Scott-Sino Relations

Final Post from 南昌

2008-05-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-04-23T03:12:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-03-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-09T18:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-09T18:08:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-08T04:12:00.000-08:00

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.

Itenerary for the teachers.

2008-01-07T05:24:00.000-08:00

Flights:

Nanchang (南昌) - Shenzhen (深圳)
1/9/2008
10:15-11:35
China Southern: CZ3584
Shenzhen (深圳) - Sanya (三亚)
1/13/2008
22:10-23:25
Shenzhen Air: ZH9903
Sanya (三亚) – Kunming (昆明)
1/21/2008
21:30-23:30
Lucy Air: 8L9982
Kunming (昆明) – Chengdu (成都)
2/8/2008
18:50-20:50
Air China: CA1442
Matt**
Nanchang (南昌) - Kunming (昆明)
1/11/2008
17:00-19:50
Xianmen Airlines: MF8409

Hotel/Hostels:

HONG KONG

New Garden Hostel
Address: F1, 13/F, Mirador Mansion, 58 Nathan Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui
Email: kowloonnewhotel@gmail.com
Phone: +852-23112523/96384111
Fax: +852-23685241

SANYA

Sanya Eagle Backpackers Hostel
Address: 1206B Haitianhuiyuan buiding, Yuya road, Dadonghai,
Email: bookhostel@yahoo.com
Phone: +86-13976977924+86-898-88211805

KUNMING

Kunming Danzhao Youth Hotel
Address: #164 Longquan Road,
Email: kmburnbird@gmail.com
Phone: 86-0871-8115168 / 13888635082
Fax: 86-0871-8115168

CHENGDU

Dragon Town International Youth Hostel
Address: 26 Kuan Xiang Zi Street, Chengdu,
Email: reception@dragontown.com.cn
Phone: 028-86648408
Fax: 028-86245901

Travel Plans

2008-01-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

Most of my travel plans have been finalized and they are as follows:

January 9 - Depart for Hong Kong. We will be staying for four nights in order for Max to get a new Visa and to see the sights. We will also be taking a day trip to Macao. We wanted to stay in Macao, but the hostels and hotels were all a bit pricey.
January 13 - Depart for Sanya, which is a city on the island of Hainan in the southern Chinese Sea. It is often regarded as the Hawaii of Asia. We will be on the island for a little over a week.
January 21 - Depart for Kunming, which is a a city in the southwest of China. It is supposedly beautiful and the temperatures are supposed to be perfect all year round. As of this point we have only booked travel to here, but we intend to continue on to Chengdu for the Chinese New Year.
February 13 - I will depart to Shanghai to meet my parents. At that point I will leave the planning up to them. As I know more details I will update.

Holly, Jolly, Xmas

2007-12-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

I have definitely been slacking on the blogging lately, for that I apologize. Yesterday I finished my final exam and this morning I saw Sarah and her father off to the airport. It has been a very busy couple of weeks, but it was great to have some familiar faces around during the holiday season.

My exams consisted of me sitting in a classroom sans heat for 6 hours everyday listening to 2-3 minutes speeches from my students on a range of categories from environmental concerns, education reform, newspaper articles and even original stories. It wasn't the most exciting experience, at all, but it having Sarah around made it bearable.

Sarah, her father, mother, and stepfather arrived in Nanchang early last week. I met them in Shanghai and then came back with Sarah a few days early while her parents visited in Shanghai. Going to Shanghai really made me miss civilization. That's not to say that Nanchang isn't civilized, just that it isn't "western civilized." Shanghai is full of beautiful architecture, clean streets, and a great variety of food. As a cherry on top, no one stares at me in Shanghai. Oddly I took this as kind of an insult more than a relief. I think when I get back to the states and no one stares at me that my confidence will be shattered haha! Sarah's mother and stepfather went on to visit Xi'an and had a great time. Once everyone finally arrived in Nanchang, we had a nice lazy vacation....mostly because there is nothing to do in Nanchang and I was in the middle of exams. Regardless, I had an amazing Christmas celebrating with Sarah and her family. I got some great gifts and a pile of books, which is just what I wanted! I also got some great cold-weather gear from my parents including a great new North Face sweater. Thanks to everyone for the gifts! Needless to say, I was very sad to see Sarah leaving today. I wanted to sneak back to the US. On the other hand, it feels pretty nice to be done with exams, and I'm excited about my upcoming travels.

As of last night, my travel plans for this holiday are shaping up to be pretty amazing. Max has to go to Hong Kong to extend his visa, so Matt, Janice, and I are going to head down south with him. After Max settles his visa problems we're going to head to Maccau for a few days. I'm really excited about the possibilities for some new foods in both of these cities. I don't know much about Cantonese food, but I've heard good things. I think at this point that Janice is going to head back to Nanchang, but I'm not sure. After our time in these autonomous regions is over, we are going to down to Hainan, which is an island off the southern coast of China. It's often referred to as the Hawaii of China. I'm psyched about some warm weather, sand, and coconut beverages.

If we ever leave Hainan, we are planning to head up to Kunming, which is known for its landscape. Finally, we will head up to Chengdu, which is known for many things. Firstly, pandas! Other than that, I'm not too positive what the city has to offer. I need to do some reading. I have heard that it is a big city with plenty to do for very reasonable prices.

After things start to get finalized, I'll update. Head over to my picture website to check out some pictures from Shanghai, Guilin, and even from my last week of classes.

2007-12-11T05:43:00.000-08:00

I just got back from "English Corner." Which should really be called "Questions for Foreigners." The corner is really just a big square outside of the students' dorms. At 7:30 every Tuesday evening students gather in this area to speak English together. Every week two foreign teachers are also required to go to English corner to encourage speaking. I go with Matt, and Janice and Steven go together. So tonight, like every other evening at the English corner, Matt and I strolled up to a crowd of awaiting Chinese students. Once one sees that the foreign teachers have arrived, he quickly releases a pheromone to alert the other students. A swarm ensues, and the questions are endless.

The topic tonight was, "What should we do during our boring college life?," or something along those lines. I reminded them that drinking is always a possibility, but that they really just needed to have a good time before they graduated. I'm almost convinced that most of the students here really don't know how to relax and just have fun. After asking them about their high school experiences tonight, I can understand why.

Most high school students here in China have class from 6:00 AM until 10:00 PM. They also do not have weekends off, but instead spend them studying or learning a new skill. I feel kind of bad for their experiences at school. I don't know if I could have made it through high school if I didn't have breaks. It seems that the pressure here is immense. All of my students tell me that it is nearly impossible to get a job after college, and yet none of them seem to be worried. All in all, I'm surprised that the suicide rate is not tremendous here.

The evening at the English corner ended with a few questions from the more advanced students about my opinions on the war in Iraq and my opinion on JFK. All in all it was an interesting experience, but there are only so many times that I can be asked, "Do you like China?" or "Do you like Chinese food?" before I want to answer, "No, I really hate it." to both questions. Unfortunately that would be a lie. I like the people here in China, and as you probably well know, I love Chinese food.

However, Chinese food can only carry me so far. Christmas is coming, and I'm very happy to say that I will get to spend Christmas with a few familiar faces. Sarah and her parents are coming to China next weekend and will be here until the 28th. It will be great to have them all around for the holidays. Needless to say, I can't wait to see Sarah, and I hope that my lessons won't be too hectic while she is here.

