Getting used to Tongzi

My FAO (Foreign Affairs Officer, the person at the school who takes care of the foreign teachers) took us to Zunyi to change our visas to working permits.
Its too bad it was a rainy day but we passed some of the beautiful countryside of China on the way.
Her is the cute mountain town of Lhou Shanguan. Only 10km outside of Tongzi, maybe soon I will bike to here.


Some more villages by the mountains.













We arrived in Zunyi, a historical Chinese city. During the Chinese Civil war the Communist Red Army was retreating (called the Long March) from somewhere (maybe the sea) to somewhere (maybe Beijing) I don't know but Zunyi is the city where the famous Long March stopped and held the Zunyi Conference in 1935. There, Chairman Mao was elected to the head of the Chinese Communist Party.
And before coming to China I think I didn't know anything about China's history, so some of the teachers in my grade have sorta put me back in school by teaching me the history of China... This is embarrassing!

Boarder patrol buildings from the Civil War.







The site of the Zunyi Conference.










The River in Zunyi.







Back in Tongzi.
The view from my apartment.

The bicycle taxis!!









My students work so hard in my class!!

Well this is not completely true... in this class, Class 2, they work really hard. This class understands English well and wants to practice and learn from me!!! YAY! And can't you see the class is almost all girls :) As for some of my other classes I feel like I spend half the class trying to keep the class quiet so the ones that want to learn can hear me..... ahhh.... too many students!



There are 58 students in this class. They were supposed to be working in pairs to write a dialogue but sometimes its difficult to get the students to work in groups. In their Chinese classes the students aren't given the opportunity to work together or to question ideas or anything outside the textbooks.

Some of my best students from this class like to find me outside of class and just talk and talk and talk... I love it! These students are so enthusiastic about English! If only all of my classes were this way.
Group work!!!








ummm... definitely not group work and I'm sure a novel in Chinese cannot help them understand English idioms...I caught these students red handed, hahaha and in a photo nonetheless. Sometimes I don't know how my students can really believe I don't know what it is they are doing. They're not sly at all.