Day 8 - Monday June 29, 2009: Teaching Day 1

Danika and I woke up at 7 am to go running around campus. It was hot and humid and we didn't have many places we could run besides the streets on campus and the track. We saw stray puppies (that chased us), heard a rooster crow, and were overwhelmed by how loud the bugs were. We ended up running around 3 miles in 29 minutes.

Afterwards I tested out the shower. It doesn't have any hot water which felt good right after my run, but will not any other time.

The four of us headed to campus at 10:20 for an introduction to the students. They did a power point presentation in Chinese and then put huge pictures of us on the screen and made us introduce ourselves. It was a little nerve wracking but alright.

After that we had a break until 1:10 when I had a one-on-one conversation with Alvin, an MBA student. It actually went really well, he spoke a lot of English and we talked about everything from politics to dream jobs to things to do in the US. I talked with him for 2 hours then had a one hour break where I walked back to the apartment just to use the bathroom...the toilets on campus are mostly squatters, are really dirty, and don't have soap or TP. On my way to the apartment people yelled hello at me and one man stopped next to me on his scooter to offer a ride - I guess I won't be walking alone anymore. I went back to campus and had another hour of convo with Alvin. After we were done I headed outside to check out the outdoor activity, basketball, that CKE and Geoff were organizing.

CKE and I got a "lunch box" dinner from a restaurant near campus. It was a piece of Chicken, with bones, and rice. We were still starving after eating what we thought was edible and had some Chinese Cheetos for dessert. Apparently CKE didn't have as good of a first day as I did as he got stuck with the middle school aged students. (We were under the impression coming here that we would only be working with Graduate students and maybe seniors in college...oh how we were misinformed. We are working with a group of middle school kids and some just-entering college age students)

At 6:30 Danika and I had an English Song class that was painfully long. We broke the students up into groups of three and they had to pick a song from a list that they wanted to learn the words to and perform at the end of the month. It took forever and now I have 5 groups to "teach" singing to.....Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do. Class went until 8pm after which we were making copies and a group of students came to tell us that they saw us running in the morning and were wondering if they could join us. We are now meeting them tomorrow morning at 7:30 am.

When I got back to my apartment CKE and I watched part of a Jet Lee movie, shared a 6 pack of "Taiwan Beer" and went to sleep.