Yesterday, Caroline and I went to Shanghai. Kunshan is quite small and there’s never much to do, so, it seemed like the perfect remedy, and it was. We took the metro to Nanjing Road and had lunch and went shopping at a Bookstore and purchased some really interesting books. After that, we went to the French Concession in a particular pedestrian-only area called Xintiande. While there, we visited the wonderful French bakery that I went to the last time I was in Shanghai, Paul. The bread was a good as I remembered, so we purchased some extras and then headed for [View Full Entry]

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After quite a nice long warm streak, the cold front is heading in. It rained the entire day yesterday. Anyways, Chinese lessons are going well. Next week is "open lessons" week. The parents come in and watch their kids and my teaching skills. It has many of the Chinese teachers anxious and stressed out. Paul seems pretty confident; so, I'm going to take his lead for the time being. Yesterday, we received binders for our lesson plans. So, this weekend that will be added to the agenda. The more I expose myself to the nightlife in Kunshan, the more foreigners I [View Full Entry]

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Friday morning I’m buzzing with excitement and anticipation. I wake up before my alarm goes off and I’m off finishing my last-minute things. I’m waiting at the local bus stop before 7am. At 7:15 a whole bunch of people arrive and at 7:20, the city bus arrives to take us to the bus station. I get off the bus and find my gate/terminal in the station. The bus leaves at 8:00, and by 7:45, there’s no line, no sign at the desk for the bus, nothing. I go to use the bathroom because there’s no stop for 3 hours. I get [View Full Entry]

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It’s the last few days of September and you can feel the anticipation for the holiday looming in the air. There’s a lot to get done and a lot to look forward too. I bought a variety of mooncakes and other Mid-Autumn Festival delicacies, but when Lulu and I got to the post office, they refused to send any food to the US. There’s a $10,000 fee to any food sent from China to the US. So, even though that idea went down in flames, I suppose it’s still the thought that counts. On Wednesday, I went with Lulu, Mitch, and [View Full Entry]

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On Wednesday a photographer came on campus and photographed the teachers of the school. I've gotten in contact with Shannon and we're hanging out this weekend. Today, Jane is taking Zach and me somewhere to do something with our work visas. It's during our lunch break, so I hope I get back in time for classes. It's been raining a lot here. It started on Tuesday night and only lets up periodically. The drainage around here is not as effective as the US, so there's some water stagnating around parts of the city. The roads are slick too, so that limits [View Full Entry]

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So, I received another gift on Friday from a student's parents. We met at 1pm and boarded buses and went to the middle of nowhere and had dinner. There was also grape picking, fishing, and karaoke. I took Jasper with and he definitely made it better for me. Mitch suggested it and he generally gives good advice, so I went with it. He was a big hit with the teachers and kept my arms and thoughts occupied with the dog, rather than boredom or other unpleasantries. So, all n all, it was a good time with food that left much to [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was pretty intense with regards to classes, but going out with the other foreign teachers definitely made up for that. We went to the karoke bar and then to Flower's. Flower's wasn't too much fun because it was Shannon's last day. Apparently the two got into a fight. It makes me really sad, because hanging out with Shannon was practically the reason why I went to Flower's so often. She's my first real Chinese friend. So I suppose I'll just have to call her up from now on and just go party with her. It'll be good to have a [View Full Entry]

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Today has sure been busy! I wrote out every student's name to a) begin connecting names with faces, and b) to make sure I have the name of every student in the class. To say the very least, it was a hit! Colouring and taking pictures of the kids was definitely a plus. We reviewed the alphabet and I began teaching the alphabet song to the 3 year olds. I have to admit it is kind of frustrating, reinventing the wheel. Paul is really the main person who gives me advice and that is definitely a plus. So it's like I'm [View Full Entry]

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Today is my first day of class! It's been really exciting and a little stressful. There really isn't as much structure as there is in the US. There was a opening ceremony for the beginning of school for grades 1-12. Kindergarten wasn't a part of it. So as my foreign peers headed off for the gymnasium, I went to observe some of my classes. First I went to Forest class. It was then I realized that the classes were stationary and that I was the one visiting classrooms to engage the class in English. I really enjoy Forest class. I had [View Full Entry]

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So yesterday I went to register with the Police Station. It began about 9:30 in the morning where I was escorted by the non-English speaking school driver to the Police Station to get my license plate and electric vehicle permit. A nice boy tried to help me out, but his English was only slightly better than my Chinese. Anyways, one of the officers went inside to get Eric and he came out, gently chastising me on not calling him earlier. He took care of a lot of things, but then when it came to my residency, I needed a "card" or [View Full Entry]

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