Tuesday 18th September, 2012        1230

Now I’m really confused. I went to class this morning, started my “meet and greet” routine only to be stopped with the information we did all that yesterday! It turns out that I have them Monday and Tuesday one week, only Tuesday the next, then Monday/Tuesday etc. I get the feeling they have done this with all my classes and that is going to make it a devil to try to keep track of what I have covered with which class. It does explain why our workloads have shot up though.

I was quite pleased with them though, their pronunciation is better than I expected and they took to their first outdoor activity very well. Being the first time, their presentations were on the brief side, but I am sure in the weeks to come there will be occasions where we overrun.

1930

I am done in. Six lessons a day takes it out of you - your legs, your voice, your brain. It didn’t help that despite turning in early enough last night I had a fitful sleep. Christ knows how I will feel on Friday when I have to get up at six thirty and do the same.

My two classes this afternoon were 3 year students in a class of 40 (too many for my liking) followed by 4 year students numbering 30 which is more manageable. I suppose my tiredness is largely due to not being in a routine yet, and with a holiday approaching plus military training meaning for a fortnight I will be back to one class a week, I am unlikely to get into one before mid-October!

Wednesday 19th      1700

A bit easier today with just two classes, quite lively ones too. During the past couple of days I have had a few short conversations with Olivier and have quite taken to him. I think the reason I never saw much of him previously was because his wife and child were here, and also he has only been venturing to the shops to shop rather than drink or eat. That may well change now he knows Kevin and I often have an ale and a chat down there.

Vivian came with a friend to do my cleaning just now, as usual, being Chinese she was clueless and even thought mops worked when dry and the floor didn’t need to be swept prior to mopping. Bless them, eventually it got done - I had done the washing up - and they refused to take any money this time but will next time. Instead, I gave them some lovely just baked and still warm bread with butter and marmalade which they both pronounced “yummy”. I had baked it for my dinner tonight but now I am considering whether to go out instead. With a free day tomorrow I don’t need to retire early. I may just do that.

Thursday 20th    1645

Well I certainly haven’t done much writing lately! To be honest I have been too busy and shattered to do much at all this week. I never ate out last night in the end, Olivier stopped for a drink and a chat when I took the dogs out and a little later Kevin joined us so any thoughts of dinner completely disappeared to be replaced by the reality of a cheese and ham doorstep! I swear the only time I get properly full up here is western Wednesday!

Speaking of which, they have been scaled down to once a fortnight on grounds of both cost and the fact Kevin now teaches children every second week. Now that I am teaching on the day this term it suits me too. I am still tired today despite plenty of time in the sack last night - I would dearly love a siesta but daren’t because I wouldn’t sleep tonight. Not good with an early start and full day of teaching ahead.

I ventured downtown in the early afternoon, got money, meat and then grabbed a steak & dumpling sizzling platter so that later if I am peckish I will only need a snack. One of my old students, Eve, asked last week if I could provide a reference letter for use in her applications to UK universities. I agreed and a couple of days later duly emailed her a glowing report on her academic abilities which will serve her infinitely better than the self-penned and signed ones some students knock up in the name of Chinese teachers or professors which any western institution is going to spot as fake in seconds. She came a little while ago having printed my letter onto official paper and I had to sign fifteen of them, followed by the same number of envelopes which had to be signed over the seals! Good job I don’t charge.

With the mid-autumn and national day holidays being so close to each other this year we have one long break as opposed to two short but reading the website it appears everyone is off from Sunday 30th next weekend to the following Sunday. Confusingly it says we have to teach lessons on Saturday 29th for the classes we normally have on THURSDAY! No mention at all of Friday so it may well be we have to teach again on the Saturday after the break for that day. Kevin’s nose is out of joint because as I have no classes on Thursdays my holiday is a day longer than his - hehehe!

2030

I have had enough so after taking the mutts out I decided to come home early, watch a bit of George Gently and get another early one. Yesterday one of my old students who returned this semester for further education contacted me for a meeting. She is desperate to move out of the dormitory she was allocated as ever since her arrival the other five have treated her “like air”. She doesn’t know why and apparently it isn’t the Chinese way to confront them to force the issue. Can I find her a teacher willing to rent their campus apartment to her? Buggered if I know, although I do know students are doing precisely that, where the teacher lives downtown but still gets a low rent place in school and makes a few bob on the side. I feel sorry for the lass but all I can do is ask around - she seems to think I can work miracles and fix everything in a couple of hours. Sorry babes, but life isn’t like that.

Enough for now, see you soon.