Field trip to an island fishing village..... i mean a mountain..

School asked us if we wanted to go on a little two day trip with a few teachers and about 12 kids.... its not paid, and doesn't count as hours.... but we don't have to pay for anything! so we agreed.

Set out in the morning all going well, met a few very cute teachers and a lot of crazy kids. Loaded up into a bus and headed for where we would take a boat to another little island. We got there and waited ... . and waited.... and then we were told that the boat wouldn't go because it was too windy. So we went and had lunch hoping it would be less windy in the afternoon...... not so lucky... we waited around and tried to keep the kids entertained. They had missed their afternoon nap at this point and were getting a little grumpy and angry and all started attacking this one girl( this girl has problems anyways and is a pain in the ass).

Finally we loaded most of us into a little van (should seat 11 (including driver), but we had 19 in the van) Luckily most of the kids slept in the van. We went to another place to catch a boat.. and failed....the boat was too full and we got kicked off the boat. At this point they changed the plan... we headed to a countryside town near a temple. Did our BBQing here at one of the teachers parents houses and stayed in her cousin's hotel. Not a great day... but entertaining enough.

The second day went well... it wasn't a pretty day.. but we got to go to a temple in the mountains and climb up pretty high (pictures coming soon... next post). It was a amazingly pretty place. The kids managed to climb up pretty well... only a few got really tired (all the kids are 6-9 years old).

I managed to get my fuel for my fire hoop while at the temple! yay!

We played some games and then went back to the hotel for lunch and naps.... i played a little poker with the teachers... but i need to learn the southern versions.... luckily one game is pretty standard because everyone plays it online.

After lunch was probably one of the most interesting parts of the trip...we went to a park thats kinda like an amusement park as well and took them through a haunted house. Me and Chris were chosen to take them through..... this was quite an experience...... if you have never led 12 kids ( 8 girls/ 4 boys) through a haunted house... its definitely something to try at some point.

The older kids made it through pretty ok.... except when chris (who was in the lead) decided to jump out at them. And when they got out they came RUNNING out (pictures posted later). I was in the back with the 6 year olds...... they were terrified... a little over half way through a few of them started screaming that they wanted to go back (in chinese of course, luckily the kids usually don't use the local dialect.. so we can keep up with that they say). At this point the older kids have ran past chris and he is back with me and a group of like 5 or 6 little girls and try to convince them (in chinese... that was tough) to keep going. one ends up just jumping on chris's back and he has to carry her (screaming) the rest of the way out.

The other rides weren't to much trouble... only one little girl cried after a ride that was to fast for her.

Went on a little paddle boat ride that was nice.... and then loaded back up in another van and headed back to the school on Xiamen island... pretty ok trip all and all. Not sure how many of the students will be my students and how many are Owen or Chris's schools... but they were a fun little group (except the really weird spoiled one that all the other kids picked on CONSTANTLY).

Random side note.... during one of our van trips...... as we move onto the wrong side of the highway i look over at chris and calmly say... well isn't this exciting. Chris's response was amazing...... "Two years ago I would have freaked out flying down the wrong side of the highway towards oncoming traffic with a van packed twice as full as it should be with kids, but now it doesn't even seen to phase me." well put chris.... o China....

Pictures coming soon... i need to collect some from the other teachers.

I am in Xiamen

So..... we made it to xiamen... its beautiful and still pretty warm. The last two days have been a little cool and raining but still in the upper 20s and the rain is really just random sprinkles.

I am still not used to the city at all.. ... I can get around the small area between two of the schools and my home pretty well... but besides that i haven't really had time to explore. We haven't even got our bikes put back together yet... .that is tomorrows adventure.

Alice gets here tonight.. which is good, we have a lot of the apt set up.. but there are somethings we have been waiting on her for.. .and some that we need her help for. The school has been amazingly helpful.... but it is a holiday.. and we try not to bother them to much.

The last two days we didn't get anything done on the apt because we were out on a field trip kinda thing with the school....i will do another post on that.. but sadly i don't have any pictures yet...... soon.

My first dance off!!!

Totally had my first dance off!!!

