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Published: February 26th 2010
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Hubei University
Front entrance of the university Arrived in Wuhan at 12.30pm Saturday 20 February 2010. We were greeted by our international teachers aide, Minnie Deng, who was running half hour late. This time we were chauffered in a black buick from the airport to the Hubei University. Our first impressions of the area we saw from the airport to the university, we considered getting back on the plane but that is being a little harsh because we were actually covering our eyes due to the mad, driving chaos on the roads.
After 40 minutes of terror we entered the front gates of the Hubei University where we officially became university lecturers without still knowing what we were doing. We were shown to our apartment and new home for the next twelve months and initially we were a little taken back by the age but it certainly has all the comforts of home including western style toilet. We are on the fourth floor, penthouse suite (hahaha) with no lift just our weary old legs to carry us up each time.
After all these years of spending money on exercise equipment, all we had to do was move to China. Just down the road from the university
Front of university
Front of the Hubei University there is a chinese version of Walmart so after unpacking and having a tour around the uni we walked the twenty minutes to buy some supplies. With a couple of shopping trolleys full of cushions, throw rugs and a few little comforts, we made the journey, walking again (yes for all of you who know Trevor, he is walking long distances) back to our apartment where we had to endure the stairs to the fourth floor once again but this time with bags of shopping.
Day 2. Relaxed around campus for a while then we took the stroll back down to Walmart and to check out all the other local shops. We haven't yet ventured to the major shopping areas but we have been told that there is three awesome shopping district. One being all fashion and is two hundred metres longer that the famous Nanjing Rd in Shanghai, second being an area called "Computer City" which is full of 8 story department stores totally for boys toys (everything electronic you can think of, including stuff not to be seen in Australia for up to three years), thirdly there is an antique district and with Wuhan having a history
Top View
View of university from our office of 3500 years there is sure to be a lot of antiques. There is also a lot of markets throughout the whole city.
Wuhan has a population of just under 10 million so I'm sure you can imagine how crowded it is everywhere you go. Everyone is very friendly and are keen to help out the Aussies.
Day 3. We met the Vice Dean of the international school and were told that we would be teaching Business Communication English to graduates and speaking english to the foreign language students. Trevors class sizes are going to be around 100 students and has three different classes of this size, Linda's classes are going to be about 20-30 students. We are not worried because we are only teaching 16 classes per week.
Day 4. Tuesday was really exciting, part of being employed by the Chinese is we need to have medical examinations. We were accompanied by an english speaking assistant and driven to a medical facility about 1 hour from the university which was a real eye opener as we had to line up for xrays, ecg, eye test, blood test and what they call internal and surgical medicine. This
Wuhan
View of the skyline from our apartment balcony sounds freaky but basically it was our blood pressure and weight in the last two checks. The weird part is we had to line up with many local chinese doing medical who are trying to get travel visas and they were actually pushing into each other to get into the rooms. There is no privacy whatsoever. We did get the door shut while Linda was getting her ecg done and Trevor standing outside standing guard.
The rest of the week we have just got to know the local area, university and had meetings with our teaching assistance, preparing for our first lesson next Monday. we have plenty of free time during the week as most of our lessons are late afternoon early evening, in fact we can finish at 3.30 on Friday and neither of us are needed back at uni unitl late Monday afternoon. We plan on doing a lot of weekend travel to see all the other sights.
Tonight being friday, has been awesome. We had our first invited banquet with other foreign teachers and the international teachers aide. Great customs, great food and we didn't have to pay for any of it. Tomorrow one of
Side View
Another view of the university from our office the foreign teachers who has been in country for five years, is going to be our tour guide to computer city and surrounding areas.
Sunday is the lantern festival in China and we have been told that the Hubei University faculty and families have the best celebration in Wuhan so we dont have to leave the campus. Will update again early next week.
Please enjoy our photos. Love to all our family and friends.
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Karen Haley
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Sounds like fun
HI, Wow, Wow...again, Wow...it all sounds overwhelmingly exciting. Please tell me about the fashion district and Computer City... I love your pictures...I hope it was overcast, otherwise, where it the sun? lol. Take care. Love, Karen