Beijing Layover and First Week of Teaching

Sain baina uu! Hello!

Day three of teaching at Mongolia International University finished.  It has only been a couple days and there has already been tons of adventure!  First off we had a 12 hour layover in Beijing before flying out to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar and boy was it a layover!

We landed in Beijing at 5 PM local time.  Adam offered us the options to either stay in the airport and sleep or go explore Beijing.  The Preuss family opted to stay and sleep but everyone else decided to go adventuring.  We decided to get dinner at Tienanmen Square and then head back to the airport before they closed. While we were able to figure out the subway route with little to no trouble, the timing schedule was another beast entirely.  We made it to the square with out any problems and decided to split up into our travel groups to eat, though eventually we all ended up at the same place anyway!  After guessing what we might like by the pictures on the menu we ended out with a salad (which I don't think we intended to order), spicy tongue and tripe (which I don't think we intended to get either), and a chicken and mushroom dish with scrambled eggs (which we actually did try to order!).  After we had finished we moseyed over back to the subway to get the line that would take us back to the airport.  We arrived at the transfer point and had to purchase a ticket for the other line, all the time wondering why we were the only ones left at that ticket booth and why the attendant was pushing us up the line so quickly.  When we got down to the train we realized that it was because this was the last train headed to the airport before the line closed!  We made sure that they did not leave without anyone from the group, me standing in the doorway of the train while others waved the rest of our group down into the trains as fast as they could! Luckily we all made it back to the airport safe and sound.

Tienanmen Square

This leads us to our second exciting tale.  While waiting at our gate, one of the group members managed to drop their passport down a ventilation grate.  Dr. Preuss immediately went to find an attendant while the MacGyvers of the group put their heads together.  After various plans involving rope, a carabiner, chopsticks, moleskin, tweezers, and duct tape failed, a maintenance worker came by with his handy dandy tools to save the day (after deciding that the mop he came with the first time would not suffice).  We retrieved the passport just in the nick of time to board the plane and leave Beijing for the first time with many great stories.

The flight to Ulaanbaatar did not take long.  We touched down  after a couple hours and went through customs easily.  The only hitch was the loss of Alex B's pack (which we have since recovered!).  We rode the bus back to the dorms and unpacked.  We rested up and prepared for the next day, our first day of teaching.

Alex B using wifi outside of our dorm

During our first day teaching in Mongolia, we had quite the experience.  We were split into groups of three (mine had Trent and Alex C).  After that we were told nothing but our room number.  We walked into room 101 knowing only that we were too teach English.  From there we had to improvise.  Luckily we had the theater major himself, Trenton Semple.  With his quick thinking and the things in our pack, we developed a plan.  We would emulate the Dr. Shultz method.  We showed the students various objects from our packs and had them write descriptions.  The items included a multi-tool, a CPR mask, a SteriPen, and a headlamp.  The students reactions were priceless.  Many were baffled by the strange conglomeration of foreign objects. Many of the students were close in their guesses as to the use of the object.  Many others were very far off.   Their descriptions included fanciful words such as “laser knife” and “freaking mutant animal.”  We then explained the uses to them and the light bulbs went on.  The descriptions provided many laughs for us after reading them.

Sunrise- Day 2 (Out of our dorm window)

The next day we taught, we had the same students.  This time around, we had a bit more time to plan a lesson.  Our room was labeled “Writing/Grammar” so we decided that was our focus.  Trent came up with the idea to have them correct sentence we wrote.  With this and sentence creation, we were able to fill the first class.  The next class however was much quicker.  We finished the whole lesson with 15 minutes to spare out of 45!  We were scrambling.  Luckily Ben came to the rescue and offered an idea.  He suggested we have them write us letters.  We thought that the idea was wonderful and proceeded with confidence.  The students were to write to one of the three instructors.  One of the letters was especially moving. A girl in the class explained that she lived with her siblings. Her parents had died when she was six.  She acknowledged the difficulty of this but also supplied her source of strength.  She revealed that she found love in God.  This moved the three of us nearly to tears.  Just when we thought we would lose it we turned the note over.  On the back was a note addressed to “Darling Wesley,”.  It said how she thought that I was cute and hoped I had a good trip.  This resulted in guffawing from Trent and Alex and maybe a blush from me.  Over all the teaching experience was just as educational for us as instructors as it was for the students.