Well I have failed my mission. I had to buy winter clothes (and a halloween costume) so I spent a bit more in my second month than I did over the course of my first. 2,890.1 yuan total. However this is partially offset by the 15 yuan I found on the ground! Just came from a Thanksgiving feast at Jessie's. Lots of food, and good fun explainging Thanksgiving to a Chinese friend and an Englishman. I gave a speech aswell. [View Full Entry]

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First snow came to Jiujiang on the fifteenth of November. We got roughly 5cm over the course of about 10 hours, and then it switched to rain, leaving an unpleasant remmnant. In other words, much like most Seattle snow. Seems like it changes from Summer to Winter in Jiangxi Province, no fall to mess around with. One week, its muggy and hot, seven days later long-johns are required. It might be a bit tought to adjust, I haven't had a proper winter in two years! I was recruited into a musical performance. First my friend Laura had me do some back-up [View Full Entry]

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Last week, I taught a class on jobs. I ellicted from my students descriptions of their "dream jobs". They had to come up with particularls (such as CEO, Lawyer), and general charactaristics of an ideal job. All four of my classes came up with similar lists- they wanted jobs that were creative, high-paying, involved travel, were helpful to the community, exciting, and allowed them to excercize authority over others. After they came up with these lists, I asked them to guess what my dream job would be. After two seconds of pondering, a few shouted out "teacher". My students are quickly [View Full Entry]

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Chinese food is delicious. No, I am not talking about the "General Tso's Chicken" prepared by Salvadorean immigrants at your local strip-mall. I refer to the masterful culinary expertise of the local people in the Middle Country. My favorite meal is the "egg-pancake". A young man (with a good sense of humor) places batter on a perpetually-hot circular pan. Next he expertyl cracks open an egg that be places directly on the rapidly-solidifying batter. He then adds cilantro, lettuce, green onion and a chili sauce (that has peanuts in it!). He folds this over, adds "Chinese barbeque sacuc [View Full Entry]

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I've been keeping track of every kuai I spend. After one month in China, I have spent 2,269.2. My most expensive day was the twenty-fourth of September, in which I spent 347.4 yuan . On that day I purchased a cell phone, setting me back 299. My least expensive day has been the ninth of October- 12 kuai , all spent on street food. I have been compiling material for a blog on the food, to be completed soon. So, in my first month, I have spent less than half my wage. Not too shabby, but there is certainly room for [View Full Entry]

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As it turns out, I have a significant amount of free time when my in-class teaching load is about twelve hours a week. Lesson planning isin't too tough, and I think my students like me so far. I've been drilling into their heads every chance I get: "Seattle is the best city in America." Luckily, I have found a wonderful Chinese teacher. His English name is Ross, and he is from Inner Mongolia. He also has a fairly light load this quarter (nine hours of English teaching a week). His wife "Echo" is lovely, and their English is great. They were [View Full Entry]

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I taught my first classes today. There was some confusion, (I only recieved my schedule yesterday) but now everything is sorted out. Friday is my "hard" day, with three groups of students to teach. Each group is stuck with my for about an hour and a half. My first class begins at 8 AM. There were 19 students, all freshmen who are majoring in English Education. I introduced myself, telling them my name, my place of birth, my major in university, and my reason for teaching English. They seemed very pleased when they heard that, for many years, it has been [View Full Entry]

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Mike, my coworker Laura, and myself took a trip to the countryside on Thursday. Although I was advised not to travel on National Day, the roads were not terribly busy. We got an early start and took a bus to Jingdezhen, the porcelan capital of China. From there we hopped on another bus to Wuyan. At the Wuyan bus station we were swarmed by a group of taxi drivers. The most intense foreign-money seeking I've ever experienced- significantly greater than anything I ever experienced in India (except perhaps for my first day in Kolkata). Luckily we had a "local" guide. Mike [View Full Entry]

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On Wednessday Mike and I decided to visit famous Lu Shan ("Mt. Lu"). We arrived at the long distance bus station at about 10:30, bought a ticket for the 11:30 bus, and ate some ramen. Unfortunately, the bus was half an hour late, so we didin't get on Lu Shan until about 1 PM. Mike then found out (good thing I had a Chinese-speaking guide) that the last bus back to Jiujiang left at 4:30. So we had about three hours to explore. Lu Shan has been famous in China for thousands of years. It rises quite suddenly out of the [View Full Entry]

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Good news! I've been assigned my teaching schedule, to begin on October 9th, after the holidays. Furthermore, in a fortuidous instance of Socialism with Chinese Charactaristics, I will be paid tomorrow for all the sleeping I've been doing. A few days ago Ben and I did some pro bono work in the English class of his co-teacher. We had about fifty minutes to prepare. We talked about the differences between the English and American education systems. Then we were told to assign the students English names. I had a good time naming the (mostly female) leaners after my friends and family, [View Full Entry]

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