update

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A mixture of busyness and an extremely unreliable internet connection have kept me more or less offline lately. However, I have some down time today, so my plan is to catch up with my e-mails, and write up some updates on my trips to Shanghai and Zhouzhuang.

Right now I’m teaching four regular classes a day during the week, and a half hour kindergarten course every day except for Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. On Sundays I teach my two hour weekend class. I had worried about how little money it seemed I would be making in Wuhan (by Western standards, anyway), but right now it seems like I’m doing pretty well for myself. The school offers quite a few excellent overtime options.

Both of my Kindergarten classes are fun. The lessons are by necessity highly energetic. I don’t have to do too much in the way of lesson planning, because we’re given lesson plans to follow. I mostly show up and sing songs with the kids, and do silly dances. It feels a bit like a cross between teaching, working out for half an hour at the gym, and being in a musical. The kids are at an age where “Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” is EXCITING.

I wish that I had brought more pictures and things from Maine/New York to China with me. I was talking to some of my fourth graders before class started, and I showed them a keychain I’d bought at Toys r Rus, with a picture of Colleen, Rebbecca, Molly, the twins, and me on it. They spent a full ten minutes going over it in rapt attention, pointing out the little details, asking me questions about the people, and telling me how beautiful my friends are. Another time a girl asked me what was in my purse, and I pulled out a can of lipgloss with a moose on it. She asked me what a moose was, and then proceeded to ask me as many questions as she could about moose. The kids are very bright, and also very interested in the world.

I think that my travel plans might be coming together. I found a way to get to Nepal that seems affordable. I was looking at airline after airline trying to find a flight, since the only land route is through Tibet. Flying out of Shanghai or Beijing would cost more than three entire paychecks, and flying out of Wuhan isn’t even possible. However, if I go to Hong Kong, getting to and from Nepal would be only half of one paycheck. Getting from Wuhan to Hong Kong is easy, though Hong Kong itself is an expensive place to stay. What I’d like to do is start my winter vacation out with three days in Hong Kong, head to Nepal for about two weeks, spend a few days traveling around India, and then come back to Wuhan. Depending on how much I spend, I could imagine going back to Shanghai for a little while, for the sake of visiting with friends and the like.

I also think that it would be feasible to do a short Europe trip at the end of my contract. We’re given money to pay for our flight back home, plus a bonus that’s equivalent of an extra month’s pay. At the moment it wouldn’t be ridiculously more expensive to fly from Wuhan, to Germany, to London, and then back to America, instead of just flying directly back to the states. Of course this will also depend on things such as how much plane tickets are come July, and how exchange rates go, considering I’m paid in Yuan.

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Comments

[Bruce]

I did not realize 'Moose Smooch' was such a fascinating product!