Today was a very quiet day of work. Even though we were running our busy "Sunday" schedule many families have gotten out of the city for the Dragon Boat Festival. I had two classes where not one student showed up, which was awesome because I got to plan ahead for the week. At noon today when I went to take out my lunch from the fridge, I noticed that a bunch of cockroaches started to nest in a corner. So disgusting. (I went to a Science site to identify them because the Center Director didn't believe it was possible to have cockroaches in a fridge. My Animals' program leader past comes in handy sometimes. I classified them as true "oriental" cockroaches). I quietly pointed this out to a few other teachers and the place went crazy. One teacher was refusing to come back in on Thursday unless the fridge was thrown out and the air conditioning was put back onto full power. The head of the center had the two custodians cleaning out our disgusting staff room and eventually the fridge got moved into after a lot of swearing that my middle school class gleefully translated for me, into the hallway. The staff room we have is tiny and there is only five computers in it for ten teachers, plus we all eat in there, too, which makes it even grosser. Half of us are always kicked out to a classroom where you have to stand to type. We have started writing a petition for us to move our office into one of the classrooms so we can have more space and turn our working space into the big closet it needs to be.
In the middle of the chaos, I was able to call around to the Ef offices that hold free Chinese language lessons for EF foreign teachers. I'm still waiting for a teacher' s approval but I think I might be taking an hour class on Wednesday mornings and another hour on Friday mornings. I'm pretty excited.
I went back to the same restaurant with some of the girls from work, which was lovely. As I was walking home, many of the outside gates to the apartment complexes had red lights up, and a lot of people were out enjoying the holiday. I hope my complex gets some up before the big day tomorrow.
Uncle Ladd's Corner: How much is a McDonald's fish fillet?
A bunch of the office staff ordered McDonald's and it costs 10 RMB for a fish fillet or $1.46 American.
Good species ID,Colleen. I think those Chinese cockroaches are pretty smart...certainly cooler in the refrig considering your hot weather!
ReplyDeleteMom's right- they are smart... That said, EWWWWWWWW!!!! How did YOU not flip out?!?! Oi! Glad that situation is being corrected! I'll keep my fingers crossed about the moving to a classroom thing. :)
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ReplyDelete(Ok cool! Finally figured out how to post a comment!) Anyway, find it amusing that in any country the middle schoolers know all the curse words in any language they're studying! BTW are people leaving town because it's a holiday and they're off for a short vacation or are Festival activities held outside of the city? Do most cities hold Dragon Boat Races the same day?
ReplyDeleteHi Joanna! I heard that many families will leave the city for a few days to watch the Dragon Boats where there is water! There is no water in Beijing except for some human made ponds. It sounds like most cities and towns in China hold races if they are close to water. I learned that most families make a desert that has bamboo leaves on the outside and sweet rice and meat in the inside.
ReplyDeleteHi Laura and Sandra! Thanks for agreeing with the grossness of the situation. We only spotted on cockroach today in the staff room. It sounds like they are refusing to move us into a classroom, so now we are trying to petition for a toaster since we are going be there six days a week over the summer. I'm going to miss having a fridge to put my lunch in, though.