Being my first day of actually taking a class, I thought a rather easy morning should be on the cards. A fine time to take a visit to Paris City.
After having visited the Arc de Triomphe in France, it was quite amusing to be standing below the Chinese fake one.
That is pretty much all there is to see, but we were hankering for low-key. So we found a little Chinese Patisserie (yes that's what it was) and enjoyed a rather French brunch sitting out on a bench in the morning sunshine.
Nutella 'burgers' - not quite a crepe, but rather tasty:
I just love this pic, with the Asian pedi-car in front of the Arc:
Later, I found myself in front of my first class. I had watched Brian a couple of times, but it was rather like putting on a brand new pair of shoes - it certainly wasn't expected to fit right away. I had a great bunch of kids, who were quite committed to their learning.
Day 8 Saturday 23rd May
2 classes today, so it was an early start for the 0900 class.
These guys are great, but this class session really let me know how inexperienced I am with my new 'profession'. It would have been just plain wierd for me to have been able to walk in and be straight away awesome at this teaching children a 2nd language gig, but I am enjoying the challenge and am looking forward to gaining my experience with each and every class.
Lucy, in the red shirt, is so very smart and I had to keep from smiling every time she answered me before is barely got the question out.
I missed a photo of my class of younger guys (mostly kindergarten and first graders) but they were lots of fun. We covered some of the workbooks and then say in a circle with a ball and took turns rolling the ball to each other and saying things like, 'David, you can have the ball.' Then David would say, 'My name is David. I like to ride my bike.' Very simple phrases but with the fun aspect it was good to see the kids develop more confidence in speaking out loud the English they are learning. During this class, I started feeling a little more confident with what I am doing and in engaging with the kids.
Day 9 Sunday 24th May
I love these guys!!! It was a really great class and I am slowly finding myself relaxing enough to intuitively know when to go over something and when to move on. Tony is the young man in the front row 2nd from the right. As I went around from student to student reviewing a page of their workbook they had just finished, I was giving each a stamp for their success. The first stamp I made was on Tony's book, which turned out to say
'Please sign' in both English and Chinese. He thought this was the greatest thing. He kept laughing uproariously about it during our mid-class break and at the end of class. It was great to have a good joke even with the profound language barrier.
After class, I decided to venture out on my own for a little walk. I headed over to Meteopolis City for a coffee and free wifi at a place I knew. It was quite gratifying to be out and about solo.
However, even though the staff recognised me, once they brought my menus and a glass of lemon water, they seemed to be avoiding me. I'm thinking it was fear of the communication barrier. I FaceTimed with home whilst I waited and eventually caught one of the 7 milling staff members' eye and managed to order using pointing at pictures and the 3 Chinese words I do know. Haha.
I was rewarded with a most delicious Vanilla Latte and Warm Chocolate lava cake.
Well, that's my first full week in Jiaxing over and I must say I am having a ball. I am hoping to head off to Souzhou later this week for some truly solo travelling, which I am both nervous and highly excited about.
😀
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