Final Post from 南昌

Today is my last day here in Nanchang. Tomorrow morning I will be heading off to the Nanchang airport and beginning my journey home. I still have two classes left today, but they will both be held in my apartment. This is because I managed to roll my ankle quite badly while playing soccer two days ago. I'm sure my puffy, pain-ridden foot will make my 30 hour travel day just peachy. With that being said, I would be lying if I didn't say that I am completely excited to be returning home. On the other hand...I will certainly miss Nanchang. I've meet so many great people, and the experience of living here is so different from anything else that I have ever encountered.

I recently talked to Max, who is back in Vancouver studying for the LSAT. He told me that he actually missed living here in Nanchang. To me that was a pretty surprising statement. Max had a lot of problems here in Nanchang and seemed pretty ready to leave when he did. I think that if he is missing Nanchang now, that I will probably miss it terribly sometimes. I've been through many frustrating and enraging situations while here, but overall, I think that is part of the charm of having lived here. It was a challenge. It was my first time dealing with real problems on my own.

I'll be home in two days! I will be getting a new cellphone on the 16th and posting the new number either here or on Facebook. Talk to everyone soon!

Btw, check out the pictures of me with my students on flickr!

Back to Bloggin.

Things have been winding down here in my part of the world. I can feel that it is about time that I head back to the good ol' US of A. "But Scott," you say, "the U.S. is in a bit of turmoil right now. Jobs are scarce, gas is grossly expensive, and G W is still in charge."

I can think of one word that sums up my desire to return to the States: Burrito. Firstly, purely because of this asinine choice of summation, you can tell that my mind has gone a bit off kilter living here in 南昌. Secondly, I can acquire a burrito any day and nearly every hour of that day back home. Not only can I get burritos, but I can also get steaks, chicken parmigiana, and beer that doesn't taste like chemically enhanced water. Finally, I see the burrito as a metaphor for life in the U.S. They are both neat, organized, easy to handle and full of meat. Also, it is a logical food. Stuff a bunch of delicious, yet extremely sloppy food items into a neat, edible wrapper.

I know I've been away for quite some time, so this metaphor may not seem appropriate or remotely fitting for some, but to me, it just fits. I've finally grown mildly tired of Chinese food (though I'm sure my MSG addiction will last quite longer), and I've grown quite tired of the lack of organization and logic here at school. I have had an amazing time here. I have learned more than I can even imagine, but I have also discovered the inefficiencies that come along with living in this amazing culture. I do not hold it against China in any way, shape, or form, but it does get a bit tiresome after a year abroad. I'm ready for things to work. I'm ready for logic. I'm ready for people who act their age....well, I guess that doesn't really apply to America. I'm ready to see my friends and family again! I'm ready for a Burrito!

I will be back in the U.S. on the 15th of May, unless my planes get delayed. I will be flying from Nanchang to Shanghai to Vancouver, B.C. to Dallas, TX to Baton Rouge. If all goes well, I will be at home in bed by 12:30 AM on the 16th.

Between now and then, I still have a few adventures and drudgeries to take care of. Tomorrow, I will be heading into the international office to negotiate my contract. Let me rephrase, to negotiate the penalties that I will be receiving for leaving prior to the end of my contract. Hopefully I can smooth talk my way into keeping at least the shirt on my back. Wish me luck. Next, I may or may not have to write and administer an exam for my witting class. Despite the fact that I am currently teaching all three of my writing classes twice a week, it seems that the school planned incorrectly, and I will not be finishing the required 32 hours of class, and therefore can not give the exam. So, let's keep our fingers crossed that I don't have to write and grade 90 exams. I also found out today that I will be presenting a speech on how to give a speech on April 29th, which also just happens to be my birthday. The Chinese sure know how to cheer a guy up. Thankfully, I believe the rest of the week will be a vacation. Labor Day, if I'm not mistaken. If this is actually true (I still can't seem to be able to get an answer out of anyone as to the actual dates of the holiday, despite the fact that it is less than a week away: organization much?), then I hope to be taking a trip to Jingdezhen (景德镇), which is a small town in my province that makes "China" porcelain. Other than that, I will be teaching, packing, and wasting time.

I'd like to say congratulations to Elizabeth and Patrick on their upcoming wedding! I'm sorry I can't be there! I will bring you guys something good from China, I promise!

Yes, I am Alive.

Long time no see. I apologize for my utter lack of updates, but I have been fairly swamped with my new classes and also not quite in the mood for writing for the last few weeks. When I got back from my travels, I was fairly exhausted, and I think it has taken me this long to fully get back to normal. To be honest, not much has happened since I came back to school. I suppose the most exciting news is that we received another foreign teacher from America about two weeks ago. Her name is Chelsea, she is from Chicago, and, from what I can gather, I believe she is engaged. She also lives on the old campus, which means she lives in town, so I assume that we probably won't be seeing much of each other regardless.

If I didn't mention it before, Janice and Max area also gone. Max is traveling through Europe and Janice had to return to Australia for work related reasons, so it's a bit more quiet around these parts. A few days ago Amy and Lobo, who both work in the administration of old campus, came by our apartment complex to clean up Max and Janice's places. I was told that a new teacher was also expected to arrive here sometime soon, but who knows if that will ever happen. However, as lonely as this situation may seem, it's not too bad at all. Matt and Steven and I still hang out, and I have more opportunities to focus on my Chinese, which is really what I need anyway.