Finally, I also got the mailing address for my school in China. If you'd like to mail me anything for any reason, you can send it to the following address:

Scott Mannear
The School of International Education, Nanchang Institute of Technology,
Beijing East Road 59, Pengqiao Campus, Nanchang Institute of Technology,
Nanchang Jiangxi, P. R. China 330029

By the way, the pictures are A) of my self-made drying apparatus, since the humidity outside has been hovering at 70% lately and B) my Communist Christmas Decorations--A Chinese flag and Christmas lights.

The Facts of Life....In China

2007-11-30T17:10:00.000-08:00

Some of the following only apply to foreigners:

1. Any bed in China is harder than the floor.
2. Everyday you will hear these things being screamed out behind you: "Hello!" or "外国!" (waiguo- foreigner)".
- If you are a foreign teacher: "老外," which well means....foreign teacher...
- If you are Max: "好高!!"," 怎么高!!", "很高!!, "怎么那么高!!", "天啊!", or any other variant use of 高 (gao- tall)
3. If something makes logical sense, it is strictly prohibited.
4. If something makes absolutely no sense, it will be implemented immediately.
5. Traffic signs, lines, police, and rules are only for aesthetic purposes.
6. If a man hole cover goes missing, the following protocol must be followed: First, cut down a young tree, second, carry the young tree to the exposed hole, three, insert. Problem solved.
7. No matter where you go, you will be stared at. Constantly.
8. Everything can and should be bargained for.
9. Squat toilets some how manage to be more dirty, wet, and disgusting than you thought possible.

Thanksgiving in Nanchang

2007-11-24T00:24:00.001-08:00

The evening really began at about 3:30 PM. I still had one class left to teach and had to catch the bus as soon as class ended. So, I put on my suit and headed out the door to teach my final Thanksgiving day class. Max and I had decided that this could be our only opportunity to wear our suits, so we went with it.

Class was fairly uneventful. On the way to class and on the way to the bus afterwards I got even more stairs and giggles than normal, but that was to be expected. Max also had a late class at old campus, so Matt, Janice, and I hoped on to the teacher bus to head over to meet him. I had a nice conversation with an older Chinese gentleman, who turned out to be an advanced English reading teacher. His English was fairly decent and he told me that my Chinese was pretty good as well. He asked me questions about my life in Nanchang and my life in America as well. I'm still surprised nearly everyday by how friendly and inquisitive everyone is here. There seems to be a small portion of the population who wants absolutely nothing to do with foreigners, but for the most part everyone here in Nanchang has been extremely friendly and helpful.

After meeting Max, we headed over to Detox to meet the rest of our Thanksgiving party. When we got out of the cab we were greeted by Terry who introduced us to a few of his fellow teachers who were also all from America. Two were from California, Crystal a mid-twenties, Berkley graduate and Rodney from San Diego, and finally, one teacher was from Maine. I have forgotten his name but during conversation he revealed that he was well over 60. Once we arrived at the restaurant we meet several more foreigners and were seated around many more that I never had the opportunity to meet. Others were from Los Angeles, Georgia (Union City! you'll be happy to hear that Sarah!), Australia, Canada, and Britain.

The dinner was amazing. The first course was a chicken terrine with bacon and caramelized onions. The second course was a dream: garlic mashed potatoes, sage bread stuffing, carrots, and roast turkey all swimming in a delicious gravy. The dinner was finished with a pumpkin tart and the entire evening was accompanied by Chilean wine, Heinekens and Coronas. I was more than stuffed.

We ended the evening at Escape Bar and a little conversation with our new western friends. It was as this point that a few of our new acquaintances revealed that they thought that Max and I were religous because we had dressed up. "China, the only place where dressing up for dinner can be held against you." Having missed Thanksgiving dinner for the last two years, this was a nearly perfect substitution for the real thing. It was only missing my family and friends. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and I can't wait to hear about them all!

Hoping for Turkey

2007-11-20T05:18:00.000-08:00

Well, I just finished my first tutoring session here in China. One of my students, Clark, volunteered to tutor me. Nearly all of my students have volunteered to tutor me, but Clark's English is quite suburb (He's the fellow in the picture with the beer). He is also very upbeat and willing to teach, so it seems that it will work out very well. Also it's free! I can honestly say that my listening comprehension and speaking skills have gotten much better since arriving in China, but I have been slacking off on my writing, reading, and grammar expansion. I was about to make up an excuse, but there really isn't one other than myself.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, or at least that's what I have been told here in China. This will be my third, count it third, time to miss Thanksgiving with my family. It's kinda sad, but I have been having some interesting adventures during my Turkey Days so I can't complain. Two years ago I was in Zion National Park Hiking through a beautiful canyon. We had a majestic, all be it freezing, star-lit dinner of packaged chicken, rice, and biscuits (Dave, you may be able to correct me here). Last year I was in Beijing, where a Thanksgiving party was held by my Chinese university. It was very nice, but pathetic all the same. Every table got one turkey (火鸡 huo ji) leg and a few sweet things. This year, I believe will be a nice combo of adventure and delicious, traditional Thanksgiving food. Sort of.

Last weekend two teachers from the Netherlands, Gerry and Patrick, came to visit our school to select a few students who would have the opportunity to go to the Netherlands for a semester. So Max, Matt, and I, being the good ambassadors for Nanchang that we are, brought Gerry and Patrick to dinner one evening. We also met them at the fountain across the river later in the week. It happens to be the largest fountain in Asia if you must ask. Following our viewing of the fountain we decided to head over to Escape Bar for a few drinks. The bar was fairly crowded and I noticed an older gentleman wearing a Chicago T-shirt and a New York Jets cap. I figured that he must be American. He would later introduce himself as Terry, the criminal defense lawyer from Chicago. Needless to say it is always nice to bump into a fellow American. We had quite the mix that evening. One Canadian, three Americans, two Netherlanders, a few Chinese students, and finally a pair of Nanchang business men, who were insistent on teaching me about Confucius (孔子 kong zi).

Yesterday I got a text from Terry asking if I was interested in a Thanksgiving dinner at Detox. A Thanksgiving dinner?? I'll take two please. Detox is a Western restaurant in town that is run by a fellow from Britain. It may not be a genuine Thanksgiving, but it'll be better than prepackaged chicken or cold turkey drumsticks. All of the foreign teachers, sans Steven, are heading over on Thursday evening as well. I must say, I'm quite excited for dinner and for the opportunity to meet a few more westerners in Nanchang.

Finally, as a fail safe, I'd like to ask all of you to take some pictures at your Thanksgiving gatherings and email them into me (smannear@gmail.com). Then I can at least drool over the pictures if nothing else. If I don't speak to you before Thanksgiving, I hope you have a great one and remember to eat a little extra food for me. Besides, winter is coming and you need to bulk up.

Quick update

2007-11-14T06:59:00.000-08:00

Things that have happened since the last update:

1. Had a party at my place. Students cooked food. My place now smells like fish.
2. Matt arrived. He's the new foreign teacher at our campus. He's from Ohio.
3. Haiyan and Steven tried to get onto a local television show. Similar to Oprah, but not as successful. The plan was to arrive at Haiyan's parents home with a camera and resolve the differences between Steven and Haiyan's parents. Haiyan's mother hates Steven. He's foreign. Haiyan's father doesn't know they are dating. Steven and Haiyan decided it wasn't the best plan.
4. Judged an English drama competition here at school. My favorite was a rendition of Gone with the Wind performed by several of my male students in drag. The competition ended up lasting three hours. About two and a half hours longer than it should have been.

Tomorrow I will be judging a debate. Hopefully it's much shorter. Hopefully more people will be in drag.

