TEFL reflections

While I'm writing this a fan is blowing my hair in my eyes, which is not a comfortable sensation, but worth the while since without it, all that would be left of me would be a puddle of sweat on a chair. Yes, I'm in Hainan and it is hot. I feel like a bloody dumpling. But bless the sea for its seabreezes; it makes it all bearable. And that is not all the Hainan sea can be blessed for. Bless its sky blue waters, its luke warm temperature, its (still to be seen, but already tasted) fish & shrimp and its white sandy coastline. I am enjoying it all! A bit to much perhaps, since my left arm already looks like roasted pork with white stripes on the spots where I got a bit careless with the sunlotion.
Meanwhile, Janneke, my fellow Hainan goer, is upstairs having trouble digesting the seafood meal we had this evening. Luckily she has an incredibly soft matras with equally soft cushions to support her in our double room in a recently renovated Hostel with superfriendly (English speaking!!) staff. But bladiebladiebla, I can go on and on about our 'adventures' of the last 12 hours but lets speak business! Why the hell have I switched my blog to English? Just so that my English homies can keep track of me, and hey, a bit of practise can't hurt. Well, not that many English homies will read this blog, since two of them are joining us tonight! My dearest roomie for the past 5 months, Diana, and her boyfriend Tim, called today to say that after three days hanging around in big cities suffering from the heat, they decided to screw it all and book a flight to Hainan! Yeej, this is happy news! More people to drag along on snorkle tours, perhaps even scubadiving, scootertrips around the island, junglehikes and partyhardy nights. Damn, just a short interruption; outside there's a cat either having birth or breaking up with her man-cat; that thing is NOISY! Thank god it's not on our side of the hostel.
Anyway, what about the teaching? Well, I've finished. I received my Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate, my completion bonus and allmost all my salary. I cleaned the appartment, stuffed all my belongings in a backback because I like breaking my back and getting bruises on my arms from lifting it up all the time, and we sold the bunnies to a restaurant. What??!! Haha, noho, no worries, our bunnies, or rather, fat ass rabbits, are safe and sound on the balcony of one of Rice's collegues. Now they can continue poo-ing and peeing all over her place... Nah, seriously, in a few years I might accidently think of Bunnyman and have a vague sensation in my stomach, which I will indicate a few days later as perhaps a feeling of missing. (just joking eh, ze rabbits were awesome).

So, how do I look back on the past 5 months of teaching? During my time as a teacher I have felt stressed, frustrated, enraged at times, desperate, useless, powerless and ignored. How come I still had a good time? Because it's just downright fascinating to stand in front of a class with 50 Chinese children. And allthough I never really felt part of the school, I was able to have a close look at a schoolsystem so different from ours. The long hours the students and teachers make, the morning excersise, the marching in class-formation, the seemingly strict rule of the Chinese teachers over their students, the patriotism that shimmers through in different things, the uniforms...everything. And the cultural difference is always there, primarily encountered in the shape of a language barrier. Even with my Chinese collegues who were English teachers, I had difficulty making flowing conversation. You just adjust your speach and learn that there is so much more to communication than just words. Still, communications was occasionaly one of the things that made me feel frustrated. Like discussing a few days leave with the headmaster. I Holland, you would just negotiate what is written in your jobdiscription and contract and employee and employer eventually come to a consensus. Well, not here. I could point at the contract with as many fingers as I wanted, they were still going to deduct double my salary for the days I would miss. Because I had already missed a few lesson due to the schools preparation of the celebration of their 50th anniversary. Oh yes, I could certainly be blamed for that. Maybe I sound a bit too bitter now; in the end it was only about 80 euro's or so (now that I write it down it is actually quite a bit..hhmmm), so I didn't want to make too big a drama about it, it's just that I didn't find the 'negotiations' at all fair. The headmaster just wanted me to work, so work I shall! In the end, I still went on my holidays, but I spent too more days in Shenyang after my contract ended to catch up with some missed lessons. I couldn't really be bothered: all I did was watch Mr. Bean because it was my last lesson anyway. And believe it or not; it got them all in a stich; they found it hilarious. Ahhh, my dear students, I really bestow them a bit of fun in their busy, studying life...(admittedly, I sort of had to laugh too).
So, why did I feel all those things? Anger, frustration.... Well, basically, my lessons had no point. Really, there was no point to it. I mean, what can you teach 50 kids in 35-40 minutes once every two weeks? Nothing really. Especially not if none of the school staff actually cares what you do in these lessons, and you don't even have to test them in the end. Oh yes, and you don't speak enough Mandarin to explain to them what the hell you are trying to do to them there in front of the blackboard. No, I think it was an aimless quest from the beginning. Ofcourse wisdom always come is hindsight. The only solution I see is increasing contact hours with the classes and someone from the school actually being interested in and helping you with your lesson plans.
I could go on about how the students misbehaved and how angry and sometimes hurt that made me feel...or how I felt turning into a cranky, angry, impatient, uninterested person after the fifth lesson on the fourth day of the week. I won't, because in the end, all I have left are positive feelings. After all, my students were just kids. Kids working under quite some pressure, working hard, whithout time to play in the weekend, not even in the hollidays ('we will make our homework!'), kids that prefer playing with their (goddamn) pens instead of speaking about the rooms in their house in English, kids that fight in the break and return with a black eye, kids that call each other noodlehead, who are only children and their parents treasure, who are....just kids. After I had my dinner and watched an episode of Lost, mostly I just felt compassion, and maybe even admiration for such a hard working childhood, if you can call it childhood. China...such an incredible and amazing country. I'm not sure if I would trade my life with any Chinaman, but from some of their values we could certainly learn something. There is nothing wrong with working hard and caring for your family. These five months have been great, simply because it is great to be in such a country.

