Settling into a schedule

So it's been awhile since i've written a blog on here. Mostly because i've begun to settle in to a daily schedule of teaching and planning lessons. Let me update you on the last few days.
On the weekend some of the foreign teachers decided to go to a big chinese club called Soho. Beforehand, we taxied over to another teachers apartment for a good ole fashioned pre-drink. Because I am so intelligent and lose things every 5 minutes, I decided it would be a grand idea to leave my cell phone in the taxi on the way over there. I've had the thing for two days. Go team me. I thought I would never see the thing again but Sean with his limited chinese skills somehow managed to call my phone, get the driver to pick up and direct him to meet us to give it back. I offered the driver a smoke and 10 kuai and after he looked at me like i was a cheap a-hole I went merrily on my way, happy to have my cell phone back. Since being in china I have already lost one of my teaching books, broke my sunglasses and left my cell phone in a taxi. Not bad for a week and those who know me well, understand this is normal life for me.
Anywho, so after purchasing a bottle of bai jiu (this stuff is nuts!) and its less potent friend jin jiu, we wandered our way into the club. Apparently, they don't ID here or wait in lines, you can drink your own booze on the street outside the club and also smoke inside. Awesome.
Almost immediately I noticed that we were the only foreigners in the entire place and was also quick to notice the blond haired, metrosexual asian man dancing on the stage singing a crazy chinese pop song and yelling at the audience something completely unintelligible to me. I guess he was like the MC/pump the crowd up guy/fashion statement guy that we sometimes see at our clubs. The place was huge. I was also happy to notice that almost every one at the bar wanted us to come drink with them at their tables. One man gathered us all around his table and bought a 1000 kuai bottle of hennessey and started handing it out to us. He pretty much just kept yelling "I'm sooo crazzyyy" and dancing around handing us shots and drinks. What a hilarious man.
Later on said man was dancing on a riser and pulled me up to dance with him. I thought alright, this guys just the most friendly wild asian man here and loves foreigners. He yelled lots of things in my ear that I could not make out and somehow in all this I ended up giving him my phone number. God people are friendly in Asia. After leaving the riser I noticed all the other teachers laughing at me. Apparently this man was gay and had tried to pick some of the other teachers up also, which is why they weren't drinking with him anymore. Well then.
Between the hilariousness/awkwardness of that, the bai jiu and the triumphant return of my cell phone i'd say it was an overall good night. None of us payed a cent. It seems it is somewhat of a social status thing to be the one in the club partying with the "wei guo rens" in China. At least in an area with very little foreigners.

When monday strolled along it was time to get back to work and start my first full week of teaching. Every monday they have a big ceremony in courtyard/soccer field thing, much like last week. I strolled down there and to my surprise I noticed I was the only foreign teacher present. The others had all opted to sleep in. I soon learnt why.
Nemo walked up to me and said I was going to speak in front of the whole school again. They have a thing called the "sentence of the week" in which one of the foreign teachers gets on the mic and teaches a phrase to the entire school of 1500 children. I was really not prepared for this and had not thought of a "sentence of the week" and "fuzzy panda kill robot good" was out of the question today. I begged him to let me go next week in order to have something actually prepared and thankfully I got off the hook. Anyone with any suggestions for the sentence of the week for next monday i'd be happy to consider them.

I currently just finished marking 135 workbooks and making 5 lesson plans for tomorrow. Slowly I am learning some of my students names, personalities, strengths and weaknesses and also how to be a good teacher. My grade 5's are learning how to fill in information like first name, last name and addresses. The chinese don't have the same concept of names as we do and you would usually refer to a person here by their title first and then family name. Only close friends or family would call them by their given name. Explaining to them that I have three different names and that my family name was at the end actually took a whole lesson. I gave them their full names for the first times by explaining they would use their english names first and their chinese family names last. This also gave me an opportunity to learn some more of their names and I have a few more interesting ones for you. I have a kid named Dragon, Butterfly, Angel, Grace, Hope and one kid named Bob! who insists that the ! is and essential part of his name. In Lloyds class it seems they are even more rediculous. He told me he has two kids named Banana and one named Milk. What crackhead english teacher or parent named these children? Or perhaps they named themselves. I think if i was young and had the opportunity to name myself I would've definitely gone the route of my grade 4 and named myself Dragon. So badass. I expect great things from him.

I'm learning more everyday how to plan lessons properly, how to make sure each kid understands what I am teaching and how to control my classroom. Some things make them go bonkers while others bore the hell out of them. Its all a balance being a teacher and I find it stimulating, challenging and creative. Tomorrow the school is taking all 21 teachers out for big dinner. They really take care of us here and are very happy to have us. I will try to keep my blog updated and also take more pictures of stuff!
all is well,

Corey

P.S I will also be filming a video of the kids doing the MJ routine again soon. Be prepared. It's a magnificent achievement in cinematography