After three days of “rest,” I finally began my
teaching schedule. I teach on a campus about
an hour away, except for rush hour, which adds
another half-hour. The amazing thing is that the
bus is new and air-conditioned.
The classroom is a decided improvement over
my experience last time–the students are about
the same. Because most of them are “only” child-
ren, Chinese teens are socially very backward.
Several girls told me that their favorite TV show
is Tom and Jerry cartoons. Their American
names, as written in my rollbook turned out to
be less odd than I thought when I realized what
they were trying to spell. “Jennies” became
“Janice.” A girl named “Kidult” explained that
even though she is an adult, she wants to re-
tain her childlike (kid) attributes.
There is a student monitor, I’m sure a Party
member, for every class. In addition to assist-
ing the professors, they also relay information
back to the administration. At the end of class
(3 hours), the monitor escorted me to the bus
stop where she and the Dean discussed my first
day’s performance in Chinese while we waited
for the bus. That was very comfortable. The
Dean and, for that matter, all the other faculty
members fell fast asleep before the wheels
started turning. I’ve never seen people who
sleep more. You have to wake up the vendor
to buy a banana at a fruit stand.
Today was mercifully cool and it even rained a
little this evening, making everything look and
smell fresh.
Tomorrow’s another “rest”day; then on Thursday
I teach for six hours.