Advertisement
Published: October 13th 2007
Zai Nanjing Wanshang de Shihou
Here's a view from Purple Mountain at nightWell, it's been a while since I've last sent news. I think the reason for that is quite simple...there really doesn't seem to be anything newsworthy on a day to day basis. However, when I think about the big picture (my living in China), life is actually quite exciting. Here's a quick bullet-point list of how things are going so far:
-I'm settling in quite nicely.
-My Chinese is slowly but surely improving.
-I have a large number of both Chinese and foreign friends.
-I now only teach 4 days a week. By December this should be down to 3 days a week.
-Chinese schools are bizarre. Rather than bells to signal the beginning and end of class, there is classical music. In the mornings they do large all-school dance routines for exercise. They also spend 10 minutes every day massaging their faces in what they call "eye-exercises."
-I will try and send out a list of my favorite English names that Chinese students have chosen. I will tell you this, Yummy and Deathknight are probably at the top of the list.
-The washer in my apartment broke and the school bought me a new one that is too large for
Zhongshan Lu
This is a street corner the space. So there are currently five Chinese men in my bathroom installing my new washer in my shower. On that note, I'll throw in a joke: How many Chinese people does it take screw in a lightbulb? Five. One to screw it in and four to stand around at the base of the ladder arguing about how to do it and waiting for their turn to try. ..........I just made that one up by the way.
-Chinese pop music is not very good.
-There are a lot more clubs than bars in this city.
-I joined a gym. It's really really really nice.
-Seven of my classes got canceled this week due to exams, so I only taught for 2 days.
-Last week I had a week's vacation.
-I took a trip to Shanghai with some other Americans. I spent a very large portion of my salary in the 5 days that I was there. Shanghai is too big and expensive. It really makes me appreciate Nanjing. In Shanghai there are a lot of foreign tourists, while in Nanjing all of the foreigners live here. Consequently, there are many people in Shanghai who make a living ripping off tourists.
Nanjing Yi Zhong
Here are some students at my school filing back to class after an assembly. In Nanjing, on the other hand, people don't really know how to rip you off. Also, it's funny that I can come back to a city of 5-8 million people after going to Shanghai and feel like I'm in a small town. I've been to huge cities before (New York, LA, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Lima,...) but never has a city felt as large as Shanghai. I think that it's because of the way that they build Chinese cities. People here live in apartments rather than houses. As a result, the cities are made up entirely of expanses of giant apartment complexes. Also, the tall buildings are spread out (unlike in the US where they are all in the downtown area), so you always feel like you're downtown.
-Living in a Chinese city, I sometimes get the feeling that I'm indoors even when I'm outside.
-I've learned that there is no difference between the public and the private sectors of the Chinese economy or in Chinese life for that matter. It's odd.
-I really like living here. I will like it even more when my Chinese gets good.
-I love getting news from home, so
Ditie
This is the brand new subway that is only a year old send me a message. Yes! I do get your messages when you send them to me on this blog site. You can also email me.
I'll try to post some pictures soon. I'm off to teach a bunch of rambunctious 17-year-olds.
Much love,
Mike
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 46; dbt: 0.039s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Samuel Abram
non-member comment
Canola Oil
Maybe you should realize that as far as Oils go, Canola Oil is the healthiest.