Blogs from Xinhua, Taizhou, Jiangsu, China, Asia - page 2

We woke up around 5:20am and while we waited we were disgusted by the people spitting and making gross sounds...it's really different from Ottawa that's for sure. We were also amused by a guy who had a laugh like Beavis from Beavis and Butthead...we couldn't help but laugh! We arrived at 7:30am and were greeted by two guys from the school who then brought us to breakfast...I didn't each much again because I'm not used to "lunch/dinner" food in the morning. The ride to our apartment was long and boring. The area isn't what we expected it to look like at all. We were actually a little disappointed in it to be quite honest...along with our apartment which is quite dirty. We did cry a bit because its scary to be somewhere where you don't really ... read more

Saturday: Didn't do much today, just took it easy. Rented some movies and just relaxed :) Sunday: We had the boy come over again (Erik) and his grandparents brought us a Christmas tree and some Beijing duck...it was a really nice gesture :) Now we have a tree, but it still doesn't feel like Christmas is in 2 days. It's going to be a hard Christmas this year, but next year we'll be back with our family. And I think it will make our time together more special.... read more

Saturday: We got invited over for lunch across the street. The family wants us to tutor their 9 yr old son every weekend (Sundays) to improve his English. They cooked a large meal (like most traditional Chinese meals) with some different types of food. Some were good, most were really bad. Especially "river crab"...tastes NOTHING like ocean crab...yuck. I tried most things, and they kept bothering me to try more. I can only push my limits so far without throwing up on the table. They were really nice, but I hate when people force feed me, especially when I've been feeling sick lately. Sunday: The boy (who we named "Erik" for his English name) came over for an hour. We showed him pictures of Canada and food, and pictures of animals. Found out today that I ... read more

Monday: I felt super sick when I woke up, I had no voice...so I wasn't able to go into work since I'm pretty useless as an English teacher with no voice. I stayed home and rested. The girls stopped by at lunch and asked me a bunch of questions about Canada again (which was hard to do w/ my voice being gone pretty much) and they offered to bring us shopping on Friday since we get paid. We'll probably treat them to dinner as well. I hope to get a warmer sweater at least and maybe new sunglasses. Tuesday: I felt even worse, but I at least had my voice pretty much back. Still have a hard time talking loudly in class with my sore throat though. Classes went alright, I showed them pictures of Canada ... read more

We ended up not going to work today since no one seems to care about the contract so until we are treated like professionals we will go back to work. We’re just going by the contract so we’re not doing anything wrong. We went to the internet café (gross!) and sent Steven (coordinator) an e-mail saying we’re very dissatisfied with this school and the way we’re being dealt with here. I don’t know what will come of this but I sure hope it gets better. I’ve been saying this for almost a month now. Mr. Yong finally came by with a computer teacher and fixed our computer…only after a week of waiting! He also gave us the key for the other apartment so we can grab the VCD player so we can start renting movies to ... read more