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Asia » China » Jiangsu » Danyang
September 23rd 2009
Published: September 23rd 2009
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Still Humming About Tibet

Hey! everyday the power of the internet and blogs continues to amaze me. After my blogs on Tibet I received comments and messages from people all over the world expressing their gratitude (you are welcome, Becky), and their outrage (most were Chinese and not well-informed). Anyway, thank you everyone for your heartfelt messages and if I did not comment on your comment, rest assured it's not because I've been too busy, it's because my ethics, morality, and good old sense of right and wrong will not be compromised, and the Delete key is soooo close. 😊

So, Jenny and I got back from our seven-week summer vacation a few weeks back and we managed to unpack, enjoy one nice homecoming meal on our little patio barbecue grill and before we could say "Don't touch that!", I made the mistake of answering the telephone. It's not that we hate to talk on the phone, it's just that from our experience if our land line rings it will be only one of two people and we will be needed immediately, which will also be at the very last possible minute. It's a Chinese habit that just drives us crazy here! Sure enough, I was gently summoned to the school and within less than fifteen minutes I was sitting in my VPs office hearing how I was going to be spending the last week of our summer vacation at a training seminar in another city, Nanjing, China. Free training? - I'm in!!

New School Program

Turns out my host, Mr. Wang, volunteered me to represent our school (one of only nine schools picked for the program) and attend a week of training in Nanjing provided by the Chinese Provincial Government. The CPG is starting a new program for high school students whose parents have made the decision that they want Little Lee Kuan to skip college in China and instead go abroad to a Western university. Needless to say these parents are also willing to pay a considerable amount of additional school fees to get their child into this program.

The program is a three-year track so although I only get to teach them for one semester before my replacement comes in to fill the empty foreign teacher position when we leave in February, I have been responsible for being a real English teacher and not just the dancing bald monkey my other oral English classes require. It's called the International University Program and I was sincerely honored that Mr. Wang volunteered me, plus it comes with a 3,000 a month raise. Xie, Xie (thank you) indeed.

After the training I was happy to be home but things got amped up pretty quick because the following day our 2nd semester of teaching was set to begin. To give you an example of how awesome our jobs are here in DanYang, the school wants me to be able to focus on the 20 students in my new IUP class so they 1) cut my schedule from last semester by half, 2) give me a 3,000rmb a month raise for my new skills, and 3) cut Jenny's schedule in half so she can come over to my school and be my assistant. Of course I don't call her my assistant, but she's really happy these days with this new arrangement. So now we are both working only half the hours we did last semester and we are bringing in an additional 3,000rmb per month. It will be difficult to leave this school, this city, this country, in February - everybody has been so amazing to work with here...

Chinese National Day

I've talked about all the holidays we enjoy here in China where these traditional folks take more time off than the French and Canadians combined. The biggest holiday in 60 years is coming up in October as it's the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. The PRC's National Day was declared at three o'clock on October 1, 1949, in front of 300,000 people during a ceremony in Tienanmen Square. Chairman Mao declared the founding of the People's Republic and waved the first five-star PRC flag. The day is celebrated with huge military parades in Beijing, speeches, state banquets and other events. But, since around the year 2000 China's economy has been on steriods so now the entire country takes seven days off so folks can go visit their families. We haven't decided if we are going anywhere, but a week off is a nice holiday!

I didn't think it would happen this soon but we are actually getting excited about coming back to the states in February! We are tossing around the idea of touching down in Tampa and then renting a car for a few weeks and taking a Family Road Trip. Starting with a few days in Bonita Springs, we will then head up the Gulf Coast and hit Chicago (David and Susan) where I may even be able to convince Jenny to shoot over to my best bud Kevin's lake house in Dahinda (yes, that really is a town), then roll all the way up to Vermont to see my girls (Aubster and Carlsberg), then back down the east coast to Virginia to see my mom, and then further down to Atlanta for a few days with my Dad, Tommy and family, and brokowski, Tim. Then we would pull back into Tampa and start the re-acclimatizing process in sunny Tampa. Not sure yet but it's an idea!

Cheers to everyone!

P.S. Thanks to everyone who sent me little something's remembering my birthday! I had a fantastic 47th and spent much of it being grateful for my family and friends. It was also fun to sit back and remember the conversation I had with myself last year on my birthday knowing in one year I would be somewhere in China, celebrating the next one in a strange land with no clue as to where I would be living, where I would be working, what my days would be like. Now that's exciting!

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23rd September 2009

Something we have in common
You Said: .".. celebrating the next one (birthday) in a strange land with no clue as to where I would be living, where I would be working, what my days would be like." Sounds like a summary of my life!!! Love ya son, Your Pater Familias
13th November 2009

Yo bone daddy!
I just wanted to say that the family road trip is a wonderful idea! You should deffinatley come allll the way up to Vermont and visit me!
5th December 2009

Family trip
You are welcome to come to Denver!! I would love to see you and meet Jennifer. :)

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