It has been a long time. Well let me back track here, I last talked about CNY and then trying to find a job for me. Tuesday I went on an interview and was hired before they did a thing else. I am teaching for Bethel International School. This is a pre-school school with children from babies up to 6 years of age. We teach them English, we meaning the foreign teachers and all of us are from the US. There are four of us and it is the largest group of foreigners that I have seen in about 6 weeks. After I got the job on Tuesday Chuck and I walked around the area to find a place to eat and celebrate. Since the location is 45 minutes away from the apartment in the city, the school is renting an apartment within walking distance of the school for me to share with the other female foreign teacher Shelby. The two men are Alex and our boss, liaison to the school Brandon. There are several different age grouped classes and we teach English to the students in the way that American Pre-Schools are run. I’ve got a few pictures of Mr. Brandon’s class and soon I’ll have pictures of my classroom, teaching assistants and students. I will also get to practice my Chinese which I am very excited about. The biggest thing I find is that I don’t want to try my Chinese words because I don’t want to appear silly when I can’t understand something but I can tell a taxi driver how to get me to my house so I just need to practice more. My pronunciation will only get better if I use what I know. Anyway, this week has been about getting in and observing how classes are run here and then I will jump in with both feet and start teaching my own class. Since I live away during the week and come home on weekends it is a challenge but one that we are all up too. Check the pictures, I’ll be posting about my new weekday home and job.
This weekend marks the end of Chinese New Year celebrations with the Lantern Festival. I don't know to much about the festival but one of the traditional foods to eat are SWEET RICE BALLS. The children at Bethel International made some on Friday and I snapped a few pictures of what rice balls are. They are sweet red bean paste with a wash of water and rice flour. The wash is done 10 times to make it nice and solid then the rice balls are put into boiling water and served like a sweet soup. It was great watching as the children were led by the Chinese teachers in how to make this traditional food.