There’s a foreign teacher who used to work here that had a bunny. He moved to another city in China, and try as he might, he found no viable way to bring the bunny with him. He really loved the bunny but aside from spending hundreds of dollars renting a
A Brief Moment in Class
Because I’m chicken-with-the-head-cut-off crazy busy these days I don’t have time to write my long-winded blog posts. (And maybe that’s a good thing.) So I’ll just share brief moments, something funny or interesting, that happens to me in my daily life. The first brief moment happened in the classroom. I’m
Concerns About the Future
I have a pretty easy schedule this semester (much to my surprise as first semester is usually the busy one). I basically teach only one subject to 6 classes. (I have one minors oral english class but I could teach that in my sleep, have to do no prep or
And so it Begins……Year 5 at Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University
So here I am on the eve of the new school year. I can’t believe it’s been 5 years already. Where did the time go? I expected to be in China for one year, but for 5?! It boggles the mind. Of course after such a long time you get
Teaching English in a Training Center
So I stuck around Hangzhou this summer to do some part-time work and pick up some extra cash, yet with only one week left remaining, I haven’t written much about my job. Despite living and teaching in China for the past 4 years, I’ve only had one job experience at
You Never Know What's Going to Happen
One of the benefits of sticking around this summer is spending time with people I probably wouldn’t see otherwise. Case in point? Last night I went out with 6 former students. A few had just graduated, but most had graduated a year before. They were some of the first students
Phew–I'm Legal Again
The last 5 days I’ve harbored a little secret. I was in China illegally. You see, my current permit expired on June 30th, so on June 28th, a friday, me, my boss and 3 other foreigners trundled off to the police station to register for next year. Only, we got
Goodbye Season
The end of June is always a little bittersweet. Sweet because I have 2 months of doing nothing, bitter because it is time to say goodbye. Foreigners are a very transient group in China and every year a large handful leave right about now. School has only been over for
Party Time!
It’s no secret that I love my birthday. I’ve written about it almost every year on my blog. Having a summertime birthday kinda sucks as a kid (you never get to bring cupcakes into class, your friends are already gone for the summer), so I decided as an adult I’d
The Teacher Becomes the Student
This semester I’ve taught English speaking to every single sophomore class. I’ve never taught an entire grade the same subject at the same time before and I kinda like it. Usually each class hangs out mostly with themselves, as they live together, have class together and pretty much do everything