Eat your heart out Angelina Jolie.

Fact: In China you are an automatic celebrity. If you want to know what it is like to be famous and briefly experience the celebrity treatment then you should come to China. Many of the people here want to take pictures with you and ask you for your signature. They absolutely love us here and think we are amazing. It is quite an experience being swarmed, asked for your signature, and asking if you will take a photo with them. They are very curious about America and think that it is a beautiful country. Today I taught some ele English classes at the high school. They were very curious and asked lots of questions and swarmed me. They think that we are very beautiful and it is very unusual to them to see someone who looks so different, with light eyes and hair that isn’t very dark. The kids at the high school are very smart and try their best to speak English but they don’t often get to speak with native speakers. They look forward to speaking with native speakers and when you leave they miss you. It has been an amazing morning and I think it will be a great rest of the week. In China, they also have a few American Idols. They love Lady gaga, Michael Jackson, and Justin Bieber. They also would like to hear you sing and to know all about you. It is very different being in China but it is amazing to get to know a new culture and a new people.

New Chinese Friends

                This last little while has been pretty crazy. My kids in class are pretty crazy. I love them to death but the weekend provides a nice little break. This weekend brought with it a new adventure. A group of my friends here in China and myself took the bus into town on Saturday to explore a little bit. We found a mall that looks like it’s pretty new and explored a bit. Eventually we found a huge arcade type area and kept going up the stairs until we found something amazing. On the top floor of this store was a roller rink. It was incredible and it looked like so much fun. After some hesitation some of my friends and I decided to go roller skating. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on roller skates so I was a bit shaky at first. However, I quickly made friends with a few Chinese girls who helped me to stay upright and have a good time. They were so nice and helpful and I made some great Chinese friends. The only problem was that there was a bit of a language barrier as I don’t speak Chinese and they spoke very little English. However, we worked through it and I spent a good amount of time skating and just getting to know one another. When we decided we needed to go they we’re a little bit sad and I got some amazing hugs from my new Chinese friends. Hopefully, I’ll be able to see them again.

                Once we were done skating we went across the street to the Tesco and grabbed a quick snack before we ventured out again. We got onto another bus and made our way to one of the parks here in Changzhou. It was a very large park and very beautiful. It is very close to one of the pagoda temples so the backdrop was absolutely stunning. There was a beautiful little lake and there were boats you could rent and ride around the area. However, when we got there it was just a little too late to rent a boat so we made the strong resolve to come back so that we could see the area by boat. However, since we weren’t going to go on a boat ride that way we found an area that was just about the water with a pavilion and some benches along with a gorgeous view. We spent awhile sitting and marveling in the beauty just pondering, then we left to look at a few shops, where I found a beautiful hand painted tea set which I bought. Soon after we called it a day and headed back toward our school. Once we got off the bus we grabbed a bite for dinner then headed home for the night. As the days go on the adventure continues.

The girl and the chicken

First...There was man....Then, there was chicken... Then.... Man met chicken foot. The day to mark all days. That's right all this last week I did it. I tried chicken foot. You may now awe at my bravery and slight insanity. This week was pretty uneventful. I taught through-out the week. My kids that I teach are as cute as can be but they're little hell raisers and trouble makers. It's all I can do sometimes to maintain my sanity. The excitement began on thursday night where the school had us meet together and we ended up going into some of the classrooms and spending time with some of the kids. This monday was a holiday in China known as the mid-autumn festival which is somewhat akin to Thanksgiving back home. So on Thursday we went and ate moon cakes with the children and after we were done with that we made paper lanterns with them. It was great spending time with the kids and enjoying the festivities of the holiday.

The real adventure began this weekend. As we waited for the bus in hopes that it would get to us and get us where we needed to on time. The bus finally arrived and took us to our destination. When we got off the bus we were cutting it close as we rushed through the train station, racing through, feeling like we were on an episode of the amazing race. We made it. We spent a few hour train ride amusing ourselves and then we were there. Shanghai. It was a bit of a bustle at night and we had to catch a few taxi's to make it to our hotel. That was about all the adventure for the first night. Shanghai, day one. We went and found the bus and made it to the metro station and found our way to the french consession. We explored the area just walking down the streets and seeing what this beautiful city had to offer. We sought out food and tried for the first time the street food of the area. What an adventure that was. After we got food we headed back towards the metro. However, as we were headed back we lost a portion of our group. We waited for them for awhile but couldn't find them. We'd agreed to meet at the metro at another location at a specific time so we headed there to wait. We split off into 3 separate groups to cover all of the stairwells out of the station so that we wouldn't miss them. As I waited in hopes that the rest of our group would arrive I talked with another member of my group, who was the one I happened to be waiting with at that stairwell, Nick. We just talked about life and tried to keep ourselves entertained while we waited. After awhile, we still hadn't seen them and figured we'd see them back at the hotel so we'd given up. We exited the metro, where we took a few pictures and after a few minutes thanks to the tower in our group that is Nick, the rest of our group had spotted us and hurried our way.

