I Swear These People are Trying to Kill Me

It's lunchtime at Green Land. I feel like I'm about to drop. That's exagerating, but I'm still tired.

I guess it was decided somewhere that I would be working occasionally at the Green Land school until Graeme leaves. Hopefully at that time I will go back to being only at Jin Du and Jin Yuan. Green Land is a large (for Kid Castle) school on the edge of the city. With all the haze today, it makes the school look like the one source of life in a post appocolyptic city. As far as I can see (not that far) there are only run down buildings and large piles of earth.

I got a message just before 8:30 today, telling me that they would be a bit late picking me up. When I got a call telling me they were there, I went out to the gate, and got another experience with the driving in China. I had a death grip on the arm rest.

When I arrived at Green Land, I had enough time to say hello to a couple people who's names I have already forgotten. I was promptly ushered upstairs to give my first class. It didn't go well, but it didn't suck. I can at least say that. I walked into the class, and the teacher handed me some flash cards of what to teach.

I'm beginning to understand how Graeme feels. I walk into the class, say hello, get handed some cards, and then I'm thrown to the sharks. The first thing I look for when I walk into the room is the clock. I'm trying to work on how long each ofmy classes takes. Depending on the age group it can be longer or shorter. The number of flash cards I get handed can also effect how esay those minutes go. I've been here about two hours, and I've already given classes, give or take. I'm being moved around so fast here that I quickly lost track.

At all the schools, from 11:00 to 3:00 is lunch/break/nap time. I get my lunch in a little bit here, but for the next three and a half hours, I'm on my own for entertainment. At Jin Du and Jin Yuan I could get back home in fifteen minutes. So I usually had plenty of time to have a bite to eat, grab something at the lotus, watch a movie at home, or even just take a nap in my own bed. It was about a fifteen minute ride from Gao Ke Hua Yuan to here, so don't think that is an option today.

I should be going to Jin Yuan tomorrow, so compared to today it will be a walk in the park. No matter how many classes I have to teach.

I'm enjoying the job, and I'll do it wherever they want me to. But I still will like it better once I can get a nice steady schedule.