School Day Today

     It took 28 minutes from the time I got the phone call until I walked into the school building this morning, probably the fastest I've ever reported for a sub job.  Or I guess I should say "sup job".  Substitute teachers are often called supply teachers here, kind of an interesting label.  Instead of kids who don't want to bother to learn my name calling out, "Hey sub!" it could sound more like a greeting:
"Hey sup! / hey (what)'s up?"
     Almost 2 weeks ago I dropped off my resume at an international school that's a 10-minute walk from our apartment.  Last week I had a very positive conversation with the principal at the school, who's originally from Boston and who's taught with his wife at schools in Venezuela and Morocco.  Since then I've been eagerly waiting for my first assignment, encouraged after being told that the school's sub list is short.
     Today's call came just before 8.  Classes normally start at 8:20, so that's why I had to scurry.  Fortunately there's an assembly on Wednesday mornings first thing, so classes hadn't started yet even though I'd arrived after the school day had begun.  I had Spanish and French classes today, all quite small.  The school day ends at 12:20 on Wednesdays, so that helped to explain the wiggly, giggly 8th-graders I had during the last class before dismissal.  I was a little surprised--I don't remember any of the classes I had in Shenzhen last year being quite so...un-serious.  But that actually makes the class a whole lot more interesting for me, trying to figure out who the leaders are and how to get them going in the direction they need to be going.

     Here's the view of the harbor from the classroom window today.  Kowloon is barely visible through the foggy haze in the upper right.  Tomorrow and Friday I get to go back to the school for partial day assignments in other classrooms, where I'll have new views, new subjects, new students, new issues.