China Team Journal


Friday, July 15, 2011

Journal by: Anna Morgan

I woke up from an enjoyable sleep around 4 in the morning. Trying to figure out what happen to my retainer. I finally found it under my leg. Then fell asleep again. What felt like 20 minutes was 2 hours I was awoken again. This time by my mom saying "wakey wakey". Being a 14 year old I mumbled something like I'm up, and then dozed off again. After a repeat of my morning alarm I stumbled out of bed and got ready for breakfast. When mom and I got to our little dinning room we were greeted by the other volunteers. Warren our team leader would start of the day by saying "it‘s going to be a great day".

Then the whole team would discuss the plan of the day, of teaching in the morning, having lunch at a restaurant, then free time until dinner. We headed out Around 7:40 everyone went to their rooms and got ready for teaching. About 8:00 we climbed into our little bus and headed to school. Once we got there we scurried to the 4th floor. Going to our classrooms there were students already in there waiting. For the next five to ten minutes the rest trickled in.

We started the day by reviewing their homework. They had to tell us one rule they would change if they could. Some were about school, others were about family. Many of their thoughts were very interesting. Next we paired them up and handed them a picture. They had to create a story combining the two. Every story was different, but related to the characters celebrating a holiday or a kid being very naughty. It was funny to hear the stories.

I could tell that the students were tired from the long week of learning English. Many were Yawning and putting their head on the table. Mom and I were able to keep them awake until 11:30. It reminded me of how I felt in school. After saying that class is dismissed we left to catch our little bus.

Warren told the six of us that he didn't feel good so he dropped us off at the restaurant. We sat outside since it was a beautiful day. Claudia order fried rice and eggplant, Susan (my mom) and Gretchen ordered wanton soup and steam broccoli. Lynn and I ordered spicy rice for our hotness we craved. Lastly Anne was happy with what we ordered. When we were waiting for our food a Chinese woman and son was stopped because her Canadian husband stopped to talk to us. He talked about how he wished he could find somewhere his son could learn English. We gave him several ideas and told him about Global Volunteers. Information was swapped then we said our goodbyes. Shortly after our food arrived and was ready to eat. We realized that there was an extra dish of chicken. We all had our share and enjoyed it very much.

Once we were stuffed we headed out to the Green Lake. It was so beautiful. With kids in colorful inflated balls on water to painters painting sceneries, we all enjoyed the relaxing afternoon. Claudia and my mom stayed a little longer, while the rest of us traveled back to the hotel. At six we had a delicious dinner like always. Once that was done we went to our rooms to wait for our fruit. We had leeche then fell fast asleep.

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