Friday, Saturday, Sunday and today have been so busy with me commuting to work, observing classes, completing training discoveries, and trying to plan lessons (teaching ESL is completely different than anything I have ever done before) that I first have to apologize to my readers for being so irresponsible when it comes to blogging. The past couple of nights, including tonight, I have been arriving back at the hotel around 9:30-9:45ish and going straight to bed. I'm so exhausted that I can't even think to type this blog post right now.
On Saturday, after training, Miranda and I walked up to our favorite restaurant in Andingmen (the subdistrict of Beijing that our hotel is in) and on the way home stopped at a pharmacy. Because of the smog and the gentlemen (I've yet to see a woman smoke here) that smoke, I've caught quite a cough. When we walked into the pharmacy I wandered around the aisles a little bit, trying to find the cough medicine aisle. One lady came up to me (obviously because I'm mei guo) and I coughed right in front of her. She directed me to the cough/cold aisle and handed me this box. I couldn't understand what it was (because obviously it was in Chinese) so I graciously thanked her and went to the cashier. It was only when we walked back to the hotel that I opened the box and saw what was inside. There were 10 little vials, 10 straws, and a puncture tool used to poke a hole in the lid of the vial. I had to go to the reception desk at the hotel to find out how to even drink the stuff. It doesn't taste bad (I'm only on dose 4 of 10) and I would compare it to Robitussin.
Sunday afternoon was full of training, so it was actually quite dull. I watched some classes that I will be taking once Ryan leaves us to go to Beijing 7. Today, I went to work around 2 and had more training. One training session had me watching Teacher Joe videos on the computer. These videos basically explained what not to do in a teaching session and were very dry. I thought they were imbecilic but I can see why we need to watch them before stepping foot in the classroom as the teacher. Tonight I watched 2 Small Star classes and everything was fine until the last class. When the moms dropped their children off (it's a small class of only 4 students) they noticed that I was in the classroom. They complained to my Director of Studies and the Course Representatives that they weren't expecting another teacher change. The moms had quite a lengthy conversation with Ryan after class (in Chinese, so I couldn't understand what they were saying, but the body language yelled loud and clear), and at the end they welcomed me and told Ryan that they were sad to seem him go. For dinner tonight I was on my own since Miranda had eaten earlier, so I went to a restaurant we had never been to before and ordered fried mushrooms. The dish came out and the plate was overflowing with different types of mushrooms, bell peppers, carrots, and finely chopped green onions. I was only able to eat about half before I needed to start walking back to the hotel. It was good but a little too much mushroom. Now I'm back in my room, dressed and ready for bed. All I have to do now is brush my teeth and crawl into bed. Tomorrow will be a repeat of today! :)
Blessings to you and be a blessing to others!
Chantelle
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