Back at it.

I'm halfway through the first day of school of the second term.

It's been a good day so far, and there are lots of changes in the school. Two new classrooms have been created, two offices, and two broom closets have been converted into bathrooms attached to the youngest classrooms.

The air outside smells great! I haven't smelled the plants so clearly since I've been here. It smells like spring and I love it. There are lots of new plants and trees to smell that I haven't smelled before. The air is clean and I'm taking advantage of it while I can.

I think the air smells really good because all the factories in China have been closed for two weeks on account of the Lunar New Year holiday. Guangzhou is still not up to its normal business pace, and an absurd calm has descended upon the city. The air is clean, the streets aren't packed, and people seem pretty happy.

I think I'm going to go and enjoy the Chinese outdoors before the industrial machine gets back up and running. It's fantastic out there!

Teaching was pretty easy today. The kids have forgetten a lot of the words and phrases, so this weeks is all review. It's review for me too, as I have to remember all the students' names. There are a lot of names to remember, and since I haven't really thought about teaching for the past three weeks, some of their names have slipped my mind.

I spent some time giving each student their own box of crayons, and they were pretty excited about that. We put name stickers on each box, so they can feel good about having their own box of crayons, and also learn to identify their own names. I'm glad I brought all these boxes from home, because I noticed our class' crayon stock was not refreshed over the break. I'm happy my kids can now colour with a red crayon that's bigger than their finger nail.

That's all for now. I think I might take advantage of the still empty roads and get some errands done before the afternoon classes start.