An Ode to Friday

2007-11-09T02:50:00.000-08:00

Friday, oh how I hate you.
You give me six hours of classes.
You give me students who want to get out of class almost as much as me.
You tempt me with the promise of the weekend.
After six hours of class, you are the weekend.
Oh how I love you Friday.

I've come to the conclusion that I will never see my laptop again. I think that acceptance is the best way to get over my loss. Laptop, I'll miss you. You served me well.

One of the bag ladies came into my classroom today. I yelled at her in Chinese asking if she had my computer. She ran away.

It's time to head to the local shop and buy a few beers and a bottle of wine. Steven and Haiyan are cooking dinner for the group again this evening, and then, perhaps we will play some poker. I've realized that I really enjoy meeting new people. I was quite a hermit for most of my life. It's time to savor the evening.

It's good to be evolving and expanding.

Bad Week--Good Weekend

2007-11-04T17:13:00.000-08:00

Let me start with the bad news first. My laptop is MIA. In fact, it has been MIA since Wednesday afternoon. I was hoping that it would show up and I wouldn't even have to make this post, but it seems like I may never see my laptop again.

On Wednesday afternoon I brought my iPod, speakers, and laptop computer to class. My intention was to play a little Halloween music while I told my students about Halloween in America. I brought the laptop as a back up in case I couldn't find an outlet for the speakers and iPod. Thankfully the class was equipped with an outlet near the blackboard so I just placed my computer on the ground next to my backpack. This was where everything went wrong. I didn't use the laptop all class, so I completely forgot that I had brought it to class. When I was leaving class I was talking to one of my students about basketball or something and so wasn't paying attention. My student and I were the last ones to leave the class room and I turned off the light as I left.

When I got back to my building I realized the terrible mistake that I had just made. I ran back to the class room, but when I arrived the laptop was no where to be found. Two students were in the classroom studying. I asked them if they had found my laptop and they said no. Then I asked if the lights were off when they came in to the classroom and they told me that they had been. So, someone came in to the classroom while it was dark and grabbed my laptop.

I have been told and also seen that there are ladies who wander around campus collecting bottles to make extra money. One of those ladies peeked into my classroom that afternoon. I have a suspicion that she returned after class and scored a much better prize than a few water bottles. I still have a little hope that my laptop may be returned on Wednesday by someone who doesn't know how to return it but to return it to my classroom. I'm fairly confident that a student did not take it. The teachers and students have all been extremely helpful in trying to get my laptop back, and it is hard to believe that any of them would have stolen my property, but perhaps I'm being naive.

In other news, I had a very exciting weekend. Friday evening Max, Janice, Steven, his Chinese girlfriend Haiyan, and I went to eat hotpot. Hotpot is fairly similar to fondue. You are given a big bowl of seasoned water, which is often divided into a spicy section and a regular section. This bowl is placed onto a burner in the middle of your table and set to a rolling boil. Then it's time to choose your ingredients. Since Haiyan was with us, she did all of the ordering. We had beef, lamb, pork, chicken, several vegetables, eggs, and tofu. You can throw whatever you want into whichever side you want and then wait a few minutes and fish it out with a nice slotted spoon. It really is quite delicious.

Saturday was also quite a day. As a group we headed over to the zoo in the center of the city. We took the city bus--something that I have not done since Beijing. Max had never taken the public bus in China, and he wasn't too happy about his first experience. Like any public area in China, the buses are incredibly crowded. Finding a seat is like finding a winning lottery ticket.

When we finally arrived at the zoo we realized that the animal show had already started. We rushed around the zoo spotting many different exciting exhibits but were unable to find the animal show. When we finally did find the show we arrived just in time to see a monkey riding a goat on a tight rope. There was a surprise ending, but I won't give it away (you can watch the video on my vimeo page). After that the trainers brought out a bear that jumped over hurdles and then kicked them over, a bear who jumped rope, and finally a bear that rode a bicycle. The bear's riding skills were suburb. If bears ever figure out how to race, Lance Armstrong may be in trouble. Unfortunately, because of our late arrival, we had missed the section of the show where a tiger rides a horse.

After the show we decided to check out all of the exhibits. The zoo had many monkey exhibits, a panda exhibit, a bear exhibit, many bird exhibits, several elephants, a giraffe, and even penguins. Whenever I go to the zoo the term "animal prison" is always in the back of my mind. It always seems cruel to have these animals locked away out of the wild, but in America at least they seem to be in some sort of five-star federal prison with gourmet meals and luxurious acomidations. With all of the animal rights groups in the US, I would expect nothing less. However here in Nanchang I feel like I was visiting a third world prisoner of war prison for animals. The animals all seemed to be either sick, infected, depressed or a combination of all three. The cages were extremely small and dirty. The only attempt at making a "realistic habitat" consisted of a few concrete rock structures. Needless to say, I won't be making a second trip out to the zoo.

The rest of the weekend went by quickly. Janice, Max, and I went across the river to try and see the biggest fountain show in Asia and the biggest ferris wheel in the world, but didn't get to see either in action. The fountain area was hosting some sort of TV show (because we were all white we got to get a little bit closer), so the fountain was inactive. The ferris wheel was lit up, but was not running for some reason.

Max and I also made a trip over to the Tengwang Pavilion, which is also on the river (on the opposite side of the ferris wheel). I'll have to look up its history again, but I believe that it was some sort of mansion that belonged to a famous painter? It was a gorgeous structure and I wasn't reading any of the signs. The views from the top were beautiful and the grounds surrounding the house were also very impressive. Following our time at the pavilion Max and I went to catch up with the rest of the group, who had already seen the pavilion before. We found out that they had decided to get a foot massage. I've never had a massage from a real massage parlor. After standing all day in class for the last several weeks, it was just what the doctor ordered, though at some points they seemed to be rather violent especially when they cracked our toes. Regardless, it was well worth the $4 charge.

Sunday was a day of shopping. Max and I were determined to find some gym equipment. After going into nearly every sports shop we could find downtown we were pretty depressed at the prices we had found. Also Max was unable to find any size 13 shoes...surprise surprise. With the intention of returning later in the day to get some gym equipment Max, Janice, and I headed over to a western style market called "Metro." It is arranged very similarly to a Home Depot in the states. Big industrial shelves packed with innumerable items. We decided to check out their sports section for gym equipment, and it turned out quite nicely. We found a flat bench for very cheap and the weights cost less than anywhere else that we had previously looked. Apart from this great find, I fell in love with the store in general. The prices are bit steeper than at Walmart, but the selection is ten times better. Also, it wasn't packed from wall to wall with customers and employees. It was a nice leisurely shopping experience. To top it all off "Metro" also has a large import section filled with invaluable goods like western liquors, beers, cheese (thank god we found some), snacks, ketchup, cereal, ect. We will be returning often to "Metro."

It was a very busy weekend, but I had a lot of fun. It was good to finally be part of a group. Janice, the 60-something-year-old from Australia; Steven, the 25-year-old Brit; his Chinese girlfriend; Max and I work quite nicely as a group. Hopefully many more fun weekends will follow.

I'm poor.

2007-10-30T22:50:00.001-07:00

On Monday I received a big sweaty wad of cash for my first month of work here in China. No bank account. No check. Just a big pile of hundreds. Unfortunately I have been here in China for about 3.5 weeks and the syndrome known as "China Cheap" (trademarked) has taken control of my perspective. This debilitating syndrome also known as "Holy crap, 3 dollars for dinner, that's way too expensive" or "This beer cost more than 15 cents, it must be a rip off," occurs after a few weeks in China. When everything you buy is absurdly cheap, you can't help but feel that if you pay US prices for anything that you have been severely wronged. When I received my pay check this Monday, I realized just how badly this syndrome had taken over. My salary was just over 4000 yuan. This is roughly 541 dollars for a month of work. The local average here is 800 yuan a month (108 dollars). Max and I did some math and figured out that we had been shorted one days worth of salary according to our contract.

