Stage one of my farewell tour was saying goodbye to my friends in Shanghai. Like peeling off the layers of an onion, I started furthest away and I’m getting closer and closer to home. Stage two of my farewell tour was all about students, school stuff and Hangzhou. I also
Student Gifts Over the Years
Since I need to box my crap up and ship it down south (“to where Becky?” I hear you ask. I’ll announce my new China home soon I just want to wait till I have a contract in hand till I consider it official.) I’ve been cleaning up and throwing
An Unexpected Semester
I had decided, more than a year ago, that this year would be my last year. I’m not going to leave China, but I’m going to leave the city I’ve called home for the past five years. So I made a plan. First semester was all about my students. I
Mid-Semester Life
Things are humming along, as they tend to do in the mid-semester mark. The flurry and excitement of the break and new semester has worn off, and the end of the semester is just a bit too far away to get worked up about yet. But life goes on in
The Last Class
Three and a half years ago I met class 105 and 106. (In China the classes stay the same, with the same students taking all their classes together, for 4 years.) Both freshman classes, new to university life, I was hesitant to say the least. Freshman not only have the
You Win This Round, Color!
I’ve already extolled the benefits of having a Chinese best friend (as opposed to having a Chinese boyfriend) and one of the benefits is Color and I having crazy conversations. One of these conversations happened almost two years ago when I stayed with him in Hong Kong. My Ex and
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
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