First Day of Bowen Winter Camp.
Ok. This is to show how disorganized and idiotic the Chinese are. I believe now that it isn’t just Bond, I have seen this in other areas. Its all Chinese people. They have teachers from Xiaolan going to Bowen International School which is just outside ShiQi. Driving time is ~1 hour. They have teachers from ShiQi going to Guzhen which is a city just outside of Xiaolan for more classes, and teachers going from Xiaolan to the Bond Office in ShiQi. Can you see why we foreign teachers get frustrated with them? Why don’t they put ShiQi teachers in Bowen and Shiqi and have the Xiaolan teachers in Guzhen and Xiaolan. WTF!
Here is some more backstory to the Winter camp. Three days ago, Peter was “asked” if he “wanted” to organize the Winter camp that was supposed to take place in three days. Why Peter accepted is beyond me. Amanda first asked him to plan the opening ceremony, but then “asked” him to do the whole camp. “Amanda, I can’t make this a great camp in three days time.” –That’s ok, just make it alright.
This is just more evidence to show how the Chinese lack quality.
So, we get there in the morning at Bowen for the opening ceremony. There was Dan (a guy that was at Bond in Hunan), Henry (a south African that has been here three weeks), Peter, me, Sean, Toby, and Robert. However, the only ones teaching during the camp are me, Peter, Henry, and Dan. The others were there for publicity.
We get in the auditorium and there are many flags at the front. There was 1 American, 2 British, 1 New Zealand, and, for some bizarre reason 6 Canadian. While we were killing time waiting for the rest of the kids who were late, we started throwing Frisbee and playing some Badmitten. Some kids showed up, around 30, and we still waited on others. So we waited some more. Dan left around this time because he was a little sick, he went and threw up. Then Amanda walks in and says, “why haven’t you started.” –Because we are waiting for the rest of the kids. “Oh, there is only 56 kids in this camp and the rest aren’t coming until this afternoon.” –What? Why didn’t you tell us this?
So, instead of filling the opening ceremony for 1 hour, we got to do it for 30 minutes. Thanks for wasting our time Amanda. Peter gave a little speech and talked to the kids. We all spoke about ourselves for about 5 minutes. I chatted and said some things. I told them that if they are lucky, they will get to learn some gung fu. Sean went up and said, “Hello, my name is Sean. Goodbye.” He tried to sit down, but the kids kept saying NO! So he wasted time standing up and sitting down. Henry (south Africa) and Robert (Australia) went on and complained that their flags weren’t at the front of the auditorium. Toby went up there and said, “My name is Toby. I am a philosopher, poet, and aethiest. (you forgot “jackass” and that your poetry is really gawd awful) I like to teach, but I won’t be teaching you. Etc etc.
We then had a lunch break for 3 hours and taught an introductory lesson at 230-4pm. I already noticed something that is gonna be trouble: the Chinese teachers aren’t staying in class. How will I be able to teach the kids if there are not teachers to keep control or to explain directions?
Another thing that sucks is that we don’t get home at 730PM. Ugh.
I went to practice tonite and I felt terrible. Very tired. Very very tired. My legs were shaking during form work. I then drank some water and got energized. I then hit the bag for a few minutes and felt much better. Then worked some more on forms. Went home and fell asleep.