When I first came here, I assumed that all of my students would have no siblings. After all the government one-child policy began in 1979 and most of my students were born in the mid-80’s. So I was surprised when my students started talking about their brother and sisters. ‘You
And we're off!
This website will be pretty quiet for the next month as we are packing up and heading out while we are on holiday break from school. We’re traveling old school style which means that we won’t have a laptop so I don’t expect I’ll be able to do much updating
The Chinese Concept of Guanxi and our New Apartment
A week ago, as I was picking up a package at the international office I was told there was “good news.†“We want to move you to a nicer apartment!†The thing is we already have the nicest apartment so I was immediately suspicious. “We’ll talk about it later,†I
It's Time for More Chinglish Packaging!!
We see lots of funny examples of Chinglish but we keep forgetting to take pictures of it, so this post will be a little shorter than I’d like, but it’s still funny nonetheless. We saw this sign outside Grandmother’s Kitchen in Hangzhou. It is an upscale small chain restaurant that
Outside the West Gate
The first day we arrived at the university we now we live we woke up early and took a walk out the Big West Gate. This is what we saw: It was a big shock that first day because it seemed so dirty and so foreign. Later, we were told
The Best Teachers
I don’t want to brag or anything, but we just found out that the students voted Ryan and I as the top 2 foreign teachers. Okay, I lied. I do want to brag. Yes, those of you who know me too well might be wondering why I mentioned Ryan at
KTV'ing
I knew this day would come. I tried to avoid it as long as possible, but like going to the bathroom on a squat toilet it could not be avoided while living in China: I went to a KTV. KTV? I hear you ask. What is KTV? I’ll give you
When in Rome
Because there is no heat in the building here, despite the near freezing temperatures at times, students have to come up with crafty ways to keep from freezing. One tried and true way is the water bottle. They are popular here (as boiled water is readily available at every dorm
Making Magazines
That’s it. Classes are over, school is out. In 2 weeks we’ll be taking off for sunnier locations (western/southern China) but until then I have a lot of work to do. Namely, I have to grade finals. The way the grades here work is that 40% of a student’s full
It's Picture Time!
We’ve done a lot of fun stuff over the past few weeks that I haven’t mentioned in my blog. Not only was it the holiday season, but it was the end of the semester as well. So I thought I’d do another picture post to keep you updated!