Hello everyone, I am sorry that I have not made a post in like a week or so. This will be a long one to catch you all up. Really nothing too exciting has happened.
This past Friday we took Sarina out for dinner. We took her to one of our favorite restaurants, the one with the picture menu and goat dish. Sarina, apparently is not a big fan of goat...but we had ordered other dishes that she liked. After dinner, we took her bowling. It was a fun night. The bowling alley was a lot of fun. I think that a group of five Americans going to the bowling alley was the most fun that the staff had their all night. They kept taking photos on their camera phone and standing by our lane clapping. It was very amuzing. After this, we called it a night.
Saturday Meghan and I took it easy. We watched "A Few Good Men". Good old classic American movie!
Sunday we prepared to each for the upcomming week.
This was the first week that we had our classes with freshman. I won't go into great detail about each individual class, because I did the same thing basically in each class. My freshman classes are bigger than my sophmore classes. I have five classes of freshman. Two of them have approximately 50-60 students. One of 90 students, and the other two have around 120 students. So, first, I introduced myself and talked for a couple minutes about class. Then I numbered off my students and broke them up into ten groups. They were very confused because this is not something that they were used to doing at all. They are very used to just sitting in their seats, listening and speaking when they are called on. Fortunately for both them and me, that is NOT the way that my class is!
Once they were in their groups, I gave each group an item such as a GQ Magazine, chopsticks, power cord, earphones, etc. Each group had two minutes to work together to write as many words about their item as possible. Then each group shared their item and words with the class.
After this, they returned to their seats. Then we played a game called scrambeled egss. This game is to get them used to speaking in class and also different ways to start conversations. I would start off and walk over to a random student and introduce myself. That student would say hello back, and we would have a short little, 5-10 second conversation. I would then take that students seat, and that student would go and do the same with another student. We played this for about 20 minutes, as all of my classes have enjoyed this game.
Following that, I put a couple questions on the board for my students to answer. They put their responses on a sheet of paper that they handed into me. This is how I take attendanc each day...but making them give me something with their name on it.
After that, we played a few more games. Then, class was done. The first day was just about games and having fun.
All and all the classes went very well. My freshman have are at a very good level of speaking and listening, it is just they aren't comfortable speaking in class. Many of them have never had a foreign teacher, so we just have to work on letting them know that I won't "call them out" infront of the class and that I want them to have fun. Therefore, the students are more eager to participate. The more they are willing to talk in class and listen, the better their oral English skills are going to become.
Now that the week is over, it is time for National Holiday. That means that we have a week free to travel!! We were going to go to Guilin, which is way south from where Meghan and I are. However, the train tickets were booked. so, we are goign to spend some time in Beijing and do the toursty things. Also, there are a few other Drake CCEPers who are going to be in Beijing. It will be fun to meet up with them and exchange stories so far!!
Oh, yesterday was Megan's birthday, which was fun. We went out for dinner at the tree restaurant. It is this restaurant that is half way between where Meghan and I live and where Megan, Chris and Travis live. Matt joined us for dinner too. When you walk into the restaurant, you have to cross a little bridge and there is this HUGE massive fake tree through the middle of the restaurant as well. It was kinda crazy, but cool at the same time. We had some great food (with no chicken heads in any of the dishes). It was a good time. However, we couldn't have too crazy of a night because Megan, Chris and Travis had to be at their bus stop at 7 am the following morning.
That's about it for now. I will write more after we are back from Beijing. Hope all is well...
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
A New Friend
Hey! Sorry it's been a few days since the last post. This new post basically takes place entirely at an outdoor Chinese BBQ. Basically, it is tents that are set up along the sidewalk with chairs and tables, then there are grills just along the sidewalk where the food is being made. We haven't had a bad meal at one yet, and they are not very expensive.
To, Wednesday night Meghan and I went to the Chinese BBQ while I had a load of laundry going, becuase we were hungry. We were planning on having a movie and laundry night. Then, while we were eating Megan and Chris walked by and decided to join us. We then made friends with the owner of the BBQ, nimed Gin Tz (I am horrible at spelling Chinese names, sorry!). He is 28 and his brother owns another BBQ here in the city). He is working very hard to speak English to us, but unfortunately his English is as bad as our Chinese. So, we handed him one of our phrase books (that has a Chiense to English section in the back) and then we had a conversation through our phrasebooks. What we thought was going to be a quick dinner, turned into a two hour dinner! While we were eating, and talking, Gin Tz had to go to his brothers BBQ to pick up some more meat, so he grabbed Chris's hand and took him to the back of the motorcycle and they were off. We had no idea where they were going, or what was going on. Chris came back in one piece about ten minutes later, though. Soon after that, we paid our bill and left. We then went to a Chinese Disco Club, that was nothing too exciting. Loud Chinese techno music, flashing lights, etc.
Yesterday, Meghan and I were walking toward the hotel where the others are staying. To get to the hotel, though, we have to pass by the BBQ. Gin Tz was there and grabbed Meghan and I and gave us a beer. We sat down and I called the others to come and meet us here then we would thank Gin Tz for the beers and head off. It didn't exactly work out that way though. He kept bringing us more and more food and just putting it on our table. We kept making the mistake of eating everything, so he brought back more. When eating with friends, or at a dinner, etc. one should leave something on their plate when they are full, this way it shows there was too much food (compared to having too little food by cleaning your plate). So, we eventually caught on as to why he kept giving us more food, so we left a couple lamb skewers on our plate. Then, ofcourse, Matt walks by! He sits down and joins us, and it turns out that Matt knows Gin Tz, too. Also, not only does Matt know Gin Tz, but he knows a group of three other guys who were sitting at another table. So, these three Chiense guys invited us over to talk. They didn't know much English except for the words: beautiful, USA, and friend. They were hilarious. We also tried some new foods. These foods include: silk worms in their cocoons, and crawfish. There were chicken feet on the table, but only Matt ate a foot. After this was done, we headed back to our place and called it a night.
That's about it! New foods, new friends and a hilarious story!
To, Wednesday night Meghan and I went to the Chinese BBQ while I had a load of laundry going, becuase we were hungry. We were planning on having a movie and laundry night. Then, while we were eating Megan and Chris walked by and decided to join us. We then made friends with the owner of the BBQ, nimed Gin Tz (I am horrible at spelling Chinese names, sorry!). He is 28 and his brother owns another BBQ here in the city). He is working very hard to speak English to us, but unfortunately his English is as bad as our Chinese. So, we handed him one of our phrase books (that has a Chiense to English section in the back) and then we had a conversation through our phrasebooks. What we thought was going to be a quick dinner, turned into a two hour dinner! While we were eating, and talking, Gin Tz had to go to his brothers BBQ to pick up some more meat, so he grabbed Chris's hand and took him to the back of the motorcycle and they were off. We had no idea where they were going, or what was going on. Chris came back in one piece about ten minutes later, though. Soon after that, we paid our bill and left. We then went to a Chinese Disco Club, that was nothing too exciting. Loud Chinese techno music, flashing lights, etc.
Yesterday, Meghan and I were walking toward the hotel where the others are staying. To get to the hotel, though, we have to pass by the BBQ. Gin Tz was there and grabbed Meghan and I and gave us a beer. We sat down and I called the others to come and meet us here then we would thank Gin Tz for the beers and head off. It didn't exactly work out that way though. He kept bringing us more and more food and just putting it on our table. We kept making the mistake of eating everything, so he brought back more. When eating with friends, or at a dinner, etc. one should leave something on their plate when they are full, this way it shows there was too much food (compared to having too little food by cleaning your plate). So, we eventually caught on as to why he kept giving us more food, so we left a couple lamb skewers on our plate. Then, ofcourse, Matt walks by! He sits down and joins us, and it turns out that Matt knows Gin Tz, too. Also, not only does Matt know Gin Tz, but he knows a group of three other guys who were sitting at another table. So, these three Chiense guys invited us over to talk. They didn't know much English except for the words: beautiful, USA, and friend. They were hilarious. We also tried some new foods. These foods include: silk worms in their cocoons, and crawfish. There were chicken feet on the table, but only Matt ate a foot. After this was done, we headed back to our place and called it a night.
That's about it! New foods, new friends and a hilarious story!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Uneventful day...
Hey everyone,
Just thought I'd make a post to say hi. Nothing too eventful here...pretty boring Monday.
I woke up and Skyped with the family...always nice to talk with them! Then, went to the grocery store and got some stuff to have around the apartment for lunches, etc. I got some things that look like ramen in a cup. It is all in Chinese, so I am going to have my students transalte the packaging for me and give me instructions on how to make it. Maybe this way I can learn some of the Chinese characters, too.
Went out to dinner with Meghan, Megan and Travis. Chris wasn't feeling well, so he stayed behind. We went to a restaurant we had been to before, that had a picture menu. We ordered some lo mein, then a pita bread type of a thing, a spicey chicken dish and a dish that we think was lamb. It was all really good. Minus the lo mein, these were dishes we had never had before. I'd totally get them again. We then went back to Meghan's and watched the movie, "Saved". I knew that bringing a travel CD booklet of DVDs would come in handy.
Tomorrow I teach one class from 1010-1150. Before class, however, I am going to get to the library and work on creating some teaching materials from the English copy of the Chinese newspaper. Also, I am going to speak to Maggie, one of our waibans, about movie viewings. Many of my students wanted to watch movies, but also many said that they wanted to spend class time working on their English and not watching movies. I completely understand both. So, I am going to see if it's possible to reserve one of the large lecture halls one evening a week and show movies in there. This way, everyone is pleased. I don't have to use class time to show movies, but can still offer it to my students. Another nice thing is that I won't have to watch the same movie seven times! Hopefully we are able to do this. Keep your fingers crossed that this works out for me!
That's about it. We are trying to finalize plans for our travel during holiday from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, but don't have anything finalized yet. We've bounced around ideas, as I have previously mentioned, but haven't yet confirmed anything. We discussed at dinner tonight getting everything planned by the end of the week. We worry if we wait too much longer we might not get train tickets and hotel rooms due to it being a holiday.
