So today was my first day at school! I am teaching at a primary school called Dr Catherine F. Woo Memorial School in a place called City One. I got up ridiculously early (even for me!) and headed out the door for the station. On my way to the mtr station, there was bamboo baskets filled with beansprouts delivered to the market and, I passed through the food market, where it was clearly meat preparation time- as I passed through, pigs heads and entire pigs were lying quartered open - it was quite a surreal way to start your morning commute!
The signs on the mtr are so funny sometimes, you sometimes feel a little like you are in 1984 esque, with tannoy notices like always hold the handrail and, if you sneeze, you must use a tissue and then make sure you put it straight away in the bin! And later, don’t spit on the platform or into the bins. All are precautions for the H1N1 swine flu (at my school, they don’t have all the students in the same place at any one time, as a swine flu precaution and they take the children’s temperature as they enter the school) However, even without the swine flu precautions, the Hong Kong Chinese are pretty keen on their hygiene and cleanliness. There are many people wearing surgical masks on the mtr and around the streets and one of the schools we trained at, the children all wore them, which was a bit of a nightmare, trying to play Chinese whispers with them – needless to say they didn’t manage to get the right word round the circle!)
The welcome assembly at my school was nice. All the teachers were called up and introduced and bowing to the students. They are so respectful to each other here, with one half of the assembly bowing to each other out of respect for fellow pupils.
Also, the whole system is so structured, with all the classes in extremely straight lines as I entered, boys in one line, girls in the other, and their bags, lined up beside, in a third line, all facing the same way in a perfectly straight line, even at the P1 which was amazing to see and far removed from any school I had seen at home.
However, by 8am we had had 2 nose bleeds and one boy collapse, due to the heat of standing up and I assume the stress and anxiety of the first day of school. Apparently, it is not uncommon for this to happen, especially after the summer holidays when they are not used to standing up for so long and also the heat, even at half 7am (yes that’s what time we start at!) was quite intense even with many fans on full blast.
The children here are always extremely well presented, their uniforms are always beautifully neat and tidy, even at the youngest years. The girls wear a lovely tartan high waisted skirt and a tartan bow tied ribbon as a tie and a white shirt and the boys are in blue shorts, white shirt and a tartan trim collar and shirt sleeves.
After the drama of the morning assembly, the day passed very smoothly. I have a desk in the staff room, opposite to amazing Martin who is a whiz at IT and so does not have far to come, poor man, when I have changed my typing in to Chinese characters again or can’t turn it on because I have not plugged it in…I bet he is looking for a new desk as I write this..! I went to one class with Cecily, where I played some games with the students. I was extremely humbled when a boy came up to draw a word for hangman and it ensued that this word did not have any vowels as the class were guessing letters. I was ready to take the chalk off him and was mentally telling myself that hangman was too advanced for this class, when it transpired the word was rhythm…! It appears more and more that I will be learning much more than I will be teaching this year.
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