Returning to School

Yesterday I had to be in Baoshan (the prefecture capitol) to renew my visa. By the time we were done it was too late to make it back to Jietou, so I caught a bus to Tengchong (I watched the partial lunar eclipse during the ride!), stayed overnight, and grabbed an early morning bus.

I made it in at about 8:30--just in time to drop off my bags, gather my materials, and teach my 9:10 class! And then my 10:20 class. Then lunch and a nap. After the travelling and getting up early I was pretty tired so waking up from my nap was rather difficult. But finally I pulled myself out of bed and walked over to my classroom. I noticed my students assembled in front of the school, but figured they would be done soon, so I wrote up on the board the letters and words that I wanted them to copy at the beginning of class.

Then the bell rang and there still were no students in the classroom. I looked out at the courtyard again and the students were still assembled there. Nothing was happening. No one was speaking to them. But they were standing there.

I started walking towards the office to ask someone. I ran into one of my cofellows and asked her: "What's happening?" She didn't know either. So we stood together watching nothing happen. Then my other Chinese cofellow walked over from his classroom and explained--not that they had warned him either, but he too had walked into an empty classroom and had found someone else to ask.

The third and fourth graders needed to walk over to the local middle school for a health check. At this point the students finally started walking two-by-two out the school gate and up the road.

Of course, the one class I have tomorrow is a class I had this morning. So they get two lessons this week, one class gets one lesson, and two classes get no lessons at all.

On a brighter, note, we're done with six day weeks! I actually have a full weekend this weekend. Time to catch up on all the laundry from my vacation (and pictures too...there are a bunch more to come).