Once we were back together as a group we headed to the people's park. A beautiful park in the area. We spent some time marveling in the beauty and then moved on. Our last adventure for the day or so we thought was Nanjing road. Stores every which way and a hustle and bustle of people. We explored and looked inside some of the shops. We saw the Bund and some of the tall sky scrapers and sights of the area as we continued on that road. We headed back down Nanjing road and continued to look at some of the shops, eventually tiring. Then from one of her pamphlets Lorilei discovered that there was a parade back on one of the roads in the french consession. So we headed back there to wait for the parade. While we were waiting for the parade we ran into a couple of other Americans. Josh and Sasha who were taking a year sabatical from work and exploring the world. We got to talking to them and became friends and shared some of our China adventures and they shared some of their trade secrets with us. Although half an hour to fourty five minutes late the parade started and we watched and enjoyed some of it, but it was getting late and so we said goodbye to Josh and Sasha and headed back to our hotel.

Day two in Shanghai. on our second day in Shanghai we headed over to the Old Town where there was the Yu gardens and the Bizarre. We spent much of the day wandering and exploring some of the shops and getting food items from various street vendors. We met up after splitting up into various groups in the morning and then eventually split again with most of us heading to see the city god temple. It was a very beautiful location with fires burning and incense and as you explored many people could be seen praying. You could really see the significance of it all. In the afternoon we found ourselves at the pearl market located within the bizarre. We all looked at the pearls and eventually ended up bartering with various shop keepers and buying items. Many of the shopkeepers would take scissors to the pearls to show us that they were real. We all wandered and went to various pearl vendors each trying to find what we liked or what we would like to give someone else. We spent an hour or so just looking at and buying various items. After we went to the pearl market we explored some more and eventually found ourselves back on Nanjing road where we had agreed to meet up. We got ourselves some dinner and explored a bit more and then headed back to the hotel.

Monday morning we got ourselves packed up and ready to leave. After we were all packed we left our stuff at the hotel and headed just down the street to this great little noodle place and got some noodles. Once we had gotten the noodles we went back to the hotel and waited for the rest of our group that hadn't left before us to get ready. Eventually we hopped on the bus and headed to the subway which took us back to the train station. We bought our return tickets. However, the earliest train wasn't until 4:30 pm so we explored the train station and got some food, eventually buying some items from the convienence stores. When we finally headed down to the waiting area for the train we met back up with one of the two groups who had left before us. We just talked and waited to board the train. The other group was in a different car on the train so we parted ways. We went to keep ourselves entertained on the train ride and had an adventure. We got back together as a group when we got off the train and tried to find the bus we needed. However, to no avail. We made friends with a chinese guy named Daniel who tried to help us find the bus we needed but we didn't have any luck. Eventually we called one of the native coordinators who told us the easiest route would be to take taxis. So we spent the time to hail several taxis and split off into groups and showed the taxi drivers the address of our school. After a moderate length taxi ride we were finally home. Lorilei and I went to our room and put our stuff down and grabbed the computer so we could check our e-mail and get back in contact with our families. Thus, marks the end of my first great adventurous weekend in China.

I'm in China, how can you people even cope without me :)?

…And So It Begins

                Yesterday with regards to time in China September 1^st was my first day of teaching and what an adventure that was. Let me start at the beginning.  I started off the day waking up and going running on the track with Lorilei. I took it nice and easy as I was still very sore because on Tuesday some stroke of insanity hit me and I ran a pyramid starting with a 400 going down to a 100 and then back to a 400 sprinting with walking in between. I ran a nice and easy mile then took off my socks and shoes and headed to the field and ran some striders which felt really good. Afterwards I went to breakfast then we headed to the supply room to get some supplies. Before I was finished getting the supplies the head teacher let us know we needed to head over to a flag ceremony, so I left what I had there and we headed to a flag ceremony. At the flag ceremony we were introduced to the school and each of us new English teachers was welcomed and given a welcome gift of what are quite possibly the cutest stuffed bunnies I have ever seen in my life. I’ll be sure to have someone post the picture I took of mine and Lorilei’s bunnies. After the ceremony I headed back to the supply room and finished getting my supplies. I tried to get some of my things in  order for the day and then headed down to lunch. After lunch I grabbed my stuff and headed down to my classroom. My first class was basic reading and I was freaking out because the head teachers were informed that we had been given the wrong information with regards to basic reading and I had no idea what to do. Basic reading was chaos and since I had nothing to keep the kids entertained I could tell the weren’t interested and it was just plain bad.

                After I was done with basic reading I just tried to get my bearings. I tried to finish my model for my Primary class but it didn’t work out the way I wanted so I ended up modifying my lesson. As with basic reading we met by a statue in front of one of the other buildings and brought our students back to our building. There were too many classes so the Chinese teachers had to reorganize the classes while we had a slow and disorganized opening. After the opening I took my class and tried to keep the engaged in a fun activity while teaching them English. We discussed the characteristics of and made a roller racer which was a simple contraption which consisted of a pencil with poker chips taped to either end so it would roll. I had placed a rubber band in the middle of one to affect its speed. We talked about which one would go faster and raced them, eventually making one of our own to see if it would be faster than the ones which were already made. The first class was a little harder and I had to add a few things like a paperclip to see if it would affect the racer. However, with the second class or rotation as we call them I really hit my stride and since we were off our rotation schedule the head teacher let us know when we were rotating. Before I knew it one of our head teachers was informing me we had four minutes left so I quickly finished up. Then we rotated and settled in to what I thought was our last rotation. Then Micaela one of our head teachers came in and informed me we’d be rotating again. So as rotation leader I got everything set and we rotated back into our original rotations or  our homeroom. I got their names then line them up and took them back to where we’d picked them up and went back to class.

