A Typical Day

I have been in Shenyang for almost four weeks, and I have pretty much fallen into a routine. My teaching schedule is fairly full, but at the Shenyang Experimental School, Chinese and Math are always the first subjects taught during the day.  This means that English lessons do not start until 10:15. Rather than ride over to my school with Vicky and Katie at 7:15, I sleep in a bit, eat breakfast at home, and walk down to school at 9:00.  This means that I won’t hog the bathroom when Katie and Vicky’s mom are getting ready, and that I will have some quiet time. The house is still very noisy. In the afternoon and after dinner, Vicky chats on the computer with her sister in England, Harry practices his harmonica and Katie practices her recorder (at the same time), or Harry and Katie shout at each other over homework (it seems to be an issue here), and Vicky’s mom turns the volume of the TV to full blast so that she can hear her program over all of the other noise. After Harry, Vicky, and Katie leave in the morning, the only noise is Vicky’s mom washing the breakfast dishes and listening to the morning news, quietly. I eat breakfast in my own room and look out the window or read. Even with the honking car horns and freeway noise coming in through the window, it is very peaceful.

When I finally do have to leave, the peace is gone. Walking to work is a luxury, and I have enjoyed being able to do it for the past few weeks, but being a pedestrian in Shenyang is dangerous! The traffic here is incredible. The streets are very crowded, and the biggest vehicle wins. I am honked at by a bus or car or motorbike at least three times every morning. The honking is a reminder to get out of the way, even if one is on the sidewalk. That’s right. Cars will pull right up onto the sidewalk to get around a blocked lane in the street. Many businesses have cars park on the sidewalk outside their doors, and so as I walk along, cars will swing right in front of me to pull into or out of a parking place. The sidewalks are also fair game for bicycles and motorbikes.  And unlike the traffic on the road, there is no “right” side to drive on. Bikes and mopeds zigzag this way and that among the pedestrians.

Crossing at an intersection is the hardest part of my walk.  I have to cross five on my way to Branch 1, and I breathe a little sigh of relief every time I make it through.  Even if I wait for the walk signal, I still have to pick my way carefully through the cars that are turning right, and then through the cars that are driving straight through the red light illegally, and then through cars on the other side that are turning right on red. (They do not have to stop at the red light.  They just go.) I also have to watch for mopeds coming towards me on the sidewalk. I had a close call a couple of days ago when I was just about to make it across the worst of the five intersections. I had the walk signal, I had navigated the cars turning and going straight, and was hurrying to get across before a taxi got to the intersection to make a right on red. Just as I made it to the other side, a speeding motorbike came whizzing right at me and honked. I had to literally jump out of the way. Apparently the moped was speeding up to beat the taxi to the intersection too. Honk! Honk!

When I arrive at school, I climb the stairs to the third floor English department office and take out my computer. This is the only place where I have internet access, and so I try to check e-mail before my lessons start for the day. Once things get rolling, I have fifteen minutes in between lessons, which isn’t quite enough time to get much done if one has to take one’s computer out of its bag, which was locked in a locker, and wait for it to “wake up,” and wait for it to find the wireless signal, and wait for it to open Outlook, etc. So, I check my personal e-mail account in the morning, and I usually check my school account before I leave in the afternoon. Before my lessons begin is also when I can try to Skype with my husband and my parents. It is nice to actually see some familiar faces and hear actual voices speaking a language I can understand, and on those days I feel a real boost in my morale!

The English office at Branch 1 has eight big wooden desks and two long tables with computers. There are a line of drab green lockers along one wall, and two big, sunny windows facing the playground. I set up shop at one of the long tables with a chair I borrow from a computer terminal. It’s pretty comfortable, but this office is as noisy as the apartment after dinner. There are four fifth grade English teachers and four sixth grade English teachers. Each teaches three sections of English, which means they have a lot of planning time in the office. It is rarely empty. Pop music is usually playing out from one of the computers, and there is lots of chatting and planning-talk. Students come in and out of the office all day dropping off huge stacks of workbooks that need to be graded, and retrieving huge stacks of workbooks that have been graded, or to get extra practice and help, or to earn extra credit for memorizing a song in English and singing it to the teachers, or just to take a peek at the giant typing on her laptop in the corner.

When the lessons start for the day, I lock up my bag and just carry what I need to class, which is usually not much. When I arrive to my assigned room, sometimes the base teacher is there. I knock and wait for him or her to acknowledge me, and then I come in and wait in the corner until the class is finished with what it is doing. The lessons are short, only thirty-five minutes each, but they are intense. When I get back to the English Department office, I just want to sit quietly or put my head down. I’ve seen a lot of the other English teachers do this too, when they don’t have to deal with a student.  After fifteen minutes, it’s back to another lesson.

At the end of the day, I wait for the rush of parents and kids to subside and check my school e-mail or look at the news for a bit online. Then I pack everything up in my bag, zip on my heavy coat, pull on my gloves and sunglasses, and walk back to Vicky’s apartment. The walk home seems less stressful, although the traffic is just as bad. Maybe it’s because teaching is behind me for the day. On Wednesdays school is dismissed early, and so this is a good time to go shopping for supplies. By supplies, I mean breakfast food and bottled water.

I’m usually the last to arrive “home.” The family eats dinner very early, which suits me just fine, and then if I can’t be of any use to Katie for her English homework, I go to my room, close the door, and work on this blog, lesson plan, and read. I upload any pictures I’ve taken during the day and write captions for them before I forget what was what, and I look at photos of my husband and my doggie.  After I hear that Katie and her Grandmother are finished getting ready for bed, I sneak into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. It has been hard for me to remember not to put my toothbrush under the tap, and so I usually have to sneak back to my room to grab some bottled water.  The mattress in Katie’s room is really firm. Really. When I sit down on it, I think of the stone or brick beds that were in the palace. At first I thought I would never be comfortable on such a hard mattress, but I am. In fact, I’m so tired every night that I probably could fall asleep on a brick mattress!