Blogs from Wuhan, Hubei, China, Asia - page 11

Hello to all from the amazing city of Wuhan. Linda and I are really enjoying the experience of teaching at Hubei University. Linda is teaching IELTS and English speaking classes and I am enjoying the fun of teaching Business Communication and English speaking classes. For me its the first time the University has had a foreign teacher teach Business Communication because its a course for the students masters and we are trying a new approach by having a Chinese teacher as my co-teacher. Its great because I get to develop the course and teach the way I want to. Linda is having fun teaching IELTS but a bit frustrated trying to get participation from the students. Last week was a amazing week of weather and temperature changes. All you people who complain about Melbourne try Wuhan ... read more

Sunday morning 28 February, we got up early, well 8am, to view the dragon dance for the Lantern Festival Day. We were told by the guys at Hubei University that the best display is conducted by the older retired university staff in the grounds of the Hubei University. Its was absolutely awesome to watch the Dragon dancing and deafening with the amount of crackers and fireworks that were let off in each area that the dance was performed. For the entire day people well into their 60's as well as the younger generation danced around all the areas of the university. The pictures don't show even a fraction of the spectacle that we were lucky to witness without even leaving the grounds of the campus. We hope that you enjoy the pictures as much as we ... read more

Great music! Great friends! Great food! God, I love this place! Last night we all trekked over to VOX, our nearby weekend hangout, to watch our friend Colin and his band, Man Made Lake, open for the well-known Canadian indie band, Great Lake Swimmers. Outside it was chilly and damp but inside the atmosphere soon warmed up as the evening's music began. A little plug for the venue, "VOX is considered, among Chinese music aficionados, to be one of the country's finest rock clubs. Offering live music almost daily, VOX is situated in Wuhan's student district and regularly hosts China's top bands and DJs, as well as a rotating cast of international bands. In addition to the club's excellent program of events and atmosphere, VOX is also stocked with an amazing selection of beers, offering Belgian ... read more

Xin nian quai-le! Some friends and I decided to spend New Year's Eve in Wuhan. We arrived just in time for the rush hour, and were stuck in traffic for some time. We finally made it to the area of town where we would spend the evening. After a meal and some aimless wandering, we met up with our local friend Lei at Brussels, a Belgian bar, with 30 minutes left in the year. The crowd was a more mature bunch- many professional Chinese, some French, Russian, and Canadian tourists. Lots of dancing, fun and fireworks. I pitched a business plan or two. I should have kept chatting with the Chinese, because the Canadians I talked to claimed to be from the West Coast. I related the story of the time I had an altercation ... read more

It’s time for another Christmas in China! To be honest, I’ve been more down about being so far from home for Christmas than I was last year. I need to get used to it, because I plan to continue teaching English overseas for as long as possible, and that means I still have several years to go before I’ll be able to spend a holiday at home. Luckily, yesterday was a very good day. I brought in Christmas treats for all of my two hundred and fifty students. The hardest part was finding enough of anything, and I ended up getting different gifts for each of my classes. In one class all of the students got new erasers, in two they all got pencils, and in two they all got cookies. The funniest reaction was in ... read more