Blogs from Dongbei, China, Asia - page 7

Last weekend we (Jonathon, Jeremia, Tyler, and I) worked together on making a movie for the talent show. We spent a large part of Saturday with a sweet girl named Chanel, who took us on a long long journey to find the only costume place in Dalian. Besides getting that done, I was also an MC (Master of Ceremony) for this important, new student welcoming event. My schedule was not very organized and it was hard to decide which was more important - attending MC practices, going to work at teaching english to a class of 7-8 year olds, attending a going-away-to-america party for one of my best friends, or attending school. It all ended Tuesday night though with the talent show. It went surprisingly well. It was a very large crowd of students, teachers, and ... read more

Here are a few pictures of my time teaching here in China. The teaching has been a fantastic experience. I'd never taught seriously before I came here, and it has certainly presented me with new challenges which I did not expect to face. However, I've learned a great deal from it, and it's been a great feeling to actually love going to work everyday!... read more

Monday morning at 7:00, Amber, Jonathon and I loaded up our bags and began the walk to the bus. I could see the sad looks on the faces of my suppliers as we passed them by. "Ni qu na er?" My fruit stand lady asked with concern. (Where are you going?) I made the motion of a mountain with my hands and she nodded with understanding. It would be a whole week before she could ever see my kuai again. We entered that all-too-common awkward situation where we are on a bus with about 30 people that we don't know. And they are speaking Korean, mind you. Oh well, I popped in some raisins and sat down. As the bus passed the "small" city of Dalian, a boy came through the aisle and handed us a ... read more

Friday, September 29: 7:20 a.m. I meet my LNU-School of International Business group, along with thousands of other people, outside the stadium of the south LNU campus. I am made to hold a sign at the lead of my group. I am instructed to walk very slowly. I am told several times how to hold the sign and when to turn the sign to the right. After waiting for about 1/2 an hour, the line of thousands begins to move. We enter the side entrance, into a stadium filled with thousands more. Drums are beating as we walk, slowly, between girls shaking flowers to our left, and the stadiums and the major platform to our right. "Turn the sign!" I turn the sign. A loudspeaker announces something in Chinese and the stadium applauds, yells, and whistles. ... read more

I've had a couple questions about my living conditions. Am I sleeping on the floor? Am I alone? Do I have a western toilet? Is the apartment small? Does it smell? Saturday we walked up the Red Dragon, which is a staircase up a mountain that has about 200 steps. We (the foreigners) were asked to just show our faces around the dormitories so the parents can confirm it is an international campus. Oh, I talked about this in the last blog. But anyways, we got to see the students' dormitories. Four students share one dormitory and there are at least 100 dormitories in one apartment building. They each recieve a flat, raised bunkbed with a metal desk and a metal closet underneath. The four also share one bathroom; a dark, cornered bathroom with a ground ... read more