1st week of classes...

Supposedly my whole contract thing got worked out, so I was able to start teaching this week. I have since learned that is not necessarily the case (yay cross-cultural communication) but at this point I'm just happy I finally get to teach! I've taught 15 of my 18 classes for the week so far, and with the exception of two, they've been great. I've been giving the students ten minutes at the end of class to ask me anything they want to know about me and our American culture. I think I overemphasized "ANYTHING" with my last class today as I was met with an onslaught of questions about my sister, her occupation, her e-mail, her relationship status... Hannah, if you're ever looking for a Chinese husband, you have about 25 offers on the table, and no I did not give out your e-mail address :). Some of the other notable questions from this week include:
-Do you like beer?
-Do you like China or America better?
-Are you married? (asked in every class, almost always by one of the boys, and met with uproarious laughter each time)
-Do you watch the NBA (basketball is just huge over here. When I said I was from Minnesota, one kid immediately asked if I like KG, or Kevin Garnett. Huge points for that kid.)
-How tall are you?
-How many floors does your house have?
-Can I have your e-mail address?
-Will you play badminton with me after school? (this guy was dead serious, I'll probably have to take him up on it sometime.)
-Can I be friends with you?
-What is your favorite film? (Trying to explain the movie Rushmore to a group of 45 students who barely understand English has been pretty entertaining.)
-Do you like George Bush?

Those are the best ones I can remember right now. They also always want to know my favorite food, sport and whether or not I play computer games. The autograph thing has continued to happen. It's kind of fun getting to pretend like I'm a mild celebrity for awhile, but it's also kind of amazing to think I am generally the first foreigner my students have ever seen somewhere other than TV. I see it as a good opportunity to try and represent the west as best as I can, and also give a slightly distorted image of how important Ultimate Frisbee, wiffle ball and raptors are to western civilization. And on a completely unrelated note, I managed to shatter a brand new bowl in front of the entire dining hall the other night. The fallout of shattered china was spectacular and brought the entire room to absolute silence. This is a picture of the remnants of my once beautiful bowl. I guess this was inevitable but the west is getting a solid reputation as being perhaps the most clumsy/awkward people on earth. Okay, that's all for now. I will provide a more complete update again sometime this weekend.