the end of the first month

I hope this post finds all of its readers happy and healthy! I am doing well; my main complaint is being really tired from all the training activity. I started teaching model school this week, and planning for that has been especially exhausting. We also still have Chinese language class everyday, and it feels like I have come to a major plateau in my learning. I hope to get over that soon, or else I will never pass my language interview at the end of August.

We are half way through the pre-service training, and in a couple weeks I will find out where I will be living and teaching for the next two years. I am a little anxious to find out, but I am sure everything will work itself out. I have gotten to know the other trainees very well over the past weeks, and I have made some wonderful new friends. Everyone has such different experiences, which makes for some very interesting conversation.

There aren’t any major adventures to share – but many small ones. Every day is some small adventure whether related to finding something for lunch, figuring out how to get around the city, or communicating with my host family.

Well, I have more lessons to plan, a self assessment on my training progress to complete, and my host sister just informed me that we are going to “Jinli” street, which for what I have read, is the ancient part of the city.