                The reward for my dad was awaiting as I headed to dinner which was right after class. After dinner we had a meeting with all of us teachers. Later we had meetings discussing the difficulties that each of our groups had. Then I settled in for the night. I made it through my first day. I wonder what awaits me next.

New Pictures for you! 09-06-11

Feast your eyes on these glorious pictures of glory!

Life in Changzhou

China. What to say about China. Changzhou in particular. It’s a beautiful country and has been quite the experience. After our first dinner here we had our first teacher meeting and thus started the adventure. We haven’t been able to leave the campus much yet because we aren’t yet registered at the police department but that’s been an adventure of it’s own. After our meeting and before we headed to bed the first night a couple of our friends in our group who to a different route to China and had been here a little bit longer showed us around the campus and outside a little bit. Our first morning here Lorilei and I woke up around 6:15 and went running on the track that is located at our school, we have also done so this morning and I think we’ll make a bit of a habit of it.
Afterwards we went and got ready for the day and went exploring a little. We discovered a dance room for Lorilei in one of the buildings which was quite an adventure. We also discovered a little Eden within the bounds of our schools campus. A beautiful little garden which I think would be a great place to sit and think. After our little discovery we spent some time to ourselves and in the afternoon the group got together and headed out. We went into town and got some money from the ATMs and had the opportunity to do a little bit of shopping. That was a new and exciting experience. It seems like everything is a little bit expensive here but that’s really not the case. The exchange rate is about 6.5 so 1 U.S. dollar can go pretty far. When Lorilei and I went shopping we spent about 108 Yuan which is the Chinese currency and is really only about 15 dollars U.S. Later that night we had yet another meeting and with a couple of our other teacher friends we attempted to watch a movie. However, that didn’t really work out too well as we were all exhausted and were drifting in and out most of the time. So eventually we just gave up and headed to bed. The beds here are rather hard compared to the states it’s a little bit like a shelf with a little bit of padding. They aren’t too bad though but they are hard on my back so I have a tendency to sleep on my side.
Today Lorilei and I woke up around 6 again and went running. After we ran we headed over to breakfast and that was definitely a new experience. It wasn’t bad, however, it consisted of a kind of rice porridge which was rather bland and a kind of cake that kind of tasted like a tater tot. After breakfast we hung out in our room for awhile and I read. Then Nick ended up wandering by and so he came around and we played nerts and Egyptian rat screw, after which it was time for lunch so we headed over for that. About an hour after lunch a group of us headed outside and played basketball for a little while. It was nice to be active. Then we headed over to the head teachers room for yet another meeting and now they are having personal interviews to try to determine where to put us as far as teaching. That’s where I stand so far and this adventure keeps moving forward. Wish me luck. LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!!!!

Discovering China

Well all I made it to China okay. It was a little bit of a long and tedious journey though. Our flight out to San Francisco got delayed about 45 minutes so we got stuck waiting at the airport for a little while. However, that’s not the kicker, the real kicker is when we got to San Francisco we found out our flight to Shanghai had been delayed until 9:30 the next morning due to aircraft maintenance so thus began the adventure as we waited at the San Francisco airport for several hours while our head teachers tried to work everything out as far as getting us meal vouchers and a hotel for the night from the airline. It took several hours but they were finally able to accomplish the feat and we had about an hour to use our meal vouchers and eat at the airport after which we headed to our hotel for the night. We spent the night at the holiday inn express in San Francisco and headed out to the airport bright and early in the morning.
After which we waited at the airport some more until our plane  arrived and then we boarded our plane to Shanghai. What an adventure that was. A 12 hour flight. It was long but it gave me plenty of time to read my book and they showed several movies during the flight including Jane Eyre which was a wonderful movie and we had a couple of in flight meals and were well taken care of. After 12 long hours we finally landed in Shanghai and waited, eventually exiting the plane. As soon as I stepped off of the plane humidity hit me like a ton of bricks. Here it is very humid. It hasn’t been too hot yet but the humidity is killer. After I got off of the plane I waited for the rest of my group and we headed to customs to show our passports and get everything taken care of to enter the country. Once our group had finished going through customs we headed to the greeting area to find one of our coordinators who welcomed us and after waiting for a few minutes we headed to the long distance bus. After loading all of our stuff on the bus we got on and had another fun filled 3 hour bus ride before we got to Changzhou. We arrived and had the fun filled adventure of carrying all of our luggage up about 100 stairs to our rooms. We picked out our rooms and set our stuff down and headed down just in time to make it for dinner. Welcome to China.