Heading to the Mainland!

Orientation is winding down and we're about to begin the last day of classes. This week has been far more helpful than I could have imagined. I feel a lot more ready than I thought I would and I've had a great number of gaps in my knowledge concerning China filled. I've heard a lot of great things about Jilin as well. Having been pretty much in the southwest before I'm excited to get a real look at North China.

I don't know yet what classes I'll be teaching and when, and we have been warned that such information may not be given to us until the morning of our first class. I guess I have to be ready to hop into a classroom and go. We were told that it will most likely be oral english which is what we've been learning about much of the week but we've been instructed a little on the running of a writing class as well. The encouraging and exciting thing about the teaching is that we have an opportunity to run a non-lecture class, something which students have not previously had much of.

Hong Kong is becoming a little more familiar to me as well, the layout is starting to stick a little and I'm starting to get just a little bit of the flavor. Last time through Hong Kong it felt a little like a return to the States with all of the English and westerners around. This time through the tonal languages, the smells I can't always identify, and the packed streets have all brought me right back to China and made me more excited to get to the mainland.