After lunch a bunch of us were teaching (I was on break) when a couple of the cops came in to the break room. Kate, Annie, and I were in there. These were undercover cops and not in uniform (bummer). We had heard that we might be leaving soon, last night, from Sunny. In case we had to leave soon Kate had been working on goodbye gifts for her students, a sketchbook of pictures of Xiantao she had drawn (comic book style and with English vocab words on each picture). We were folding these pictures into little booklets when the cops [View Full Entry]

---

---

Perfect for our reality show would be a typhoon, which struck south east China today, or perhaps last night. Some of those winds have made there way up here. I guess a typhoon is just a hurricane but something about the name makes it sound so much worse. Say it a few times…Typhoon (fun word!). Anyway it was big enough to make national (maybe international (?) news). We hear the headmaster of the school (who is also somehow financially tied into the hotel?) is having dinner with the cops or some political people tonight in hopes of striking a deal on [View Full Entry]

---

---

We just got new word that we may still need to leave Xiantao. Apparently the issue is not about money but something else (power? respect?). According to Sunny some woman (whom she referred to as fugly) wants us out of here for “other reasons”. We are speculating that it will further her career if she catches foreigners without the right paper work…but who really knows why she wants us out. Hearing Sunny say fugly was priceless. Where does she learn this stuff? She says she has only been speaking English for a year and that she learns some of her slang [View Full Entry]

---

---

THE FOOD Annie and I went to Tai Chi again this morning. This time they had fans (fan dancing, sort of) and gave us each one to use. Afterwards, biking to school we biked by a small musical concert/celebration of sorts. We stopped a minute and then wondered through a food market. There were lots of sketchy meat parts and scary looking foods. At lunch Kate, me, Sam and Annie went looking for a tea house but after a while gave up and went to a restaurant. We were hoping to just get tea but it seemed like a nice restaurant [View Full Entry]

---

---

It is Saturday and we are teaching. We have to teach for twelve days straight, which didn’t seem like a lot in theory but I think now that it will be. I can’t believe the kids have class on the weekends (during the summer). So we did in fact pay off the cops and we can stay here. AC in the school break room keeps breaking because it is so hot. That is the only room in the school with AC. Surprisingly there is some AC in the stores on the streets, but most places obviously don’t have it. It actually [View Full Entry]

---

---

The cops came to the school today and took a couple people (Annie and Brandon) into a private room to ask them questions. Annie was in there for like over an hour. I guess they are concerned because we don’t have working papers. We do have visas, but I guess ACT didn’t get us working papers because technically we aren’t being paid (we are just getting free airfare, housing, food). I don’t think they understand the whole cultural exchange setup because they are saying stuff like, “What do you mean you are teaching and not getting paid?” Annie apparently had t [View Full Entry]

---

---

Ok so riding bikes with pink flags isn’t technically a parade…but traipsing down a main road with a fifty students and a big red banner…I’d say that qualifies. The camera crews were on this event as well. I opted not to do this, as I actually wanted to start teaching and felt my students were getting the shaft at the expense of the administration wanting to use us for shameless promotional purposes. Afterwards I kind of wished I had gone because it seemed like it was a pretty funny experience. Teachers took their students to the mall, a hotel among other [View Full Entry]

---

---

More jaw dropping stares today along with people just outright following us. It didn’t help matters that when arrived at the school our bicycles had big pink flags tied to them (with bamboo posts). Yesterday we joked about being a parade but today we really are one. I think the characters on the flags said: “JingYing English Summer Camp” or something to that avail. Eight white people riding bicycles on the street apparently did not attract enough attention. On top of this, during the first period of teaching we were pulled out of class, along with the students and brought int [View Full Entry]

---

---

The middle school we are teaching at is on the river. The staff was very welcoming, almost too welcoming. One of the TAs kept wiping my chair down before I would sit in it. All of the TAs and teachers are very eager to improve their English and practice by talking to us. The classrooms are very bare. The walls, some of which are painted, are cracked and pealing. There are only the bare essentials: desks, a chalkboard, and a podium. Yes, the teacher stands on a podium. This should feed my celebrity complex even more! The nicest room in the [View Full Entry]

---

---

THE JOURNEY TO WUHAN/XIANTAO 7/10 The train station was packed with people in every square inch. Traffic cops were loudly blowing whistles outside. No site of Brandon yet, but Sunny had assured us that someone was bringing him to the train station to meet us. Finally we found him. Now, in two days we had lost Kate and James (on the boat ride) and Brandon. So naturally it was my turn. I almost missed the train to Xiantao (the city we will be teaching in) because I was in the bathroom and not aware of the time. Plus I was all [View Full Entry]

---

---