i haven't written much about my teaching experience in hangzhou because at the time i didn't think there was much to say, i went, i taught, i conquered, and then came back early and got a job here in ontario and that was that. in truth it was a good and bad experience, the bad only really stemming from different nitpicky moments at the school itself. take this with a grain of salt, i guess, as in terms of work places in china, mine was far better than a lot that i've heard of. plus i had a ton of free time - weekdays i only had to teach 2 hours in the evening, but weekends were 10 hours +.
i liked my school, loved my students, made fast friends with office staff, teachers, bosses, etc. but the school itself.. the money we made was below average, the school had no a/c or heat (trust me, that's insane when it's 35 celsius in the middle of july, you have 30 kids crammed into a little room, and the humidity is so bad that your hair is wet), and there were no lesson plans available for parts of the curriculum, besides the student book the children worked out of. in some ways though things were fair because we didn't do much lesson planning as most of us relied heavily on the chinese english teachers to direct us, and just played games and taught a few things, got the kids to speak a bit, etc etc. i just found it exhausting though to have to do this six days a week, sometimes seven, especially when i was told i'd be working five days a week. i guess things like this are pretty typical at privately owned schools in china, though. i don't know. some things i could whine and whine about but then it's like, really, i didn't have it bad at all and when i look back on the experience i can only really see the good in it, the fun times i had teaching songs to kids and dancing at the big christmas performance, and the little things like hugs from the kids and doing dialogues and whatnot.
i think this time i want my weekends free - i find i'm happier with a 9-5, monday to friday routine. i want actual lesson plans and good pay, and if i can teach kids again then even better. i'm looking forward to going back to china so much, no matter where i end up, be it yangshuo, hangzhou, or even shanghai. the culture, the people, the whole teaching experience - it's everything i love wrapped up together. i want to do it better this time around, take the time to savour everything and put more effort into doing things like studying mandarin, learning tai chi, taking some chinese cooking classes (and perhaps focusing less on the pi jiu), that kind of stuff. i'm almost hesitant to go back to hangzhou because i feel like i've already been there, done that, whereas yangshuo with its small town feel and its southern location provides new opportunities and new experiences. i've been thinking about it the past week and still can't make a decision, but either way i'm excited to go.
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