Hope all is well...
Just thought I'd make a post to say hi. Nothing too eventful here...pretty boring Monday.
I woke up and Skyped with the family...always nice to talk with them! Then, went to the grocery store and got some stuff to have around the apartment for lunches, etc. I got some things that look like ramen in a cup. It is all in Chinese, so I am going to have my students transalte the packaging for me and give me instructions on how to make it. Maybe this way I can learn some of the Chinese characters, too.
Went out to dinner with Meghan, Megan and Travis. Chris wasn't feeling well, so he stayed behind. We went to a restaurant we had been to before, that had a picture menu. We ordered some lo mein, then a pita bread type of a thing, a spicey chicken dish and a dish that we think was lamb. It was all really good. Minus the lo mein, these were dishes we had never had before. I'd totally get them again. We then went back to Meghan's and watched the movie, "Saved". I knew that bringing a travel CD booklet of DVDs would come in handy.
Tomorrow I teach one class from 1010-1150. Before class, however, I am going to get to the library and work on creating some teaching materials from the English copy of the Chinese newspaper. Also, I am going to speak to Maggie, one of our waibans, about movie viewings. Many of my students wanted to watch movies, but also many said that they wanted to spend class time working on their English and not watching movies. I completely understand both. So, I am going to see if it's possible to reserve one of the large lecture halls one evening a week and show movies in there. This way, everyone is pleased. I don't have to use class time to show movies, but can still offer it to my students. Another nice thing is that I won't have to watch the same movie seven times! Hopefully we are able to do this. Keep your fingers crossed that this works out for me!
That's about it. We are trying to finalize plans for our travel during holiday from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, but don't have anything finalized yet. We've bounced around ideas, as I have previously mentioned, but haven't yet confirmed anything. We discussed at dinner tonight getting everything planned by the end of the week. We worry if we wait too much longer we might not get train tickets and hotel rooms due to it being a holiday.
Hope all is well...
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Don't Smoke, It's Bad for the Furniture!!
Hello, everyone! It's been a fun last couple of days!
We'll start with yesterday. We met up with Matt and the other foreign teacher from his school named Jimmy (from Long Island). It was just Meghan and I, because the others were out with Dee (another foreigner who owns a private langauge school here in the city). So, the four of us went to an outdoor BBQ joint where we had a beer, chicken wing (on a stick), and lamb skewers. I felt like we were at the state fair because everything we got came on a stick. The food was really good and not very expensive at all. Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention that one of Jimmy's friend, Lotus (this is her English name) came along with us to dinner.
After dinner, we met up with Megan, Chris and Travis and we went to bar street. We went back to Ok Bar and had a couple drinks, played pool, darts and sang some songs. It was a good time to be had by all. The funny quote of the night was when Matt and Jimmy started smoking, Lotus informed us all that "Smoking is bad for the furniture". I thought it was hilarious. After we left the bar, we walked to McDonalds for soft-serve ice cream and then called that a night.
Today was a lot of fun. Lotus, Jimmy and Matt invited us over to their apartments (on their campus) to celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival. Lotus and a few of her friends made really good dumplings for us. Some were beef and some were pork. I stuck with the beef ones. They were FANTASTIC!! We then played Chinese Hackey-sack with some of the Chinese students who made us the dumplings. Six hours later, we left and went back on our way. It was a really fun way to spend the Mid-Autumn holiday....food, friends and games.
I will be putting more photos online here in the next few hours, so make sure to check out the website: www.zasinchina.shutterly.com.
We'll start with yesterday. We met up with Matt and the other foreign teacher from his school named Jimmy (from Long Island). It was just Meghan and I, because the others were out with Dee (another foreigner who owns a private langauge school here in the city). So, the four of us went to an outdoor BBQ joint where we had a beer, chicken wing (on a stick), and lamb skewers. I felt like we were at the state fair because everything we got came on a stick. The food was really good and not very expensive at all. Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention that one of Jimmy's friend, Lotus (this is her English name) came along with us to dinner.
After dinner, we met up with Megan, Chris and Travis and we went to bar street. We went back to Ok Bar and had a couple drinks, played pool, darts and sang some songs. It was a good time to be had by all. The funny quote of the night was when Matt and Jimmy started smoking, Lotus informed us all that "Smoking is bad for the furniture". I thought it was hilarious. After we left the bar, we walked to McDonalds for soft-serve ice cream and then called that a night.
Today was a lot of fun. Lotus, Jimmy and Matt invited us over to their apartments (on their campus) to celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival. Lotus and a few of her friends made really good dumplings for us. Some were beef and some were pork. I stuck with the beef ones. They were FANTASTIC!! We then played Chinese Hackey-sack with some of the Chinese students who made us the dumplings. Six hours later, we left and went back on our way. It was a really fun way to spend the Mid-Autumn holiday....food, friends and games.
I will be putting more photos online here in the next few hours, so make sure to check out the website: www.zasinchina.shutterly.com.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Ready for another week....
Nothing really to exciting from the rest of the week. Meghan and I each had one class on Friday. I did the same thing, with a few minor changes, in this class as I did with Tuesday's class. It went well. I did, however, talk a little bit more about the Olympics in my class. I told the class how Shawn Johnson goes to the high school I graduated from. Then, immediately, one girl raised her hand and said, "Do you know Michael Phelps?". Figures.
After class was over, I was waiting for Meghan inside the doors of the building where she was teaching. While I was waiting, a very friendly man who was apparently completely fluent in English came over and starting speaking to me. He started asking if I was a foreign English teacher, where I was from, if I watched the Olympics, and so on. After about five minutes of our conversation, Meghan came down and she joined us. This man then asked, "So, what do you think I teach?" I laughed and looked and Meghan and made her guess first. She guessed "Biology". The man laughed. I guess "Chemistry", the man laughed again. He chuckled and said, "I am also an English teacher". Then, I asked him once again what his name was. He said his Chinese name so quickly I couldn't catch it, but then he said, "In English, my family name is 'right'. Therefore, I am Mr. Right". Meghan and I laughed. He then asked us if we knew what his first name was. We both looked at him confused, to which he responded, "always. My name is Mr. Always Right, and please don't forget it." Then he walked away. This man was hilarious. It takes an awesome person to be this funny in a second language. We can't wait to get to know this man better, and really want to sit in one of his English classes. We think he will be a good, and extremely entertaining, resource for us.
We then took the 40 minute bus ride back to our place. Oh, at school that day, we got our season pass to the Mountain Summer Resort. This is awesome, because we paid 52 RMB for a pass that gets us in for a year to the resort which normally costs 100 RMB (for foreigners) to get into once. Here's a little bit of information about the summer resort, so you know what I am talking about a little later: http://www.chinaplanner.com/gardens/imperialgarden/imp_smr.htm
Meghan and I decided that we should change into more comfortable close and go and start walking through the mountain resort, because it was a beautiful, sunny late afternoon. We spent about two hours in there, and seriosly didn't even get through 1% of the grounds. It is huge. It will take about 3 full days to walk through the entire place. We are planning on doing that. This way, when anyone comes to visit, we can show the highlights and do the abbreviated tour, unless you're down for spending multiple days in the resort. I will post pictures of what we saw later.
After we left, we started to walk along the river to the hotel where Chris, Megan and Travis are staying. We, like little kids, got side tracked by something on the other side of the street with loud music and flashing lights. We walked over to it and realized there was dancing, pool, snack and an outdoor roller skating rink. We decided it would be fun to roller skate, so we started then called the others over to join us. We skated for about an hour, then proceeded to a restaurant.
We made the mistake of going to a restaurant that had English sign outside of it. It also had a menu that was in English. Therefore, the food was WAY WAY WAY more expensive than it needed to be. Oh well, we learned. We won't be making that mistake again.
After dinner, we proceeded to bar street. These are where the bars are. Chris said that Dee, this New Yorker who owns a private language school was possibly going to be around a specific bar, called Ok Bar. We thought we'd give it a try and see if we can find him. We went to the bar, sat in a private room, and we each had a beer. Dee never came, and the drinks were expensive, so we paid and left. Not too eventful of a day.
Today nothing really has happened. The others took a second job at Dee's private school. I didn't want to because, 1, our waiban said no to a second job and also it meant I had to teach on weekends. That doesn't make it easy to travel when I want too. So, I will be offering private tutoring to students for some extra income. This is what Chris and Meghan are doing for extra income, too. Maggie said it would be alright to do this.
Tonight we are meeting up with Matt and a couple of his friends. We are going for some street bbq and then going to hang out after that. There really is not much of a night scene here, that we've found, so maybe Matt can show us.
Hope all is well...
Oh, I have started to post photos. They are all going to be at this site:
zasinchina.shutterfly.com
After class was over, I was waiting for Meghan inside the doors of the building where she was teaching. While I was waiting, a very friendly man who was apparently completely fluent in English came over and starting speaking to me. He started asking if I was a foreign English teacher, where I was from, if I watched the Olympics, and so on. After about five minutes of our conversation, Meghan came down and she joined us. This man then asked, "So, what do you think I teach?" I laughed and looked and Meghan and made her guess first. She guessed "Biology". The man laughed. I guess "Chemistry", the man laughed again. He chuckled and said, "I am also an English teacher". Then, I asked him once again what his name was. He said his Chinese name so quickly I couldn't catch it, but then he said, "In English, my family name is 'right'. Therefore, I am Mr. Right". Meghan and I laughed. He then asked us if we knew what his first name was. We both looked at him confused, to which he responded, "always. My name is Mr. Always Right, and please don't forget it." Then he walked away. This man was hilarious. It takes an awesome person to be this funny in a second language. We can't wait to get to know this man better, and really want to sit in one of his English classes. We think he will be a good, and extremely entertaining, resource for us.
