Today I taught my first 2 classes. The students here are very attentive, and clap when you enter the room, try to speak in Mandarin and when you are finished with your lesson. I had one students accompany me to one of the classes today, and the Chinese students love it when the American students are there. They ask more questions & seem generally interested in what the student's response is. For the first lesson I went over the crazy rotating schedule at NHS with them. They were all shocked when I told them that school ends at 2:35 for us, whereas, it ends at 4:30, or 5:30 depending if they have an exam after school that day or not. All of their tests & quizzes are done after school, instead of during the period when their class meets. They have 8 classes everyday and this rotates all week, however, every Monday they have the same schedule, every Tuesday is the same, etc. The students explained what study period was, and they totally freaked out. They all want to come to America and go to school there, as they think they are being treated unfair!! I asked them what they wanted to learn about America or from the students and they want to know a whole range of things! For example: music/bands, culture, food, movies, history. I think I'll get some speakers from the electronic market and play some music for them for next class.
After class was over I ventured out to the Jewish Refuge Museum which used to be an active Ashkenazim temple. In this area several thousand Jews were saved during World War II because Shanghai welcomed the fleeing refugees with open arms. The temple was quite small but beautifully refurbished. Above are two photos of the synogogue, the first one is the front and the second image is the back of the temple. It was very hard to get to this area by subway. The phrase, "you can't get there from here," comes to mind. I had to transfer 3 times to different lines and go south west to get to north east. But I did make it and I'm glad I went, even if it was a bit pricey - ¥50!!
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