My new home

I arrived in Jiaxing (pronounced 'jah shing') February 27th. Jiaxing is just south of Shanghai about 1 hour by car and to the north of Hangzhou.



When I arrived in Jiaxing, I literally threw my bags in my apartment, went to a meeting for the teaching staff, then out to dinner, the bar, and the club. I finally arrived back home to my new place around 1 AM. What a way to be introduced to my new life!

TEACHING MEETING (10 minutes after I arrived). This meeting was scheduled so that all the foreign English teachers could get their teaching assignments. Being the newbie, I just assumed I would get the crappiest schedule, but boy did I luck out. I only teach Wednesday through Friday, leaving me plenty of time for traveling and exploration. In many ways, I am thrilled with that schedule, but on the other hand it gives me a lot of time to miss my family and friends. I will just have to find fun ways to occupy my time.

FIRST NIGHT OUT (2 hours after I arrived). Following the teaching meeting, I was told there was a going away party for an international student and that I should come. Well, the only plausible response to the invite was, 'Yes, of course- I'd love too.' I have to admit I was exhausted but knew it would be a great way to meet other teachers and students. Following some time at a coffee shop and then a bar, we headed to a Chinese dance club. Any of you who know me realize- I CANNOT DANCE. I was extremely nervous knowing that in order to 'impress' the Chinese I would have to pull out all my great moves! I sat around for a while watching everyone dance to 10 year old American music and sappy Chinese pop songs and psyched myself up by thinking, I cannot possibly dance worse than the Chinese, right (by the way, I mean that in the nicest way possible)? I mustered up some guts, got out of my seat, and started moving my body to the beat of the music. Funny thing, there tends to be no designated dance floors in the clubs, so I was just dancing in the aisles. I danced with many Chinese women. It is very typical for women to dance with women and men to dance alone or with there girlfriend only. I like the fact that the clubs do not have the feel of pick-up joints- that made the entire experience much more comfortable. Oh the memories, JUST IMAGINE ME DANCING!

FIRST WEEK OF TEACHING. I had a great first week of teaching. I am really enjoying the students. Their oral English varies significantly; therefore, I try to keep things as simple as possible. For the first lesson, we did an icebreaker game called Find Someone Who, where I gave the students a list of phrases and they had a to find someone in the class who fit each description. For example:

Find someone who...
1) is wearing blue
2) has a sister
3) play the piano
4) loves chocolate
5) sends at least 10 text messages a day
6) likes to play basketball
etc.

I was happy with how excited the students were and how nearly all of them participated to the fullest extent by getting out of their seat and moving around the class to fill in their list.

I also played a game called How Well Do You Know the Teacher? This game they loved. I asked them multiple choice questions about myself, and they had to guess the answer. They would make the funniest and cutest remarks like OOOOHHHH, AAAHHHH, BEAUTIFUL, NOOOOO!

I should mention some of my student's English names that made me smile. Because they are not too familiar with English names vs. English words they tend to have silly names. Here are some of the best.

- Monkey
- Cloris (I am assuming after Cloris Leachman)
- Lancelot
- King da
- Brad wu
- Yoyo
- Walleye
- NoNo
- Tableware
- Pita

MY APARTMENT. Here are some photos of my apartment. I must admit the apartment is larger than I expected and having it all to myself is awesome! I am not able to cook yet because there are no supplies. I need to take a shopping trip and fill this place up. Fortunately, things are so cheap there is no need to feel bad about buying what you need. Below are some photos of my place. The shower in particular is different in that there is no stall- check it out! Also, I have found a few things tricky. The heater, for example, is all in Chinese!