Hooray, it's Thursday! I am writing this quickly before class, as I feel like right now is one of the most interesting times of PST, but also the busiest. So this'll be short, but informative, I hope.

So, to elaborate: my final placement interview was Tuesday, where I made my last ditch effort to get a placement in a smaller city with blue skies. The interview was great because it was with one of the program managers (who are in charge of our teaching jobs, basically), the country director and the program & training officer (or PTO). I was able to clarify some of my own issues through our discussion. For example, I'd previously been hoping to have a students with high level English skilss. Now, however, I think that I'd be able to bring more to a classroom of beginners or lower level students. I do not have a BA in English or Education, so I'm not certain I'd be able to give advanced students enough solid content. If I'm lucky, and if I work really hard at being an engaging teacher, my students' low level won't translate to low interest. This preference for perhaps-lower-level students increases my liklihood of being in a smaller city, as students in university in big cities like Chengdu tend to come from better backgrounds and have stronger skills.

Yesterday I had my language proficiency interview, where I spoke in solely chinese (albeit mostly poor chinese) for 20 minutes. My teacher was present for my interview, and afterward she was so happy and proud of me. I'm taking that as the best indicator of success. We are ranked on the basis of our interview on a scale ranging from beginner to intermediate to advanced. The PC would like us all to have reached intermediate-mid by the end of PST, but the ranking has no real-world relevancy. It was essentially a progress check, and was recorded so that when we finish our service, we can hear ourselves to guage how far we've (hopefully) come. I was happy that my teacher was so happy, and very glad to have it done with. Now, it is on to site and self-study. I feel motivated to keep learning. The Chinese language is certainly a fascinating challenge.

Today my TEFL portfolio is due, which should include 8 complete lesson plans and a "reflection journal" about our thoughts on PST. So you can see, it has been busybusybusy. We move out of our home stays on sunday, into a swank hotel where we'll spend a few days, find out our sites/sitemates, meet our future bosses and just revel in the high lifestyle.

OK, I'd better get off to class...only two days left! Take care, all. Until next time.