Priceless - THE DIARY OF TRISH
First time in China, first time as a teacher of English as a 2nd Language.
A mature Australian lady from Central Queensland, her experiences and thoughts.
Oh! What a difference a day makes
Tuesday, March 21, 2006What a difference a day makes! AND time to prepare correct lessons!
Had a really enjoyable experience in class this morning. Only about 30 students – all girls – and all but 1 actually spoke when asked to! When I mentioned to Helen (the Chinese English teacher)
that I'd had trouble getting yesterday's class to speak she said she had the same problem with this class when she started. Her solution was to tell them she
wasn't going to teach them if they didn't speak up in class! Maybe I'll resort to that! Makes me feel better that the locals have trouble too!
Also had my ego boosted amazingly when Helen said I was a natural teacher! (Thanks mum!) Must be genetic!
First canteen lunch today! For about 50cents staff and students get a choice of 9
dishes, plus soup and rice. I tried the fried eggs (cold!), dumplings, and some green vegetables and sprouts with
rice. Passed on the soup and a couple of "interesting" looking meat and poultry dishes – not sure what was in
them! Fortunately, I'd taken a plate and western cutlery to class (because the picture under discussion included a
kitchen) so I had a fork to use. The chopsticks given out with the meals are quite short and thin – I have enough trouble with full sized ones!
Am getting quite proficient at bike-riding! Forgot to lock it up in the locker last night but it was still there this morning!  Found rolled oats and honey at the supermarket today! (I don't want to come
back actually looking Chinese!!) A 1Kg bottle of rolled oats cost about $3.50, 950g of honey $1.50 and 16 eggs on special for $1! I checked the honey bottle
against the phrase book with staff to make sure the picture of flowers and a bee meant "honey" – I remember hearing of Asians who were buying up cat and dog
food in Australia thinking the pictures on the can indicated what was inside!
The big news from home is the cyclone at Innisfail – looks dramatic in the photos I've seen – I'm glad I'm over here in the technological age otherwise I wouldn't have a clue what's happening!
The hinges of my laptop cracked yesterday so I'm leaving it open hoping the wiring survives! If I lose touch through
this beast I'll be feeling like Robinson Crusoe!Sounds like Aussie bananas will be scarce for quite a while. We have Phillipino bananas here and apples from the
USA. I went looking for butter again the other day – I'm assured you can get it, but it comes in bottles! Thought I'd
found some in the bakery section, but it was Nestles condensed milk! I needn't have brought my own tube.
I don't think I've mentioned my shower plumbing before this. When I first looked at it, I couldn't see any drain and
wondered how the thing worked! Found out the floor slopes towards the corner near the wash basin and there's a
narrow gap in the tiles there that allows the water from the shower to drain down to "who knows where"!
Suspect I upset my downstairs neighbours this morning – I have this interesting mop made from strips of a felt-like
material. I'd mopped the bathroom and didn't realise how wet it was. Hung it on my clothesline (which is a series of
rails outside my window) and it dripped! The neighbours came out and gave me a mouthful – no idea what about! I
wrung it out and re-hung it but they still didn't look too impressed! Maybe it's supposed to be a dry mop! Had a lovely class again this afternoon – happy to get involved. In the middle of it, a cameraman appeared and
proceeded to film the action. Fortunately, the pair I chose to roleplay the reading while he was there did an excellent job – Don used to say a good deckie could make even a
poor skipper look good, and this pair did the honours for me today! Apparently the guy was from their capital, Nanjing – have no idea what it was all about! Just one more class
tomorrow morning then I'm off till Monday morning. This afternoon's class was the longest (by 10 minutes) – 2 till 4.20 – fortunately tomorrow's is only an hour and 20 mins.
I'm expecting a visit from the local police tomorrow afternoon – to check my security alarm! Apparently they aren't keen on their Westerners getting into strife.
That's it for today! Expect life to settle into routine from now on. HUUUUUUGE PS!
Just found out Don is coming over on Anzac Day – That's my early anniversary, birthday and Christmas presents all in one hit!!!
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