We spent the last night before leaving the north in Changchun. We decided to party it up a bit and head to the mayflower club. Some break dancers got up on the dance floor at one point and seemed to be battling each other a bit... so everyone cleared off the dance floor to watch. I quickly got up on the side of the floor again and asked the guard if i could use my hoop. He miss understood me and said yes. Then when chris and tingting started handing me my hoop he got up and started waving his hands no. Someone important that had seen me before yelled at the guard to let me.

So I got up there and did a few little tricks (room was very limited) and then backed off.. 3 of the breakdancers got off the floor. There were two left that kept battling with me for about 3 more rounds. They were pretty good....i feel like i got beat...but everyone seemed to love it. I ended it by just walking out and doing a quick jump through and then bowing to them.

I really wish i would have had my LED hoop with me... it would have made it so much better... but the hoop was already on its way to Xiamen. I need to get a LED hoop that i can turn on without opening it. One like that would be perfect for a dance off... starting with the hoop off and after a few rounds turn it on..... i could have one with an LED hoop.

Pictures with Students

My favorite student Rose. She had a rough day today, her last class with me and last class with Chris. She did a lot of crying. On a side note...this is after a LONG day of teaching... I look pretty crazy in this picture :)

She looks pretty happy here though.

The little girl in the front is my enforcer. She might be small but she is fierce! I just put her next to the really big annoying kid and give her the slappy hand. Any time the boy talks she will just beat the mess out of him... hehe

Poor Lucy was pretty sick today.

One of my best classes, all the girls are really smart.... the 3 boys didn't want to be in the picture.

The little fat boy in the front is great. A little stupid but really funny.

Another one of my favorite students (just because she is insane) is the girl behind me to the left in the green. First time I noticed her she was sitting on the floor chewing on the side of the desk..... this kid is awesome!

Check out my new game on the board in the background, thank you networking class for the inspiration.

The picture is sadly missing some kids from this class. It is a really big class and we usually split it boys/girls. The girls side usually moves to whichever classroom I am teaching in, so I don't know the boys well (there are more boys not in the picture). This class is pretty high level and smart.

This is one of the hardest classes to teach. Usually its the boys that are bad in class, but in this class the girls are nuts. They just run all over the place all the time. Its are hard class but one I like and enjoy teaching when I get them early enough in the day that i'm not tired.

A little calmer than the class above but about the same, also same Chinese teacher.

The girl standing ont he other girl in the front has a lot of attitude. She is smart but a pain in the ass sometimes. The boy right of her is just a pain. They flirt a lot.

Kids from the north side of the river.

This is another class that ends up like a madhouse of kids running everywhere, but its fun and they learn the material. Also north of the river.

This class needed two pictures, they were just to amusing. The little girl in the orange has a gimp left arm, she is really cute and sweet. She doesn't let the gimp arm get in her way at all when playing games, its impressive. Also north of the river.

A class that I used to hate, but now I have a lot of fun with. I eventually kicked the Chinese teacher out and took over the class. Not having her in the class made it easier to show that I was in charge (because she didn't do anything to help keep control of the class).

The Moon/Power class. Many classes we remember by certain students and this one has the REALLY young girl Moon, age 9 (on my shoulder). And the oldest Power, age 14 (big one standing next to me)

One of my great songjiang classes. Another one that went much better once the Chinese teacher started leaving the class. This is a really smart class and they like to insult each other.

This class is horrible and never goes well... but the students are really fun.... its just impossible to get anything done.

I might get a few more pictures tomorrow. There are two classes that I missed due to battery issues (stupid chinese batteries... unless you buy them from a really big supermarket they are probably fake batteries and don't work... at least i know this now)

Working at Songyuan Earth Village Foreign Language School

After a year and a half in Songyuan I am headed south. The time here has definitely had its ups and downs (as all places do) but I can definitely say I will miss it a little (except the winter).

The school I worked for ( Songyuan Earth Village Foreign Language School) was good. It got a little hectic at times with 5 Earth Village schools, 1 Joy school, and 1 Reach High adult school. The number of schools also left us running around the city a little but luckily Songyuan is so small it doesn't really take long to get from place to place.

My favorite school out of the three is Earth Village (which is a huge surprise to new teachers). The kids are all 8-15 and some are pretty crazy, but I find them to be less spoiled than the kids a Joy. The classes at Earth village are also a bit less structured than the Joy classes, which is tough when you first start teaching but after a while I find it more fun. This is were I taught most of my classes and where my favorites students are.

