So I'm finally starting this blog thing. Thanks Mom for reminding me…or should I say encouraging. I have officially made it through 2.5 weeks in China. I'm working with a great organization. There are about nine of us Summer Staff (young adults) who are here for 6-11 weeks. We all have different jobs. Some are working with kids, while others are working in the company doing business related stuff. Several have been going to the local middle school and teaching English to students and teachers. I went and did that the first week I was here. They were an enthusiastic group of students. We taught about hobbies and chores.
My main jobs are related to each other as they are both education related. I am helping run the homeschool program for the children of long term volunteers. So far that has involved tutoring in the morning and organizing a craft for several afternoons in the week. My other job which I started this week is working in the preschool for some of the local children. It is always interesting when a child is speaking to you and all you can do is nod because you have no idea what they are saying in this other language. But I did have the opportunity to teach English to them today. That was a lot of fun.
In addition to all of the hard work, I have had time for fun. I have gone into Beijing twice for fellowship. I was able to experience two different services. One was small and the other was quite large but both had good speakers. After both times I went out (with people I have been working with) to lunch. The first week we went to a barbeque restaurant started by two guys from Texas. So I am getting my American food requirement in. We also went to a grocery store that sold foreign food (it's weird to think of American food as foreign). I saw Cheerios, Florida's Natural orange juice, Activia yogurt…it felt like home. But really the food here has been pretty good and I have not gotten sick yet so yes!
I'll post some pictures below of some of the sights we have toured and seen in Beijing. I'm not able to post pictures of the kids on here but if you're lucky you might be able to see some when I get back. I am no computer wizard so I have not totally figured out how to put a link on here but my mom (assuming you know her) can direct you to the FB page of the organization I'm working with this summer or their website.
My main jobs are related to each other as they are both education related. I am helping run the homeschool program for the children of long term volunteers. So far that has involved tutoring in the morning and organizing a craft for several afternoons in the week. My other job which I started this week is working in the preschool for some of the local children. It is always interesting when a child is speaking to you and all you can do is nod because you have no idea what they are saying in this other language. But I did have the opportunity to teach English to them today. That was a lot of fun.
In addition to all of the hard work, I have had time for fun. I have gone into Beijing twice for fellowship. I was able to experience two different services. One was small and the other was quite large but both had good speakers. After both times I went out (with people I have been working with) to lunch. The first week we went to a barbeque restaurant started by two guys from Texas. So I am getting my American food requirement in. We also went to a grocery store that sold foreign food (it's weird to think of American food as foreign). I saw Cheerios, Florida's Natural orange juice, Activia yogurt…it felt like home. But really the food here has been pretty good and I have not gotten sick yet so yes!
I'll post some pictures below of some of the sights we have toured and seen in Beijing. I'm not able to post pictures of the kids on here but if you're lucky you might be able to see some when I get back. I am no computer wizard so I have not totally figured out how to put a link on here but my mom (assuming you know her) can direct you to the FB page of the organization I'm working with this summer or their website.