We then took the 40 minute bus ride back to our place. Oh, at school that day, we got our season pass to the Mountain Summer Resort. This is awesome, because we paid 52 RMB for a pass that gets us in for a year to the resort which normally costs 100 RMB (for foreigners) to get into once. Here's a little bit of information about the summer resort, so you know what I am talking about a little later: http://www.chinaplanner.com/gardens/imperialgarden/imp_smr.htm
Meghan and I decided that we should change into more comfortable close and go and start walking through the mountain resort, because it was a beautiful, sunny late afternoon. We spent about two hours in there, and seriosly didn't even get through 1% of the grounds. It is huge. It will take about 3 full days to walk through the entire place. We are planning on doing that. This way, when anyone comes to visit, we can show the highlights and do the abbreviated tour, unless you're down for spending multiple days in the resort. I will post pictures of what we saw later.
After we left, we started to walk along the river to the hotel where Chris, Megan and Travis are staying. We, like little kids, got side tracked by something on the other side of the street with loud music and flashing lights. We walked over to it and realized there was dancing, pool, snack and an outdoor roller skating rink. We decided it would be fun to roller skate, so we started then called the others over to join us. We skated for about an hour, then proceeded to a restaurant.
We made the mistake of going to a restaurant that had English sign outside of it. It also had a menu that was in English. Therefore, the food was WAY WAY WAY more expensive than it needed to be. Oh well, we learned. We won't be making that mistake again.
After dinner, we proceeded to bar street. These are where the bars are. Chris said that Dee, this New Yorker who owns a private language school was possibly going to be around a specific bar, called Ok Bar. We thought we'd give it a try and see if we can find him. We went to the bar, sat in a private room, and we each had a beer. Dee never came, and the drinks were expensive, so we paid and left. Not too eventful of a day.
Today nothing really has happened. The others took a second job at Dee's private school. I didn't want to because, 1, our waiban said no to a second job and also it meant I had to teach on weekends. That doesn't make it easy to travel when I want too. So, I will be offering private tutoring to students for some extra income. This is what Chris and Meghan are doing for extra income, too. Maggie said it would be alright to do this.
Tonight we are meeting up with Matt and a couple of his friends. We are going for some street bbq and then going to hang out after that. There really is not much of a night scene here, that we've found, so maybe Matt can show us.
Hope all is well...
Oh, I have started to post photos. They are all going to be at this site:
zasinchina.shutterfly.com
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sucking the Marrow out of Life...
So, yesterday was a slow start to an eventful evening. During the day, Meghan had construction workers putting in new pipes in her apartment. This is what I had done last week. Meghan didn’t want to sit in her apartment alone with these workers, so I went over and entertained her. After about 5 hours of pounding, hammering and sawing, the construction workers left. One problem though, they left her apartment a huge mess (much like they did mine). They did not push back any of the furniture, and also there was a 3 inch wide trench going across her entire kitchen with a pipe in it. The workers did not fill this back in. So, we called Maggie and told her to have someone repair this. A worker came and put cement in the trench, and immediately after he was done, I suggested that Meghan wrote her name in the cement before it dried. She did, and know her name will always be on the kitchen floor.
After this, we decided that pizza sounded really good. We called Maggie and asked where a pizza joint was. She gave us somewhat confusing directions, but we thought we’d try to find it. On the way, we bumped into Chris, Megan and Travis who were just getting back from their campus. They decided to join us for dinner. After walking around for what seemed to be an hour looking for this pizza place, we gave up and ate at a Chinese restaurant. We were taking to the dinning room upstairs. It was hard to order because none of us felt like being decisive and ordering stuff for the group. Finally, we ordered two chicken dishes and some beer.
While we were eating, we noticed everyone at the tables around us eating what seemed to be a delicacy at this restaurant. It was a plate completely filled with pork (still on the bones). There seemed to be like five pounds of pork on the place. This pork was served with a plastic glove and a straw. First, those eating this place would suck the marrow out of the bones with the straw. Ofcourse, this is done making as loud of sucking noises as possible. Next, you put on the glove and eat the pork. It was, um, an interesting experience happening around us while we were trying to eat.
After dinner, Meghan decided that she needed soft-served ice cream from McDonalds given the way that she had. None of us objected and followed her for ice cream. Now, I feel it is important to remind everyone of the fact of how many foreigners we’ve seen here in Chengde since we’ve arrived. I’ve seen about 6. So, while we were in McDonalds, we saw two guys from Germany, two women from France and two older guys from the US. That means that there were 11 FOREIGNERS in McDonalds. At one point, there were more foreigners in this McDonalds than Chinese. It was crazy!!
After our wonderful McDonalds experience, we headed back to the hotel where Chris, Travis and Megan are staying and just hung out. Nothing else really too exciting is going on.
Today we are going to meet Megan for lunch (because Travis and Chris are on campus). I think I want to go shopping this afternoon. We passed some cool stores while we were wondering around for the pizza place last night. Then, tonight, I assume we will all go out for dinner. I teach tomorrow at 1:30 pm. Another spoken English class with all English nursing students is what I have to look forward too! I am using the same lesson plan for all my classes (since they are all spoken English), so that makes my life easier. I just have to change around a couple of activities that weren’t as popular in my first class. So, tomorrow shouldn’t be too stressful of a day.
We are going to try to get together with Matt, a foreign teacher from Drake who’s been here for three years, this weekend. We need to ask him some questions about booking travel, so we thought we’d buy him a couple drinks while we quiz him with our questions. He seems like a nice guy, and helpful, so hopefully we’ll be able to get a time set to go out this weekend.
We have a school break that goes from October 1-7 and we are looking into traveling. Right now, we really want to go to Mongolia, or Lhasa, Tibet. However, plane tickets are too expensive on the sights that we’ve been looking at. We are hoping that Matt has some good suggestions for us. If we can’t find any cheaper to those cities, we are going to find someplace cool within China to go to. I really want to go to Chengdu, to see the pandas, but they are still cleaning up there after the horrible earthquake. So, that is going to have to wait until the spring. However, that’s cool, because that means we might see some baby pandas!
Hope all is well….
After this, we decided that pizza sounded really good. We called Maggie and asked where a pizza joint was. She gave us somewhat confusing directions, but we thought we’d try to find it. On the way, we bumped into Chris, Megan and Travis who were just getting back from their campus. They decided to join us for dinner. After walking around for what seemed to be an hour looking for this pizza place, we gave up and ate at a Chinese restaurant. We were taking to the dinning room upstairs. It was hard to order because none of us felt like being decisive and ordering stuff for the group. Finally, we ordered two chicken dishes and some beer.
While we were eating, we noticed everyone at the tables around us eating what seemed to be a delicacy at this restaurant. It was a plate completely filled with pork (still on the bones). There seemed to be like five pounds of pork on the place. This pork was served with a plastic glove and a straw. First, those eating this place would suck the marrow out of the bones with the straw. Ofcourse, this is done making as loud of sucking noises as possible. Next, you put on the glove and eat the pork. It was, um, an interesting experience happening around us while we were trying to eat.
After dinner, Meghan decided that she needed soft-served ice cream from McDonalds given the way that she had. None of us objected and followed her for ice cream. Now, I feel it is important to remind everyone of the fact of how many foreigners we’ve seen here in Chengde since we’ve arrived. I’ve seen about 6. So, while we were in McDonalds, we saw two guys from Germany, two women from France and two older guys from the US. That means that there were 11 FOREIGNERS in McDonalds. At one point, there were more foreigners in this McDonalds than Chinese. It was crazy!!
After our wonderful McDonalds experience, we headed back to the hotel where Chris, Travis and Megan are staying and just hung out. Nothing else really too exciting is going on.
Today we are going to meet Megan for lunch (because Travis and Chris are on campus). I think I want to go shopping this afternoon. We passed some cool stores while we were wondering around for the pizza place last night. Then, tonight, I assume we will all go out for dinner. I teach tomorrow at 1:30 pm. Another spoken English class with all English nursing students is what I have to look forward too! I am using the same lesson plan for all my classes (since they are all spoken English), so that makes my life easier. I just have to change around a couple of activities that weren’t as popular in my first class. So, tomorrow shouldn’t be too stressful of a day.
We are going to try to get together with Matt, a foreign teacher from Drake who’s been here for three years, this weekend. We need to ask him some questions about booking travel, so we thought we’d buy him a couple drinks while we quiz him with our questions. He seems like a nice guy, and helpful, so hopefully we’ll be able to get a time set to go out this weekend.
We have a school break that goes from October 1-7 and we are looking into traveling. Right now, we really want to go to Mongolia, or Lhasa, Tibet. However, plane tickets are too expensive on the sights that we’ve been looking at. We are hoping that Matt has some good suggestions for us. If we can’t find any cheaper to those cities, we are going to find someplace cool within China to go to. I really want to go to Chengdu, to see the pandas, but they are still cleaning up there after the horrible earthquake. So, that is going to have to wait until the spring. However, that’s cool, because that means we might see some baby pandas!
Hope all is well….
Monday, September 8, 2008
First day...success!
Hello!
So I had my first day of teaching today. I had one section of oral English with the English Nursing students. My class was supposed to be 38 students, but somehow I magically had over 50 sitting in my class (along with another professor). It turns out that the biochemistry professor told some of his students that it would be ok to stay for my class and to join it. The way I figure it is, if there's enough chairs...they can stay. There were plenty of chairs, so I let them join my class.
We started off with an introduction and course description. Pretty simple. Next, I asked the students to go around and state their Chinese name, English name (if they had one) and three things about themselves. After hearing all of my students speak, I was very impressed with their speaking level. I just have to work on diction and having them speak more loud.
Next, I went over the way the class was going to work. We would be doing group activities, homework assignments, vocabulary and exams. Nothing too hard. Should be a fun class. They all seemed to be ok with this....
Next, we attempted to play a game called, "What would you do if...". For this game, I would call on a student and ask them, "What would you do if..." then give them a crazy scenario and see what kind of story they came up with. The students who I called on were not very willing to be creative, so I thought that it would work better if I did this in groups. So we jumped to another activity while I set up doing this in groups.
I asked each of the students to spend about five minutes writing their names and some specific suggestions for what they would like to learn/gain from being in this course.
