Tuesday 27th August
Sorting out the residency and work permit, needed to open bank accounts and also remain in the country. This was fairly straight forward for most of us. A member of the school with good English came to do most of the work and we mostly sat around in case something needed to be explained. A very hot day in the taxi, had a Starbucks iced teas, UK prices. I’ve noticed that fresh veg and food is very cheap, but anything processed quickly reached UK prices. If you cook everything from scratch, you can eat for next to nothing.
I’d heard about the pollution and today it was especially bad. Downloaded an App called ‘Airvisual’ which scores pollution locally, this was at the level you’d want protection and that’s why Chinese people are often seen wearing masks over their mouths. The pollution is likely to be frequently as bad or worse as we go into winter, it really is quite grim.
Most of the day was written off to these jobs and I got one lesson in at the end with Y12. The police staff processing the residency were very friendly to the point of joking with us, not what I expected!
Wednesday 28th August
First normal school day, three lessons but still working mostly off the whiteboard. Fortunately I’m doing recap work from previous years to see what they already know as I’m only familiar with AQA and OCR GCSEs and A-level, respectively. In the evening though, played Dungeons and Dragons again with the group and had plenty of beers. Thank god this is a weekly fixture.
Thursday 29th August
My timetable is a bit uneven, I have a single lesson this Thursday, but four next Thursday on the fortnightly timetable. I spent a lot of the day trying to plan out a lesson schedule for the year and preparing A-level lessons for the next few classes.
Two hour lunch breaks lend themselves to enacting out, to day we tried a pizza place. The Chinese are fond of fruit on their pizzas, but what I especially like are the thing bases on some which are more like a tortilla wrap. Tasty and crispy but not too filling for the middle of the day.
Friday 30th August
A four lesson day, two Y11 followed by two Y12. Morning went well, but a few kids asking me questions took up a chunk of a mere 40 minute lunch. Shorter of Fridays so children can leave early travel home for the weekends. Halfway into the first Y12 lesson the laptop died, again, so again was reduced to working all off the whiteboard at short notice with barely any resources. Kids were good about it, probably used to it, but on one hand the school wants A* grades and Oxbridge candidates, and on the other we don’t have the most basic resources like reliable computers and printing. That they maintain such good results is a credit to students and staff to cope with such barriers. Many kids must have been going home this weekend, there must have been hundreds of bags lined up outside.
Got a new timetable for next week, lessons are more evenly distributed, but I’ve also swapped around a couple of classes, but still teaching Y11 and Y12 so won’t disrupt my plans too much.
In the evening had dinner with some friends to celebrate getting through all the hoops of work permit, visa, permits, housing and residency. Negotiating these systems without an effective interpreter would have been, impossible... Was surprised to find the school still open past 10 when taking a short cut on the way home, and looks incredible lit up at night.
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