This semester is OV for me! I gave my last final today at 10:30, my how the time has flown! This semester has been absolutely incredible. What started out as a group of unfamiliar, nervous, chinese faces turned into a beautifully confident bunch of friends!
I remember on the first day of class the students slinked awkwardly into their seats looking at me wide-eyed and nervous. I was nervous too because I had never had to teach such shy people...American kids are the complete opposite - you have to teach them to not say everything they're thinking! I found out from a few of the bolder ones that many of them had never even talked to a foreigner before! From then on I understood and tried to make the classroom a friendly environment by building confidence every chance I could. I don't know when it happened but they transformed somewhere in the middle and the last half of class was spent joking during breaks and a lot of them came early to speak to me a little more.
I'm excited about next semester because unlike Kyle and the rest of the undergraduate teachers I get to keep my students! So we're going to have fun learning right off the bat with no need to go through that awkward time again!
I'm really excited about this incredibly long break! We plan to travel south-east asia (vietnam, cambodia & thailand) encouraging family along the way. I'm pumped and will be writing more about it as it happens!
(picture is a prezzie from one of my students named bunny, she got me a bunny so i'd remember her lol)
