Wow it's been awhile since I've updated...I'm sorry! It's been a crazy couple of weeks with school starting. I am in the middle of my second week of teaching and it is incredible how much better this week is going than the first! There were a few things that happened last week that really caught me off guard and caused me to stress which wasn't the reaction I should've had (of course being human that's what I immediately go to in tough times). I was fully prepared to teach a high school choral class with both guys and girls but it turned out that I had 4 boys and 0 girls (there were other classes being offered at the same time and most of the high schoolers want to take music in the Spring anyway because we have a big choral festival we go to in Tianjin in the Spring). I had to completely rethink my whole direction for the class without a lot of time. Looking back this is definitely not as stressful of a situation as it seemed a week ago. I had been praying for direction for the course because we tried singing and they were not really into it with just the 4 of them but then I asked them what their thoughts were on starting a praise band and they were really excited to try and start one! It's amazing how much these students are motivated to make such wonderful music to bring praises to our Father! We've been working on starting some music this week and it's been going pretty well (now that we have a piano that will stay in tune...that is an entirely different story completely!).
Needless to say, through this situation and a few other stresses that a first-year teacher would typically have, especially during the first week of school, I have learned a lot. I'm learning more and more that worry and stress are evidence of a lack of trust in Him. This prevents us from experiencing true joy in our lives. I want to be joyful. I want to not have a worry in my heart about school, about my situation or about anything because I know that my life is not my own and is in good hands. I'm hoping that I can remember this when it comes closer to concert time and I'm running around like a crazy person! :)
On a completely different note, I am going to Hong Kong this weekend/earlier next week to (FINALLY) get my work visa (hooray for legally being in a country)! I have been on a tourist visa but it expires every month and I need a work visa to stay here and teach. It should be a nice little trip and I'm hoping to find some chocolate chips and Velveeta to bring back to Wuxi! (it's really hard to find chocoloate chips here and cheese is really expensive)
Anyways I hope to update this much sooner this time! I hope everyone is well!
-Rachel
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Getting Ready for School!
I can't believe school will be starting in 11 days! It's crazy how fast time has flown and how much I have to get done between now and then. I have been getting many things done in the past few days though which is good. I've been making seating charts recently and I am learning that it is hard to set up for elementary music when you have one class with 22 kids and one class with 7 kids. I'll just have to organize a way to reset the classroom quickly between classes.
I also went to the doctor to get a physical today. I was very suprised by how efficient they were there! It only took about 20 minutes to get an ECG, XRay, sonogram, bloodwork and other physical-type tests...it took me 4 hours at home to get all of that done! I was also happy that I didn't pass out when I got my bloodwork done :) (they let me lie down which I think prevented that from happening).
My apartment is looking more and more like a home. I recently bought a nice rug to put in my bedroom, a desk and many picture frames to put my printed pictures in (that really helped!). Bethany (my roomate) and I bought a DVD player and attempted to set it up yesterday...we got it to work but only in black and white (it's definitely supposed to be in color though...). We also tried to connect a wireless router to our internet. I feel like I could do all of these things without any problems at home but the problem here is that everything is in Chinese so you have to play the guessing game as far as how to set things up. Luckily the school has a tech guy who can come over and fix it for us.
As far as being overwhelmed by the culture it hasn't been too bad overall. I did experience my first "cultural-stress" situation the other day though. We had a water leak in one of our closets and the maintence guy from school was going to come fix it...he hadn't gotten there yet and there was a knock on the door. A few people were at the door who were speaking to me in Chinese and I had no idea what they were saying. I said "ting bu dong" (I don't understand) but they still kept talking to me expecting me to understand! It was stressful because they sounded angry and I had no idea who they were or what they were doing. Luckily our maintence guy showed up and saved the day. We found out later that one of the people who seemed angry was the landlord from upstairs whose apartment was leaking water into ours. I'm sure things like this will happen again but I'm trying not to stress about it. The only thing I can do is try my best to learn as much Chinese as I can....but even that probably won't be enough.
Overall I can say I am having a great time so far here in Wuxi. I love the people I've met and the school I'll be working in. I'll try and keep posts updated as much as possible, but if it takes awhile it's because I'm going to be very busy within the next few weeks. Miss you all!
I also went to the doctor to get a physical today. I was very suprised by how efficient they were there! It only took about 20 minutes to get an ECG, XRay, sonogram, bloodwork and other physical-type tests...it took me 4 hours at home to get all of that done! I was also happy that I didn't pass out when I got my bloodwork done :) (they let me lie down which I think prevented that from happening).
My apartment is looking more and more like a home. I recently bought a nice rug to put in my bedroom, a desk and many picture frames to put my printed pictures in (that really helped!). Bethany (my roomate) and I bought a DVD player and attempted to set it up yesterday...we got it to work but only in black and white (it's definitely supposed to be in color though...). We also tried to connect a wireless router to our internet. I feel like I could do all of these things without any problems at home but the problem here is that everything is in Chinese so you have to play the guessing game as far as how to set things up. Luckily the school has a tech guy who can come over and fix it for us.
As far as being overwhelmed by the culture it hasn't been too bad overall. I did experience my first "cultural-stress" situation the other day though. We had a water leak in one of our closets and the maintence guy from school was going to come fix it...he hadn't gotten there yet and there was a knock on the door. A few people were at the door who were speaking to me in Chinese and I had no idea what they were saying. I said "ting bu dong" (I don't understand) but they still kept talking to me expecting me to understand! It was stressful because they sounded angry and I had no idea who they were or what they were doing. Luckily our maintence guy showed up and saved the day. We found out later that one of the people who seemed angry was the landlord from upstairs whose apartment was leaking water into ours. I'm sure things like this will happen again but I'm trying not to stress about it. The only thing I can do is try my best to learn as much Chinese as I can....but even that probably won't be enough.
Overall I can say I am having a great time so far here in Wuxi. I love the people I've met and the school I'll be working in. I'll try and keep posts updated as much as possible, but if it takes awhile it's because I'm going to be very busy within the next few weeks. Miss you all!
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