It's good to be back where everything is familiar, I can sleep in my own bed, actually communicate a little bit, see my friends and get back into the swing of things. Qin Chen, my roomie, had cleaned my place cleaner than it has ever been to surprise me when I got home. To celebrate returning home, she, Sean and I went to dinner and enjoyed a huge meal of all the Chinese foods we had been craving. While on the road, I found myself wanting really strange stuff including: spicy tofu, eggplant, and hot and spicy pork soup with sprouts. I never thought in my life I would crave foods like that. But now that I've gotten my Chinese food cravings out of the way I'm ready to buckle down and make some baked goods that I've been missing for the past two months including: muffins, brownies cookies and cakes. YUM.
Last night we also met with Steve, our friend and supervisor here at school. He gave us our schedules and hung out for a bit to catch up on what we did during our vacation. Our teaching schedules are ridiculously light and easy which Steve justifies by the fact that we will all have to give two speeches this year instead of just one like last year. He also managed to finagle us a raise which was a welcome surprise. That means my monthly salary is up to $815 - sweet!
I have three "European Culture" classes and one oral English class for a total of 8 hours of teaching per week. Sean has four oral English classes which also totals 8 hours a week. To add to this already too light load, we might each lose one class. This is because Jordan, another English teacher and good friend here, has stayed in the US to recover after corrective surgery on his arm (after China's doctors botched the first one). If/when he returns, he will be picking up one class from each of us. Until then we will just teach his classes for him which isn't a big deal at all. We really hope he comes back soon though because we miss him!
I have not taught this European culture class before but Daniel did last year and is going to send me some notes to help me out. Besides taking Latin in high school and a survey course in college, I'm feeling totally unprepared and underqualified to teach this. But I am excited to try something new and learn a lot; I think it's going to be pretty fun. Here's the themes that I am supposed to cover:
Greek culture
Roman culture
The Bible and Christianity
The Middle Ages
Renaissance and Reformation
The 17th century
The Age of Enlightenment
Romanticism
Marxism and Darwinism
Realism
Modernism and other trends
I think covering all or even most of those things is pretty unrealistic and I'll be happy just going through Greek and Roman culture and the Bible. This class only meets weeks 2-14 and has week 13 off so that only gives me 12 classes which isn't much at all. I'm excited to be able to work with juniors which will be something new and the university gave me rooms equipped with media and technology which is a big bonus.
Now it's Saturday morning and I am doing a mix of cleaning, unpacking, lesson planning and relaxing. Classes start on Monday and I have a friend visiting from Japan who comes on Sunday. The semester is already off to a busy start! Since I have so much free time this semester I've signed on to work a lot at Web again and may do some more work for Global IELTS. Sean and I are also going to start training for the Great Wall marathon or half marathon and we want to keep taking Chinese classes. With continued wedding planning and trying to figure out what's next after China, this spring semester is sure to fly by and we'll be back in the states before we know it!
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