While they were doing this, I wrote vocabulary words on the board. This is the way that I would be splitting them up into groups. The vocabulary words for the day were some different emotions. So, I wrote the following words (and definitions) on the blackboard:
-Excited
-Exhausted
-Overwhelmed
-emotional
-traumatized
-Thrilled
-Energized
-Eager
Then, I told the students that these are the vocabulary words for the day. While they wrote down the words and definitions, I used them all in a sentence and talked about which part of speech they are.
Then, instead of numbering off the students, I went through the class and said, "You're eager", "Your energized", etc. Then, poined to sections of the room and said, "If you're eager, please go over there" and broke them up into groups this way. The first thing they had to do as a group was to come up with a sentence using this word. Each group then had to have one person read their sentence.
Next, I gave each group a what if scenario card. This is the activity I tried to do earlier without them being in groups. Some of the scenarios were, "What would you do if..."
-You found $1,000,000
-You had a tear in your pants and you were meeting someone famous
-Your umbrella broke and you were in the middle of a rainstorm
-You came home and your father's hair was blue
and a few others.
The groups had to come up with a story given that situation. They also had to use atleast three of the vocabulary words in their story. I gave them all 20 mintutes to do this. Then, another person from the group had to stand up and share that story.
After they were done sharing their what if stories, the groups had to come up with their three favorite aspects of the Olympic games. Then, another person from the group had to share that.
When this was done, the class came back together and we continued on. I then gave the class a homwork assignment. They were to think about an experience that they've had, and answer a few questions about it. There were five questions and I wanted them to write 2-3 sentences per question for next class. Then, these assignments will fit into one of our class activities for next class session.
After they were done copying down the questions, we played one last game. This class seemed to love games. We played a game called Scrambeled Eggs. This was a game that I used so we could get to know one another. I started by going to a student in the class and saying, "Hi, I am Zach. How are you?" The student then responded with, "I am fine, thank you". Then, I took his seat. That student then had to go to another student in class and start a conversation with him/her, then take that persons seat. This continued until everyone was in a new seat. My students seemed to love that game. We are going to have to play it more often, and I am going to have to come up with other things we can do with it.
Before I knew it, the class period was over. Really, the class went really well and I am looking forward to the rest of my classes. It makes it easier that the seven classes that I'm teaching are all Oral English. Therefore, I only have to create one lesson plan per week and I can keep all of my classes at about the same place in the material.
After class, Meghan and I joined Maggie and Laura for lunch in one of the cafeteries. We got a couple chicken dishes and shared them. The cafeteria wasn nothing special. It looked like it belonged in a hospital...but the food was ok.
Nothing really going on tonight. We are going to meet up with the other foreign teachers for dinner.
Hope all is well...
So I had my first day of teaching today. I had one section of oral English with the English Nursing students. My class was supposed to be 38 students, but somehow I magically had over 50 sitting in my class (along with another professor). It turns out that the biochemistry professor told some of his students that it would be ok to stay for my class and to join it. The way I figure it is, if there's enough chairs...they can stay. There were plenty of chairs, so I let them join my class.
We started off with an introduction and course description. Pretty simple. Next, I asked the students to go around and state their Chinese name, English name (if they had one) and three things about themselves. After hearing all of my students speak, I was very impressed with their speaking level. I just have to work on diction and having them speak more loud.
Next, I went over the way the class was going to work. We would be doing group activities, homework assignments, vocabulary and exams. Nothing too hard. Should be a fun class. They all seemed to be ok with this....
Next, we attempted to play a game called, "What would you do if...". For this game, I would call on a student and ask them, "What would you do if..." then give them a crazy scenario and see what kind of story they came up with. The students who I called on were not very willing to be creative, so I thought that it would work better if I did this in groups. So we jumped to another activity while I set up doing this in groups.
I asked each of the students to spend about five minutes writing their names and some specific suggestions for what they would like to learn/gain from being in this course.
While they were doing this, I wrote vocabulary words on the board. This is the way that I would be splitting them up into groups. The vocabulary words for the day were some different emotions. So, I wrote the following words (and definitions) on the blackboard:
-Excited
-Exhausted
-Overwhelmed
-emotional
-traumatized
-Thrilled
-Energized
-Eager
Then, I told the students that these are the vocabulary words for the day. While they wrote down the words and definitions, I used them all in a sentence and talked about which part of speech they are.
Then, instead of numbering off the students, I went through the class and said, "You're eager", "Your energized", etc. Then, poined to sections of the room and said, "If you're eager, please go over there" and broke them up into groups this way. The first thing they had to do as a group was to come up with a sentence using this word. Each group then had to have one person read their sentence.
Next, I gave each group a what if scenario card. This is the activity I tried to do earlier without them being in groups. Some of the scenarios were, "What would you do if..."
-You found $1,000,000
-You had a tear in your pants and you were meeting someone famous
-Your umbrella broke and you were in the middle of a rainstorm
-You came home and your father's hair was blue
and a few others.
The groups had to come up with a story given that situation. They also had to use atleast three of the vocabulary words in their story. I gave them all 20 mintutes to do this. Then, another person from the group had to stand up and share that story.
After they were done sharing their what if stories, the groups had to come up with their three favorite aspects of the Olympic games. Then, another person from the group had to share that.
When this was done, the class came back together and we continued on. I then gave the class a homwork assignment. They were to think about an experience that they've had, and answer a few questions about it. There were five questions and I wanted them to write 2-3 sentences per question for next class. Then, these assignments will fit into one of our class activities for next class session.
After they were done copying down the questions, we played one last game. This class seemed to love games. We played a game called Scrambeled Eggs. This was a game that I used so we could get to know one another. I started by going to a student in the class and saying, "Hi, I am Zach. How are you?" The student then responded with, "I am fine, thank you". Then, I took his seat. That student then had to go to another student in class and start a conversation with him/her, then take that persons seat. This continued until everyone was in a new seat. My students seemed to love that game. We are going to have to play it more often, and I am going to have to come up with other things we can do with it.
Before I knew it, the class period was over. Really, the class went really well and I am looking forward to the rest of my classes. It makes it easier that the seven classes that I'm teaching are all Oral English. Therefore, I only have to create one lesson plan per week and I can keep all of my classes at about the same place in the material.
After class, Meghan and I joined Maggie and Laura for lunch in one of the cafeteries. We got a couple chicken dishes and shared them. The cafeteria wasn nothing special. It looked like it belonged in a hospital...but the food was ok.
Nothing really going on tonight. We are going to meet up with the other foreign teachers for dinner.
Hope all is well...
A very productive day
Today was one of the first days that I’ve been here where I have felt like I didn’t waste away the day. It is finally nice knowing that I am back to my usual self of staying very busy during the entire day,
I have my first class tomorrow, so I spent some time trying to get ready for that. I finished my lesson plans for the entire week, and came up with some activities to play incase I have extra time in each class. Then, went to the bookstore. This seems to be the only place in town to get decent school supplies. I picked up folders, index cards, etc. Things that are good to have on hand for when I make activities. Followed by this I went to the market and picked up some candy. I figure that if all else fails, I will bribe my students to participate in class with candy. Hopefully I won’t have to resort to that, but I am making sure that I have multiple back-up plans.
After this, I stopped at the post office. I found some awesome Beijing Olympic post cards, stamps and other awesome keepsakes. I haven’t really picked up too many keepsakes yet, so I figured that now would be a good time to start.
After this, Meghan and I attempted to find a cheap printer at the electronic square. We had heard from previous foreign teachers that it is very difficult and frustrating to make copies on campus. Therefore, Meghan and I decided that it might just be easier to split the cost of a printer so we can do it ourselves. We, unfortunately, were not able to find one for very cheap. So, tomorrow we are getting to campus extremely early in hopes of being persistent enough to get some copies made. Keep your fingers crossed for us, please.
It’s now 5:30 pm on Monday and I am finally having my first bit of downtime for the day since 8:30 this morning. In about an hour, Meghan and I are going to make some dinner and watch a movie. I think we are going to make some beef and noodles and watch Children of Men. It’s one of the few movies that we have over here because either one of us only brought a few. It’s one of my favorites…
That’s about it. I have my first class at 10;10 tomorrow morning, and so does Meghan. We are going to catch the 8 am bus to campus, and arrive around 8:30. That will give us a little over an hour to be able to make copies before class. Hopefully that is enough time to do it, and also that one of our waibans is available to help. This could, unfortunately, make for an interesting (and frustrating) story. I’ll keep you updated….
I have my first class tomorrow, so I spent some time trying to get ready for that. I finished my lesson plans for the entire week, and came up with some activities to play incase I have extra time in each class. Then, went to the bookstore. This seems to be the only place in town to get decent school supplies. I picked up folders, index cards, etc. Things that are good to have on hand for when I make activities. Followed by this I went to the market and picked up some candy. I figure that if all else fails, I will bribe my students to participate in class with candy. Hopefully I won’t have to resort to that, but I am making sure that I have multiple back-up plans.
After this, I stopped at the post office. I found some awesome Beijing Olympic post cards, stamps and other awesome keepsakes. I haven’t really picked up too many keepsakes yet, so I figured that now would be a good time to start.
After this, Meghan and I attempted to find a cheap printer at the electronic square. We had heard from previous foreign teachers that it is very difficult and frustrating to make copies on campus. Therefore, Meghan and I decided that it might just be easier to split the cost of a printer so we can do it ourselves. We, unfortunately, were not able to find one for very cheap. So, tomorrow we are getting to campus extremely early in hopes of being persistent enough to get some copies made. Keep your fingers crossed for us, please.
It’s now 5:30 pm on Monday and I am finally having my first bit of downtime for the day since 8:30 this morning. In about an hour, Meghan and I are going to make some dinner and watch a movie. I think we are going to make some beef and noodles and watch Children of Men. It’s one of the few movies that we have over here because either one of us only brought a few. It’s one of my favorites…
That’s about it. I have my first class at 10;10 tomorrow morning, and so does Meghan. We are going to catch the 8 am bus to campus, and arrive around 8:30. That will give us a little over an hour to be able to make copies before class. Hopefully that is enough time to do it, and also that one of our waibans is available to help. This could, unfortunately, make for an interesting (and frustrating) story. I’ll keep you updated….
