One month in

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Ok so I realise I haven't really updated much about Xiamen itself so I thought I'd tell you something about the city and my school.

Xiamen's a fairly small city by Chinese standards with only about 1.5 million people. The city itself is on the island of the same name just off the Chinese mainland opposite Taiwan. Because it's quite a small city it has a very relaxed feel, a fact that is helped by the weather. It was really hot and humid when I first got here but now (bar the occasional short-lived thunderstorm) it's far more comfortable, temperatures are in the mid to high twenties and there's usually a refreshing sea breeze too.

I haven't done too much sightseeing yet (I've been kept quite busy at work) but from what I've seen Xiamen is a beautiful city. A lot of the city is quite modern, tall buildings but they're usually quite tastefully done (for China) and most of the streets are lined with trees. There are quite a few older buildings too. The shops on Zhongshan Lu, the main shopping street, have modern shop fronts on the ground floor but with old, colonial style facades higher up. I'll try to get some photos uploaded at some point soon. The island is dotted with hill, mountains and parks too making it quite green and pleasant. Oh and there are sandy beaches too!

As I said I haven't seen or done much "tourism" since I've been here as I've been kept busy at work. I'm based at No. 1 Middle School located pretty much in the centre of the city, which is great as it’s easy to travel around, the buses and taxis are cheap and easy to use (the other ELAs' schools are quite a way out of town). I teach the whole of Senior 1 (15-16 year olds). That's 18 classes with up to 50 kids in each class, so I teach on average 900 kids a week! Learning names is more than a little difficult! Although some of the students have given themselves, often amusing, English names which makes it a little easier (I’ve got students called Mystery, Elephant, Dust, Skylight, Sweet, General, Rabbit, Panda, Wooden, Mr I, Ice, Motor and Lucifer amongst others). Each class is only 45 minutes long though so it's not too bad. The kids English is quite good on the whole, better than I was expecting, and they're not too reluctant to speak in class either, which is a relief.

The school itself is the oldest school in the area; it celebrates its centenary this year, but has just had a brand new campus built right next to the old one. I'm based in the new campus just a short ten-minute walk from my flat. My flat itself is ok. It’s a nice size, if a little Spartan but it has everything I need. The campus is seriously impressive; again I'll try to get some photos uploaded a.s.a.p.

My colleagues here have been really kind and helpful (although sometimes they do forget my Chinese is very basic at best and neglect to tell me of timetable changes etc).

When I first got here I had to have a medical in order to get my residents permit. Now, some of the other ELAs in other cities had to have extremely, er, thorough examinations but, to my relief, I only had to have some blood tests and a chest x-ray - all fairly straight forward.

As for my spare time, I picked up a cheap dvd player from Walmart (I know, I know but it’s on of the few large supermarkets on the island and the closest one to me) and during the week I spent the odd evening watching dvds. There’s a great little pirate dvd shop here that’s almost like a speakeasy. You have to go into a teashop and give a nod and a wink to the guy behind the counter and he unlocks a door behind a bookshelf that lets you upstairs into the dvd shop - very exciting! The shop’s good too, it has a great selection of dvds from Hollywood blockbusters to indy films and tv series. I’ve managed to pick up the second series of Lost, American Dad, Snakes on a Plane, Broken Flowers etc all for about 30 - 60 pence a disc. Bargain.

At weekends I usually meet up with some of the other foreign teachers from the nearby foreign languages school and we go for a meal and a few drinks. The food so far has been really good but I’ll talk about that in another entry as this is getting a little long.

I’ll update again soon.

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Comments

[Tim in OZ]

Awespme suff
hey mr james! wicked to hear about all your going on's. sounds really cool, didnt realise you would be teaching all those kids and those names are just awesome: Wooden's my fav! be really cool to catch some pics. I'm moved in to the enw place in sydney, sounds similar to yours, but its my space, and great to get out from living in a suit case. So ur net access at school? and u thought any more about your travels home? TAke care dude, TIm