Sometimes I don't!
Not much to say tonight - Place is closing up... Just wanted to let everyone know that it seems that anytime I buy a drink here, it's expired and I don't notice until after I'm half-way done with it... I guess just something to get used too... They don't taste bad though...
Anyways, lights are shutting down - have to go... See you tomorrow!
Well, the busiest days of the week came and went... Classes went as expected, starting off decent and progressively got worse. Days off also came and went. We got paid, but the amount wasn't as much as I was hoping for due to it being pro-rated (didn't work the full month), and they withdrew some of the airplane ticket that they provided for up front (which I knew about). The plan was to be able to get a computer for our home, but I think that has been post-poned probably to next month, or even the following month.
Ate at a place called Good Wood Coffee last night, I think Dad would really dig this place. Wood floors, dim lights, couches and comfortable chairs at the tables. Somewhat western food (I'd say avoid the pizza though), Jazzy music playing, and lights on the ceiling. I had some Vietnamese pork chops which came with mashed potatoes that were made from sweet potatoes with little bacon bits in them, the whole plate was delicious, but kind of pricey for China standards. I also had a strawberry smoothie to go along with it. I also snuck some of Doug's Rose smoothie, which was actually pretty good. I enjoyed it in there, it's on the 2nd floor facing a very busy street, and the sun was setting as we were sitting there, so the atmosphere was very interesting. It was also very foggy and/or smoggy last night, so the lights from the buildings bouncing off the fog made it feel very ambient. As we were leaving we saw one of our co-workers (the Irish one), sitting at a table. We joined her for a bit and chatted while she finished eating. She is planning on going to Texas for 3 weeks very soon, Houston to be more specific. We were talking her into at least visiting Austin, as Doug and I both find that to be a more interesting city. I especially like how Austin has managed to remain pretty green even though it has modernized itself. I hope she gets a chance to see it. She said we should go to Ireland if we like the green (*wink wink Dad*), and gave us some information about it, not much but a little. Turns out there are a lot of rich people living in Ireland now, so much so that a lot of Irish people will leave Ireland to come to the States to earn their money, and once they have enough will go back home because it's hard to make money there I guess... I found it all very interesting, and Ireland has always been of interest to me. Anyways, we left with her and walked across the street where she showed us a place to buy those famous DVD's you always hear about. I enjoyed that a lot, it was like being a kid in a candy store. I could have kept going on all the ones I wanted, but I only got 4: Edward Scissorhands, The Matrix, Millennium Actress (An anime), and Grave of the Firefly's (Another Anime). I made mental notes of the ones I wanted to get for next time, and hope they are still there the next time I go back. We wanted to get Blade Runner, but no such luck :(.
After this we parted ways; Doug and I headed over to the nearest grocery store which is called Carrefour, which happens to be a French owned chain of stores. There is a Walmart here, but it's farther away, and I don't even know where it's at. We bought some items and returned home. We watched the old Disney Robin Hood cartoon that Doug picked up at the DVD shop, and boy did that bring back memories. I love that show! We also watched some of Edward Scissorhands.
I attempted to go to sleep around midnight, but couldn't sleep... I tossed and turned all night, got up and Doug had made some breakfast. Some Jiao'zi which are some dumpling things (you have to try if you come here) and some bacon. I also had a little drink box of chocolate soy milk, which is actually really good. I'm looking forward to my Strawberry Soy Milk box tomorrow morning :). I ended up going to the teacher meeting or as the DOS likes to call it, workshop, that was held this morning - Doug on the other hand skipped out, he was feeling ill. Luckily when we got here, one of our co-workers gave us some Dayquil that he has his family members bring from the states when they visit... There is only like one dose left though, so I'm not sure what we'll be doing next. I spoke w/ Stoerm and Baaska for a bit on messenger (MSN) then returned home to give Doug his schedule for the day. I ended up falling asleep and got some much needed sleep. I only had to observe a class today, so it's a fairly light day for me today. We only work the next two days (Thursday and Friday), then we're off the next 5 days. Can't wait for that...
Just to let everyone know, I've given the address for this blog to not just family members, but also friends from various places (like work), so they probably will read this as well. Dad, if you could give the address to Pat, the email I had for him didn't go through - so I have no communication with him. I don't have emails for Holy/Cliff, Jason/Olivia or Becky either. I'm sure Grandma will provide those to them though - right Grandma? In case you didn't see if you look on the right side of this page under links there is a link to Doug's Blog as well, which you can simply click on to go there.
To answer a few questions that I remember from the comments... The food is pretty hit or miss, and varies from place to place. A lot of the food is very spicy, which I do not like, but also very good. I haven't had a lot of food though. There are also a lot of street vendors, similar to Mexico. Some sell noodles/rice, others sell these deep friend biscuit/doughnut things (which are really good), and others have these deep friend bread looking things that I haven't had yet. There are also people selling different types of fruit on the side, like lotus, grapes, tomatoes, onions, and things like that. They also have these very narrow but long bbq type places that bbq some sort of meat on a stick... I haven't had any of these either. There is a lot of food to choose from, and it can also be very cheap. You do need to be careful of what you eat though, as it can throw your stomach in a swirl...