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Chinese BBQ
Last night was probably one of the most fun nights that I’ve had here in Chengde. The previous day, as I mentioned, Maggie’s friend (Sarina) called us to go for Chinese BBQ. At first, I was a little worried about going. The reason was that Matt, the foreign teacher who met up with us at the KTV, asked if he had been to Chinese BBQ yet. He laughed when we said no, then said that we have to go ASAP. That made me worried that there was something he wasn’t telling us.
So, last night around 6 we met Maggie at the Affiliated hospital (about 5 minute walk), because that is half way between Meghan and my apartments Sarinas. Chris, Megan and Travis came along, too. Maggie then hailed two cabs and we were on our way to the BBQ restaurant. The cab dropped us off of a very nice looking restaurant. The place met our standard…it had people in it.
When we walked in, we noticed that there were little grills in the middle of each table. It kind of reminded me of a Bennie Hanna (or any other restaurant where there is a chef cooking on a grill in the middle of a long table), however, there were no cooks throwing food and knives in the air! We, once again, were escorted to a private room. The waitress handed us a menu, and it was great because there were pictures on the menu. We ordered a few different kinds of beef (each beef dish had a different flavor and spice) and a couple chicken dishes. We also got some fried bread (will explain later), onions, mushroom and sweet potatoes. After a few minutes, the waitress brought it plates of the raw foods that we ordered. We then starting throwing it on the grill and letting the food cook. The only food that came to us prepared was the fried bred and mix rice dish. The fried bread was awesome! It tasted just like French toast, and they had their own version of syrup too. Meghan was very excited, and wants to come to this restaurant on Christmas morning for the French toast!
The food was absolutely wonderful. For anyone coming to China to visit, this is a restaurant that is on the list of places to go! Sarina’s mother also joined us halfway through dinner. Her mother is a very sweet lady who speaks no English, but loved trying to teach us some simple Chinese. We worked on our counting and colors. It was a very good time…she’s a good teacher.
After dinner, we decided that we could walk back. It is only a 20ish minute walk. On the way back, Sarina purchased a lotus flower for each of us. Then, she showed us how to eat the lotus seeds (the only edible part of the flower). It was very good. A lotus flower was something I thought I would never eat…but I totally will eat more. They seeds didn’t have much to them, but they were kind of a fun snack.
We then stopped at the People’s Park. This is a big open park with some flower beds and a giant TV that people were watching. On the giant tv was the opening ceremonies for the paraolympic games which were starting. Sarina then bought us a Chinese version of a hacky sack. It is a little ball on the end filled with rice, or seeds, then feathers on the top to help it float down easier. We formed a circle and tried to play. Sarina basically showed all of us up! We need some practice. It was great, though, because as we played for a half hour, some Chinese people (who were all awesome) came and joined in with us. It was great being able to interact with others this way.
Oh, and also while we were at the park, we saw five other foreigners (white people). It was awful, because we all found ourselves staring at them too, even though we hate the fact that we are stared at by the Chinese over here. As they were walking by, Chris said, “Look at the foreigners”, and two of them turned around and waved. It was very funny. This brings the total amount of foreigners I have seen here in Chengde to 9 (not including us teachers).
After that, we came home and that was about it. This was for sure one of the most fun nights that I’ve had here in Chengde. Sarina is really fun and we all liked hanging out with her. She is going to show us next month where to get bikes (once we get paid) and some other useful stuff around the city. She will be a very fun host and tour guide for us.
Well, I think that’s it. Nothing much on the agenda for today. All I have to do is figure out my washing machine and do some laundry. Gosh, where’s mom when you need her….
So, last night around 6 we met Maggie at the Affiliated hospital (about 5 minute walk), because that is half way between Meghan and my apartments Sarinas. Chris, Megan and Travis came along, too. Maggie then hailed two cabs and we were on our way to the BBQ restaurant. The cab dropped us off of a very nice looking restaurant. The place met our standard…it had people in it.
When we walked in, we noticed that there were little grills in the middle of each table. It kind of reminded me of a Bennie Hanna (or any other restaurant where there is a chef cooking on a grill in the middle of a long table), however, there were no cooks throwing food and knives in the air! We, once again, were escorted to a private room. The waitress handed us a menu, and it was great because there were pictures on the menu. We ordered a few different kinds of beef (each beef dish had a different flavor and spice) and a couple chicken dishes. We also got some fried bread (will explain later), onions, mushroom and sweet potatoes. After a few minutes, the waitress brought it plates of the raw foods that we ordered. We then starting throwing it on the grill and letting the food cook. The only food that came to us prepared was the fried bred and mix rice dish. The fried bread was awesome! It tasted just like French toast, and they had their own version of syrup too. Meghan was very excited, and wants to come to this restaurant on Christmas morning for the French toast!
The food was absolutely wonderful. For anyone coming to China to visit, this is a restaurant that is on the list of places to go! Sarina’s mother also joined us halfway through dinner. Her mother is a very sweet lady who speaks no English, but loved trying to teach us some simple Chinese. We worked on our counting and colors. It was a very good time…she’s a good teacher.
After dinner, we decided that we could walk back. It is only a 20ish minute walk. On the way back, Sarina purchased a lotus flower for each of us. Then, she showed us how to eat the lotus seeds (the only edible part of the flower). It was very good. A lotus flower was something I thought I would never eat…but I totally will eat more. They seeds didn’t have much to them, but they were kind of a fun snack.
We then stopped at the People’s Park. This is a big open park with some flower beds and a giant TV that people were watching. On the giant tv was the opening ceremonies for the paraolympic games which were starting. Sarina then bought us a Chinese version of a hacky sack. It is a little ball on the end filled with rice, or seeds, then feathers on the top to help it float down easier. We formed a circle and tried to play. Sarina basically showed all of us up! We need some practice. It was great, though, because as we played for a half hour, some Chinese people (who were all awesome) came and joined in with us. It was great being able to interact with others this way.
Oh, and also while we were at the park, we saw five other foreigners (white people). It was awful, because we all found ourselves staring at them too, even though we hate the fact that we are stared at by the Chinese over here. As they were walking by, Chris said, “Look at the foreigners”, and two of them turned around and waved. It was very funny. This brings the total amount of foreigners I have seen here in Chengde to 9 (not including us teachers).
After that, we came home and that was about it. This was for sure one of the most fun nights that I’ve had here in Chengde. Sarina is really fun and we all liked hanging out with her. She is going to show us next month where to get bikes (once we get paid) and some other useful stuff around the city. She will be a very fun host and tour guide for us.
Well, I think that’s it. Nothing much on the agenda for today. All I have to do is figure out my washing machine and do some laundry. Gosh, where’s mom when you need her….
Chicken heads and skype.
We'll start with yesterday....
I was woken up at 9 am by contruction workers who were instaling new heating pipes in my apartment. Terrific.....
Maggie came along and stayed in the begining to help translate information that the construction workers needed to give to me. Good thing she was there in the begining, too, becuase the construction workers were smoking in my apartment. I asked Maggie to inform them that smoking in my apartment was far from ok. She did, and they stopped smoking. After a while, Megan came over. She was comming over to use my internet to download movies to her computer for the movie class that she is teaching at Chengde Normal College.
Maggie eventually took off and went back to the medical college. She did call periodically to make sure that everything was ok with the construction workers. Once Maggie left, the construction workers kept trying to smoke in my apartment. I kept telling them in Chinese that, "Smoking is not ok". I think they thought I was scolding them about smoking in general, and just laughed. They continued smoking and throwing the butts on the floor. It was very aggervating. They also made a HUGE mess in my apartment that ended up taking me four hours to mop up. Oh well, I guess, I have heat for when it gets colder.
After the construction workers left, Megan and I went to Meghan's apartment to meet up with Chris and Travis. We decided that we should find a restaurant for dinner that was less akward than the hot pot restaurant from the previous night. We walked down restaurant street and found one. Restaurant street is a street near our apartment that has about 10 restaurants on it that all look decent. I can't pronounce the actual name of the street, so Restaurant Street works well. The place we chose to eat at started off very well....
We sat in a small private room that was along the side of the restaurant. We ordered the spicey chicken and peanut dish that we all liked. Also, we ordered some noodles and beer. We decided to try a soup like dish, too, that had chicken, cabbage and other vegetables in it. When we were about half way done with this soup dish, the head of the chicken (eyes and all) floated up to the top. It was, um, well, disturbing. I think that my sister Dori and her boyfriend Ben really would apprecaite this dish when they come to visit. (Sorry Dori, I had to throw that comment in there.)
After dinner, we decided to go back to the hotel where Chris, Meghan and Travis are staying and pick up a couple beers along the way. Meghan and I stopped at my apartment to get her computer while Meghan, Travis and Chris stopped at a convient store to pick up five cold beers. We met up at the hotel. Of course, however, half way to the hotel it started to pour. Megan and I continued to walk toward the hotel but figured that if we saw an empty cab along the way, we'd flag it down. We found one. We got in, and told the cab driver the name of the hotel. Not until half way there did I realize that the cab driver never started the meter. When this happens, that means that the cad driver is planning to over-charge us. Meghan and I have taken a cab to this hotel before, and the cab ride for the whole distance was 6 RMB (or $1 US). This time, the cab ride was approximatley half the distance, and the cab driver was trying to charge us 10 RMB. I at least got him to come down to 5. However, from now on, we will make sure that the cab driver starts the meter right away each time we get into a cab.
We all met in the lobby of the hotel, and tried to get onto the elevator which also had about 10 Chinese people on it. When we all got on, the elevator starting beeping and saying overloaded. Therefore, the five of us, plus a couple of the chinese people got off. However, the elevator kept saying it was overloaded. It was hilarious. Two hotel employees came over, had everyone get off the elevator, then get back on one by one until the elevator said overloaded again, then made that last person get off. We just stood outside the elevator (waiting for the next one) and was entertained by the entire scene. It was quite the production just to get the elevator to move. Oh well, something always entertaining here in China, I guess.
