Feb 21

It was so nice to attend church Sunday. We haven't been to church for two weeks because of our travels. In fact, almost everyone was back from their holidays so it was fun to see them all.
We had also had a "hot pot" on Saturday night at our Relief Society presidents house. It's a big bowl of soup that you put meat and vegetables in, of your choice, and then you eat it. It was OK. The cabbage was good and so were the desserts that everyone brought.
Last Wed. we went to Beijing to hear Elder Dallin Oaks speak. Did I tell you? Anyway we stayed with the Quan family. They're from America. He works for the U.S. embassy. They live in a 4 bdrm. 3 bath apartment in the embassy complex. It's not at all the kind of apt. that we live in! I told Alice she was the queen living in a palace! They even had real napkins! The napkins we but are like single ply, or less.
When I was talking to Mel the other day I realized that maybe I haven't mentioned our classroom situation.
My sophomores meet in a newer building. The class is made to hold 30 students. I have 37. So it's crowded and they have to go scrounge up chairs to sit in. There are enough desks , but not enough chairs. In front of the class is a chalk board (they have very nice chalk) and a big metal desk that's about 4 ft. tall. The desk is locked and I pick up a key on my way in, from a guard. The desk top slides open in both directions and that's where there's a computer and keyboard and a place to plug in my laptop. Of course, there are no directions to plug it in and the computer is all in Chinese so I can't use theirs.
I haul in my laptop and class materials in my shoulder bag. The students bring in their books in their backpacks.
Their classes start at 8:00 am and go to 9:50 with a 5 min. break in the middle. The next class starts at 9:50 and goes to 11:30. Then they have lunch and a rest until 2:00 when I have my classes.So my first afternoon class goes from 2-3:35 and the next one from 3:50 - 5:30. Then the students have a dinner break and then more classes and homework. They are really loaded down with work! They don't hold down outside jobs and there's not much time for other activities, like basketball or ping pong. But we always see the boys playing basketball on our way by the dormitories.
They take a national test in sixth grade to see where their aptitudes lay and in high school they are pigeon-holed for their vocation and college according to their national test scores again. They also take tests in college to see if they can go overseas to a university. Their English has to be pretty good. Besides the oral English that I teach, they also have an English grammar class and a writing class. And their English classes are taught by Chinese teachers. They're so excited to have a real English teacher!
I've got to hike over to the printing office to pick up some materials. It was so fun trying to order some cards to be printed when no body spoke English! Pantomime is universal!
Love you all! More later...Mom XXOO