Blogs from Dalian, Dongbei, China, Asia - page 4

Saturday, March 17, brought celebration among even the smallest communities in the world. Why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? To stomp on the spirit of a man whom, quoted from a native Irish man “soaked all the fun out of Ireland”. A man who spent his life converting Pagans to Catholicism, making it the major religion in Ireland today. A man whom hated alcohol, hated parties, and all else evil in the world. It brings back memories of my last March, post St. Patrick’s Day, in Ireland. Making conversation with the bartender, ~“How late are you working tonight?” -“Oh, I’m running back and forth, doing this, doing that, working off me sins!” ~”Do you go to church?” -”I do, mornin’ and night! I tell ya, I must’ve done something in me past life, cause ... read more

So yesterday I taught my English Corner on periods, sex and pregnancy to women only. A bunch of people were worried about the topic beforehand. A couple people said that it wouldn't go well and people would end up walking out because they got frightened. Others were making fun of me for the topic and not being helpful when it came time to ask them questions about it. But when I got in the classroom it was completely jam-packed with women and one tutor in their to try and learn new things. It was like teaching middle schoolers. I started off with "what are some ways in which we are different from men?" Once I got a list of those - which included the topics I was working on for the day I went through and ... read more

Visited Countries Map Gareth and I were just talking about the fact that China is officially the English sucker of the universe. For some reason the longer you are here the more you lose of your mother tongue. For us this means that when we go home we can no longer speak true English. Last time I went back to the US my father said "wait a couple weeks and she'll be able to speak English". We lose everything here including how to spell. I used to be an awesome speller but recently I have been having a lot of difficulties, times when I look at a word and it simply doesn't look right when it is or times when I know exactly how to say something but have no idea how to spell it. Yesterday ... read more

Just had a great "class". It's the look like a foreigner to attract customers class! We get to do demonstration classes every now and again where we have to stand up and give a lecture on the school and the teaching style as well as who we are and where we are from. It's fun because we have to go around to all the tables afterwards and we often times get one student monopolizing our time at any given table. The latest was a girl trying to get my phone number to go out to bars and talk. "I'm not allowed to give you my phone number." "Really?" "Yeah but I can give you my e-mail address." They try to monopolize your time a lot. "What about having lunch with me today?" One of my students ... read more

Last night when I got off work I had to get my stuff in order to quickly go over to Peace Plaza and meet Hui to teach her for a little while. When I left the building it was raining but when I arrived at Peace Plaza it was snowing very slightly. I had to use my umbrella to stay dry. After talking with her for a bit she let Cam, Eason and I go home together. Cam decided to walk home since it was snowing so we could have some fun. Leason hadn't seen snow before so it was a pretty big event for him. I got to take some pictures of him enjoying himself. They made their usual human sled by having Leason squat down and two people getting on either side of him ... read more