This is where the other side of the "China Cheap" syndrome comes into play. The locals have been born into the "China Cheap" environment and are willing to use any means necessary to keep every nickel and dime (or jiao and mao). With all of this said, it seems inevitable that I will walk away from my school year of teaching here in China with pretty much nothing (financially). At the beginning of my trip I was well aware of this fact, and I was and still am incredibly happy to be here having the experience of living and working in China. But in reality, I will need some money following my time here in China. I have plans for grad school. It's not going to pay for itself. So, with all of this being said I have gone into a bit of a panic about developing a second source of cash. I have a fair amount of free time and I figure that if I don't start doing something other than watching DVDs and teaching English that I am soon to lose my mind.

My first petty attempt to generate revenue was to put an ad or two on the right side of this blog. Like I've mentioned before I can't access my blog from China. I can post on it, but I can't view the actual blog. When I was signing up for the ads I was told that Google, who provides the ads, would scan the blog and generate relevant ads. Apparently for me this means that my blog will have adds for "Finding dates in China"and "Teaching in China." So if anyone needs a date in China or is interested in teaching here, just click away! If you don't want a date in China and have no interest in teaching in China click on the ads anyway (I get paid for every click on the ads). I can't provide you with any incentives for clicking on these ads (that would be illegal ;)), but lets just say that it would be much appreciated. Furthermore, if anyone has any friends, relatives, companions, associates, acquaintances, or pets in China who have any need for work or research within China, I'm available. Alright, I feel dirty from all of this groveling. I'm going to get a shower and do some more brainstorming. (click it!!-------> )

Sorry....I'm done I promise. ( CLICK IT AGAIN-------->)

yea....................

Lushan: Training for the future

2007-10-29T03:12:00.000-07:00

Well, my four day weekend at Lushan (庐山) was an overall success. The scenery was beautiful, the people were nice, and the air was crisp. However, more than anything it was a learning experience for travel in China. Max and I left Nanchang with little more than a train ticket and a guide book, but we have returned with knowledge. We met many wonderful people who went out of their way to help us and make us comfortable. We were also ripped off. It was an experiment in cultural understanding.

The journey began at 6:15 AM on Thursday morning. Max and I had been told that buses would be running from our campus into town. We had both been assured that there would certainly be buses around for us to reach the train station by 7:50 AM. There weren't. There was not a single bus waiting at the bus stop on campus. Thankfully, there was a small minivan waiting. I had heard of these little buses before. They wait at bus stations hoping that buses are full or in our case have yet to arrive. I asked the driver if he could take us to the train station and he was more than happy to oblige. I asked him how much and he told me that it was going to be 30 yuan. Taxis into town normally cost around 30 yuan, so I thought that we had a decent arrangement.

Max, myself, and a Chinese teacher headed into town down the bumpy, dirty roads of outer Nanchang. I asked her when the buses started running and she told me that they didn't start until around 6:45. Our information regarding the early buses was obviously wrong.

When we finally arrived in the city the other teacher who was riding with us asked the driver to pull over so that she could get off. The driver pulled over and the teacher paid him 5 yuan! He told me 30! Being white/naive can be costly in Nanchang. We drove about one more block and begrudgingly paid our overpriced fee.

The train ride was very pleasant and we ended up sitting across from a man from Wuhan (武汉) who worked for IBM. His English was superb, and we chatted about his travels and ours. We were told that a cruise up the Yangzi river (长江 Chang Jiang is the real name of the river) was something that we must do. After a little chatting, Max and I decided to get some coffee from the dinning car. I told the waitress, who looked very surprised and confused, that we would like two lattes. Mind you, each of these lattes cost more than the price of the ticket for the train. Max and I sat down on one of the couches in the dinning car and waited. As we sat, the woman who took our order began wandering around with a confused look on her face. She opened several closets and rummaged around for about ten minutes. This didn't look like a good sign for our coffee. She very hesitantly approached Max and I and said that they had no milk. Not very surprised to hear this, I just asked if she could make us two black coffees. Five minutes later she returned holding a half-full cup of cool, coffee-ground-filled water. Obviously, this woman had absolutely no training. So, lesson number 3 of the day: don't buy coffee on trains in China.

When we arrived in Jiujiang (九江) which is the nearest town to Mt. Lushan, we were berated by a swarm of taxi drivers. But Max and I had decided to see a little of Jiujiang before we headed up to Lushan. Coincidently, there isn't much to see in Jiujiang. After about 10 minutes of trekking we decided that it was time to get to a hotel and start seeing Lushan. I flagged down a taxi and asked him how much for the ride up to Lushan. He responded with a number somewhere in near 150 yuan. I would not be tricked again! Thankfully I had been told earlier by one of the many swarming taxi drivers at the train station that he would bring us to Lushan for 30 yuan. He had also given me his name card. I gave him a call on my cellphone, and within minutes Max and I were being driven to the top of Lushan for a mere 30 yuan. We had done something right for once! Like everyone who I talked with throughout the trip, the driver was very very surprised that I could speak Chinese. He told me that my Jiujiang accent was very good, and that I should use it to get cheaper prices at hotels. When we arrived, he recommended that we stay at the Xindi VIP hotel. I asked to see a room, and I was very surprised with how nice and clean the room was. The price was also very cheap. We soon realized that this was only because the hotel was brand new and still under construction. So, Max and I asked to be shown to a different hotel. This hotel was a bit cheaper, but the room was horrible. We decided on the Xindi and headed back to check in an drop off our stuff. The subsequent 7 AM wake-ups to the sounds of hammers and band saws made the deal a little less sweet.

The next two days were spent exploring Lushan. The first day we traveled on foot to see "Heavenly Bridge," "Lion's Mouth Cliff," "Immortal's Cavern," and a few other similarly named scenic areas. The scenery was pretty amazing, but the most impressive spot was a platform which once served as a meeting place between General Marshall and Chiang Kaishek. It had been converted into a tea patio. Max and I decided that this was an opportunity that we couldn't afford to miss and sat down for a tea break.

The next day was spent seeing some equally impressive scenic spots, which ended in a trip to "Three-Step Waterfall." This would be rip-off number eight or so of the journey. Max and I both forked out 80 yuan for a tram ride to the base of the falls, which ended up lasting four minutes and did not come anywhere near the waterfall (even though the ticket showed the tram passing directly in front). When we got of the tram we began walking down stairs, where we encountered something that I would classify as absurd. People had paid to be carried up the stairs of the waterfall by two men who carried a wicker chair on their backs. This may sound absurd, but the fact that this stairwell literally took us an hour and a half to walk back up once we reached the base of the fall brings this feat to a whole new level of absurdity. Our entertainment at this spectacle was abruptly ended when we found ourselves at a ticket kiosk. We needed to pay an additional 1 yuan to continue down to see the falls. After trudging down the endless stairwell for another 30 minutes or so we reached another ticket kiosk. Here we were required to pay another 50 yuan. Needless to say, Max and I were enraged at this point. If I could've lit Lushan ablaze at this point, I would have. The Chinese are smart people though. After trudging down stairs for 30 minutes it seemed ridiculous to turn around without seeing the falls. China had duped us once again.

