DAY 15: OWWWWW

16:38BST 07/22/08
MI LE - QINGLAI GAO ZHONG (QINGLAI HIGHSCHOOL)

the last two days have flown by. first and foremost, this school is AMAZING! its in its own little valley, surrounded by beautiful green rolling mountains. the grounds are insane. there are a couple little lakes, and through the large one on campus, there is a sidewalk that snakes through it at water level. i thought that when it rained the sidewalk MUST flood, but its been raining all day today and no flooding. those chinese are smart. but anyways, the grass is perfectly manicured and from what ive seen, im starting to think that theres like a 1:4 ratio of groundskeepers to students - a dropped bottle doesnt stay on the ground for long. the architechture of the main buildings is pretty edgy, and the dorms and some classroom buildings are just really tasteful. over the dining hall, there is this big 4 or 5 story tower with a clock on all four sides. just last night i discovered that at night the clock lights up in glowing red... it TOTALLY looks like the eye of sauron! on the top of the hill with the waterfall, there is a huge pagoda that i wanted to go to today (but its raining). instead, after lunch, the gang (which grew to include erika, cynthia, and mike2) went to the on campus restaurant and bought a round of ba si pingguo (apples that have been deep fried, and then covered in this simple syrup and fried again). you put the hot apples in a bowl of cold water to harden the sugar shell.

two heart attacks later, i find myself in the library not only to roll around in the internet but also to rethink my lesson plans. like i said, we werent given any lesson plans so weve been kind of left to feel out what everyone knows. unfortunately, they didnt test the kids, so we all pretty much got a hodgepodge of students. i have three that dont speak any english and 4 or five that shouldnt be in my class. all of the english teachers have chinese teaching assistants... and for some reason i think mine hates me. hes been really dodgey about what the schedule is (its only in chinese and different for every teacher) and about how the class should be run. im trying to be as accomodating as possible but i think i need to be more prepared. the kids do best when bribed with treats. tonight, i think i will teach them foods and about holidays and then i will do charades about feelings. we have a lot of free time right now so ive been able to plan lessons and go running and whatnot. its almost time for dinner, but i wanted to write to catch up. i hope everyone is well!