Brookline High School in China

China 22: Schedule

Dangerous food: Sichuan food, known as the spiciest in China, is.
Group Members in Xi'an: 8 by tomorrow

So tomorrow Christina gets back to Xi'an and we'll be completely back to normal schedule and routine. We'll shift the circle of desks in our classroom into a bigger circle, and maybe the group won't be as fluid with more members. I realize that I still haven't described exactly what the most of our lives consist of in Xi'an, school.

For me, I wake up at 6 am, and run with my mom. I end up leaving my apartment at 7:10. Walk to Class 8 and sit down in the back of the room with my alternating deskmates.

7:20-7:55 am School begins with a little circus tune on the speakers. This period is the "reading period" where supposedly students are allowed to read and do homework. But Gao Xin High uses this as a front for teachers to add an extra lesson here and there. Sometimes I'm asked to go to the front of the classroom and read english words outloud while they repeat them.

7:55-8:00 The speakers annouce the end of reading period with the same circus tune, and we have a five minute break in our classroom, before the next teacher circulates into our room. In between each class we have these breaks where kids get off their hard wooden stools and talk and joke.

8:00-8:40 Class 1. We have four official classes in the morning in a Chinese classes. The teachers move from class to class as opposed to the student going from class to class. Everyday seems to have a different class schedule, but there must be some kind of pattern that I haven't noticed yet.

8:50-9:30 Class 2. There are many different teachers that come into my room. I've had Chinese, English, politics, history, geography, chemistry, bio, physics, math, art, music, art, and physical ed.

9:30-10:00 Morning Exercises. The entire school goes outside onto the basketball courts and does a kind of choreographed dance thing. Of course, we were never taught this dance, so I stuggle to follow the person in front of me. I've gotten to the point where I'm at least not the only one standing when the rest of the school is ducking.

10:00-10:40 Class 3. The classes are more or less incomprehensible. And the few things that I catch here and there are things I've already studied since I'm in the U.S. equivalent of a sophomore and I'm a senior. I usually spend the time during class doing my homework or chatting with my deskmate. I'd love to sleep like a lot of the kids in the class do with amazing skill, but I feel I'm too conspicuous. Since there are almost 60 kids in my class it's not hard to hide behind a pile of books and nap.

10:50-11:30 Class 4.

11:00-1:00 Lunch/Break. The food at Gao Xin is AMAZING, especially coming from a US high school cafeteria. They have actual cooks who make the food as opposed to simply microwaving frozen food. It's delicious. Then if it's sunny out we, the American students, usually hangout outside or go into our personal classroom to check email. I use this time to play basketball with the other chinese kids, but they have to go in around 12:30 for "study time."

1:00-3:00 Our class. The eight American students and our teacher gather in our own room for what has become Chinese/American lit., discussing our experience in Xi'an, and researching the modern history of China. I really like this class b/c it's much more participation based than the morning classes. The lectures we have been researching and giving to our follow classmates haven't been the funnest. It's in this class that we sometimes end up having some intense discussions, and when we walk out with good new ideas about life and approaching Xi'an.

3:00-4:30 "culture class." This is really just a time for us to relax after a long day. All the classes are fun but in different intensities. Everyday it switches between kung fu, chinese, sewing, painting, caligraphy, paper cutting, singing, and cooking. Personally, I enjoy painting the most b/c I usually finish early and can paint w/e I want. Our classroom has been filled with ugly paintings we've made of chinese cabbages and lillies.

5:00 We usually don't get out of the school until at least 5 because we clean up and just talk. The Chinese students don't get out till 6:30, so we get out earlier than them. After school, most of us try to get back to the house by 7 the very latest, so we don't have enough time to really go downtown and explore, so we sometimes go to the market nearby or to AiJia the local grocery store. I like to come home early b/c this is the only time I really have to go online.

posted by dAVID @ 4:16 AM