What also kept me going were my fellow foreign teachers: Diana, Olav, Koen, Jessica, Anastacia, Janneke, Anja....even Sascha, Stuart, Will and Andrew, and the people I met during these first 4 intensive but fun weeks in Beijing. Not mentioning the Chinese friends we made: Ryan, my cool schoolbuddy, Wang the policeman, Alex from our favourite bar, Helena our crazy 'mother' that convinced us to set forth the tradition of a weekly English corner, Zojo, Celine and Cynthia who will come to study in Utrecht, my collegues Cathy and Gillian; it was great to meet so many different people. In the end I felt like we were almost family, me and the small group of regulars. When you hang out with the same people every week, share your experiences, living together....even if your personalities diverge and even clash on occasion, you start to appreciate each other, simply because of your shared experience. Making good friends, getting to know different people was really one of the best things of this program. I will certainly miss my time in Shenyang smoking siggies on the balcony, having card and movie nights in the appartment, drinking pijiu in Knight Leaders, dancing in cheesy clubs, even whining into the microphone in a KTV room, watching series during lunchbreak, again in the evenings, having dumplings in the

Ok, sorry for the interruption. The last sentence is not finished because I was writing it last night when I suddenly heard a noise coming from the fan next to my chair. I turned around and.....there was a giant cockroach on top of the fan!!! AAAArgh! Most people know how much I like roaches; I like to stroke their little (well,in this case huge) redbrown shield, caress their little paws with small hooks on it....I love 'm. So I jumped from my chair and rushed as far away as I could. The lady behind the counter came to see what was going on and I pointed out...the thing. She, not a real skilled roach-killer herself, got her hands on a badminton racket, sneeked up to the roach....and gave it a little pat on the shoulder. The thing must have felt something itching so it just flew (oh my god, they fly) to the other side of the room. All I had courage for was save this story and run up to my room. The idea that the thing almost flew in my face instead of the fan...brrr.

Anyway, I lost track of what I was planning on telling you last night. Instead I will just describe our sunburns we got today. I was smart enough to wear a T-shirt and some shorts at the beach for most of the time, so all that is fried are my limbs. I was wearing a beautiful Hawai tshirt by the way, it was the first thing I saw in the shop which I wouldn't feel sorry about if I would use it to swim in it. Janneke was not so fortunate, unfortunately. She is suffering from Belly-back Reddush, which means her back and front got fried. Tim and Diana got their portion, but due to their natural complexion and the fact they were dead tired from their plane arriving at 5 am, won't suffer as much as us tonight, I predict.

Tomorrow we'll make plans of doing an island tour on motorbike. Allthough the hostelmanager advised against this, since you're pretty much screwed if the vehicle breaks down halfway up the mountain. So maybe we'll adjust our plan a little bit.

Now it's time to soothen my burns with some crappy after sun lotion that has no real effect as far as I've noticed but might work psychologically.

Soon more stories about the four musketiers on Treasure Island!
farewell for now!