I think I made it…although its not Friday morning and I’m not on my airplane yet, I think it’s safe to say I’ve jumped through enough hoops for the day. It started with a 8am wake up call from the woman who told me to finish my mountain of grading yesterday (which I did). Only to have her tell me SHE was too busy for me to drop it off for her and I would have to drop it off today…Apparently by “drop it off at the office tomorrow (Thursday) morning.” What she meant was, “I’ll be calling you at 8am [View Full Entry]

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So my time is winding up here faster than I can say, “Hot diggity damn!” It’s not that I don’t like it here…I’m just ready to move on. I landed a teaching position as a Summer Camp Counselor in Yangzhou, which is a few hours from Shanghai on the East coast. It’s only for 2 weeks but I’ll be teaching and/or playing games with 7-12 year olds, different from what I’m used to. But what I’m really looking forward to, is being in a city on the East coast, where they’re more accustomed to my kind…otherwise known as, white peopl [View Full Entry]

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A student of mine, Wing, wanted to take me out for the day, I was reluctant only because she seemed to want to do A LOT in one day. I didn't feel the need to pack my day off with all her ideas, but in true Chinese fashion, "no" was not an option. Our day started around 8:30am, a manageable hour, we took the bus to the Panda Breeding Station which was only about 15 minutes away. Apparently we weren't the only one's who decided to spend out Saturday morning viewing pandas. Lots of tourists and Chinese alike lining the pathways [View Full Entry]

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After spending last weekend’s 3 day holiday weekend cooped up on my room, I decided that the following weekend, I best get out of town if not only for a day. I mentioned my destination to my students, Leshan, and 2 girls told me they had never been, so they would accompany me. At first I was hesitant to accept their company, but admitted to myself that it would be helpful to have their verbal skills at my disposal. So we set up the plan to meet in front of the school at 7am sharp, Saturday morning. Leshan is a [View Full Entry]

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A quickie, but nonetheless entertaining... I was asked to judge an English speaking competition at a local Petroleum company, I agreed, however I was not overly enthusiastic about it. After agreeing to it, I was told that usually people get paid for this type of thing. Finding out that my English status was being exploited I was less than thrilled to oblige. I get picked up by a vehicle around 1pm on Thursday, I was escorted by Daphne, from the foreign affairs department, and another teacher from another University campus joined us. We pull up to the building where I see [View Full Entry]

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Back to blogging…my absence hasn’t been due to lost enthusiasm, quite the opposite. Life here has settled down to where the absurdities now seem normal. Buying my fruit and vegetables at the market no longer evokes sweaty palms and a racing heart. I visit a few vendors who recognize my face and only speak Chinese to me out of habit. They all know that I will smile and nod no matter what they tell me. The latest fruit to arrive in season are mangoes, as I walk the streets few ballsy vendors call out to me, “Mango, Mango, Mango!!” When [View Full Entry]

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The morning comes all too quickly, but with a lot to be done, I don’t dilly-dally. I’m out the door and heading to the bus stop before my body even recognizes the day has begun. The Terracotta warriors were interesting, not a lot to see though. The statues are housed in three separate buildings. I tear through the buildings with effortless speed, only interrupted by requests for pictures. We are at what most consider to be the premier archeological site of China, and they want a picture with the white girl… I wrap up that adventure in record time and head [View Full Entry]

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A weekend adventure with me goes something like this… A few hours late arriving into Xi’an (She-en) didn’t take the hop from my step, but it did slow it significantly. I exited the airport expecting to see my hostel van waiting with balloons and streamers welcoming me, but was met with nothing. A quick phone call sorted out that confusion…they thought I was arriving at 11am. All right, plan B, airport shuttle. They take me to the middle of town and unleash me. A quick glance to the guidebook tells me there’s a hostel up the road and around the roundabout [View Full Entry]

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This weekend I had the privilege to celebrate some sort of national holiday with China, all I did to participate was take Monday off school. Originally, I tried to get a plane ticket to leave town but was too slow on the draw and didn’t make it happen—however, I’m all set for NEXT weekend in which we have a three weekend again, due to a track meet here at the school. Therefore, I devoted my time this weekend to getting a lot of schoolwork done, as well as going into the city with two of my students, Carol and Shen Shaolin. [View Full Entry]

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The foreign affairs department was kind enough to escort Hua and I into the downtown area of Chengdu. We are about 35-45 minutes away, in a 'suburb' of Chengdu, called Xindu. The main area of Chengdu consists of about 4 mega shopping malls. We walked through some of them, lots of over-priced items (they all have import taxed tacked on, so brands from the US are about $5-15 more expensive), and the women in the different sections of the departments wear the same thing. So for example, all the clerks in the ESPIRIT section wear the same outfit, then another clothing [View Full Entry]

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