Life in Wuhan

I finally got into my blog! I've been having problems logging on for the last few days or so. I have to go through a website that blocks my IP so i can get onto blogger.com because blogger is blocked by China. So i hope people have not lost interest and will continue to check up on me and my crazy adventures. Let me fill you in on my last week or so.
but first!
The top 5 weird shit i've seen while in China so far.

5. People smoking in a Hospital
4. Having a man grab a live chicken out of a cage break its neck, drain its blood and boil it beside me while I was eating a meal.
3. In the middle of the morning the entire school goes into the field and does a synchronized dance (picture 2000 asian kids dancing to techno) and then after lunch, everyone in China has "nap-time," even government workers.
2. Students will give ME a present on their birthdays.
1. Parents will whistle to their children to get them to pee/shit on sidewalks (some strange form of auditory potty training)

I am almost positive I will have a new list at least each month, as each day i'm learning and seeing strange things.

So i'm sitting here at about 9pm putting off marking my grade 5's workbooks. They learnt about writing letters the other day and I got them to write a letter to their grandparents telling them about their teacher Corey. Not actually, just a pretend letter. Last week they had learnt how to vaguely describe people so to describe me I also taught them the words; tattoo, beard and earrings along with extremely handsome and very strong. To be fair they had the option wether to include those words or not but let me read you an example of one of them:

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,
My teachers name is, Cary. He is very clever and cuet! I'm very like his english class, and he teacher very well! OK. I'm very good! Bye Bye
Love,
Eive

I think I will see past the misspelling of my name, the obvious spelling errors and lack of using "extremely handsome" because you can't read that and not think it's adorable. I am learning more and more how to be a better teacher everyday and i'm glad I am "teacher very well!"
I've been taking extra jobs at different schools also and its been giving me the opportunity to see how things are run elsewhere. I'll have to say the kids at this school are geniuses compared to the other two schools i've been to. First, to help clarify the stories and future stories, let me explain a bit about the geography of Wuhan.
Wuhan is divided into 3 huge parts: Hankou (the biggest), Hanyang (the most scenic) and Wuchang (where i live). They used to be three distinct towns a long time ago until the two hans joined the wu and became Wuhan. Wuchang is seperated from Hankou and Hanyang by the Yangtze river, the most famous river in China. My school has three branches in Wuchang. The one we live above is where I work and is known as the Nanhu branch in southern Wuchang. The Main branch is in eastern Wuchang and the Mae ling branch (which I just call Xudong) is to the north near the bridge to Hankou. Everyone follow? haha
Today I worked at a school up near Xudong (pronounced shoo-dong.) It is a primary school much like the one here except for one fact; The students there either don't care about english at all, or have terrible teachers. Judging by today I assume it is a mix of both. I went in there and taught three classes of 3's, 4's and 5's. At my school I can almost openly communicate with alot of my grade 5's and they more or less understand what i'm saying but there, simple questions I asked like "how old are you?" or "where are you from?" blew right over their heads. I tried to play simon says with one of the classes but it failed because they didn't know what legs were. One of the teachers told me after that they do not really practice speaking out loud or writing english. They just kind of listen to the teacher read some stuff and repeat what they hear, not really learning the meaning along the way. When I asked them individual questions they looked terrified.
When I went to teach the grade 4 class their teacher stayed and decided to help out.
Oh ok well heres the problem, I thought.
The girl who I had seen outside the school and assumed was a hooker walked in with a microphone strapped to her head, a very tight dress just barely covering her ass, a rediculous amount of makeup and high-heels. "I am their english teacher!" the hooker/teacher said "My name is Minnie!" how perfect. My dogs name.
She saw that I was asking them "where are you from?" and trying to get them to respond "I come from China" and walked to the board and decided to try to help out. In big letters she wrote "What do you come from?" and started asking the students.
I looked at her sideways and didn't quite know how to tell her that it was clearly a WHERE kind of question. Unless of course the answer was the womb of my mother and judging by the students current performance I assumed this was not the case. For the first time I actually realized the value of having us foreign teachers here to teach english. It is generation after generation of bad chenglish speakers teaching each other until a native speaker steps in and breaks the chain. I see now why they pay for everything, put us up in nice apartments and treat us to expensive buffet dinners.
I came home and really looked forward to teaching my students here tomorrow. They are miles ahead of those students and its a great feeling knowing that our kids here will have a better chance out in the world because of us. That's really what teaching is all about I suppose.

I have so many other stories I wish I had time to write about. Like Sunday, how i got lost on my way to the other job in Hankou and some random man took me for a drive on his scooter to help me (which was terrifying.) Or how I walked out of class yesterday to see a little boy during recess with a microphone singing poker face by lady Gaga. It seems during recess they have a little talent show in the field with a different person each day.
I'll also have you know that I went to the club again last weekend and DID NOT get picked up by a gay guy. But we strolled in there and didn't spend a cent on drinks like before. I've gotten over the feeling of being a monkey in a cage whenever I go out and started to embrace it as kind of a celebrity status here. Everyone just looking at you, they all think you have lots of money or are someone famous from the west. Little do they know I'm a poor musician from a boring city in Canada.
Anyways I have to go mark the rest of the letters about me. I have been meaning to spend a day taking more pictures from around my school and Wuhan, I will do that as soon as I remember too!
Goodbye while I go flatter myself,

Corey