Bronchitis

I am sick sick sick; I guess this is a hazard of working with small children.

One of the school admins took me to the pharmacy, where you have to go to different counters for each item and ask for it.  The pharmacists (I sure hope they are pharmacists) "prescribed" some kind of herbal stuff that smells like licorice and slippery elm for the cough, to be taken 3x a day, and an antibiotic called Arithromycin.  I also got some cough drops and Robitussin (not sure which Robitussin, as the label is in Chinese).  Apparently antibiotics are taken quite regularly by the Chinese, which brings to mind mutant superviruses...Am holding off on the antibiotic until I'm sure that it is necessary; if the coughing is just a symptom of my cold rather than a bacterial infection, then the antibiotic may do as much harm as good.

With the new class I'm up to 18 hours a week.  This coming weekend there will also be an all-school Easter party on Sunday evening, when all the teachers are exhausted from teaching all weekend.  The plus side is that I don't have to plan any lessons for it, I think I'm just there to play with the children.

Then on Monday, it will be a public school holiday, so I've been "asked" to teach make-up lessons for the three classes that were canceled Sunday before last. I really wish it didn't coincide with the Easter party the night before.

The upshot of all this is that I have to get well ASAP so I can soldier through the next weekend.  Still in my pajamas.  Back to bed...

What a day!

This morning I went to school so that one of the school staff could help me exchange some travelers checks in USD for RMB.  Our head teacher told them that they would have to take me to the main branch of the Bank of China downtown for it.  So, did they? Nooooo, we had to go to another branch first, where we filled out paperwork, waited in line, and then were told we must go to the main branch.  The admin guy wanted to take the bus, which would have been about 40 minutes each way.  At this point, thinking of all the lesson plans I still needed to work on for the weekend, I overruled him and hailed a cab.  Cabs are quite inexpensive here, so I was happy to pay for the cab ride both ways. 

We arrive at the main branch of the bank, fill out the same paperwork, which he didn't keep, then went to a window to have it processed, including photocopying my passport.  We were then given some kind of form and had to go to another part of the bank, take a number and wait.  Upon getting to that teller, we were told we must go to another teller.  Another number, another wait.  Lucky me, we get a teller who is new and seems to have no clue what a traveler's check is.  She takes my passport and the traveler's checks back into the first room and is gone for about five minutes.  Probably watching the training video on American traveler's checks.  She comes back, tells me to sign them.  Then she and several other tellers spend several minutes comparing my signatures; apparently because they don't use English cursive in China they cannot tell if it's really my signature.  At this point I am ready to cry.  Finally they decide that the signatures are acceptable and she proceeds to give me the money.  Mission accomplished. 

But wait, there's more.  When I arrived at school, the head teacher told me that I "might" get an additional class THIS AFTERNOON.  I wonder when they would have told me this, if I hadn't just happened to go to school today... sigh.

By the time we returned to school from the bank it was decided that I would be taking over the Friday afternoon level 2 class (age 5-6 or so).  Thank heaven, it was a lesson I had already prepared for this weekend!  Finally got home around noon, and worked on lessons until 3:00 when it was time to turn around and go back to school. 

I got home from school about an hour ago at 5:30, have eaten my dinner, taken out the trash, made some hot lemon-honey-ginger drink to try to soothe my cough which has returned with a vengeance, and taken the time to write this because I needed to vent.  Now it's time to settle down and work on lesson plans for the weekend, I hope that I can work at lightning speed so that I can get to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour.

How much is this?

On the way to school I stopped at my favorite steamed bun shop where the girl likes to practice her English, and she asked if I would bring her an American dollar.  She wants to see what it looks like.  She offered to buy it, but I will just give it to her... She's been kind to me. 

I was the only one who showed up for the Chinese lesson today, so I got a 2 hour private lesson, go me!  Not only was it super helpful because it could be tailored exactly to my level, I enjoyed having the chance to get to know the teacher better.  She is one of the Chinese English teachers at the school.  We reviewed pronunciation of the phrases from prior lessons and worked on some shopping vocabulary so that I can "haggle".  How much is this?  It's too expensive!  Can you go lower?

After class, I went to my bank to see whether I could deposit some of my USD traveler's checks, but apparently even though I have an account there, the bank cannot accept USD, I have to go to the Bank of China, which is authorized to exchange currency.  At least they understood my phrase "deposit money" when I said it in Chinese.

Then I went to a restaurant which is a favorite of one of my colleagues, and they wanted to bring me her favorite foods, but I was able to practice my new phrases and ask for spicy eggplant instead.  I sure wish I could watch them prepare this dish.  At a guess, they coat the eggplant with flour and deep fry it quite hot.  The texture is lovely, just slightly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  It also had some kind of green pepper that was not as mild as a bell pepper but not hot either, and loads of cilantro stalks, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, and those medium hot small dried red peppers.  I ate only one of those, I love the flavor in the dish but the peppers themselves are too much for me.  The dish looks really beautiful, one of these days when I have my camera with me I'll photograph it.

One nice thing about going alone is that I didn't have to eat any sweet and sour pork.  All of the other foreign teachers seem to be gago over it, and it is usually much better than at home with less breading, but I'm tired of it already.  Boring to get a dish I can get at home.

On Wed and Thur evenings I have my pre-kindergarten class, those kids are really so cute.  It's a bit baffling when sometimes they suddenly decide they don't want to do something and cry, but I guess that is part of being three/four years old.  I haven't much experience with this age group until now.  I'm glad that the parents are in the classroom to take care of them, always by the end of class they are happy again.  They love to dance and sing, and at the end of the class most of them want hugs, they are so adorable.