Well, I've decided to come home. My flight will land in Detroit on the 24th at 11:20pm. First order of business: Hunter House... or maybe Primo's. I've enjoyed each experience that I've had for the last three months, the good ones and the bad ones. I will miss my dear friends, who are more like the Chinese family I never had. But I'm very excited to come home. This concludes my experiences. I will retro-post some entries that I am working on later, along with more pictures. -Kaye [View Full Entry]

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Well here is the situation. The school I work for has broken the contract with my internship company and I need to decide what to do. I can renegotiate my contract, try and find new placement, or come home. I'm leaning towards the last option. But we'll see. The Matouqin lessons are going fabulously. I love playing the Matouqin. I'm not very good though. But for studying for 1.5 months I think I'm okay. I bought my own Matouqin a week ago, his name is Xiao Yu and I love him. At first I did not think that the horse carved [View Full Entry]

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I finally saw Transformers 2 last night, it was incredible! The movie was only in Chinese and did not have subtitles... but still, so awesome! I just wish I knew what they were saying. Oh well, I guess that means I have to see it again when I get home. -Kaye [View Full Entry]

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The look on her face was priceless. She looked at her classmates wondering if I was serious or joking. Yes, we were having class on a Ferris Wheel today. No, there was no hidden camera, this was not a joke. I wish I had teachers that broke the rules when I was in school. I understand that education has a goal, and forgive me for using my blog to voice my opinions but I learned so much more by doing rather than being lectured to. And that is the approach I am trying to take with my older students. When we [View Full Entry]

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Jaycee left today. [View Full Entry]

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Monday morning the teachers at New Times, the managers, and the foreigner jumped into a bus and drove an hour south to the Er Long Shi Tai national park. The park is surrounded by farmland and is beautiful. The drive seemed short, we were telling jokes and looking at the beautiful scenery. As per my CIA/parents conditioning when I was a baby I wanted to sleep the minute I got into the bus, but Caroline wouldn't let me. So instead I studied Chinese and told some clean jokes. And Sym, if you're reading this, the giraffe in the refrigerator joke from [View Full Entry]

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I've been meaning to write this post for a while, but have been procrastinating for various reasons. One of the most interesting things that I have encountered while in China is crossing the street. If you are reading this in the States, while sitting on the couch, you may laugh thinking that it is more complected than waiting for the signal to turn. Instead, in China, it's more like the 100m dash. What follows are a few guidelines that have been compiled by the people I've encountered while in China. 1) Wait for a native to begin crossing the street, and [View Full Entry]

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As you may have read, I have been experiencing some stomach issues. On Monday I had the day to myself. No students, no school, no class. This was probably a good thing because I was feeling horrible (to say the least, and to keep the blog PG). Around 8 pm I was finally hungry enough that I rolled out of bed (after waking up at 9am and spending the day on the computer) to attempt to make it to the KFC around the corner. Side note: I fully understand how detrimental KFC was going to be on my system, but the [View Full Entry]

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I just realized that I have been in China for a month... it doesn't feel like it. Also, I am officially back in Hohhot, where I will remain until I return to America in November. I made a rather stupid decision a few days ago, I drank the water out of the tap. I was feeling a little thirsty and it was late. I thought, "What the heck?" I filled my bottle with cold water, took a few swigs, and went to sleep. The next morning I looked at the bottle in the sunlight and saw yellow sediment that had collected [View Full Entry]

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I ran into Brian, a professor at my university, and after seeing all four exits of the Liang Ma Qiao subway stop we had dinner on Tuesday. We ate at this great Middle Eastern restaurant near Sanlitun, and it was delicious. On Wednesday, I finally had some time to go an explore Beijing on my own. I wanted to explore some of the Hutongs and grab a bite to eat, but my main goal was to see the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. I got off the subway and walked the 100 yards to the entrance of the Forbidden City. I [View Full Entry]

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