Blogs from Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, Asia - page 12

I've had a couple of interesting coversations the past few days about life abroad and goals surrounding it. Whenever one lives abroad, they have goals and dreams before they arrive. Perhaps they want to learn the language. Maybe they want to assimilate into the culture fully. Perhaps they want more satisfying work. Maybe they want more time to write or focus on another passion. Or maybe they just want to discover a part of themselves that either feels lost or unknown. These goals are often personal and not something shared. One friend told me how she'd gone to live in a European country for a change of pace. She didn't stay as long as her friends and family expected her to, and quite a few of them remarked that they're sorry it didn't work out. Some ... read more

After we'd finished our last presentations, I stood up to give the speech team feedback. Normally, it's something I'd do in the next class, but this was our last time meeting together so I had to do it tonight. I was bone tired after a sleepless night and a necessary trip to Guangzhou. I knew we had a party planned for afterwards and just wanted to get through it all and go sleep. I was a bag of emotions. I was tired, I was sad to leave, I was excited for the party, I was proud of my students for doing such a great job. It was so obvious that they'd worked hard and improved over the course of the term; I don't usually see that in such great numbers. As I was giving my remarks, ... read more

I met one of the former Speech Team captains for lunch today. He graduated last spring and lives in the city, thus providing me with a perfect excuse to spend a day in the city. He asked me what I wanted to eat and I told him I wanted good local food. Sure, there's lots of Chinese restaurants here, but a good one with special food is something I have more difficulty finding. My student says the name of the restaurant is, "very Cantonese," which I thought was odd until he told me the name: Daughter-in-Law. We arrived at 11am and were lucky enough to beat the rush. The staff were already setting red plastic stools outside for the upcoming line. We ordered a few dishes (by "we" I mean he did) and selected our tea. ... read more

Rachel and I decided that we were going to have one more fun day together in GZ before we both leave at the end of the term. We started with a fabulous lunch and then set out across town to one of the walking streets in the older part of the city, near Changshou Lu. We started on the main road and then decided to duck down an interesting side street. There's always better things to see where we don't normally tread. We saw little homes, sewing businesses, children hunched over their homework. There were lots of little shops and markets selling cigarettes, alcohol, fruit and even snakes (for eating). At one point, a fish managed to escape his bucket, only to flop about on the road; I suspect he wished he hadn't made a leap ... read more

It's time for your yearly update of what's next in my world. After five wonderful years I've decided to leave China. These five years have been some of the best and have forever changed me and my life. But don't worry, the adventures will continue! I've decided to move to Bangkok, Thailand. I've loved Thailand every time I've visited and last summer I knew it was where I needed to go next. The Thai ESL market is different than other places, mainly due to high demand by teachers for jobs. Many companies and schools want to see you face to face before they consider hiring you. Further, Thailand operates on "Thai time" and I've noticed many jobs aren't even posted online until a week before they need someone to start. Or the Thursday before the weekend ... read more