We stayed for about an hour at their hotel having a beer and chatting. We tossed around some teaching ideas and started to make some tenative travel plans. We have some school breaks in October then our holiday break in January. We are planning some trips to Mongolia, Handan, Beijing, the Shizz, and Thailand. I am extremely excited for Thailand and Mongolia.
Chris, Meghan and Travis had to go to their school today to go and help welcome the freshman. It sounded like they had to stand with the rest of the faculty and shake all the incomming freshmans hands as they arrived. Chris said that he feels like he is just being shown off to the incomming freshman...that they are only there to show these students that the school has foreign teachers. It will be interesting to see how that went for them!
Oh, and also, Maggie texted us saying that her friend (who we met the night we invited them to the KTV) wanted to take all five of us for Chinese BBQ. We are all meeting at 6 outside the Chengde Medical College affiliated hospital (about five minute walk from Meghan and my apartment) at 6. I am very curious to see what Chinese BBQ is like. We were told by Matt, the foreign teacher we met at the KTV, that we have to try it soon! I am not sure if it was a good or a bad thing the way he was sayin it, so we'll see how it goes.
Also, I got Skype hooked up in my apartment on the computer that is running. I am trying to set up times to talk to everyone, so please let me know when you are going to be on skype and we can try to set up times weekly, biweekly, whatever for us to chat and catch up.
Hope all is well over where you are....
I was woken up at 9 am by contruction workers who were instaling new heating pipes in my apartment. Terrific.....
Maggie came along and stayed in the begining to help translate information that the construction workers needed to give to me. Good thing she was there in the begining, too, becuase the construction workers were smoking in my apartment. I asked Maggie to inform them that smoking in my apartment was far from ok. She did, and they stopped smoking. After a while, Megan came over. She was comming over to use my internet to download movies to her computer for the movie class that she is teaching at Chengde Normal College.
Maggie eventually took off and went back to the medical college. She did call periodically to make sure that everything was ok with the construction workers. Once Maggie left, the construction workers kept trying to smoke in my apartment. I kept telling them in Chinese that, "Smoking is not ok". I think they thought I was scolding them about smoking in general, and just laughed. They continued smoking and throwing the butts on the floor. It was very aggervating. They also made a HUGE mess in my apartment that ended up taking me four hours to mop up. Oh well, I guess, I have heat for when it gets colder.
After the construction workers left, Megan and I went to Meghan's apartment to meet up with Chris and Travis. We decided that we should find a restaurant for dinner that was less akward than the hot pot restaurant from the previous night. We walked down restaurant street and found one. Restaurant street is a street near our apartment that has about 10 restaurants on it that all look decent. I can't pronounce the actual name of the street, so Restaurant Street works well. The place we chose to eat at started off very well....
We sat in a small private room that was along the side of the restaurant. We ordered the spicey chicken and peanut dish that we all liked. Also, we ordered some noodles and beer. We decided to try a soup like dish, too, that had chicken, cabbage and other vegetables in it. When we were about half way done with this soup dish, the head of the chicken (eyes and all) floated up to the top. It was, um, well, disturbing. I think that my sister Dori and her boyfriend Ben really would apprecaite this dish when they come to visit. (Sorry Dori, I had to throw that comment in there.)
After dinner, we decided to go back to the hotel where Chris, Meghan and Travis are staying and pick up a couple beers along the way. Meghan and I stopped at my apartment to get her computer while Meghan, Travis and Chris stopped at a convient store to pick up five cold beers. We met up at the hotel. Of course, however, half way to the hotel it started to pour. Megan and I continued to walk toward the hotel but figured that if we saw an empty cab along the way, we'd flag it down. We found one. We got in, and told the cab driver the name of the hotel. Not until half way there did I realize that the cab driver never started the meter. When this happens, that means that the cad driver is planning to over-charge us. Meghan and I have taken a cab to this hotel before, and the cab ride for the whole distance was 6 RMB (or $1 US). This time, the cab ride was approximatley half the distance, and the cab driver was trying to charge us 10 RMB. I at least got him to come down to 5. However, from now on, we will make sure that the cab driver starts the meter right away each time we get into a cab.
We all met in the lobby of the hotel, and tried to get onto the elevator which also had about 10 Chinese people on it. When we all got on, the elevator starting beeping and saying overloaded. Therefore, the five of us, plus a couple of the chinese people got off. However, the elevator kept saying it was overloaded. It was hilarious. Two hotel employees came over, had everyone get off the elevator, then get back on one by one until the elevator said overloaded again, then made that last person get off. We just stood outside the elevator (waiting for the next one) and was entertained by the entire scene. It was quite the production just to get the elevator to move. Oh well, something always entertaining here in China, I guess.
We stayed for about an hour at their hotel having a beer and chatting. We tossed around some teaching ideas and started to make some tenative travel plans. We have some school breaks in October then our holiday break in January. We are planning some trips to Mongolia, Handan, Beijing, the Shizz, and Thailand. I am extremely excited for Thailand and Mongolia.
Chris, Meghan and Travis had to go to their school today to go and help welcome the freshman. It sounded like they had to stand with the rest of the faculty and shake all the incomming freshmans hands as they arrived. Chris said that he feels like he is just being shown off to the incomming freshman...that they are only there to show these students that the school has foreign teachers. It will be interesting to see how that went for them!
Oh, and also, Maggie texted us saying that her friend (who we met the night we invited them to the KTV) wanted to take all five of us for Chinese BBQ. We are all meeting at 6 outside the Chengde Medical College affiliated hospital (about five minute walk from Meghan and my apartment) at 6. I am very curious to see what Chinese BBQ is like. We were told by Matt, the foreign teacher we met at the KTV, that we have to try it soon! I am not sure if it was a good or a bad thing the way he was sayin it, so we'll see how it goes.
Also, I got Skype hooked up in my apartment on the computer that is running. I am trying to set up times to talk to everyone, so please let me know when you are going to be on skype and we can try to set up times weekly, biweekly, whatever for us to chat and catch up.
Hope all is well over where you are....
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Hot Pot = Hot Spot
Today started off as any other uneventful day in Chengd when Meghan and I were not teaching. We went to the electronics square, but it was closing. So, we ventureds to the market where we bought some groceries. We thought it was funny how even though we had graduated from college, but we were still buying college food. When we left the store, we had the following items in our sacks:
-Bread
-Jelly/jam
-ramen noodles
-fruits (watermelon, bananas and kiwis)
-lays potatoe chips
-bottled water
-sprite
Really nothing different from what we bougtht while we were in college. Oh well, I guess first step is the "big person" job. next step is the "big person" shopping list!
Tonight, however, dinner was eventful. We went over to the hotel where Chris, Megan and Travis were staying to meet up with them for dinner around 7. Travis decided to stay behind to work on lesson plans. So, Meghan, Megan, Chris and I went on an adventure for a restaurant. We thought that a hot pot (will explain later) sounded good. So, we walked to a restaurant that was about 7 minutes away from the hotel...half the distance between our apartments and their hotels. We were seated in the table in the main dining area. Then, what seemed to be the entire restaurant staff came to our table to help us. This restaurant was what we call a hot pot. There is a pot in the middle of the table with a open flame/burner underneath it. Then, the wait staff pours hot water and spices into then. Then the dinner party chooses raw food ingredients to go into the pot, and the hot water cooks it. Then, you pull out the ingredients, dip it into the sauce provided to each person, then enjoy the food. After a few minutes of confusision while ordering, the main waiter helping our table asked us if we wanted to move to a private dinning room. We said yes, because, as usual, everyone in the restaurant was staring at us. We follwed him to a room in the basement of the restaurant with a round table and place settings for seven.
Inside the room, at the table, was a lazy susan, and an individual pot for each of us. We ordered beef, white Chinese cabbage, garlic, lettuce and noddles for our hot pot. Then, a beer for each person, as usual. The food came in, and the wait staff poured hot water into each of our pots and started the flame under each. Then, the akwardness continued. There were two waiters, one who tried very hard to use his limited English skills, and one waitress in the room with us. As we continued eating, they kept putting more food into our boiling water pots. Then, they continued ot try to wipe our mouths with napkins. Chris and I kept eying each other, while trying not to laugh. It was by far one of the most akward dinners we have had. However, the food was very good. The waiter who kept trying to speak English, had a toast with us. We found out that he had been learning English for approximately 2 years. Given this time-frame, his English was very good. He kept apologizing for how bad it was, however we kept telling him that his English is far better than all of our Chinese skills put together.
After dinner, we headed back to our own places. Chris has 8 am class to teachin the morning and Meghan and I have repair men comming to our apartments sometime in the 9 am hour to fix the heat. We were complaining about how early they were comming, but at least we will have heat when the weather starts to get cold.
Looking forward to the weekend....
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Donkey!
So, this afternoon/evening ended up being more eventful than I had planned for it to be. As you all already know, we had our meeting at the university today. So, picking back up where I left off.....
The afternoon was spent creating course outlines and discussion/activity ideas for class. Then, Megan, Chris and Travis came over to Meghan's apartment. I met up with them. Maggie then stopped by with Meghan and my schedule. We are teaching seven periods of oral English to different medical classes. Each class meets with us once per week for 1 hour and 40minute class sessions. Here is my class schedule:
Mondays- 3:20-5 pm
Tuesdays: 1010 am - 1150 am
320 pm - 5 pm
Wednesdays: 320-5 pm
Thursdays: 1010-1150 am
Friday 130 pm - 310 pm
320-5 pm
Then, after Maggie left, we decided to go and get dinner. We walked around aimlessly using the same standard for restaurant choosing as previous days. It must have guests in it and look relatively non-sketcy compared to the surrounding restaurants. We chose one that ended up being a fantastic choice (mostly). As we walked in, all of the female waitresses said "hello" to us. We were surprised that they knew that much English. Then, a waitresstook us to a private room with a round table, air conditioner unit and a lazy suzan on the table. And guess what!?!? She spoke English very flunetly. Also, the menu had pictures. It was more than we could've asked for! We asked the waitress for recomendations. She recomended two dishes that were like a stew. One had donkey and potoes, the other had pigs feet and potatoes. We also ordered cold noodles. The dishes came and the food smelled terrific. I did not eat the pig feet. The donke was amazing. It was very tender. The potatoes were fantastic. Being a meat and potatoes boy, this was an amazing meal. It ended costing each of us 17 rmb, which is less than $2.5 US. Not bad....
