A Day in the Life . . .

So what's it like teaching in China? It all depends on where and what you're teaching. For Laraine and me, it's wracking our brains to complete syllabuses (syllabi?) and lesson plans for our classes. I teach "cross-cultural relations" to two classes of seniors, and oral English to two classes of sophomores. Laraine teaches three freshmen classes. Each of our classes has approximately 20 students and we teach them once/week for two hours each. Students here move through their courses together as a class--which means they have the same classmates for four years! They get to know each other very well, as they spend their entire college career with the same people.

This approach can come in handy. Because our late arrival prevented me from teaching my first two classes on September 4, I had to schedule make-up classes. Try doing that in the U.S.--finding a time when all students have the same availability. Here, it was easy. Their schedules are all the same!

We absolutely love it, but it can be a challenge to determine what to teach. We were given no curriculum, no text books, and no direction. We've had to determine what our students need the most, what they're interested in learning, and what we're capable of teaching. From there, we're creating our curriculum and rubrics for grading, etc. We know that our students are at China Foreign Affairs University to learn how to be diplomats for China. The nickname for this university is "The Cradle for Diplomats," and much is expected of those who graduate from this school.

In addition to these classes, we've started to take on some tutoring clients. So our schedule is filling up. Even still, however, we are only scheduled to teach classes two days each week. The rest of the time is "free" and allows us time to create our lesson plans, do some tutoring, and site seeing.

We've found our apartment to be quite comfortable and relatively "roomy." We have no complaints with that. We also enjoy interacting with the other BYU Kennedy Center couple--the Martins, who live two floors below us. They are extremely fun and give us an expanded cultural experience because they're from South Africa. In addition, we are getting to know other teachers from other countries who are also here teaching Japanese, French, etc.

We enjoy our little walks and bike rides (yes, bike rides) around the neighborhood. Our apartment is on campus, so it's actually in a little academic bubble. When we venture out of the gates, we're amazed by the stream of humanity walking or riding by. For some reason, it makes Laraine laugh. It's kind of like a parade where you don't have a clue what the next float will look like. There are entire families riding on a single scooter, little "tuk tuks" (small motorized enclosed tri-wheelers) carrying everything you can imagine, numerous bicyclists on private or "shared" bicycles, and of course plenty of cars. Unlike Hong Kong, the Lamborghini capital of the world, most vehicles here are modest Toyotas or Nissans.

We have our choice of eating for between $0.60 - $2.50 at the school canteens, cooking something in our kitchen, or venturing out to a restaurant, where lunch might be around $4.00 - $6.00. We usually do a combination of canteen eating and our own cooking.

We keep pinching ourselves. This is truly a dream. We're having so much fun!

View from our 4th Floor kitchen window. Everything shown is within the campus, so there are no public roads showing here. To the left of this picture is a clock tower in the middle of the park. Every morning at 7:00 AM it plays an anthem and then gongs seven times. Of course, there are also Tai Chi masters doing their Tai Chi every morning. Retired teachers continue to live on campus after retirement until they pass away, and their children and grandchildren can live here too. There are small children playing in this park every evening. It's quite a community.