World Map Staring Back

It's weird the way that I've hung my world map on my wall. China, India and Nepal are all staring back at me and I don't know what to do. Maybe go to bed and sleep on it. I wish I had more time and more money.

Teaching and Stuff

Writer's Note: This is old, but I am a little lazy. Posting is strange.

The last week and a half has been pretty good. A few of us went to another hot pot last Friday which was pretty fun. We’re all starting to loosen up around each other. The biggest thing that has happened to me lately is that I’ve found a pretty good groove for teaching. The second week was a lot better than the first and now I just have one more class left this week. My students are getting a lot more used to my teaching style. It’s still pulling teeth to try to get them to raise their hand, but they don’t mind if I call on them at all. I think by the end of the semester things are going to be pretty good. I also may be taking this teaching thing more seriously than some of the others around, but I think that’s okay. I’m pretty sure that it’s because of my parents. The best part of this week’s lesson plan is when I read them a statement and I have them either agree or disagree with it. Once they understand what the statement is and what it means, then they do a great job. I’m pretty sure that none of them have been out of their desks in a classroom setting. A lot of them are doing a good job, but some are pretty nervous at the idea of speaking in front of class about their opinions in English. They’re doing a great job expressing themselves in English. There even was close to an argument about something, but then the two girls figured out that they really agreed on the subject and that it was just semantics. I was going to tell them that, but it was going to be too complicated. Funny though.

We’re still getting settled in Beibei, and things have been a little boring at times. It’s a little tough to figure out what to do with yourself all the time. I feel like I’m still on a college schedule, but the problem is that the classes are way more draining. Teaching a foreign language is tough when I don’t know their first language and I’m not used to their learning style, or better stated, the learning style that has been forced upon them. My students do a really good job of roll playing. They ham it up and make up all kinds of great stories. The problem is that they do not express themselves nearly as much as they do when they pretend to be someone else. It’s strange. Back in the states I think that a lot of students their age or even younger would think that my lessons would be stupid, but I’m constantly amazed at the amount of English these students really know. They could write for days and really depend on their reading, but struggle with their listening and speaking. I guess that’s why I’m here. I’m pretty cheap and easily replaceable.

(sidenote: An old Chinese guy just walked in and offered me a cigarette. They’re pretty big on that here. He just told me to leave, and so I’m on my way.)

Chengdu du du du, da da da da

Alright, So I know I haven't been doing a good job in telling you what I've done for the first month, but that's okay. I'll tell you a little about my first vacation. Right now I'm in Chengdu with a few other teachers. Just hanging out in our hippie hostel listening to Bob Marley. We got here yesterday and went straight to Pizza Hut. Our vacations will be vacations from Chinese food. Then today we went to see a huge Panda reserve. Pandas only live in the wild right near Chengdu and so there's a big research and development center open to tourists. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure it's the biggest gathering of Pandas in captivity in the world. Then we went and did a little shopping. Chengdu is a really nice city. Quieter than Beibei and easy to get around. The bus system is great. Then for dinner we went and had Tex-Mex food. Amazing. Tomorrow we're going to see the world's largest buddha which is carved out of rock. then hanging out and seeing more of the city. We'll be heading back on Tuesday, cutting our vacation a day short because we couldn't catch a train on Wednesday. It's been good here. I think that I would definately come back. There's so much to see here, it's great.

Leaving is the Hardest Part

I got way behind on posting my blog, therefore I'll be updating you slowly over the next week. This is the story about getting to China. It was intense. We were leaving early Friday morning.

On Thursday night at 10 we realized that our flights to Chicago were both canceled. Therefore we had to find an alternate route. We decided on a flight out of San Francisco. Anna took a direct flight from Dallas, which was on time. I on the other hand had to take an early flight from Lincoln to Denver and then Denver to San Francisco. When we booked the flight I was going to have an hour in San Fran, which was going to be tight to begin with, because in SF you have to go back through security to take an international flight. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

My flight from Lincoln to Denver was on time. Then when I got to Denver I checked my SF flight and it said that it was delayed. It was going to be too late for me to make my connection. So I went to the United customer service counter (humorously in line I met a dread-locked woman who was from St. Paul and taught in China 20 years earlier). United then booked me for the next flight out which was on Frontier. So I quickly found my way to the frontier flight only to find out that it was going to be delayed. The Frontier people said that the delayed flight that I was scheduled to be on was still the earliest out of Denver to SF. So at this point I just got on the plane. I was talking to the flight attendants and they talked to the captain. The got a message to United and told them that they had a runner. I knew that Anna was waiting at the gate for me and she was going to be worried. We landed in SF and the next twenty minutes were most intense twenty minutes I had in the US during the month of August.

The flight attendants made a couple of announcements about a young man who was sitting in the very last who had twenty minutes to catch a flight to Beijing. Everyone stayed seated so I could be the first one off the plane. I got to the front with my bags and everyone started clapping. In the front of the plane before the door opened, there was a woman who looked at my SJU sweatshirt and said “Collegeville?” I said yea. She said she was a Bennie and I said that I was going to meet a Bennie. Everyone was telling me good luck. I got off the plane and started running and asking people where the international gate was. I got there and they had to check my passport and then I had to go through security. The run was long and pretty miserable because I had two heavy bags. When I got to security, I saw that the line was long and I asked a girl in the front if I could go ahead of her because I had a flight to catch in ten minutes. She said yes and the guy in front of her let me go too. I was frantic and set off the metal detector the first time through because I was in such a hurry. I finally go through and picked everything out of the bin without even putting it in a bag. I found the notorious gate 96 and went down the stairs yelling “I’m here, I’m here.” Down by the gate I saw three United women behind the desk and a beautiful girl in a pink Bennies sweatshirt. Anna yelled “HE’S HERE!” We were the last ones to get on the plane. I had made it in twenty minutes to my international gate through security in an airport I had never been it. I was on my way to China.

I'm Here in China

Hey Everybody,

I’m now in China and it’s a little nuts. This year life is going to be different, interesting, fun and a little scary. I’ll keep everyone posted through a number of different ways, but this will be one of them. Keep checking back periodically and I’ll let you in on the secret life in China. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and best of all you’ll be updated with my life. There’s more to come.

Tyler