First day of English...

Today was the first day that I didn't need to board the company bus from the hotel at 6:40 a.m. The director does not want me to teach English during working hours, so I stay after hours from 5-7 p.m. to teach English to those who want to stick around. Tonight (Monday) was my first night. Not needing to get on the bus so early means I get to sleep in... this morning was 4:30 a.m. My jet lag is getting much better, but I received a phone call and thinking it was my alarm, I was up and ready to go. Needless to say, when I realized it wasn't my alarm, I couldn't fall back to sleep. So, I did what I normally do: email, exercise, chat with home, breakfast and then I added something new. Prep for class. I've never taught a class before, so I didn't know what to expect. I created a crossword puzzle to test vocabulary, and a few short answer questions to evaluate their written skills. Because my internet at work was not up and running yet, I had to this in my hotel and email it to myself at work (email worked the rest of the web did not).
I finished getting ready for work, and not wanting to be late for the company car, I headed downstairs 15 mins. early. I will take the company car, which somehow worked out to be the Director's Audi, one of the nicest cars in the company, to work M-TH at 9:30 a.m. and the company bus home at 7:30 p.m. I waited for 15 mins, and nothing came. I waited another 10 mins, and nothing came. This is VERY unusual because most of the time drivers are early. After calling Vivan, my friendly task master, I found out the Director forgot to tell the driver to pick me up. Oops. It wasn't a big problem, I just arrived to work at 11:45 instead of 10. It was a half hour from the company to pick me up and half an hour back.
Once I arrived at work, it was a new day. I got my company jacket which we need to wear when moving between departments or going out to the cafe for lunch, AND I got internet! Now that means I need to research "Standard window sizes and wall strength" in the US. If anyone knows the email to a construction worker that would know measurements... I'd appreciate a direct source :) So, that's what I'm now doing at work.
I met up with one of the other interns, Kyle (there are only 3 of us) for lunch and found out that there is a representative from LG India here. Turns out he is very interested in the internship program and would like to meet with the three interns here... maybe an Indian dinner coming on?! I'll let you know more about that later if anything comes of it.
Other than work, and a much needed coffee break to keep me going, I passed around the eval to a few members in my group to see if they (at upper levels of English) could understand the question. Most of the questions were fine, but I'm learning that the Chinese take things very literally and do not always think in a large, broad picture. More detail/specific. Imagaine that...
Because most people stop working and start tinking about around 4:30, maybe even earlier, I taught those same team member Sleazy and Sketchy. We were referring to Used Cars and their Salesmen, and how you can't trust either of them-Vivan is looking to buy a new car and was asking my opinion.
In my response these words came up and trying to explain them became a series of elaborate gestures and pics on the internet. Needless to say we all had a good laugh in the translation process. Then, time for English.
Out of the 20 people that signed up, I had 12 attend. I am going to seperate the group into two parts: intermediate and advanced. This first class, based on conversation, was to see where everyone's English levels are at. Now, I will go back and teach vocab at a slower pace for the intermediate group, and discuss politics with the advanced group. The feeling of the group was not to learn English the language, but learn the culture, popular fads, anything to get a glimpse of the US way of life.
I think the first class went well. Hopefully my attendance numbers will keep up, and the class will continue to be fun. I did promise to make them some sort of U.S. food. If that doesn't bring them in, I don't know what will!

More later!