Working as a (very)low-Chinese speaker at a Chinese school

is funny sometimes because people forget to tell us what's going on.

Today, for instance, I was sitting in the office waiting for the second period bell to ring, finishing some last minute prep,

when a loud burst of music came bouncing down the hall.

I said something about it to Kayla,

and we agreed that someone must be listening to music in the multi-media room next door.

We kept on working and listening for the bell, which is our cue to head to class.

Kids began milling through the halls, and we decided that maybe the bell just wasn't going to ring today.

That happens sometimes, no bell.

And some days the bell is a few minutes late.

Some days it's a few minutes early.

So there we sat today,

just waiting away

when in walked Ms. Song, who nonchalantly made a comment about the school's new musical bell system.

A.k.a. the music we heard quite some time ago,

which meant we needed to be in class, ready to begin in

approximately, oh, any second.

Aaand Ms. Cowart made a mad dash for the door...

Our bell is now music!

Pretty fun, but we totally didn't get that memo. :)

Thank goodness indeed for Ms. Song and our other wonderful English-Chinese liaisons of her kind. They're smart and oh so great. Without them I would remain impossibly out of the loop.

#2-->

A few weeks ago we started the week on a Tuesday (also known as a crazy day for all) following a long weekend,

and we (the English teachers) didn't find out until about 8 PM the night before that there wouldn't be any electricity for a majority of the next day...

which meant no computers, no copies, no listening to English tapes in class, no visits to the dark basement dungeon closet for art supplies...

A sign had been posted on the wall for quite some time,

BUT the sign was in Chinese.

Just thinking about everything I had planned to use that required electricity made me dread going to school the next day.

But thank goodness indeed the Tuesday turned out to be rather low key and pretty fun.

Electricity-- way overrated. :)

All random communication craziness aside, though,

I'm constantly reminded how cool it is that I've been given the chance to study Chinese and work at a Chinese school while teaching ESL.

Every day I have the chance to experience what it's like to be in the shoes of someone new to a language...

Albeit confusing at times,

still pretty fun.