The following morning, was the beginning of our last day on the mountain. We made a point to make it over to the Lushan Museum, which also happens to be the former summer villa of Mao Zedong. The museum was fairly useless as far as information goes. There were a few exhibits that had English inscriptions, but everything else was in Chinese. Apart from vases and furniture that used to belong to Mao, the museum also housed a geological section about Lushan. The highlight of the experience was seeing "Mao's Bathroom." You never really think about the bathrooms of the great people of history, but I suppose their existence is inevitable. Max and I also bought a pair of Mao mugs, so that we can drink our coffee out of proper mugs instead of the steel mugs that we had purchased a few weeks earlier. Drinking out of my Mao mug, gives me the sensation of being a real Chinese citizen. It also doesn't taste like steel, which is nice too.

Our trip ended fairly uneventfully with a hot train ride back to Nanchang. When we got back to the city we decided to head over to the western bar street to grab some pizza and buy a few more DVDs. Unsurprisingly, the pizza restaurant was sub par and expensive. Next time we'll have to head over to Pizza Hut and get some good ol' greasy pizza.

Determined to end the trip on a positive note, Max and I wondered into one of the western bars, which was very nice inside. They also offered European beer and alcohol that isn't derived from rice. God how I hate Baijiu (白酒 Parmesan cheese flavor). We also managed to meet a few westerners from Germany, Russia, Canada, America (San Diego), Finland, and England. We also met the owner of the bar, who was a very enthusiastic and welcoming local. We exchanged numbers and he asked us to join their bar soccer team. All in all it was a fun experience, though most of the westerners were fairly cold towards both Max and I.

All in all a very interesting weekend. I can't wait to get out and do some more traveling. Until then, it's time to buckle down and teach some English. Hopefully something exciting will happen and I will update again soon.

This weekend.

2007-10-23T00:56:00.000-07:00

I have confirmed it. I have this Thursday and Friday off, so it's time for a little traveling. Max and I have decided to go to the north of our province (Jiangxi 江西）to see Mt. Lushan (庐山) and the city of Jingdezhen (景德镇).

Mt. Lushan offers "mountain views and European villas." Nearly every student and staff member that I have met has told me to go see Mt. Lushan. It is definitely the pride of Jiangxi province. Max and I plan to take a short two hour train ride from Nanchang to Jiujiang (九江), which is the closest train stop to Mt. Lushan. We should arrive in Jiujiang around 9:15 AM on Thursday. From the train station in Jiujiang it is only 30 minutes by cab or bus to the entrance of Lushan national park. The rest of the day will be devoted to enjoying the views of Lushan and finding a place to stay at Lushan or in Jiujiang.

On Friday morning we will head over to Jingdezhen, which is famous for its porcelain pottery. If anyone has ever talked about their "china" in reference to dish ware, then they were referring to the work of Jingdezhen. At least that's where it should have come from it was legitimate. Jingdezhen is about 3 hours away from Lushan on bus. After talking to Janice, my older Australian downstairs neighbor, Jingdezhen sounds like quite an exciting spot. However all of the tourist information says that pottery is about all that there is to see in the coal burning city. We will find out this weekend.

If we do manage to find anything of interest, we will spend Friday night in Jingdezhen and then take the bus back to Nanchang. If Jingdezhen is a complete bust then we will probably return to Nanchang on Friday evening or just have a leisurely evening in Jingdezhen regardless.

By the way, the AC remote has been found--deep in the cavernous region of the couch cushions. Despite my two previous searches in this region the remote had eluded me.

Random Post #1

2007-10-22T07:52:00.001-07:00

1. I figured out how to get around the system to check the comments on my blog, so please keep leaving me comments. Now that I've gotten to actually check them, I like them a lot. Keep them coming.

2. I lost the controller for my AC unit in my apartment. Despite my best efforts to look under every piece of furniture and lift every cushion I have been unable to find it. As my parents can attest, I used to lose the TV remote all the time too. I would wander out of the TV room with the remote in my hand and place it in some obscure location. I was a strange kid. I hope it shows up, otherwise it's going to be a cold winter.

3. I ate way too much food at lunch today. It was awesome.

The sweet taste of weekend.

2007-10-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today I feel like I am back at Wake. My entire curriculum for this semester is due by the end of this evening. At the beginning of my third, two hour class on Thursday my teacher buddy, Ainslee (Li Hongmei) came into my class out of breath (she always seems to be out of breath) and showed me a set of curriculum forms. "Please finish your lesson plans for this weekend and turn them in on Monday," she said. At this point in my day I was in no mood to receive additional work. Ainslee left the classroom only to return seconds later to tell me that she actually needed me to turn in the forms by Sunday evening so that she could check over them. Great. They have given me absolutely no directions and now they want an entire semester's lesson plans done in three days?

Needless to say, I have yet to start but that's what Sundays are for right? Other than this dark spot over my weekend, which will probably turn out to not be too bad after a few hours of BS-ing, my weekend has been enjoyable and relaxing. Yesterday Max and I headed in to town for a field trip with students from the old campus.

We meet Lobo, Holly, Holly's son Ludi, Fey, Ruth, Linda, Stuart, and a Korean teacher, who changes her name ever week and so won't tell Max or I what it is. Lobo is a staff member in the office at the old campus. He apparently also changes his English name on a monthly to biweekly basis. We played basketball with him last week and he is an all around good guy who speaks very good English. Holly is the head honcho on the old campus as far as Max's program is concerned. Her English is also very good, but she is much more about business than the other younger staff members. Her son....is hilarious. He acts up all the time and gets attention from everyone. He's ten and he acts like it. Fey is one of Max's teaching buddies from the old campus. I should clarify this term "teacher buddy." When we arrived here in Nanchang, we were met by a few teachers from our respective campuses. These teachers, Fey and Ainslee, have been available to help us get settled and solve any problems we might have. They have been extremely helpful, but I wouldn't say efficient. I don't know much about Ruth or Linda other than the fact that they work on the old campus. Stuart is a British teacher from Manchester who has been here for about four years. He not only teaches but has opened a bar, which is called a coffee bar for tax reasons. He chain smokes, enjoys the drink, but all in all seems to be a good guy. Finally, the last person at our table was another teacher who is from Korea. She speaks Korean, Chinese, and English all pretty fluently.

We all jumped into a few cabs and headed over across the river. My cab consisted of Lobo, Ruth, Linda, and myself. Lobo pulled out his PSP (a portable gaming device) and handed it to me with a game of NBA live playing. New Orleans Hornets vs. Miami Heat. I had told him last weekend that I went to school with Chris Paul and he had apparently remembered. I played for a while and then handed it back to Lobo so that we could maybe pull out a victory. Our taxi's crossed the Bayi bridge which spans the Gan river. We were heading to the west shore. From either shore it was virtually impossible to make out anything on the opposite shore other than the vague outline of skyscrapers. The haze was thick. The development of the west shore of Nanchang began in about 2004, so there isn't much on this side other than brand new business and government developments. It reminds me of the Pudong shore from Shanghai, but less westernized. This side of the river also offers a river walk historical exhibit, a giant fountain and light show (the tallest water jets in Asia apparently), and the worlds largest ferris wheel (until the completion of one in Singapore in 2008).

We arrived at the Qiushui square, which is the west shores response to Bayi square. However after my taxi and the taxi containing Max and a few other teachers had unloaded, we realized that we were still about a 20 minute walk from where we needed to be. The third taxi pulled up next to us and Holly told us that we had gotten out too early. Her taxi sped off. Thanks Holly.

