Just about everyone who reads this blog can count themselves as having a little chinese student named after them......Yes that is right in my classes I have a Mary, Sara(h), Stacy, Maria, Eli, Jaime, Lucy (your name is especially popular), Cindy, Linda, Diana, Milissa (yes, I infact made her a milissa with and "i"), Jena, Eric, Brandon (I couldn't forget the boyfriends), Kara, Megan, Phoebe.....and I have another class on monday, so anyone else I missed, your name will surely utilized very soon. [View Full Entry]

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That would be accurate. The foreign teacher made the chinese students cry. Well it was actually only one student, and it was just a few tears, but this is another first in my book. I don't know what is in the tea that these chinese teachers drink, but oooh! is their power strong. I use a small inflatable soccer ball in my class as a fun way to take turns answering questions. It really does add an extra element to the class, so I don't want to have to take away the ball, but a few students have gotten a little [View Full Entry]

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What I saw today, even I had to take a moment to breathe, and then take it all in. Yesterday was the official "Teacher Appreciation Day" in China. Now, I think in america we have such a thing, but obviously that day did not sear anything into my memory, but I think today will be around for awhile for the simple reason that I, along with my fellow 7th grade teachers, stood in front of the entire student body of, ohh about 2,000, and received flowers....yada, yada, yada.....the most amazing thing...and some of my fellow teachers in america WILL not believe [View Full Entry]

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pictures.......sometimes better than words [View Full Entry]

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Let's just put it out there. Say it like it is. School started, sometime in the past few days....I'm actually not a hundred percent when, because I obviously can't understand a syllable that is spoken beyond "Hello", so that has presented somewhat of a repetative obstacle. I recieved my schedule on Sunday and was given the gift of 28 different classes. Yep! I basically teach every student from grade 4 to grade 8. Each grade has anywhere from 4-8 different sections. That's a whole lot of English loving to spread around. I only teach 3 classes aday (except friday), but that [View Full Entry]

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When I asked my contact teacher, "What time I should be downstairs for class tomorrow?", her reply was simpily, "sometime after you eat breakfast." Well lady, I wanted to say....that could be anywhere from 6am to 1pm....could we be a bit more specific.....But for the sake of arguement or more confusing english-chinese conversation, I didn't press the issue. I figured I should downstairs around 8ish, which I found out was preciously after the flag raising ceremony (opps!). I spotted my contact teacher, which was a little feat, because, you guessed, it she is a small, petite, chinese looking [View Full Entry]

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Here is my address: Amanda Ahrens Fu 'an xue xiao Long gang Shenzhen, China 518172 No letter will be turned away, no postcard will go unread, no package left unopen...... have confidence that anything mailed will be accepted with OPEN arms.... :) [View Full Entry]

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Limited chinese leads to great speculation. Since my extent of conversation with someone who speaks only chinese can go no further than "hello....how much does that cost?" I have learned very little, besides the price of a popsicle, of my surrounding areas. I live in the city of Shenzhen which is just utop of Hong Kong on a world map. However the city of Shenzhen is massive (on the books its 5million, but I have heard reports it is more like 10 million) and the city is comprised of 5 districts. I living on the Long Gang district, the largest and [View Full Entry]

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Our official - well maybe not so official in the sense of meaningful, in the sense of fun - welcoming party was held last night at Ibiza bar, where one of the second year teachers works. The theme was a classic one, especially since in the 3 weeks our group has been together, their have been, oh let some, some pairing off.....if you will. So in an effort to make all the new couples or oops! a little uncomfortable, Andrew, our fearless leader in the party planning department instituted that our first party be a STOPLIGHT party. For those of you [View Full Entry]

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I can't say that I am a celebrity, because I don't know what that really means, but if it includes someone taking your picture with their camera phone while just walking down the street, then maybe yes I might qualify. But if that isn't celebrity proof enough how about, when you walk past a group of your soon to be students and one of them realizes "who you are" and then they all start to yell "Helloo!" "Helloo", one after another kinda like the wave at a sports stadium. Or maybe I would make it on the cover of Asia Weekly [View Full Entry]

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