zhuhai now in shenzhen

---

well I'm now officially certified to teach english in China! We got our certificates a couple of days ago after 8 days of non-stop training along with Chinese classes. It's weird you get to a point of getting used to Zhuhai then you realize you have to pack up and head to Shenzhen. Basically a 15 min ferry ride but 2 hours by car. Basically the area is a big horseshoe around the bay- Shenzhen on one side and Zhuhai across the water. Shenzhen (shen-jenn- so I don't have to continually do this zh=j sound in Mandarin). I think it's the begining of the monsoon season b/c its rained more this past day in Shenzhen than all the days in Zhuhai. Just have to get used to the fact that when it rained in Missouri and Oklahoma a long 2 hour rain cooled things off and got rid of the humidity whereas here in the tropical ecosystem the rain just makes the humidity laugh at you can call you stupid. Got a cold a few days ago that I'm now trying to shake. This has been a better day than the past couple. For our training in Zhuhai we had to prepare a lesson plan for the other teachers then act as if we were teaching our classes. My partner (who bless her heart is really sweet, just not all there) chose halloween to present to a bunch of 20 year olds acting like little elementary students. And of course naturally we were supposed to act like little bastards and each presentation it got worse where it peaked... naturally of course with our presentation. My partner went first and allowed the "kids" to walk all over her. I felt really bad as did the teacher of the class among others. She kept walking backtowards me where I'm saying "get in their faces and yell at the little bastards!" we were supposed to present for 10 min apiece just to get a feel for teaching (10 min doesn't really give you a full gauge when you have 40-50 min to plan out) I just told my partner to stop after about 8 min. She was definately relieved. After about the 8th paper airplane flying around I could definately see she had no control. So as the new teacher I was going to present Halloween songs to teach to the kids-which with my singing I figured will be mutually fun. and of course immediately I see 2 guys throw paper across the room. Having already been fed up with the behavior I got on them immediately no warning or any of that bs. I had them stand up and walk towards the aisle to me b/c I was going to take them to the front of the room. and for some reason I pulled these 2 guys (some might argue men- though they act really dumbass like) by their ears to the front of the class. Needless to say minus one other outburst they shut up. I got to present 3 black cats and 5 little pumpkins to them. which they thought was a cool presentation. * just one thing- if you grab someone by the ears make sure you go for the lobes! I grabbed the first part I could get and naturally it was cartlidge with ear wax! Nasty!!!!* so basically I'm the talk of the town for the next couple of days known only as EAR MAN maybe I should try to market it? That's it for now. Still getting stared at, it's nice in Mandarin you have 26 radicals- these 26 characters in some way shape or form the basis for every other character in Mandarin. and I'm learning them so while I can't read- I am seeing the radicals which makes things easy for looking them up in the dictionary. Minus the fact that there are over 8000 characters.

Well I'm stationed in Loa'hu (low-hoo) district within the city of Shenzhen. it's the main downtown province something I wanted to avoid (all the people and air quality) but it may work out better b/c it's the central part of the city. so anywhere else I want to go I have a great place to start from. I start teaching Monday morning (it's friday at 1:50 here 12 hours ahead of eastern, 13 central 14 mountain, and 15 western time) Get skype people! I'm not planning on a cell phone so if you want to verbally chat with me Skype is the way to go! adios!

---