My Last Week as a TEFL Teacher in China...

Monday

Monday morning was filled with lesson planning because I'd had my afternoon robbed off me. I had been asked by Gu Chengtai to come in to take some pictures with the kids. What they meant they wanted was for me to teach a lesson and prepare a performance... One hour turned into 2 and a half and all they wanted me to do was to practice 'Its a small world', which is quite possibly the most annoying song ever written, ever... I finally managed to escape and made my way back to school.

Tuesday

Tuesday meant saying goodbye to Beidajie, sad times. I had my morning lessons as normal and then we all went out for lunch together, 20 students, 2 teachers and I. We went for Mianpien and it was tasty! It was very sad saying goodbye to my students. I am going to miss them! 

Jason's 'Blue Steel'

Kid in the centre has named himself Jack Gaga because he loves Lady Gaga more than life...

After lunch I headed to the office where I met up with Mike and we were both taken to a new school to teach in the afternoon (which makes no sense whatsoever...). This new school is FAR, its a brand new school who Matthew wanted us to go to. We turned up and were thrown immediately into a classroom, in my case grade 4. I taught my stock lesson but it soon became very apparent that the English level of these kids was far below that of all my other schools. Definitely needed to improvise a bit! 

Wednesday

Wednesday meant it was time to say goodbye to my favourite students, I was dreading it! I arrived early and was asked to help out with a performance they were having to commemorate the end of our project. I ended up spending the whole morning with my kids which was great fun! I had to deal with some tears though when I announced it was my last time. One kid called Tom, wouldn't stop crying, it very nearly pushed me over the edge but I managed to keep myself together just.

So we spent the morning practicing their performance on festivals, for lunch we all went to get noodles. The kids were fighting over who would sit with me! 

Emily

Mary

Tom

Tom before he began to weep again! 

Erin

The afternoon consisted of my lesson from dragon boat festival, then we played lots of games and just enjoyed each other's company. It soon was time for me to leave and I was thoroughly upset my teacher saw this and suggested a couple of students, her and I go and get ice cream! It was really nice but still going to miss these kids! 

After ice cream, I headed to the office to pick up my clothes from Fish (FINALLY GOT MY BLUE JEANS BACK!). It was good to see Fish in the office again!

Thursday

Time to say goodbye to Jiazhouxuang! Not so sad about this goodbye if I am honest but its still hard. I taught my lessons in the morning and headed to the office to see who was going to take me for lunch. I arrived and there was no one there! They had all forgotten me! I rang Charity and she apologised and we went for lunch. The canteen was all out of food so we went to a restaurant for some nice food.

When we got back, I met up with Mike, Cecilia, Will, Deena, Fish and someone new, they were all here for the performance in the afternoon. The new guy was called Puff... Nope not even kidding! He seems ok and he gets on well with Will and Deena so that's good.

We headed in for the performance and it was ok, my kids from Jiazhouxuang performed but  seeing as I wasn't involved at all they made some pretty big English mistakes (such as saying Afric instead of Africa and saying Japan was in Europe). The performances from the older schools were good but they just went on a bit! It was a 4 hour long show!!!!! SO LONG! Being stuck in a hot room and expected to pay attention for 4 hours is difficult for us but it is impossible for the primary students in the audience.

Rappers! Go Victor and Dustin! 

This kid from Jiazhouxuang did the Hamlet soliloquy, I wish I taught him...

Despicable Me skit, might get this for Will...

Impromptu performance by Mike

Katie will be Maria!

Cecilia singing and dancing to Jingle Bells

Chinese Opera which had incredibly high notes...

Oh and apparently our driver's been fired for being well rubbish.

Friday

Friday morning the majority of us went to the new school to teach, I was given grade 1 which was challenging! We practiced colours and they struggled with that...

We had another performance at Gu Chengtai so we all made our way there. Gu chengtai started it and we sang our song ('Its a small world'), it was a really good show and all of the students I taught were involved (unlike Jiazhouxuang). 

They did a presentation about me and it was so sweet, they all told the audience how much they liked me and my lessons. They then started cheering 'Huw! Huw! We Love You!', it was incredible! I was then asked onto the stage and given flowers by David who then proceeded to tell the class to present their gifts to me! Each child had gotten me something! It was amazing, it was all I could do not to cry. They made me feel like a superstar.

The gifts varied form a vase, to a teddybear money box, to a painting, to a slinky! I felt very lucky!

The rest of the show was long and uneventful really! 

Apparently Puff had been fired though! He lasted about 24 hours, I don't really know why because I am getting a different story from him and from the other guys in the office.

Also my camera died! It just stopped working completely! Very bad timing seeing as I was off to Xi'an the next day!

I got the bus home with the guys, it was one of the worst rides of my life. Locals were kicking me because I was taking up to much space. Not nice! 

So that was my last week teaching, no one seems to know what I will be doing now until I leave Xining on July 15th... Oh well XI'AN!!!