A crazy week....

So, nothing really too exciting this week, just a bunch of mishaps which are making my life stressful because I am very schedule oriented.

Everything went well on Monday. I had my class of first year traditional Chinese medicine students and we played some games and spoke.

Tuesday is when everything kind of became crazy. Mr. Li teaches a class of biochemistry before Meghan and I teach on Tuesdays. Mr. Li's biochem class, after his class finishes, splits up. Half the students go to Meghan's class and about half stay with me. Well, Mr. Li's class is supposed to end at 10:00 then our classes are to start at 10:10. Mr. Li, however, never likes to end his classes on time. He also likes to sit in my class and speak Chinese to students throughout my whole class. So, on Tuesday at 10:15 I waslked into the room (while Mr. Li was still teaching) just to let him know that I was waiting and rather annoyed that he is now eating into my class time. He then turned to me and said, "My class is more improtant than yours" and he conitnued teaching. At shortly after 10:20 am he decided to stop his lecture (10 minutes into when my class was supposed to start) and then proceed to answer questions from students outside in the hallway. It was about 10:30 by the time I had everything set up and ready to go for my lecture, and I was just starting to beging class. Then, Mr. Li decided to walk in and collect his belongings and told me that I should stop teaching while he does so. So, five minutes later, he left the room. Way to go Mr. Li...thanks for using up 25 minutes of my classtime!!

Then after our class Tuesday morning Meghan and I decided to get lunch becuase we had a 3 hour break until our next classes started at 3:20. So after lunch we realized that there was the same stage set up as two weeks ago for the arts festival opening ceremonies. We decided to ask Laura and Maggie if there was a show going on and if they were going to be cancelling our classes again. They didn't know. They tried calling other people who also didn't know. So we waited, and waited and waited and then the show started at 2:30. The show was go0d, there were 12 choirs that sang. Also, I was able to have a really nice conversation with a group of my students for about an hour. However, it would've been nice to know that we weren't going to have class in advance.

Then, we figured, alright, the rest of the week will be better. Well when I got to campus on Wednesday that really wasn't the case. I went to go to my favorite class, which is the Antheisiology and medical imaging students. Their class was originally on Thursday afternoons but their was a scheduling conflict so the class leader (Arwen) moved the class to Monday the second week of school then wednesday afternoon for the rest of the term. However, we realized today that these students were supposed to be in another lecture at this time. Arwen apologized, even though it wans't her fault, and sid that this class would join my next class. I had no choice but to let that be alright for the day (I'll get into that in a minute) but we would find a new pernament time later.

So, my next class, which I haven't had for the past two weeks was interesting. The class was originally supposed to be just 130 clinical medicine students (first year students) whom I have only taught once, due to class being cancelled the past two weeks. So, needless to say, this class was behind. Then, I had one of my more advance classes joining them. That made for nearly 220 students in this classroom. It was ridiculious. Enough said.

Then today (Thursday) was another fun day! On Tuesdays I originally was supposed to have a class of two english nursing sections and a psychology class all together. I found out last week that the psychology sudents could no longer be in that class and that they were going to join Meghan's Thursday afternoon class. Well meghan already has 100+ students in that class and doesn't need another 45 to join. So, I volunteered to teach the psychology students thursday afternoon by themselves. So, last week that was fine. That was actually the class that Kirk came in and said hi to when he was here. This week, was another fun story. There was a teacher that was in the classroom before me and hadn't stopped teaching yet and it was time for my class. I popped my head in at 3:30 (when I was supposed to start teaching at 3:20). She appeared to be not even close to being finished. I called Laura and asked what to do. She said for me to walk in and give the teacher my cell phone and she would tell the teacher to leave. So, there I am walking into a classroom handing my cell phone to a teacher I have never met before, who doesn't not know any English, trying to motion to her to talk on my cell phone. Clearly she was completely confused and the classroom full of students were laughing very much. So, after the conversation, the teacher gave me back my phone then ended class and took her students somewhere. Then, I realized there was another problem. None of my students were there. It was now nearly 3:40 and my class was supposed to begin at 3:20. I called Laura to make sure that this was a pernament change and that it wasn't just for last week. She said that it was, but the students must've misunderstood that they need to continue to come to class. Which makes me think, "Why do the students need to be reminded that they need to come to class?". So, I got on the bus and heading back home.

What a crazy week so far.

However, I am looking forward to tomorrow. I have two classes back to back then I am going to English corner with meghan. This is a time where the entire campus (undergrads, graduate students, teachers, faculty, etc) all get to come and hang out with us and practice English. Yea, we are not exactly sure how many people to expect, so it will be fun...

Then, Saturday I invited a group of some of my favorite students out for dinner becuase I want them to help translate the menu for us so we can have more choices when eating out. Then we might come back to my apartment and watch and English movie...depending on how long dinner lasts. Should be fun. These are students that I am going to be able to hang out with often and ask for help when I need it. There are 6 comming. Two have very good English, and the rest of the student's English is good, but they just don't have a lot of confidence speaking I think.

Alright, well that's it! Hope all is well...