Friday, July 28, 2006

Ending a job in one week

Am I spoiled? Yes, maybe...

I was looking for a part time job, but they ask me to work from 12:30 to 6:00pm, I thought I can do that, but actually, it's too long hours for me.

So, Friday will be last day for now..

I am kind happy for that.. Reasons:

1. The kids are kind old for me, they are 6-8 years old, they learned how to "deal" with teachers already, they know you can not punish them too hard, can not do anything if they refuse to do what teacher wants them..

2. Those who were born and raised in China are super hard to control their habits, that was a surprise to me, even those Chinese teachers agree..

3. The teachers there are good people, but the whole thing is not lack of management skill, not organized at all.

And, I know by my first day that I can not tolerate the culture here.. too China style, bossy, cheating, hire people w/o legal status, not good in speaking English (all kids speaks English when they play with each other) and kids laughing at their broken English..

Anyway, sooner or later I will stop working here, then sooner is better,,

How am I doing there in one week? I made the kids line-up at eating time, that was very impressive for other teachers... I make them read while nobody is talking at the same time..it never happened to them either.. I teach them one by one to finish their English homework package which other Chinese teacher can not do and parents appreciated that very much....

Again, I feel FREE ... until next time be tied up, I will enjoy my FREE time : )

Friday, July 21, 2006

Interview for a after school day care ctr

So, I went to have an interview today. It's a after school Chinese program in Palo Alto area. They may need me to teach some English speaking kids to learn Chinese, they also may want me to open a new science related summer camp and I will be creating my own curriculum, yes, I can do that cause I did it before. There's about 80-100 kids now. That shows there's enough for me to open another center later on. Seems many English speaking parents want their kids to lean Chinese at early age now.

They like me very much, they are mainland Chinese ladies (2), they think I am over qualified for the job and for the pay. I told them when I doing a job of "touching the future" pay is not an issue, besides, when I go back to Foothill College in Sep to finish my required 12 ECE (Early Childhood Development) units so that I can open my own pre-school site, I do need actual experience to write class report. That they understand.

I miss those days spend with small kids when I teach in pre-school long time ago, never mind the pay, the kids are so fun to watch...I am tired of those half dead old pple around me, they are self centered, very selfish and greedy..

They will contact me on Monday to discuss more details of my own class.

Oh, the pay? It's range from $10.00-$20.00 an hour. But likely I may get $15/hr.

It's close by, drive 10-15 minutes. That's a good thing..

So, let's see....

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Camping at Lake Tahoe - Emerald Bay







We camped at this beautiful site in Lake Tahoe - Emerald Bay State Park (Eagle Point Campground). We are at site# 57. This is the best camp site I have so far visited. Lots tall trees around the site, we build our tent in this place that no one can see us, it's better than hotel rooms. We can see the whole Lake Tahoe and whole Emerald Bay by walking 3 minutes. We stayed this site for 2 nites.

We first visited Truckee town that is very interesting to tour around to see things "old" and elegant..then we drive along Truckee river that is completely packed with people to play rafting, it caused water (river) traffic jam, some people swimming in the river, some standing in the water try to push the raft (all made by rubber), some laughing loud under the full sun and surrounded by the tall Tahoe trees. All of them are full of happiness and joy... but we have been super slowly driving on the road along the Truckee river. Finally we checked in our camp site at 3:30pm, later, cooked dinner at the site and enjoy of doing nothing.

Second day, we drive to South Tahoe City. Lot's people on this 4th of July, people starting to put chairs, blankets on all those "good spot" to view tonites fireworks around the lake. We have biked for 2 beaches and seen all of them doing the same thing, to occupy a spot to view the fireworks. So we biked and sight seeing some more places, people, and admired those expensive but super small houses next to the water front...

After lunch at Taco Bell (for some reason, we wanted to eat this crunchy taco), we decide to find a way to go down to the bottom of Emerald Bay, never been there..
So, we find this place that so many cars are parking there, it's "Vikingsholm", that's the place we can "walk" down to the bottom of the Emerald Bay (no car can drive down except service cars). So we walked about 2 miles down, easy. But wasn't so easy when we climb back up later.. and it "worth it".

Then we found this Eagle Lake area is very fun too, that is not too far from the parking area of Vikingholm. Very clean and nice area to rest and picnic. We finished half of the watermelon there. There's big waterfall starts this place that falls into Emerald Bay. Very good place that I never been before..we cooked dinner again at the campsite with potable stove, weather is too dry to burn wood and cook.

What's the bad thing? I wish we have thicker "matterss" underneath..sleeping on the ground is still hard with 2 layers of padding...

And, next time, we will book this camp site early (7 months ealy) and pick site#56 as first choice. This site has lake view and 2 camp fire rings. People camped here watched 3 fireworks alone the Lake last night!! Web: parks.ca.gov.