After this, Chris, Travis and Megan were saying that they have found our new Perkins for while in Chengde. It is a 3-story McDonalds that was open 24 hours. We decided to go for desert. It was fantastic. They also had star-wars toys, so I had to get one for fun. (Dad--if you want it when I get home, it's yours!!).
While at McDonalds, we were discussing teaching ideas and found some good ones. Chris mentioned an idea that I think we are all going to run with. He thought that it would be fun to break our classes into groups of 4 or 5 and have them make commercials. We would give each group a random item (such as a McDonalds toy) and have them prepare a 1-minute "infomercial" type speech, to persuade us to buy that product.
After this awesome brainstorming session at McDonalds, we decided to head back to our apartments and call it a night.
Oh yea, since ive of my classes are freshman classes, I don't have to teach a full schedule next week. Freshman arrive to campus tomorrow, then have military training. Therefore, their classes don't start until Monday the 23rd. Therefore, next week I only teach one class on Tuesday and one class on Friday. Pretty nice, huh?
The afternoon was spent creating course outlines and discussion/activity ideas for class. Then, Megan, Chris and Travis came over to Meghan's apartment. I met up with them. Maggie then stopped by with Meghan and my schedule. We are teaching seven periods of oral English to different medical classes. Each class meets with us once per week for 1 hour and 40minute class sessions. Here is my class schedule:
Mondays- 3:20-5 pm
Tuesdays: 1010 am - 1150 am
320 pm - 5 pm
Wednesdays: 320-5 pm
Thursdays: 1010-1150 am
Friday 130 pm - 310 pm
320-5 pm
Then, after Maggie left, we decided to go and get dinner. We walked around aimlessly using the same standard for restaurant choosing as previous days. It must have guests in it and look relatively non-sketcy compared to the surrounding restaurants. We chose one that ended up being a fantastic choice (mostly). As we walked in, all of the female waitresses said "hello" to us. We were surprised that they knew that much English. Then, a waitresstook us to a private room with a round table, air conditioner unit and a lazy suzan on the table. And guess what!?!? She spoke English very flunetly. Also, the menu had pictures. It was more than we could've asked for! We asked the waitress for recomendations. She recomended two dishes that were like a stew. One had donkey and potoes, the other had pigs feet and potatoes. We also ordered cold noodles. The dishes came and the food smelled terrific. I did not eat the pig feet. The donke was amazing. It was very tender. The potatoes were fantastic. Being a meat and potatoes boy, this was an amazing meal. It ended costing each of us 17 rmb, which is less than $2.5 US. Not bad....
After this, Chris, Travis and Megan were saying that they have found our new Perkins for while in Chengde. It is a 3-story McDonalds that was open 24 hours. We decided to go for desert. It was fantastic. They also had star-wars toys, so I had to get one for fun. (Dad--if you want it when I get home, it's yours!!).
While at McDonalds, we were discussing teaching ideas and found some good ones. Chris mentioned an idea that I think we are all going to run with. He thought that it would be fun to break our classes into groups of 4 or 5 and have them make commercials. We would give each group a random item (such as a McDonalds toy) and have them prepare a 1-minute "infomercial" type speech, to persuade us to buy that product.
After this awesome brainstorming session at McDonalds, we decided to head back to our apartments and call it a night.
Oh yea, since ive of my classes are freshman classes, I don't have to teach a full schedule next week. Freshman arrive to campus tomorrow, then have military training. Therefore, their classes don't start until Monday the 23rd. Therefore, next week I only teach one class on Tuesday and one class on Friday. Pretty nice, huh?
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
I have a "real person" job!
Today Meghan and I met with Maggie, from the foreign affairs office of our university, and took the 45-minute bus ride to our campus. It was a very scenic ride, as we passed the outside of the Qing Emperor's summer palace. It seems very beatiful with may palaces, monastaries and temples.
The campus is surprisingly modern from the outside, we noticed as we arrived. The new campus opened in September 2006. They are still constructing, too. The buildings still being constructed are a playground (yea, a playground for a college), swimming pool, and teacher's apartments.
When we first arrived to campus, Maggie showed us where the Foreign Affairs office is. It is located in the administration building, which was very nice. We went upstairs, met Laura, and signed our official contracts. No new surprises in that. From there, we went to the English department and met one of the Chinese English teachers. We was a very animated person who gave Meghan and I some very good, but broad, teaching ideas. From there, we saw what the lecture halls look like. There were some big ones and small ones. We will be teaching a few small classes (35-50 students) and a few large classes (100-125 students). The larger classes will be Oral English for clinical students. The smaller classes will be oral Engish for nursing students. Should be interesting....
The freshman arrive on campus tomorrow, but then have one week of military training. Therefore, next week Meghan and I will only be teaching the sophmores and juniors. We then saw the library which was very interesting. It was divided into what seemed to be separate libraries for what you needed. There was the periodicals room, natural science room, English room, etc. When one wants a book, he or she will have to check it in/out from each individal section. In the periodical room, I saw that they had an English version of a national Chinese Newspaper. I was very excited. I will probably come up with some activities involving current events for my students, as I am teaching oral English. I think it might be good to have them try to present/pose questions based off of current events. Possibly debate some non-controversial topics in the newspapers, too.
That's about it for now. We are back at our apartments. Meghan got a sandwhich from a street vender that we've stopped at a couple of times. I am going to each some of the fruit (bananas and watermelons) that I got from a vender earlier today. We are waiting for a repair man to come to Meghan apartment to fix her showerhead. Then, Maggie is come to come over and we are going to take the washing machine from Jeremy's old apartment and move it to Meghans, because hers is very small. Other than this, I think we are just going to try to come up with more teaching ideas. If you have any ideas, please don't hesitate to send them my way!
The campus is surprisingly modern from the outside, we noticed as we arrived. The new campus opened in September 2006. They are still constructing, too. The buildings still being constructed are a playground (yea, a playground for a college), swimming pool, and teacher's apartments.
When we first arrived to campus, Maggie showed us where the Foreign Affairs office is. It is located in the administration building, which was very nice. We went upstairs, met Laura, and signed our official contracts. No new surprises in that. From there, we went to the English department and met one of the Chinese English teachers. We was a very animated person who gave Meghan and I some very good, but broad, teaching ideas. From there, we saw what the lecture halls look like. There were some big ones and small ones. We will be teaching a few small classes (35-50 students) and a few large classes (100-125 students). The larger classes will be Oral English for clinical students. The smaller classes will be oral Engish for nursing students. Should be interesting....
The freshman arrive on campus tomorrow, but then have one week of military training. Therefore, next week Meghan and I will only be teaching the sophmores and juniors. We then saw the library which was very interesting. It was divided into what seemed to be separate libraries for what you needed. There was the periodicals room, natural science room, English room, etc. When one wants a book, he or she will have to check it in/out from each individal section. In the periodical room, I saw that they had an English version of a national Chinese Newspaper. I was very excited. I will probably come up with some activities involving current events for my students, as I am teaching oral English. I think it might be good to have them try to present/pose questions based off of current events. Possibly debate some non-controversial topics in the newspapers, too.
That's about it for now. We are back at our apartments. Meghan got a sandwhich from a street vender that we've stopped at a couple of times. I am going to each some of the fruit (bananas and watermelons) that I got from a vender earlier today. We are waiting for a repair man to come to Meghan apartment to fix her showerhead. Then, Maggie is come to come over and we are going to take the washing machine from Jeremy's old apartment and move it to Meghans, because hers is very small. Other than this, I think we are just going to try to come up with more teaching ideas. If you have any ideas, please don't hesitate to send them my way!
Another day of vacation...
I think we are starting to get more used to the time change. I thought I had been for the past day or two, but kept waking up very early. I heard a statistic that it takes your body one full day to adjust to each hour of a time change. I am beleiving that statistic.
Warning: This day was not too eventful. Chris walked over and met Meghan and I around 1:00. We thumbed through Meghan's National Geographic Magazine that was devoted completely to China and came up with some more areas that we would like to travel to in China. After this was done, we realized we were hungry. So, we did what we normally do for lunch. We walked around aimlessly to find a restaurant that we assumed looked good. Our standard for looking good is that there is people in it, because if people eat there the food must be ok. Therefore, with these low of standards, it isn't too hard to find a restaurant.
Eating out is kind of interesting in China. They basically serve everything family style; everone just eats off of the large serving plate with their chopsticks. When we eat out, we normally order one meat dish, one vegetable dish and a soup. It was just the three of us, so we shared everything. We played it safe today and ordered a chicken dish that we've already had. It was the spicey chicken with peanus, carrots, pepers, etc. Then we ordered some weird vegetable dish that had mushrooms in it along with what seemed to be a soup similiar to egg drop soup. Overall it was ok. I am still loving how cheap the meal it. Each of us payed 15 RMD for the meal, which is approximately $2.50 US.
After the meal, Meghan and I needed to find an electronics store, so Chris came with us. It is still a challenging finding things here, becuase none of us speak or read Mandarin. However, we refuse to call our waibans for something that we could find on our own. Plus, it's always more fun to have an adventure. Meghan and I were looking for a cord for our DVD player. The apartments that we are in had a DVD player in mine along with some Chinese versions of American movies such as Field of Dreams, The Day after Tomorrow and about 20 others. However, the cords that hook up the DVD player to the television are no where to be found in either apartment. Therefore, that was our mission today. Luckily, we accomplished this mission with about 30 minutes.
On the way back, we celebrated finding our item by stopping at a fruit vendor. Even though we knew we were going to be over charged, we wanted bananas. So, we paid 6 RMB for 4 bananas. That is approximately $0.25US/banana. We then got some ice cream from a street vender. We got ice cream bars, which were really good for 1.5 RMB which is about $0.30US. Not a bad way to celebrate finding the electronics store.
