first week down

Well, we made it through the first week. And it was a very long week, getting used to a very sporadic class schedule, a new classroom and program to adapt to, getting and losing students in a couple of classes, teacher meetings, schedule changes...all pretty common, but I've definitely had worse first weeks of class at NEIS :) My first year was nuts. Things slowly improve, but because we like to make changes even after classes start and the school allows students to show up to China after classes have started (for various reasons, most of which are because of Chinese HSK exams in Korea), we'll still have glitches. Try to get past it though.

I started the week with 5 English track students, went down to 4 because one decided to go back to the Chinese track, then another old students arrived from Korea and joined. I'm really thrilled with the 5 students I have. So far, so good. We got through one story in the lit book already, and we're getting into another longer one. Surprisingly, they stick with it and get interested...so far :) It just changes my whole motivation as a teacher when this happens, because when I would try to teach these kinds of things in the Chinese track, all I got was sleeping students and disinterest. Teaching in the English track, so far, is an encouragement that I needed.

On the visa front, we won't be going to Beijing on our school's trip. As much as this bums us out (I really wanted to see the Olympic venues), it turns out we actually have to pay for some of our trip this year, and Raul and I can't afford that expense right now. Plus, the embassy isn't even open when we're there (stupid holidays) for us to turn in our paperwork, so there's really not a point for us to go. Instead, I'll be going to Shanghai on the 26th to pay the fee at the consulate then sending in the paperwork during the holiday, possibly having to miss a day of work if we're not already on holiday. It's confusing, but I just want to get this first step over with. Tired of thinking about it and just want to move on to the next step....jia you Catie, jia you.