So the kids think they have it hard - they get a 2 and a half hour lunch break!!!
But, they do start school at 7.35am. The whole get up early and then have an afternoon nap feels slightly counter productive. I presume the lunchtime downtime exists because its so bloody hot here at that time, there's no point in trying to do anything so you might as well sleep. It just means that the kids get up really early and don't go to bed until 11pm every night so they are being deprived of the '8 hours sleep that teenagers need'- all that sleep research obviously doesn't wash here! It also means that like all teenagers across the world all they want to do all day is sleep - i've lost count of the number of desks i've slammed to wake them all up!
Also the teachers all seem to have pupils who come and collect the teacher's latop and then carry it up to the classroom, while the teacher merrily walks along beside them - that didn't really make sense to me! But the kids do seem to be treated a little bit like slaves and second class citizens at times.
Some of the girls also seem to have taken to wearing purple contact lenses! The coloured lense is also bigger than their normal iris so it makes their eye, so it looks really strange - this really messes with my head! I was speaking to one of the girls the other day (who was wearing this weird purple lenses) and I literally couldn't stop looking at her eyes - its a great way to get people to maintain eye contact!
And finally, for the time being. They started playing music from all the other accommodation blocks during lunch time the other day.The song they chose to blare out first was 'Fuck You' by Lily Allen - the irony of this song being blared out in a school in China was not lost on me. While nobody else batted an eyelid, I couldn't stop laughing (I must have looked mad) - the powers that be clearly don't know what it means!
G x
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