I am a teacher. Really?
Dressing conservatively for my new role. Well, at least for the first week.
So the kids are a *bit* spoiled. There were more Mercedes, BMW, VW, and other such fancy cars here on the the first day than I think I had ever seen anywhere. On my first day, in my first class, I had one student from Korea, one from Japan, and one from New York. Huh. That was weird. I guess his dad knows one of the principals at the school (they have three principals and a headmaster). So the poor kid just changed from an American school to a Chinese school, where he needs to get up at 6am, have classes from 7:50am – 9:30pm, and they do homework until midnight. I told the other teachers I am going to make him my helper, and I think they are down with that.
At 9:30 on the first day of school, all the junior and senior students assembled on the soccer field to raise the flag and herald in the new school year.
It was interesting but also a bit odd for a westerner I think. So many students and all of them seem so patriotic. Perhaps just because patriotism is falling out of favor in the states, but they are all very happy when I tell them how excited I am to be in China.