On Sunday afternoon, Peter and I both received texts from fellow Business English teachers that we would have tea at a teahouse from 10am-5pm. I knew I had to work at FESCO until 11:30am so I could meet them at the teahouse around noon. We both thought this was a very long time but that we would show up for 1.5-2 hours to socialize with our fellow colleguages. When I arrived at 11:45am a few of the female teachers were already there eating and drinking tea. They asked if I wanted to eat and I responded with an of course as it was lunch time. I was lead to a room that had a buffet of snacks, fruit, veggies and soups. Peter, Mark another American foreign teacher and York a Chinese teacher arrived about 20 minutes ... read more

Let me make the title more clear...Class of 2009 is when the students started college at WXP. All the grades start with the last 2 digits of the year they entered college, so instead of it being the Class of 2012 like in the US it is Class of 2009. Onto the activities over the last few weeks. On the evening of May 29th, instead of having my typical night elective class of Oral English I took my students to the Spring Variety Show that kicked off the Graduation Celebrations. My freshman Business English majors were bummed that they had class and couldn't go but a few lucky students are in my elective Oral English class and got to go for class. I enjoyed watching the students perform and figured it was a great way to ... read more

A spa and massage junkie that is.....after college I always thought I knew when I "Made It" in life when I could afford a weekly massage or spa treatment. Well life in China has done just that but I haven't gotten the satisfaction that I have completely "Made It' in life. I have had massages and/or spa treatments in every country we have traveled to since moving to China. When we lived in San Diego I would go to the School of Massage in PB every so often for the $40 hour massage, living in San Diego $40 was a bargain. But after living in Asia for 2.5 years $40 can get you one hell of a spa treatment, especially in Ubud, Bali. I have had the run of the mill treatments from foot massages, to ... read more

On St. Patty's day, we met fellow Travelbloggers Splakawitz in Hangzhou through mutual friends. That weekend we had fun and have kept in contact and knew we wanted to go visit them in the neighboring province of Jiangsu. They just moved to China to teach English in February and are teaching at a Vocational College just like ours. So Friday afternoon, we set out to the train station to catch a high-speed train from Hangzhou to Changzhou. Zhou means city in Chinese so that is why so many cities have zhou at the end of it, especially in the Yangtze River Delta. The train ride was around 2 hours passing through one of the most populated regions on Earth. Per Wikipedia " The urban build-up in the area has given rise what may be the largest ... read more

This blog will be a little different as it will be an interview style. Pete is over writing blogs so I "interviewd" him about his recent 5 day trip to Beijing, May 16th-20th. Reason for going: to visit Yalin, business contact we met in our 1st visit to China in September 2007 and to see Riley, a friend from CTLC 2009-2010. How was Beijing different this time than the past 3 times you have visited? This was the 1st time I didn't go to a section of the Great Wall as I have seen 3 different sections: Badaling, Mutianyu and Jian something 3-4 hrs from Beijing. The only tourist attractions I saw were to walk around Tiananmen Square and free sections of Forbidden City with Mike, as this was his 1st visit to Beijing. How were ... read more