Summer Camps in Yangzhou

Firstly, apologies for not writing for some time, I have been particularly busy working on summer camps here in the city of Yangzhou, in Jiangsu province. I arrived in Yangzhou on the 10th of July, my second time visiting this city and the summer camp began the next day. There were 22 foreign teachers on the camp, from a variety of English speaking countries and each teacher had to choose a country, holiday and craft to teach during rotation classes. More than half the teachers had returned from the previous year, so it was good to see some old friends again. The work was not difficult, mostly fun classes, but the heat (up to 40C) made it very tiring by the end of each day. The work schedule was such that we had to leave the hotel at 7.30 each morning, and did not return until about 8 that evening, long hours each day, but on the positive side, hopefully I have some fresh ideas to take back with me when I return to my school later in the summer.

Part way through the summer camp, another teacher asked if I was interested in working on another summer camp, again in Yangzhou, beginning immediately after the first one finishes. After a few messages on the phone, a deal was arranged and on completing the first camp I checked out of one hotel, took a short taxi ride to another hotel and met with some more foreign teachers.

This new camp was much different to the first one, this time there are just 6 foreign teachers, all from the UK, and four of them flew out from England for this summer camp. The essence on the first camp was fun and enjoyment while learning English; this second one is a little more serious. Still there is the essence of having fun, but the students spend all day in the classroom, the earlier summer camp had a little more variety in learning crafts and sport.

Another positive is the shorter working day, 4 hours of teaching each afternoon, all on aspects of the UK. So my mornings and evenings are now free, albeit time is now needed for planning my lessons for the next day.

As I wrote earlier, this is my second visit to Yangzhou, but so far I have had little time to explore the city, there are several canals running through parts of the city, and at the eastern edge of Yangzhou is a large canal that is usually full of ships or industrial barges plying their trade along the Grand Canal to the Yangtze River. There is a pedestrian street full of souvenir stores and local foods, I have visited here as well as one or two of the restaurants. The street is made very traditional and old looking, it is in fact much newer than it looks and is just a few years old being built after 2010.

Another tourist site is the Slender West Lake and two gardens or parks, the Ge Garden and He Garden, many Chinese people visit the city for these attractions. Last year during the summer camp the students were taken on a field trip to the Marco Polo Botanical Garden, they were accompanied by the foreign teachers although most of the students (and some of the teachers) spent most of a very hot day in the outdoor swimming pool at the park.

This year the field trip was to Yangzhou zoo. It was among the better zoos I have seen in China, with plenty of space to walk around as well as large areas for the animals. Because it was such a hot day, most animals were sleeping or trying to find some shade away from the sun.

I have a little more than a week here before returning to Yingtan and hopefully some rest before returning to work next term/semester.