Counting small victories-- I conquered part of the bus system. I found Kofi's school (kind of by accident, but now I know where it is), and we found the Starbucks (or he showed us where the Starbucks is, but still, now I know where it is.) I took the bus to Kiki's/Lori's/Liz's and was able to tell them what buses to take to my school and to Kofi's. And today I'm taking the bus to the metro. What now, China!! Megan: 1. China: 1. [View Full Entry]

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Chinese schools begin each day with a flag raising ceremony if it’s a Monday and with morning exercise every other day. They walk out of their classrooms in straight lines, down to the soccer field, in straight lines, and get into formation on the field…in perfectly straight lines. Then they do the most ridiculous dance/exercise I’ve ever seen, aerobics style, to a funny recording that counts in Chinese (yi er san si wu liu qi ba jiu shi!) Then they file back in straight lines. Although faintly militaristic, their discipline is amazing for 13 - 15 year olds…remember h [View Full Entry]

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I love Teachers Day. I got two cards from two classes, two bouquets, and SEVEN mooncakes. A) Mooncakes are gross...they either have nuts or duck eggs in them (the "good" ones have two eggs) and they taste kind almondy...but not good. Don't tell anyone I said that. B) I have SEVEN of them. It'll take me till next March to eat that many. Tonight we have a Teacher's Banquet, which means lots of toasting with wine and baijiu...someone's getting drunk tonight. My class today was fantastic...the teacher stayed in the class to practice his English, which made it even more fun. [View Full Entry]

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Remember the first day of seventh grade and how traumatizing it was? Yeah this was nothing near as bad as that. I’m teaching 10 classes of seventh graders who applaude when I walk into the classroom. They’re much smaller than I remember being in seventh grade-- they're still beibeis! I just had my first three classes! About 40 students in each class, pretty rambunctious but excited to be in my class. Some of them have English names like Boy, Lost, Candy, and Yolanda; Ian had a Smite in his class! None of them have good answeres for why they choose their [View Full Entry]

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I’m here! I met my headmaster and contact teacher at a contract signing ceremony in the hotel this morning and then moved straight to my school. There’s a Walmart right across the street, and I don’t even feel bad shopping at it. The area is really nice: there’s a park, plenty of restaurants and convenience stores, a China Construction Bank (Bank of America, I love you), and it’s mostly quiet and green. Shenzhen’s most expensive apartment building is a block away—30,000 to 40,000 yuan per square meter! My apartment is awesome—although it was [View Full Entry]

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We received our placements yesterday. I’m living in Futian, the newest and cleanest downtown section of Shenzhen, at a middle school with my friend Ian. We each have a room in the teacher’s dormitory. Although I’m disappointed that Kiki and I aren’t living together in an apartment, the school is supposed to be one of the best in Shenzhen and the rooms are supposed to be pretty nice. A good number of my friends are within walking distance, and another few, including Kiki and Kofi, are within 10-20 minutes. I’m excited to meet my contact teacher! The tally begins [View Full Entry]

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Things I've learned thus far in China: The words for bank, dumpling, little one, want, toliet, this one/that one, and that when menus don't have pictures I'm almost entirely screwed. My Mandarin phrase book has a section with pickup lines, rejections, and a whole 3 pages on sex! There are lines like easy tiger, slow down, harder, faster, and "this is my first time." If you have to pull out your phrase book to tell someone it's your first time, you probably shouldn't be sleeping with them. Take note, Lonely Planet. Things I will learn while in China: What it's like [View Full Entry]

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The last week has been a blur! I left JFK at 8am on Thursday, August 21, and arrived in San Francisco to discover that a typhoon (a TYPHOON!) had closed the Hong Kong airport. I magically found about 15 people from my program who were also stranded, and we got to know each other and adventured throughout the city for the night. Thanks to Harris, I was able to find all the tourist destinations we needed (including the In and Out Burger!) Everyone was really cool and we ended up having a blast despite the inconvenience/expense of the delay. We left [View Full Entry]

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Predeparture worries...medical evacuation insurance, travel insurance, packing, the olympics, no deodorant in China? The last week has been a blur of bars and best friends and fire blowing and goodbyes. Although I'm slightly stressed out about everything I have to do before I leave on Thursday (re advice from Bob and Sarah: pick up anti-fungal cream because of all the rain, buy pepto bismo, find gifts for my contact teacher and headmaster, scan and copy my passport/visa, tell the bank my credit cards will be used in China...my to do list is two pages long!) I'm mostly excited about what the [View Full Entry]

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