Another lengthy pause but this time because not a lot happened for the first half of the week.
On Wednesday some of my students were trying to call me in the morning but as I turn my phone off when I go to bed and Kevin doesn’t, he was the one to get woken up as they wanted to know where I was! When I did switch on, within seconds they called. As the class had all returned for a medical exam (required if they want to obtain a teaching licence) they had decided to hold their graduation lunch on Thursday and would I like to come? Damned right I did - this is one of my original classes and if I can help it I don’t want to miss any of them.
So yesterday late morning I took the bus and by chance some of the students from the class were on it to show me where the venue was. A stone’s throw from Lottemart but I would never have even guessed there was even a restaurant there, let alone have found it. We were a little early and as a consequence ended up playing cards while we waited for the others and the food to arrive. In total I think there were 26 students and five teachers. The food was plentiful, albeit most of it wasn’t to my taste. I tried a fish hotpot, one mouthful of which was enough to make my head explode it was so hot and thereafter confined myself to “safe” dishes such as steamed buns with an onion filling, prawns etc.
It was of course a bittersweet affair, more so than previous graduation parties because these were kids I started teaching with and I have grown hugely attached to over the past four years. It is great that soon they will be going to make their way in the world but oh so sad to think I will probably never see any of them again apart from hopefully when they return for a day in June to graduate proper and have their photo taken.
There was as usual the rapid fire of “gambays” even though most were drinking orange juice and the taking of photos. I know this will sound foolish but after lunch when the students were mingling I was on a number of occasions close to tears and certainly had a very large frog in my throat. One - the best in that class - came to tell me how she would never ever forget me and to thank me for being so great, she couldn’t imagine leaving me etc before dissolving into floods of the wet stuff. Before I embraced her I managed to tell her I felt the same before my voice seized up entirely. Another girl came to me with similar sentiments and reminded me of something I had once said a couple of years ago in their class, which she said she will always remember. Oddly I can’t remember it now but it was a piece of sage advice I had long since forgotten. It brought home just how much you can - if you try - influence young people. False modesty aside I think it is safe for me to say they will always remember me as much as I will always remember them. I did though, once the power of speech returned, make a point to thanking them for teaching me how to be the teacher I am today - and I meant it.
As I was free all day I stayed to the death, although I eschewed the eternally popular visit to a KTV karaoke bar, as did seven of the students. Three of those I treated to a cab ride back to school with me and later some of them came to my home for a visit. I got absolutely nothing done at all yesterday and I was exhausted by the time I flopped into bed. In fact I am still low on energy today and still have a full afternoon ahead of me. I had foolishly thought the party would be as brief as it so often is, normally a couple of hours, and had ideas of shopping afterwards but that idea had to be abandoned.
Not only that, when I started class this morning I suddenly realised not only had I not prepared next week’s homework for them (easily rectified as I gave them the Korean ferry sinking) but also had no activity prepared for them - not so easy.
During the class the students received a text from their form teacher advising that for the next week they shouldn’t leave their dormitories due to heavy rain forecast. I did ask if that meant they shouldn’t come to class (good-oh, a week off!) but was told no, only in their free time. So they are supposed to go out to study but not to have fun.
As a result of this snippet of news I checked the provincial news and read that they are expecting a week of “white rain” commencing tomorrow and warnings have been issued. All I can say is that I hope it holds off until lunchtime as I am downtown in the morning.
1940
After lunch there was a man and woman team drilling and fixing signs to the walls both outside and inside the classrooms. Apparently the one inside details the rules of the class whilst the outside one lists all the equipment that it inside. Presumably this is being done for the inspection but the outer sign seems to me to advertise the booty that can be had by a burglar - then again, this is China. Anyway, our new rooms have brand new doors which we are not given a key for so the supervisor has to come and unlock them before a class, we have been asked to close the doors when we leave, thus locking it so we can’t get back in. You can open it from the inside but not from outside.
The noise of the drilling was distracting my class so I closed the door, only to find that we were now trapped inside as the door is faulty. Eventually the supervisor came and freed us but had we had an emergency we would have been in trouble. Anyway, just after I started the second afternoon class the pair strolled in and started working, peeling brown paper off the sign and getting me annoyed as I was trying to listen to one of the groups deliver their homework so I got the students to ask them to leave and come back in the break. You have probably guessed it - the workman shut the door! I will check on Monday to see if they have rectified the problem, if not I will have to tell Cinny that it’s a hazard, not to mention an inconvenience having to have the door open at all times.
Enjoy the photos.
No comments:
Post a Comment