A Longer Update

So, I thought it would be a good idea to have my students write me an introduction letter and then I would write a letter back to each of them. Anyone see a problem with this plan?

....did I mention I have 62 students total? Yep. That means I have to write 62 letters. I am about halfway through writing them at this point. I need to have 3/4 of them done by Monday, but the other 1/4 can wait until Wednesday.

I am worried because my students are behaving so well. Randy says after 5 weeks of being angels they will go crazy. Is that supposed to make me feel better? It is truly scary to stand in front of 15-31 students and teach. I feel so outnumbered. I feel like I'm going to run out of ideas very quickly on what to teach them. When I think of how much responsibilities I have in front of me, I feel a little ill.

In the letters they have written to me, there have been some really nice comments. One girl said she loved my smile. Many students have said that I seem fun and they like my class. Again, I don't know if this is them sucking up or what. I hope they believe what they write. I have been writing down some important things about each student from their letters. I hope that way I will show them that I think of them as individuals and not just one class. I also hope that by respecting them, they will respect me. I also sneakily put my birthday in my introduction letter as a way to make them think of putting their birthday in theirs. Most of them wrote it and now I know many of their birthdays. :-)

I forget if I told anyone other than my parents, but I was upset because the website I was using to watch episodes of Doogie Howser doesn't work here in China. I was so upset. On Tuesday when I was walking back from the Blue Frog with Stephanie and Charlotte, Stephanie stopped to look at some DVDs. You would not believe what was on the top of the pile. Doogie Howser! All four seasons! The quality isn't amazing but it was SUPER CHEAP. Now I can get my Doogie Howser fix.

I have been here for about two weeks now and I haven't done laundry once. I should really do it tonight. Randy said that on Thursdays some of the foreign teachers like to go to his apartment to play poker. I don't really like poker, but it would be a way to get me out of my apartment and being social.

This friday a lot of the Chinese teachers are going to a play. They gave me a ticket and said I should come. The play is entirely in Chinese. Of course I want to be social and go because they are being so nice to invite me, but I worry about being annoyed or bored at a play that I can only understand about half of.

I've started to get a blister on the middle finger of my right hand. I was trying to figure out why because when I write the pen rubs on my ring finger. Then today I figured out why. 1. When I write on the board with chalk, it hits that finger and 2. When I use chopsticks it rubs against that finger. Oh well!

Sorry that I haven't posted pictures in a while. The batteries in my camera died. I can't plug my battery charger in here, and I haven't gotten around to getting new batteries yet.

Anyway, I have class in a few minutes. My last class of the day. This is the class where I do accents from all over the US. The other 3 classes loved it. Wish me luck.

I am going to end this post by saying thank goodness for my years of Improv teaching me to be quick on my feet and for CIBA for making me get used to speaking in front of a crowd. I don't know if I could do this job otherwise.

Much love everyone,
Stephanie