Joy is definitely the cleaner and nicer of the two kids schools. It is also more expensive than Earth Village. The classrooms are always well stocked with toys and since there is only one school you don't have to move around the city two much. The kids are a little richer and more spoiled but there are definitely still lots of great kids in Joy. The classrooms at Joy are also English only, the kids and teachers are not allowed to use Chinese in class. This makes the kids far most comfortable with speaking.

Reach High is by far the nicest school in Songyuan, but also the newest and most expensive. The classes are small ( 1-8 students) and all discussion based. These classes are great when you have students that like to talk (mostly higher level students in RH).

Most of the teachers in both schools are cool. Hanging out with them at school can be fun for helping them with their English and some will help you study Chinese. Though because we are in the middle of no where China, most of them aren't very likely to hang out with you outside of school (but some will).

The school technically has two bosses, Simon Sun and Kevin (not sure his last name.... I guess that kinda bad I don't know that...). Simon's English is very good and he is the boss you deal with the most. Kevin mostly handles Joy school, he understands a decent amount of English but speaks very little (mostly just "OK"). I ran into very few problems while I was here, they were usually very willing to help us with getting what we wanted out of our time in China. What I mean by this is that even though we have set vacation times, many teachers will take a week or so off of unpaid vacation to just travel around China and I never saw these requests refused. Simon (like most people in the world today) likes his money, but is very reasonable with us and I have never had a dispute about pay here.

The city itself has a strange charm to it. Though there is very little to do in the city (only 3 or 4 bars, none really that good), it gives you a lot of time to study without distraction. The winter is a little hard because its so cold you don't spend any time outside. Summer is amazing... the city is FLAT!! and biking around is amazingly easy (once you get used to the crazy traffic). There are only around 20 foreigners in the city (but this has grown a lot since i got here a year and half ago) so you can make a lot of Chinese friends. Most people don't speak much English here ("HEELLOO" is about the extent) so you can get amazing amounts of practice speaking Chinese.

The city is kind of in the middle of no where, and only about 10 years out of being a little village. So it isn't very westernized and there are a lot of things that take a bit of getting used to. But most people are very friendly here and always willing to give you a free beer if you drink with them.

It definitely will be interesting leaving here. Many people have asked me if I am coming back, and though I do like the city it is to far out of the way of any of my other travel destination to probably even come back. Many people will be missed.

Next Post: Pictures with my students and Chinese teachers!

August Vacation

Ya... i'm a little behind on the posts..... but thats ok.... the pictures have been up for awhile.

I think my pictures say enough about the vacation.

I went to Beijing for a week and stayed with Josh Beard from Columbia.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100343153928697.2622257.12634980

Then me and Chris headed to Qingdao to check it out and see if we wanted to move there.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100343170245997.2622260.12634980

facebook is just so much easier to put pictures on than blogger.

Again to Chagan Lake.. but this time by bike!

So... after my nice trip to Chagan lake with the Tanbo staff, I went back the next day with Chris. We tried to start out really early.. but that didn't end up happening. But we still made pretty damn good time... 2 hours and 15 minutes.... much better than last years 4 hours. not bad for 50km

We met up with Snow and Juliet there, got our hotel rooms, went swimming, rode horses, and saw the sites of Chagan lake.... all in all a pretty good little vacation... This vacation was partly just me and Chris wanting to do a quick run to Chagan lake and a goodbye vacation for Snow... she leaves in a few days for a public school job in the country side.

Chris really need a back seat thing for his bike.... I did a lot of playing taxi on this trip. The first day Snow and Juliet rented a double bike, but the second day Snow and Chris would start walking to where we were going while I took Juliet there. Then I went back and got Snow and took her, while chris of course rode his bike.

And now....... pictures.

if you are wondering... yes Chris does occasionally wear a shirt.

Random shack behind the hotel... right next to the pig pens.

This set of like bird cages and stuff were on the second floor of the hotel, right across from my room.





I can totally wear snows bathing suit!

This is the shower/changing room by the like.... yay for batteries!

I'm REALLY hungry!

Had to have a quick bath after finishing the bike trip to the lake... it was hot.