China Dreams

Classes have started and for the last few nights a strange thing has happened. I have had a series of very vivid dreams with reoccuring characters and an episodic plot. This is the first time in my life that I have had such dreams. The odd thing is that I am not dreaming that I am at home, like one would think. Instead I dream that I am in China... kind of. The China my brain creates is full of people speaking perfect English, kids who behave, clean living spaces, clean eating spaces, and of course plenty of free time to travel. The China that greets me every morning is very different. Few speak English (although that is good for my Mandarin), the kids are crazy (as kids tend to be), the living and eating standards or below what I would require in the U.S. (and yet I am now completely OK with that), and the reality is that I may have a hard time fitting in all the travel I want to do (haven't found the benefit of this yet).

The odd thing is that I prefer the real China. I wake every morning as if I had just had a nightmare. I am glad that China is hard, that it is challenging. If it was easy then everyone would do it and it wouldn't matter that I was. Of course I still get jealous when I hear Allison's stories of a relatively easy transition to Korea. I just know that this experience is forming me, just like every other one I have had.

I teach 8 sections of elementary school. These kids are hard. They really just want to play... which is the point of my class except they speak no English and so explaining things like the rules for a game is difficult. My other 12 sections are a blast. They vary from 6-9 grade and the class size varies from 20-40 students... many of my coworkers at Buckland teach classes of more than 120.

A terrible thing happened today. I began to care about my students. This is terrible because now nothing but the best will do for them. Which means that I have to provide it to them. No slapping together lesson plans for me. Wow I wish I hated these kids!

Below is a picture of my school from the office they have given me. I share a large office space with 12 other teachers from 6-9 grade.The circular building is the Xin Wen meeting hall. The building on the left is the first of three classroom buildings, which are five stories apiece... no stairs. Across the valley you can see some mountains, haven't climbed those yet. If the photo was a panoramic you would be able to see Liuyang City to the right, although it is a sprawling city and the downtown area has few buildings over 20 stories. More photos to come!