fuzzy panda kill robot good

Let me update you on the last three days.
On Tuesday I woke up early and got picked up to go to the hospital. In the van I met 3 teachers from the other branch. Shane, Darla and Lyndley. They were all Canadian and all very nice. I sat down and prepared myself for another bout with death, which is the driving standard in China. On that note, I haven't even seen a seatbelt yet. Oh so safe.
After five mild heart attacks we finally made it to the hospital which was packed full of people. The first thing I noticed was people smoking in the hospital. I neglected to light one up. Something seemed rather wrong about it. We were handed sheets with a list of tests that we had to go around doing all over the hospital. I don't know if the translations were wrong or not, but some of them sounded rather terrifying. Like "Internal Examination" for example. It turns out that was just a blood pressure test, Although the room it was in was deceivingly named "Department Of Surgery." I think they are trying to purposely scare the hell out of me.
For one of the tests I lay on a table and they stuck little ball suction cup things all over me. When i lifted up my shirt the nurse began giggling to the other nurse about it. I asked Shane and he said that the Chinese don't have chest hair so they are amazed to see it. Then came the eye exam. First a colour test. Oh goodie. I'm colour blind.
They pulled out some cards that were a bunch of colours and had numbers hidden in them. I couldn't see any of them and the woman thought I was retarded. She gave me the most confused look as I tried to explain to her that I couldn't see any of the numbers because I could not distinguish the colours. I asked one of the chinese teachers that brought us to translate but he had no idea what I was talking about either. Okay then. She scribbled down some notes on my sheet (no doubt saying, "very stupid, cannot understand colours") and I went on my merry way. After my favourite part of the adventure, needle time, we got back on the bus and went home.

Now I had previously thought that my first day was on wednesday so I stayed up most of the night tuesday after the hospital tossing and turning, quite excited and nervous for the next day. I woke up at 6am and planned my first lesson, got everything ready and headed downstairs. Nemo was there informing us that the students will be watching a movie from 9-11 and that i will not have to teach until tomorrow. But we would still have to be present for the opening ceremony. Which was one of the most amazing sights i've seen since i've been to china.
I looked outside and saw the children all walking in pairs to the soccer field and main courtyard of our school. Boys and girls, and boys and boys even, all hold hands when they walk which is kind of strange at first but really cute. They all lined up in rows by grade and wow, their was alot of them. By estimate I would say about 1500 children in uniforms and about another 100 parents and teachers walking around. It was quite the sight to see. They all started marching on the spot along with some welcome song that was playing and then sang the national anthem and raised the flag. That many little voices singing at once was incredible to hear.
Nemo then decided to let us know that we would be invited up on the podium to introduce ourselves in front of the whole school. Well that would have been nice to prepare myself for. Thank you nemo. I started to get really nervous. What the hell was I going to say? I've never spoken in front of that many people, not without a guitar to hide behind at least. I let all the other teachers go in front of me and when they handed me the mic, I still don't know what i said. I may have said "me Corey, fuzzy panda kill robot good" who knows. But it was a blur and I was shaking after.
I then got shown around the school, got my schedule and met my co-teachers. I would be teaching two grade 5 classes with Nemo, another grade 5 with Christina and a grade 4 class with Ruby. I walked by the classrooms and waved in at all the kids. I would see them Thursday.
I had the whole day off so I decided to sit in on one of the other teachers lessons in the afternoon. Joe offered to let me see his grade 4 class, which was with my co-teacher Ruby. It was really helpful to see how classes were run.
At the beginning of the class, this song came on the P.A. Their was a really high-pitched woman's voice saying numbers and following a music track. All the students begin in unison rubbing their temples and around their eyes. I was very confused as to why the kids suddenly broke out into this synchronized behaviour, but I sat back and just watched. I learnt after that all kids here do something called "eye exercises", once in the morning and again after lunch. It is hard to explain but It seems to involve massaging different parts of your head. All I know is that the song for it is REALLY annoying. I found a link for you to see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPeMLeBvMEo.

After a long confusing two days of needles, heart-attack transportation (driving), gigantic crowds of marching children and strange eye exercises, I went to bed thinking I was better prepared for what to expect Thursday on my first day teaching. Which I will write about in my next post!