I had scheduled a meeting with a government official from the State Administration for Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA). I've been working on obtaining permits since March so that I can introduce foreign teachers to Chinese schools. I had made a pretty good contact in San Francisco and he got me my meeting after months of getting no where on my own. Luckily for me I had a few friends living in Beijing so I would not need to book a hotel room while I was there. The bad news was that my buddy Zak had his cousin in town and had no room for me to crash at his place. I would end up staying with my friend Riley in Haidan, a district with lots of colleges and expats. The other bad news was that my ... read more

Pete's Version I have been assigned to the first year students whom don't start for a while. Well I don't actually start my official teaching schedule until October 11th. This is right after our vacation to the Philippines. Until that time I will have one 90 min class on Tuesdays and I will be helping two students, Chain and Crystal, prepare for a English competition. I meet with them daily except Sat, from 6 - 8:30pm. Tonight I have invited Chain, Crystal, and our student assigned helper Nathan over for dinner. We are going to try and make taco salad. It should be fun. Typically in my evening classes the head of the Business Enghlish department, as this is how its spelled on his business card, hovers over the students and speaks loudly at them in ... read more

I can't believe this, we were given our class schedules, our WHOLE year school calendar and advised that the class times will adjust in October for the "Winter" times(funny since there is no Daylight Savings in China). I asked if the calendar/days off will change at all and they said "no, we stick to the printed schedule." Alleluia! We can start to plan out our honeymoon and other vacations. I will be teaching all 2nd yr students. I have eight 90 minutes classes a week for a total of 16 hrs, plus some other activities for the maximum of 20 hrs per week worked. Two of my classes are for International Trade majors, we will meet once a week for Listening & Speaking. My other 3 classes meet twice a week for Business English majors. We ... read more

That time has come and we are back in China. Our 7 weeks flew by that we spent with family and friends while in the USA. I wanted to write about a few things that came to mind when I look back at our long day of travel from San Fran to Vancouver to Shanghai on Air Canada. First, Air Canada was amazing in the fact that they had On Demand movies for our total of 14 hrs of flying today(2 hrs from San Fran to Vancouver and 11 hrs 45 mins onto Shanghai). Next, we both got our first stamp from Canada in our passports passing through the airport today. Then, how we were once again the minority on our plane to Shanghai. Being in the minority is not a bad thing and I find ... read more

The night before the wedding we all meet up at the Neighborhood Bar. Elyse was planning on staying with some of her girl friends on this night. It was one of the few traditional customs that we followed for our wedding. It also gave me a chance to hang out with some of my friends before I tied the knot. This involved a few games of beer pong and several rounds of beer. I figured that I wasn't going to get a lot of sleep on account of being nervous so it was best that I just stayed out with my buddies. I didn't start getting nervous until the rehearsal dinner. I was expected to know the order of things as well as my vows and the dreaded steps to our first dance. Elyse left me ... read more