Kindergarten Kids

Hey All,

I did my first lessons today, well - they weren't really my lessons but still! I went to the English office this morning in plenty of time for my class - the teacher is supposed to come collect you and take you to the class. The time came.. and went - I asked Franny if I should be teaching and she said "oh no, it is cancelled, - all this week cancelled - you start next week!" So, that leaves me with nothing to do all week then!

I made myself useful by marking loads of sheets where the kids had written out alphabets and then decided that if I can't teach this week I might as well try see what the lessons are like. This afternoon I went down to the kindergarten with Ellie, the other English volunteer - she did a lesson on colours and then we sang some nursery rhymes pretty badly.. :-)

The next lesson with a different class Ellie kindly handed over to me - I did animal names, and "my name is..." and "I'm a boy/I'm a girl" sentences - Ellie helped out lots saving me when the kids were losing attention. We sang happy birthday as it was one of the kids birthday today - he was 5 yrs old. Cake is a big thing in China - people get huge cakes as presents and this boy wasn't an exception! The cake got cut up and we got given a huge slice of cake each to eat and then finished off the lesson.

The final lesson we did the same as the second - these kids were a lot louder and a bit harder to control - it was all good fun though and good to get into the swing of it for when I teach the older ones next week. I don't have any younger ones to teach - but it's good to see how different people approach the lessons and control the class!

Tonight Ellie, Franny, Daniel and I went out - we went to a Chinese bakery and I bought some bread things with jam inside - they will do for breakfast as I doubt I'll make it over to the canteen for 6.30am... We then went to have Chinese hotpot.

Chinese hotpot is amazing - you have a boiling pot with small gas heater each on your table. The pot is full of boiling water and a few herbs - you pick vegetables, thin slices of meat, seafood, noodles etc and they bring big plates of the raw food to your table - you then cook it yourself and dip it in sauce to eat on your plate - it's amazing how quick some of the slices of meat cook and a whole different way of eating. The funny thing was - on the table next to us they had ordered some seafood creature type thing - these were alive and crawling about in the bowl they came in. The guys just picked them up with chopsticks and dropped them in the boiling water - I suppose at least you know your food is fresh!

We went and played pool, did some shopping (where I have now bought a hot water bottle so I don't have to freeze all night!) and then came back. Ellie and I are in the kindergarten again at 8am tomorrow morning so I'm going to get an earlyish night.