I also picked up two writing classes, via Janice's quick departure, which are quite intense. I enjoy teaching them, because I am actually teaching instead of leading like in my oral classes, but they are much more work and the kids seem pretty bored. Hopefully I can figure out a few techniques to make writing interesting for them. Lastly, I got a new cell phone yesterday, which can send and receive Chinese text messages. Now I can text with students and friends in Chinese, which also should be good for study.

I am heading downstairs to do some cooking with Matt for St. Patrick's Day. I promise the posting will pick back up! Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Episode I: Hong Kong & Macao

The bus from Shenzhen 深圳 to Kowloon had just departed and I was already smitten with my decision to go with Max and Janice to Hong Kong. Max had to go to Hong Kong in order to acquire his travel visa, and I had been debating whether or not I should tag along. Hong Kong is expensive, and I had planned to do quite a bit of traveling on quite a small amount of money. Thankfully I made the right decision. Shenzhen was warm, humid, and beautiful and as we neared Hong Kong, it only seemed to be getting better. I also later heard that it began to snow in Nanchang the day after we left.

When we arrived in Kowloon our first task was to exchange RMB for HKD. This was an easy task considering Hong Kong has money exchanges on nearly every corner. Secondly we needed a cab to our hostel. The cabs in Hong Kong are pretty cool. They seem to have a bit of an English flair, except for the fact that they are made by Toyota. After ten minutes in the cab I was relieved to find that the fee was only about 15 HKD (marked with $ from now on). Then the driver reached down and pressed three different buttons on the meter, which raised the fee to $48. When I began to protest he simply pointed to my door, which had a rather lengthy list of charges for bags, number of passengers, blood type, family origin, ect. So, I handed him a brand new $50 bill and received $2 back.

When we checked into our room, I realized that I had made a quite devastating mistake. I hadn't handed the cab driver $50, but had actually given him a $500 note! So, my travels had officially begun...out $450.

Once in Hong Kong, I was completely overwhelmed. I don't think that I could see everything that there is to see in the city in a life time, much less in a few days. Gucci, Prada, Lamborghini, and Rolex were a few of the brands that I remember seeing in Hong Kong. It would be an amazing city to visit....if I had money. Everything was expensive, but the quality of life was much better as well. I was very surprised by the number of Indians and Africans in Hong Kong. I had expected about a 50-50 mix of British and Chinese, but seeing how India and parts of Africa have been under English control at some point, it made sense. Nearly every corner of Kowloon had a few Indian gentlemen who were very interested in selling Max a custom made suit. His size made him a tailor's dream, imagine all those extra feet of fabric.

When the day arrived for a day trip over to Macao, Max was still quite immobile from his bout with food poisoning. We ate at a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant at the top of the observation tower at the back of Hong Kong Island a day before, and Max's food had apparently been tainted by something terrible. Judging from his sickness, I would say his burger probably had taken a spin in the toilet before they brought it out to the table.

So, Janice, Sven, Konstantine, and I headed to the ferry terminal minus Max. Sven and Konstantine are two German fellows that Max and I met at a pub. They were both very pleasant and both heading to Australia after their time in Hong Kong. I should make it clear that Konstantine was actually from Bavaria, which is a part of Germany, though Konstantine seemed quite angry whenever I said that he was from Germany or asked a question about Germany instead of Bavaria. Our trip on the turbo jet ferry to Macao was very pleasant and very smooth and Macao was really neat. It was full of Portuguese architecture and vividly painted buildings, and the signs were only in Portuguese and Chinese. I wish that we had more than a day to visit Macao, especially with all of the casinos available. Janice was very eager to get over and do some gambling, but we ended up running out of time. When we finally returned to our hostel, we found a moderately better Max, who pointed out that there was an interesting article in that day's Hong Kong paper. The article related the story of two of the turbo jet ferries, of the same type that we had ridden that day, who had collided in the fog the night before injuring dozens of people. It was nice to read that article AFTER our trip to Macao!

Some highlights from Hong Kong were the Iron Buddha, the Airport (for Max at least?), the star walk on Kowloon, any and all Western food (other than Bubba Gump), the observation deck behind Hong Kong Island, and renewing your visa, which is apparently an extremely long, expensive, and tedious experience.

Winter Travels: Prologue

Hello all, I am finally back from the first leg of my travels this winter. There have been some great ups and some pretty intense downs and plenty of excitement. I have a ton to write about, so I have decided to relate my experiences episodically. I will start with Hong Kong and Macao, go on to Sanya, and finish with Kunming and Dali. I will try to condense everything down as much as possible. This is for two reasons, 1) I am lazy, 2) If I included all of the details, you would be bored. I'll give you the highlights and do my best not to leave anything too important out. All of my pictures are on Flickr. Also I have created a Google Map of my travels as well, which should be helpful in explaining exactly where in China I have been (thanks for the idea Dave). There is also a link for the map on the right side of this blog. "Part I" should be up sometime soon. Enjoy!

Travling begins

Tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM Max, Janice, and I will be departing for the Nanchang Chang Bei Airport. I will be out of Nanchang and off of this computer until the end of February. I will be checking my email as often as possible, but if you really need to reach me for some reason, please call 225-304-0845. This is a number within the US, but it will ring on my cell phone here in China. I will update as often as possible. Toodles.