I had a long day Monday.
The classes here are really poorly structured and too large. On average, my class size is 41. Students are sorted by age, not ability, so in my G06 (freshmen), I have some students who have very good English, and some who I might as well be speaking in Spanish to. It's a challenge. If I can successfully do this, I think I'll be able to do anything. We're hoping to have an elevator in my apartment building soon (maybe one or two weeks). Then I can move upstairs and have a kitchen and a sitting room!
This school is really run like a high school! There are bells and everything. I think it's kind of sad to treat these kids like they are 14. They're 18-20.
I finally have a computer that is working properly. It's taken over 20 hours of my time (which was between the hours of 8-5) and one reformat of the computer to get it to work properly. But now, I'm almost done configuring it, and it's running so much faster and without all the crashes it was doing.
I think I'll go into town this week and buy some plants. I'd like some greenery. I've been putting off buying wall hangings until I'm upstairs, so my room is so very barren and white. Green will be a nice change.