Back to the Grind

Delicious hand-made sugar phoenix,
which shattered in the wind a few moments later!

So once again we are back in school and three weeks into the new term. It's amazing how quickly things can go back to normal, but here we are! Business as usual. The majority of my classes this semester are with the same students I had last semester, which is great for a person like me to has such a terrible memory for names. It's proving easier second time round with the kids, they know me and what I expect of them in the classroom, and I know them and what to expect of them. This means that, even though classes can still be manic and full of running around and shouting, there is a sort of controlled craziness. I'm having a lot of fun with my students and overall I feel like they are having fun too!

Class is a routine now, and lesson planning is getting easier and easier as time goes on. But while things are routine in some areas there are lots of new things to get used to.
This semester there is no slacking off and our contracted hours are being maxed out, a bit of a shock to the system after the relatively easy time we had before.
As well as the regular teaching, new marketing activities are being added to mix; for me this means English Corner to help students to practice their English outside of their normal timetabled classes, and demo classes to rope in more students for the school.

English Corner classes are free and theoretically help build confidence outside the classroom, talking to a different mix of people. Theoretically. Realistically they seem to be, at least for the moment, an odd mix of the great kids who enjoy learning English and the kids whose parents can't get rid of them fast enough. This means that these classes are a little less laid back than I originally thought they would be.
As well as English Corner I have to do demo classes for potential new students. This is a lot of pressure because it is based on that class that parents and students decide if they want to pay to learn at Aston. Sure, half the battle is just getting them through the door, but for me the pressure is still on.

But what's life without a little bit of a challenge now and again?

元宵节， Lantern Festival

But it's not all work! Since being back we have managed to have some adventures. A couple days after coming back from Cambodia, Orion and I went to visit the Ningxia Western Film Studios. The studios are a mishmash of different sets from some of China's most successful home-grown films. It was so much fun playing with the props and I even got to ride a camel!

A few days after that was the last day of Chinese New Year, otherwise known as 元宵节 yuan'xiao'jie or Lantern festival. A day celebrated with fireworks and setting off hundreds of lanterns over the city. Because of one of the worst traffic jams I've ever been in we missed the fireworks by the river and had to settle with watching them from a car; but there was still time to set off a lantern into the night sky.


In general, my mantra here is of a "work hard, play hard" mentality, and with three and a half days off a week it's not too hard to find an excellent work/life balance. This semester the aim is to explore more and take little adventures as time allows. The next trip in the works is a group adventure to Chengdu, and then for me it's going to be a trip home - hopefully in early June. But until then the mini adventures around Yinchuan are good enough for me!