As a group we headed over to the river walk historical exhibit. The walk is littered with statues, plaques and ponds to honor historical artists, poets and writers from Jiangxi province. This was the purpose of our field trip. Every English teacher was assigned a group of students and a list of questions about the monuments (in English). A scavenger hunt! After wondering around for about 2 hours, Max and I decided to combine groups and compare answers. We still ended up losing to group number 1, but it was a fun morning. I met a few students and teachers who were all very friendly and surprised that I could speak Chinese.

After the prizes of fruit had been handed out, all of the teachers headed out to have a group lunch. We went to a restaurant called "The Taste Factory" (literal translation). The outside of the restaurant was decorated with original statues of what seemed to be women of the African American persuasion doing street dancing. They also lacked faces (I took some pictures and posted them last night). The restaurant was very impressive inside and the bathrooms were completely covered in mirrors. We got a private room and begin what would be a very long, enjoyable lunch. About an hour in to lunch Holly recommended that we play a drinking game. Chinese love to drink.

The game consisted of way too much math for me, but thankfully we played in English which gave me a slight advantage. A number is picked (7 for example), and then someone else picks a number to start counting from. Lets say that someone picks 4 to start counting. The next person at the table says 5, then the next says 6, then the next person knocks on the table because the number is 7, the next person says 8, then the next 9. The counting continues until 14 where someone knocks again because 14 is divisible by 7. Other numbers like 21, 27, and 28 also knocked on because they are either divisible by 7 or have a 7 as the last digit. If you knock on the wrong number or say a number that should be knocked on then you have to drink. This eventually reduced down to one on one games of rock, paper, scissor where the loser had to drink. It was a very fun lunch.

Max and I wondered around the neighborhood after lunch. We found the Western bar street, which was of course abandoned at three in the afternoon, but we did find a DVD store, which had a great selection of very cheap American movies. We then headed back to Walmart to stock up for the week and then made our way back to campus. Max and I both took a nap and then had a nice leisurely dinner whilst watching "Shrek 3." That was my excitement for this weekend. Check out the pictures and the video site for updates!

An interesting dinner

2007-10-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

Max and I decided to stroll over to the small outcrop of restaurants and shops outside of our main campus gate for some dinner this evening. We found a nice restaurant down a few allies. The real reason we chose this particular restaurant was A. the restaurant actually had patrons and B. the horrible smell that had been lingering in the allies had finally dissipated. After struggling with the menu for a few minutes a swarm of waiters approached our table and began asking us questions, thankfully I was much better at oral communication than written.

I ordered us a few dishes, which turned out to be pretty interesting. About halfway through our dinner, one of the small private dinning rooms burst with giggling girls and screaming boys. Within the room we could see boys and girls running around covered in birthday cake and one boy in particular whose entire face was covered in frosting. It was refreshing to see kids having a good time and enjoying themselves. I had only seen students on campus thus far. At the end of dinner we paid the bill and Max asked if we should leave a tip. In all of my experiences in China, tipping is never done at restaurants, but the waiters had been nice. We decided to leave a 4 yuan tip, which is roughly 80 cents US.

Max and I strolled back out into the night towards our campus. About 100 yards down the road we heard a motor scooter approaching dangerously close behind us. We turned around to see one of the young waiters from the restaurant flagging us down. He told me that we had forgotten our 4 yuan. I assured him that it was a tip and that it was his. He asked me one more time. "No it's for you," I told him (or my garbled Chinese equivalent). He smiled and turned his scooter back into the darkness.

Weekend #1

2007-10-14T06:02:00.000-07:00

It's hard to really explain exactly what it is like to be living in China. It really is one of those "you had to be there" type of things. If I tried to explain to you exactly what a normal day was like here, you still really wouldn't understand. It's a completely different world here.

So far, nothing has happened as I expected it to and doing the simplest task such as shopping can become problematic for a myriad of reasons. Looking back, this is how I felt in Beijing. The feeling of dread and frustration subsided eventually there, and is beginning to do so here as well.

Max and I had an interesting day of shopping and basketball yesterday. We took the the bus into town from the new campus. The ride, as always, was long and jostling. I don't think shock technology has quite reached the shores of the middle kingdom yet. Since the bus only takes us to the gate of the old campus, Max and I hailed a cab and I asked for the driver to bring us to Bayi square. He responded by asking me if we were going to Walmart. It was a lucky guess. He let us out directly in front of the door of Walmart, but Max and I decided to navigate the indoor mall below the Walmart. It was an interesting lay out of sock, jewelery, antique and food vendors.

About half way through our subterranean tour we stumbled across a shop that made our day, if not our week. We had found an Italian ice cream shop. Even after only being in China for a week, finding something as western and decadent as this was cause for quite celebration. We were greeted by a young man who spoke to us in English. He explained the flavors to us, which were fairly varied. Max had a scoop of white chocolate and a scoop of melon and I opted for taramisu and espresso. All of the flavors, apart from melon, tasted like vanilla to me but then again I was expecting as much.

As Max and I sat at the small bar in the restaurant, which faced out of the large windows of the ice creamery, and enjoyed our treats, I noticed that we were being gawked at by everyone who passed by. This is by no means an odd happening, but at that moment, behind glass eating at a western shop we had become zoo animals. We were living in a replica "natural" habitat enjoying our snack like a pair of lazy pandas at the San Diego Zoo. Max and I both thought this was a pretty funny thought and decided to end our trip in the mall and head up to Walmart.

Walmart was packed, just as it was the previous time. This time we knew where everything was, and we made fairly short work out of our shopping experience. However we were still unable to buy fresh produce. The previous trip to Walmart had also ended unsuccessfully in regards to our ability to buy produce. We got to the register and the clerk told me something about the fruit and vegetables that we had. All that I understood was that we need to do something additionally in order to purchase such things at such a high scale establishment as Walmart. This time we tried to bag everything up, but were again denied. Perhaps the next time we will be victorious.

Content with our load of vegetables, DVDs and Eggs we headed back to the old campus to play a little basketball with one of the staff members of the old campus. His name is Lobo and he turned out to be a very nice fellow. Max and I had both apparently run into some bad dumplings earlier in the day, which led to a nice puking session on both of our parts through the course of the basketball game. Fortunately, our team managed to win (despite the incredibly horrible referring by two students...I've never seen so many penalties called in my life).

Today was a slow day, we headed over to another campus near by in order to check out a large dome like structure that glows brightly every night. We were both incredibly impressed by the other campus and a little jealous of their buildings compared to ours. I took a video of this trip and a trip that Max and I made later in the evening outside of the school gates. Both can be found on my video site.

I hope everyone is enjoying the blog, and I hope I can continue to update even more frequently than I am now. I miss everybody, talk to you all soon.

Skype, the miracle of VOIP

2007-10-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I am still getting settled here in China. This past week of classes has been intense and it's time for me to start planning next week's classes. I will let you all know how this turns out. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please email them to me (smannear@gmail.com) because I can not see the comments that are left on this blog. My blog is blocked in China, but the uploading section is not, very strange.

I just got finished setting up all of my Skype accounts. If you'd like to talk to me over skype, my screen name is scottmannear. If you'd like to call me from your cellphone to skype (I believe the cost is 2 cents a minute) you can call 225-304-0845 and it will ring right here on my computer. Also, I can now call you guys from my computer, so if you see a strange number calling, just answer it cause it's probably me.

Pictures

2007-10-10T23:54:00.000-07:00

Since, Webshots is currently being blocked in China, and I can't find a good way to block my IP through the schools VPN, I have changed my picture website to the following flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33693155@N00/

I changed the link on the right side of this page to correspond to that URL as well. I hope you enjoy!

