On the way back from breakfast today, I was reminded of one of the special Chinese customs that I have not written about up to this point. I thought it would be good to write about it before it seems to mundane to me. I see it everywhere, except in my classroom. On the streets, in the hallways, and some market areas. In fact many times just the sound of it reminds me of what we are missing in the US. So today as I was walking back to the teachers buidling from the dining hall. There was a Chinese woman [View Full Entry]

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The chinese national holiday is October 1st. You may have seen the impressive parade in Beijing. I saw it on TV. The next day October 2nd we boarded the plane for Shanghai to start a week holiday. I will never complain about a plane flight again. To begin with the airplane seats are closer together, some of you may be wondering if this is possible. Trust me it is. My knee was jammed into the back of the seat in front of me for the whole trip. Has anyone ever watched the home shopping network? How about for an hour straight? [View Full Entry]

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Today is the second day of my 1 week break. October first is celebrated as the first day of the People's Republic of China, and this year is the 60th anniversary. Some of you may have seen huge parades in Beijing on the evening news. So in celebration of this we are off school for 1 week. Later today I will be flying with a few other teachers to Shanghai. I should have some good stories and experiences to report on my return. For the past 5 weeks I have been teaching. It is a continual balancing act of keeping all [View Full Entry]

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"Please meet Thursday at the adminstration building to board the bus for the medical exam.." This informative note greeted us on the teachers bulletin board one afternoon. Thursday arrived and we board the bus for the medical exam. There are many things I wanted to experience here but a medical exam was not one of them. On the bus ride to the Changchun Tourist Medical Exam Center, I heard two conflicting stories. Some teachers who had the exam before said it was more revenue based than a true medical exam, others said it was extremely invasive think "full cavity check" and [View Full Entry]

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Last Wednesday I had a dinner that I won't soon forget. It was the "Chinese Valentine's Day". Come to find out it wasn't celebrated by many Chinese in this area. It was advertised in Wal-mart, well I think that was the advertisement, I big end display of chocolates in heart shaped boxes. Well anyway I was getting sick of eating the food that I prepared.....anyone guess what I have been eating..............Noodles. Not Ramen, unless that is what the Chinese characters mean. I have also been eating some fruits and vegetables, the ones that I recognize. I just can't seem to buy [View Full Entry]

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At the time of writing this message it is Friday at 3PM here. I finished week 1 out of 10 this morning at 10AM. Let me tell you how it went: Monday- I didn't not have class, but I spent about 1 and a half hours preparing a couple powerpoint presentations to go over in class. I thought these would take me through most of the 4 hours of instruction I had scheduled on Tuesday. Anyone with teaching experience (I had none on Monday) will see the humor in this. Now I know why many of my teachers in school were [View Full Entry]

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I will explain a little about the school and my surroundings today. You can see by the map where things are located. The school also has a northern campus that houses some students, but most are here. I will only be teaching on this campus, at least for first 10 weeks. You can see the campus outline in Green. The map shows a large undeveloped area about the middle of the campus, and just slightly to the right. This area is now a paved area with a track. I have included a couple photos of the surronding area so you will [View Full Entry]

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This one is going back to the night I arrived in China. Luckily I am on the 2nd floor which means I only had to lug over 100 pounds of luggage a short distance. I unpacked just enough to get a change of clothes and realized I packed no shampoo or soap (other than a small bottle of hand sanitizer from Aunt B). I searched the apartment and found a bar of soap. The Chinese are so thoughtful. So I am ready, get into the bathroom and take a close look at the shower. I am greeted by the 3 knobs. [View Full Entry]

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The sun rose this morning at about 5AM and I followed shortly. I have been here 2 days now so I figured it was time to show you around. The apartment is a one bedroom unit, it is a little larger in some areas than I expected. And as some of the photos will show it is a little smaller in others. You enter at the kitchen, it is equipped with a decent size fridge, microwave, toaster and that thing on the counter in the picture. Surprise surprise it is not a sandwhichmaker, after a minute of pondering I discovered that [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Bejing without anything exciting happening. I had 3 areas to clear on my arrival. First there was a Quarantine area, which consisted of walking past an infared camera that measured your temperature. I was fine and proceeded along to a desk where my quarantine pass was stamped. Next, I was immigration where they checked my passport, visa, and quarantine clearance card. I collected my bags and cleared customs without a problem. I was greeted by a young man with a sign with my name. We proceeded to the Air China Counter for my ticket and then it was [View Full Entry]

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