9/26/2006
Hail Mao!!
Well, I sure haven't been keeping up with my blog duties! I apologize for being MIA for so long. So here's a picture of the other ESL teacher...now I've shown you them all...his name is Jeff and he's also from the states...he frequently gangs up with johnny, the other american, to unload some anti-canadian rants on me. Don't worry canucks - I stay strong!
So now I'm into my 3rd week of lessons at school, and the dust has finally settled(physically there's always tons of dust in beijing). All my students are extremely sweet but shy at first - I had a couple classes where all I could hear would be the echoing of my own voice off the walls...but eventually they relaxed and began speaking. I'm trying to draw the line between teacher and friend but it's so hard to do since they are all my age and have all volunteered to help me learn english hehe. I sit in on a 4 hour chinese classes every morning (it was a free perk included with my teaching deal) and have discovered that phonetically, english-speakers have a really hard time getting the proper tone sounds with the language ( there are 4 tones in mandarin). Ahh well, all in good time...right now my chinese level equates to a pathetic form of chinglish. What's even more interesting is the international students in my chinese class. There's a lady from Argentina, 2 guys from vietnam, 1 from ethiopia, 1 from israel, a bunch from Russia, 3 from France, and a few from Kasikstan (I have, unfortunately, acquired my own personal Borat - must make a mental note to find him a girlfriend....) We all went to the Great Wall and I took a bunch of pictures with my Russian friend Aruna. I was able to score a Mao hat at the wall so I got a positive reactions from most chinese tourists who were visiting as well!
For more pictures of the great wall, the kingdom of heaven (where old emporers of the Qing dynasty made animal sacrifices to heaven), and randoms, I have wayyy more on the URL http://www.dotphoto.com/CPListAlbums.asp *userid: Francheska *password: marebear
Well, that's my update so far....I hope to hear from you all and take care! Miss ya!
Love, Mare