Updates

2007-10-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to update, but getting internet set up has been a difficult, multiple step process. With that being said, I will try to let you know what has been going on lately on this side of the globe.

I started teaching on Monday. As of right now, I have at least four different classes that meet from 1-3 times a week. All of the classes that am teaching are oral English. The whole purpose of the class is to allow the students to speak as much as possible to develop their spoken English. I was not given any lesson plans or books. I don't really know what I'm doing. However, everyone here seems very eager to help and give suggestions, so I'm sure that I will have this all figured out soon.

The classes that I have taught so far have consisted of about 31 girls and 3 boys in each. After talking to several students I found out that most of these students aren't even in my class, but simply came to my class out of curiosity. There are literally four westerners on this campus of 10,000 students, so I guess I am a bit of a novelty.

So far all of my students seem to be very intelligent and very eager to succeed. I hope that I can maintain their attitudes and their interests. If anyone has any suggestions for activities or lessons, please send me an email.

Currently, I have taken only a few photos and a couple of videos. I was able to upload one of my videos last night--http://vimeo.com/33652-- and I am working on uploading at least one more today. Sadly, my picture uploading website is blocked from China, so I am in the process of finding one that will work from here.

In the good news department, Max is finally moving over to my campus later this morning, and will actually living next door to me. My washing machine still does not want to cooperate, so I sincerely hope that his does. Also, I met one of the other Western English teachers yesterday. She is an Australian woman in her 50s or 60s named Janice. It's always nice to see another Western face.

I will update again soon, but it is time for me to prepare for class and generally figure what is going on today in Nanchang. I'm missing everyone, and I hope I can talk to you all soon!

This is China

2007-10-10T04:41:00.000-07:00

“This is China” (TIC). This was a phrase that has been told to me by several people who have had to deal directly with daily life and negotiations with the Chinese. The phrase is used as a soothing mantra when one is confronted with the confound confusion that arises from the clash between culture and the bureaucracy of China. After these first three days in China, I now understand why such an idea was developed.

When I spent fourth months in Beijing, my entire program was organized and arranged by CET, who was a conglomeration of North Carolina universities working in conjunction with a few universities in Beijing. My current position and the travel arrangements surrounding it have been organized by an American Company (Journey East), a Chinese agent, and finally with the Nanchang Institute of Technology. This is a perfect example of the almost baffling bureaucratic system that is employed in every facet of Chinese life. For example, when Max and I arrived at the Shanghai Hongqiao airport (handles domestic flights) we were told that our luggage was overweight. So, we were vaguely pointed in the direction of a distant counter where we could pay our overweight fee. We would not receive our boarding passes until this task had been completed. Max and I scurried over to the counter and presented our multilayer receipt to an unenthusiastic middle-aged man. After having me sign the document, he told us the cost and then told me to go to the counter directly to my left—literally only one sidestep away. At this counter I encountered yet another unenthusiastic man who asked for my money and then gave me yet another receipt. Then he told me to go back to the counter that I had just left. It was only at this point that I was given a final receipt which I could bring back to the ticket counter in order to get my boarding pass. In China, every task which should require one person ends up requiring at least two if not three. “This is China.”

The point of this story is to illustrate how easily things can become complicated in China. These first few days have been a crash course in traveling within a foreign culture and in developing greater patience in general. When I finally arrived in Shanghai, after a 14 hour plane ride and an hour long trudge through customs, my first task was to get some Chinese money (Yuan, kuai, RMB—I will refer to Chinese money as any of these throughout the remainder of the blog). I presented my passport and an envelope of money to the bank teller and received my Yuan and receipt (this will be important later in the story). I was then able to make a few phone calls back home, which was a luxury. However, after finishing these phone calls, I noticed that Max’s flight was going to be two hours late. So, our plan to catch a taxi over to the domestic airport had been shot. At this point I went into semi panic mode. I made a reservation at the New Asia Hotel, called Keith (from Journey East), and called my contacts at the school to let them know that we would not be showing up on time. It was now time for the six hours of waiting before Max’s flight arrived. The wait was originally only four hours. After having already not slept more than a few hours in the last 30, this wait was comprised of me struggling not to pass out.

When Max finally arrived, we were both happy to see another non-Chinese face in the crowd. It turns out that Max is about 6’6”, so my blonde hair does not stand out at all compared to a six to eight inch height difference. We both carried our two enormous bags through the taxi line and managed to successfully load it all into a small taxi. When we arrived at the hotel, the real trouble began.

At check in, we were asked to present our passports. Max quickly presented his Canadian passport eager to reach the room. Unfortunately, I was still reaching into every pocket of every piece of clothing and luggage trying to find my passport. I could not find my passport. I had lost my passport within the first 6 hours of being in China. This was a great start to the trip. After about 20 minutes of panicking and almost having a nervous breakdown in the lobby of the hotel I remembered that the only place where I could have left my passport was at the money changing desk. I had given them my passport then right? Had it just fallen out of my pocket somewhere along the way? I asked the receptionist to call the airport. I thought this would be a LONG shot. Losing an American passport in a Chinese airport is like losing a $100 bill on the streets, chances are it’s long gone. After a few minutes on the phone, the receptionist told me that the indeed did have my passport and that I could pick it up in the morning. Relief, exhaustion, frustration.

After a moderately successful attempt at sleep, Max and I were awakened by a telephone call at 5 AM from Keith. Our new flight out to Nanchang had been scheduled for 11:25 AM. I still had to take a cab to the international airport and then get back to the hotel in time to get another cab over to the domestic airport for our new flight. Thankfully, when I went down to the lobby a few cab drivers were already waiting for passengers. I ended up getting a very nice cab driver who was very talkative about the special Olympics and F-1 races that were both going on in Shanghai at the time (in Chinese). I was able to communicate with him fairly well. He thought that I was going to pick up a friend, but I told him that I had forgotten my passport. When we arrived at the airport he parked the car and led me inside. We walked over to the lost and found desk (I never would have imagined that this would have existed) and after a little communication and the signature of a few documents my passport was retrieved from a back room and I was on my way. I can’t even begin to explain how relieved I was to have my passport in my hands again. This trip would have been a complete disaster if I had not found it.

I returned to the hotel with plenty of time for Max and I to wonder around in Shanghai for a while and get some breakfast (fried noodles and shrimp dumplings for me). We headed to the airport and had no problems what so ever (other than the desk shuffle story from earlier). When we arrived in Nanchang, the real problems began, for Max at least.

As Max and I walked out of the baggage claim area we were greeted by two English Teachers, Ms. Li and Ms. He. The first thing that they told us was that Max and I would be teaching on different campuses. Campuses that are 30 minutes apart. We were both fairly shocked by this statement as we had been told numerous times that we would either be living in the same building or on the same campus. After the initial shock, I figured that a 30 minute ride was not too bad and we would both survive. However, Max had specifically requested to live near to me, because of his complete inability to speak Chinese. Furthermore, when we arrived at our respective campuses, Max’s had no power and more importantly no air conditioning. It was 88 degrees the day that we arrived. It was extremely humid. Max called the teacher who had brought me over to my campus and asked if he could come to stay with me until his electrical problem had been solved. I was more than happy to allow Max to stay with me for a while. I have a huge place with multiple rooms (as you can see from my pictures). Over the last couple of days Max has been communicating with both Keith and the school in order to be moved over to my campus (which is a lot nicer I must say, though 40 minutes away from the city). This morning he talked to Keith and is supposed to be moving over to my campus today, but with the way that negotiations have been going over the last few days, I would be surprised if this actually happens.