It's about 6:45 now, and I think we all might watch a movie in Meghan's apartment, since we purchased the cord for the DVD player. I think Meghan wanted to watch Robots, which is cool because I have never seen it.
Tomorrow we have a meeting at our school with the rest of the faculty in the English Department. We have an one-hour bus ride to school each day, so Meghan and I are hoping that we don't have any 8 am classes! We will find out our schedule tomorrow. Maggie is picking us up and taking us to school in the morning. This way we know what bus to take. Apparently, it's really easy...just the blue number 10 bus to the last stop. The hard part is going to be finding the right academic buildings. Oh well, we're just going to have to learn.
That's about it for the day! Expect an update tomorrow about how the university is.
Warning: This day was not too eventful. Chris walked over and met Meghan and I around 1:00. We thumbed through Meghan's National Geographic Magazine that was devoted completely to China and came up with some more areas that we would like to travel to in China. After this was done, we realized we were hungry. So, we did what we normally do for lunch. We walked around aimlessly to find a restaurant that we assumed looked good. Our standard for looking good is that there is people in it, because if people eat there the food must be ok. Therefore, with these low of standards, it isn't too hard to find a restaurant.
Eating out is kind of interesting in China. They basically serve everything family style; everone just eats off of the large serving plate with their chopsticks. When we eat out, we normally order one meat dish, one vegetable dish and a soup. It was just the three of us, so we shared everything. We played it safe today and ordered a chicken dish that we've already had. It was the spicey chicken with peanus, carrots, pepers, etc. Then we ordered some weird vegetable dish that had mushrooms in it along with what seemed to be a soup similiar to egg drop soup. Overall it was ok. I am still loving how cheap the meal it. Each of us payed 15 RMD for the meal, which is approximately $2.50 US.
After the meal, Meghan and I needed to find an electronics store, so Chris came with us. It is still a challenging finding things here, becuase none of us speak or read Mandarin. However, we refuse to call our waibans for something that we could find on our own. Plus, it's always more fun to have an adventure. Meghan and I were looking for a cord for our DVD player. The apartments that we are in had a DVD player in mine along with some Chinese versions of American movies such as Field of Dreams, The Day after Tomorrow and about 20 others. However, the cords that hook up the DVD player to the television are no where to be found in either apartment. Therefore, that was our mission today. Luckily, we accomplished this mission with about 30 minutes.
On the way back, we celebrated finding our item by stopping at a fruit vendor. Even though we knew we were going to be over charged, we wanted bananas. So, we paid 6 RMB for 4 bananas. That is approximately $0.25US/banana. We then got some ice cream from a street vender. We got ice cream bars, which were really good for 1.5 RMB which is about $0.30US. Not a bad way to celebrate finding the electronics store.
It's about 6:45 now, and I think we all might watch a movie in Meghan's apartment, since we purchased the cord for the DVD player. I think Meghan wanted to watch Robots, which is cool because I have never seen it.
Tomorrow we have a meeting at our school with the rest of the faculty in the English Department. We have an one-hour bus ride to school each day, so Meghan and I are hoping that we don't have any 8 am classes! We will find out our schedule tomorrow. Maggie is picking us up and taking us to school in the morning. This way we know what bus to take. Apparently, it's really easy...just the blue number 10 bus to the last stop. The hard part is going to be finding the right academic buildings. Oh well, we're just going to have to learn.
That's about it for the day! Expect an update tomorrow about how the university is.
Monday, September 1, 2008
My Address
Just thought I'd give everyone my address incase you decide to send anything over. My address is:
Zachary Smith
Foreign Affairs Office
Chengde Medical University
Chengde, Hebei, P.R. China
067000
Helpful things to include in any carepackage would be:
1. Disinfectant wipes (Mr. clean, or whatever brand).
2. PEANUT BUTTER
3. travel packs of klenix
Thanks!!!
Zachary Smith
Foreign Affairs Office
Chengde Medical University
Chengde, Hebei, P.R. China
067000
Helpful things to include in any carepackage would be:
1. Disinfectant wipes (Mr. clean, or whatever brand).
2. PEANUT BUTTER
3. travel packs of klenix
Thanks!!!
KTV = Cock Block
So, Today was an eventful day....with a slow start.
I rolled out of bed around 10:30 this morning, then scrubbed the floor of my kitchen, which is still completely gross. Then, after completing that horrible task, decided to shower and get back into bed and continue my book. Well, reading my book turned into an hour nap. Oh well...what's done is done.
So, about 1:30, I ventured over to Meghan's appartment and found out she was on skype talking to the GK RA's, because her computer (provided by the school) has a microphone and camera. So, I joined into the conversation. Approximately 2 hours later, the conversation ended.
Then, the other Drake teachers (Megan, Chris and Travis) came over and we decdied to go to get dinner around 6. We found a restaurant that had pictures. We ordered a really, really good spicey chicken and peanut dish, steamed veggies and a soup that had squid, shrimp and some other fish like meat in it. Overall, a very good meal.
We then continued ot try to get into a KTV (Kareoke bar). The first one didn't let us in, saying it was full. So, then Meghan grabbed my cell phone and decided to call one of our Waibans, Maggie. Meghan invited Maggie to come out with us. So, Maggie, along with one of her friends Andy came. Andy is also a foriegn teacher and is from Korea. He spoke English very fluently. Then one of Maggies friends joined us (who worked form a Chinese-German company based in Chengde) and also spoke very good English; her mother joined too. We then got into a KTB. It was a lot of fun, however much different that we expected. When we heard it was Karoeke, we expected a bar wth a stage. Well, not exactly what we got. We were given a private room with a tv screen and kareoke machine. It was a lot of fun! Then, Maggie invited another American named Matt to join us. Matt is starting his third year of teaching. He was a Drake graduate, and tought through the CCEP two years ago. He liked China so much that he is in the start of his third year. We had a great conversation with us, and he is going to be a good resource. He knows pretty much all the other foreigners here, too. In this city of about 2.5 million, he said there are about 25 foreigners (who are white) here living at any other time. So, hopefully we get to now them well.
The akward part of the evening was that all of us (Drake people) got the impression that Maggie was on a date with Andy. Meghan was not pushy at all on the phone. All Meghan did was ask if she (Maggie) was close by, becuase we were going out and wanted to invite her to come along for a drink. Maggie then said she'd be by our apartment in 20 minutes, she was at the park. Oh well, I guess we will just have to plan in advance becasue we learned that Maggie will even bring a date along if we call her for something!! She is too nice!!!
Travis, one of the other foreign teachers, had his first day of teaching today. The other two teachers (Chris and Megan) at the teacher's college start on Thursday. Travis' first day was interesting he said. It was hard for him to keep the attention of the students for two hours and they were not very up to voluntering in class. We are going to have to brainstorm and come up with ideas to help prevent this from happening in our first classes and throughout the rest of the semester.
Tomorrow Meghan and I have another full day off. I think on the agenda is trying to get my macbook hooked up to the internet here in my apartment so I can finally get on skype. As for the rest of the day, no one knows! Things have seemed to all randomly fallen in place so far....so why change what's working well?
Hope all is great back in the States!!
I rolled out of bed around 10:30 this morning, then scrubbed the floor of my kitchen, which is still completely gross. Then, after completing that horrible task, decided to shower and get back into bed and continue my book. Well, reading my book turned into an hour nap. Oh well...what's done is done.
So, about 1:30, I ventured over to Meghan's appartment and found out she was on skype talking to the GK RA's, because her computer (provided by the school) has a microphone and camera. So, I joined into the conversation. Approximately 2 hours later, the conversation ended.
Then, the other Drake teachers (Megan, Chris and Travis) came over and we decdied to go to get dinner around 6. We found a restaurant that had pictures. We ordered a really, really good spicey chicken and peanut dish, steamed veggies and a soup that had squid, shrimp and some other fish like meat in it. Overall, a very good meal.
We then continued ot try to get into a KTV (Kareoke bar). The first one didn't let us in, saying it was full. So, then Meghan grabbed my cell phone and decided to call one of our Waibans, Maggie. Meghan invited Maggie to come out with us. So, Maggie, along with one of her friends Andy came. Andy is also a foriegn teacher and is from Korea. He spoke English very fluently. Then one of Maggies friends joined us (who worked form a Chinese-German company based in Chengde) and also spoke very good English; her mother joined too. We then got into a KTB. It was a lot of fun, however much different that we expected. When we heard it was Karoeke, we expected a bar wth a stage. Well, not exactly what we got. We were given a private room with a tv screen and kareoke machine. It was a lot of fun! Then, Maggie invited another American named Matt to join us. Matt is starting his third year of teaching. He was a Drake graduate, and tought through the CCEP two years ago. He liked China so much that he is in the start of his third year. We had a great conversation with us, and he is going to be a good resource. He knows pretty much all the other foreigners here, too. In this city of about 2.5 million, he said there are about 25 foreigners (who are white) here living at any other time. So, hopefully we get to now them well.
The akward part of the evening was that all of us (Drake people) got the impression that Maggie was on a date with Andy. Meghan was not pushy at all on the phone. All Meghan did was ask if she (Maggie) was close by, becuase we were going out and wanted to invite her to come along for a drink. Maggie then said she'd be by our apartment in 20 minutes, she was at the park. Oh well, I guess we will just have to plan in advance becasue we learned that Maggie will even bring a date along if we call her for something!! She is too nice!!!
Travis, one of the other foreign teachers, had his first day of teaching today. The other two teachers (Chris and Megan) at the teacher's college start on Thursday. Travis' first day was interesting he said. It was hard for him to keep the attention of the students for two hours and they were not very up to voluntering in class. We are going to have to brainstorm and come up with ideas to help prevent this from happening in our first classes and throughout the rest of the semester.
Tomorrow Meghan and I have another full day off. I think on the agenda is trying to get my macbook hooked up to the internet here in my apartment so I can finally get on skype. As for the rest of the day, no one knows! Things have seemed to all randomly fallen in place so far....so why change what's working well?
Hope all is great back in the States!!
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