Yesterday, I went to orientation at the school. I am still not sure what class I will be teaching, but it will we around 25 students ranging from the ages of 9-25. Most of them will be between 16-20 years old. I’m pretty excited.
We have this week off, but we’ll have to be at the school at 9:30 in the morning on Saturday to give the kids placement tests. Once we grade them and find out what levels they are at, we will get our placements as teachers.
After getting lunch at the cafeteria , which was interesting, we went to the beach. Like usual, laying out at the beach is boring for me. I went for a walk to find a deck of cards, but was unsuccessful. What I found was much more interesting, maybe. As I was walking back, a volleyball came rolling across my path. About six, overweight, extremely tan, old men, in Speedos, were hitting a volleyball back and forth to each other. When I hit the ball back, they invited me to join their game. It was actually quite a bit of fun. After a while of hitting the call around, one of them attempted to say break time. I pointed out where we were are and told him to holler at me when they were ready to play again.
While waiting, I went to check out the water. It actually wasn’t that cold, but it was very shallow for a ways out. It seemed to be pretty clean… For China. Speaking of that, the man at the school, David, said something that I thought was very fitting. T.I.C. or, this is china. Whenever I have a “what the hell was that,” moment, now I just think to myself, TIC.
So once I got back to our spot on the beach, I heard yelling, It was my man Meo (pronounced meow). The game was back on. I headed over and we played for a while longer. After they all got winded, we all hung out at the snack stand, which I found out was actually owned by three of them. They said they just hang out on the beach all day. Sounds like an interesting life…
After drinking a beer with them, it was time to head home. We caught a cab back and learned that Yantai has two types of cabs. A ¥7 and an ¥8 ca, that’s the sign for yuan I think… The prices just start out at that., then go up at the same rates. The difference? AC! The ¥8 cabs have it and the ¥7 cabs don’t.
So we got back, Kristen and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner, and it surprisingly tasted just like Pizza Hut back home. I’m not too into fast food pizza, but it was a good reminder of the States. It’s nice every once in a while to have something that reminds you of home. Even a conversation with someone that has been to where you live is nice. That’s why I like hanging out with Kristen, she lives in Seattle and that is familiar to me.
When we got back, I basically went straight to bed. I was pretty tired from karaoke the night before. I am having troubles sleeping past seven in the morning. It’s not bad if I get to bed at a decent time.
Today, I woke up and worked on my paper for the internship. I got a lot accomplished and I’m feeling pretty good about it. About three pages left to write. Now I am on a train to Qingdao, where we will be until Friday. It seemed like a good time to go since we have until Saturday to run around… More to come. Visiting the Tsingtao Brewery!!! Go out and grab a 6 pack of it and think of me while you drink it. Should be available all over the US at grocery stores.
Chris- Adviser Abroad China
Cultural Embrace @ www.culturalembrace.com
www.flickr.com/photos/cschave
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