Max caught the 7:10 AM bus this morning over to his campus where he will be teaching class from 8:00-12:00, and here I sit in my apartment, waiting for my 10:00 AM class. I will be teaching two levels of general English which are comprised of sophomores and juniors who are either in three-year or four-year programs at the university. In addition I will also be teaching a Tourism English class. The general English classes come with no materials. I can do whatever I want. The classes that I teach are purely oral English. My whole job is to get the students to speak English as much as possible. That’s it. Thankfully the Tourism English class has a textbook, which I will receive later today.

A lot has happened in the last few days, but I am finally feeling a little settled. I really miss everyone, but I am glad that I have at least one Western friend here with me. Also, I often have to act as his translator, which is great for my Chinese skills. Generally I can’t complain right now. I’m just happy to be settled.

I will post pictures and videos as soon as I can get them uploaded. Links for my pictures and videos can both be found on the right side of this website. Enjoy!

Tomorrow I'll be in China

2007-10-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

Within 12 hours I will be beginning my long journey to Nanchang. I mentioned my international flight information in the previous post, and I received information for my domestic travels earlier today. Once I arrive in Shanghai (after a 14 hour flight) I will be waiting in the airport for my fellow English teacher, Max, to arrive from Canada. I should have about a 2.5 hour wait, which probably won't be too exciting after sitting on a plane all day. However, it should also give me some time to get a new SIM card for my cellphone or international calling card. Then I can make some phone calls to let people know that I have arrived safely in China.
Following my wait in the airport, Max and I will have to catch a taxi to Shanghai's other airport. Within the last few years Shanghai split up their domestic and international flights between two separate airports. Because of this fact, Max and I will be taking an hour cab ride to the Hongqiao airport from the Pudong airport. If everything is on time Max should have his bags and be ready to head to Hongqiao by 6:00-6:30. Our flight leaves from Hongqiao at 8:00pm. I am not very confident that we will be able to catch this flight, but it is possible. If Max and I don't make it across town in time, we have been instructed to stay at the New Asia Hote l (3 stars apparently). We have been provided with several contact phone numbers, so I'm not all that worried. It would just be nice to have everything go smoothly and actually arrive in Nanchang on the first day.

I received some of this information via an email from Journey East, and I also had a conference call with Max and Keith (Journey East Rep.). Max seems like a nice guy and has no experience with China or Chinese, but I am sure that he will do fine. Hopefully we will get along well, because it seems like we may be the only English teachers at our school.

That is my update for this evening. If I think of anything else, I will certainly add it before I sleep. If not, I will post again as soon as I have a chance. Time to finish packing. Talk to you all again soon!

Buyer's Remorse

2007-09-29T12:43:00.001-07:00

FINALLY! I finally have a plane ticket, my passport, and a brand new Z-visa. For those of you who don't know: NO, I am not in China right now. The Nanchang Institute of Technology has been slow to send my letter of invitation, which was apparently necessary for the completion of my Z-visa (a renewable work visa). Journey East received my letter of invitation earlier this week, finished my visa, and mailed everything over to the BR.

Obviously, I am about a month behind schedule in getting over to China, but I am kind of glad that it happened. This week I had a chance to get back to Wake Forest and visit Sarah and all of my other friends. It was a really fun and relaxing week, but it was also strange to be back on campus with out having class to attend. I felt like a complete slacker. Just being back at Wake gave me that sinking feeling that I have a bottomless pile of work to be done. As my friends raced off to classes, studied for tests, and worked on their assignments I had a nice chance to relax. Finally, Thursday night rolled around (my last night in Winston-Salem). Sarah and I talked about going to dinner and eventually decided to go to Elizabeth's (a little reluctantly on my part). When we walked into the door, there was a long table of my friends sitting, chatting. The first thing that went through my mind (because I'm an idiot and Sarah had done such a good job of surprising me) was, "I can't believe that all of my friends went out to dinner without me!" I soon realized that it was a very nice surprise dinner for me. Thanks everybody for showing up and organizing! Dinner was great and even one of my friends who went to China with me, Dan, made the trip over from Greensboro.

Afterwards, some of us decided to head over to Foothills to participate in their weekly trivia night. After aptly naming our team "Chairman Meow" we proceeded to completely dominate the competition. At the end of the night we walked away with a $50 gift certificate to Foothills and the pride in knowing that we were number one. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Considering my experience at Wake, my cousin Elizabeth's engagement party the week before, and the previous weeks I spent with my friends from BR, I am starting to feel pretty bummed out about heading to China. Don't get me wrong, I am still incredibly excited and I know that I will learn more than I can imagine. However, after seeing my entire family and all of my friends both in Baton Rouge and in Winston-Salem, I realize that I am leaving behind some really incredible people who have been supportive and amazing for a really long time. I guess what they say is true. You don't really realize what you have until it's gone (not that its gone, but will be missed for about a year).

Enough with the sappiness. Since I finally do have some concrete information, I will post it here so anyone who so desires can take a gander at anytime. I will be beginning my journey to China on October 4th (this Thursday) out of New Orleans:

6:47 AM Depart New Orleans for Chicago
9:10 AM Arrive Chicago
10:36 AM Depart for Shanghai, China
1:55 PM Arrive Shanghai, China

The above times are all in the central time zone, except for the arrival time in Shanghai, which will be 12:55 AM central time and 1:55 AM eastern time (on the 5th). Following this incredibly long day of flying, I will still have to get over to Nanchang. I assume that I will be taking a train, but this leg of the journey has not been discussed thus far. I will update as soon as I know anything else. Enjoy!

Finally, I know my place

2007-08-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

I finally received my contract today from Journey East, who is organizing my teaching experience in China. I will be in Nanchang, which is the capital city of the Jiangxi province. This province is in southeastern China, to the southwest of Shanghai. I have been placed at the NanChang Institute of Technology, which looks to be a very nice university. I am currently looking over the contract for my year abroad. Everything looks nice, except for a few details relating to the dates of my departure and vacations. Hopefully this will all be worked out shortly though.

Regardless, the beginning date of my contract is September 7th, so I assume that I will be in China sometime before then. Everything relating to this trip has been up in the air for the last month or so, but it seems that Journey East finally got everything finalized and organized. I will update again soon to finalize all of the details....

Final Week at WFU

2007-05-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

I have come to my final few days at Wake Forest. On Saturday my parents, girlfriend and a couple of my friends are arriving in Winston-Salem for my graduation. I am really excited about this weekend, but at the same time, something feels completely wrong about graduation. Not a wrong like, "I have a feeling a plane is going to crash in to the stage," but I just feel like I'm not ready to graduate yet. I'm sure most people have this sensation, but regardless, it's bringing down the excitement of this weekend just a bit.
This is an exciting time though, so I am going to have as much fun as possible and I'm sure I won't have a problem doing it. After graduation, it's off to California for a couple of months to learn some more Chinese.
Following my stay in Cali, I'll be heading off to China to teach English for a year. Once again, I find myself incredibly excited, but also kind of bummed at the same time. It should be the experience of a lifetime, but it will be my first time completely alone. I won't know anyone where I am going and I will be across the ocean from all of my family and friends. I'm just hoping that everything works out and I enjoy teaching like I believe that I will. Anywho, this is just the intro for my year to teaching in China. Thought I would introduce everyone to the situation surrounding my graduation and eventual arrival in China. Enjoy.