Kevin, I know you sent Doug and I an email - I don't really have time to respond to it personally right now, but I *think* the "Great Firewall of China" has banned anything geocities related... You can't even access wikipedia here. Of course you know me, and I'm not going to say anything else about that in a public place :P. So I'm not sure if it's going to work out or not. Maybe if you found a different host.
Linda, I'm not sure about the shades... It would be a good idea though - thank you for that.
Grandma, I didn't go out with Doug because they all seem to just want to go to a bar and drink. It's very western of them, and it's not something I really enjoy. I also feel bad when I do go, because all these Chinese people are always wanting to drink with you, and since I don't drink I have to refuse, and then they're perturbed about it because I didn't accept their generosity. However, there are usually a lot of girls at the bars :). So I elected to stay home, especially since we had work the next day. Happy Birthday! Sorry I couldn't be there in person for it, but I hope you had a great time. I'm glad they showed up - some of the cake sounds wonderful... Do you remember that cake I had one year in the shape of a dog? Wasn't that fun! You'll need to fill me/us in on how your vacation went... I always like to hear about things like that. Tell Grandpa I said Hello, and that I hope things are going well for him too.
So all in all, things are well. Today was a pretty nice day weather wise. There was even a nice breeze... The winds here are also Eastern, which is different from the Northern/Southern winds back home...
Dad/Kevin/Linda - I'm so jealous you're going to go see Blue Man Group!!! We watched the DVD again the other day, and they're just phenomenal... Enjoy the show, I would be there if I could.
Well, I'm going to go home for the night and get some grub... Tell Mom that she's in my thoughts, and that we enjoyed the email she sent us (it only got sent to Doug, not me *sniff*) - I hope she will continue to do that from time to time, it really meant a lot, especially knowing she doesn't use a computer much... I was proud! :)
Take care all, and I'll update again tomorrow!
~Thomas Lane
Saturday's are the busiest days for me, so don't be surprised if you don't see a post on Saturday's on a weekly basis. 6 Hours worth of teaching, plus 3+ hours of preparing for the classes, and they're all little kids that get younger as the day goes on... It drives me nutso and I go home with a sore throat.
Didn't do anything last night, went home and went straight to bed. Couldn't sleep very well again, but that's to be expected I think.
To answer some comments, I know there are some theaters in town, but I don't know where, what they show, or if they're in English w/ Chinese subs or Chinese dubbed... I haven't had the money to go scouting. We live near what the locals call a park, but it's not like a park at home. There is barely any green there... Lots of pigeons though, and they're really friendly. I just found out from my class that there are some Museums and art galleries in town, but again I'm not quite sure... Will try to find more information out. There is also a big lake, with a mountain called East Lake that looks like it could be interesting. I've only driven by it in the shadow of the darkness, so couldn't see much and it was in a taxi (scary!)
Well break is about to be over, need to get back to class now.
So walking around the city you will notice a few things... First thing being that mother's will carry their babies/toddlers around without any pampers... They must not be very popular or too exspensive, or maybe non-existance. So you'll see a lot of baby bottoms every where... Sometimes you'll even catch them taking a poo or pee in the street. Just something to get used too.
Also if you plan on coming here, you must perfect eating with chopsticks... I haven't seen any sort of western utensials anywhere. Chopsticks are used for everything.
Today is a hot day. Slightly windy, kind of a typical day.
Don't have much to do... Slept a lot, or atleast tried, watched some Chinese TV - which I couldn't understand, and came to the school to use the internet.
Spent some time at home alone last night, Doug went out with everyone. Watched a dvd, ate some sweet and sour pork, and was really depressed for some reason... Don't know why, but I was. I ended up going to sleep early after the movie was over (Duplex).
Well Going to go for now - take care everyone.
Here is a list of things I miss and don't miss about being home:
Things I Miss About Being Home:
Things That I Don't Miss About Being Home:
Finally, a picture from our Vegas trip:
on a side note: That is the shirt that I'm wearing today :)
So yea, I almost passed out after they took the blood out... Don't know why, but that's what happened. So we've had to go to two different Police Stations, we got asked "personal" information for a residential permit, which mainly consisted of facial features and religious beliefs. Lots of going places to get different permits and things but I think we've done everything now. The people at the school have been very helpful in getting all that done.
On average I have about 1 or 2 classes per day on the weekdays (Mon/Tue off), and on the weekends I have 2 or 3 classes. Most of the classes I'm going on their 3rd class this week. One of my classes was taken away from me, because I accidentally got my times mixed up and let them go 15 mins early. The parents complained, and the DoS decided to sit in on my 2nd class with them. He gave me positive feedback, but in the end decided to hand the class over to a more experienced teacher, which I was fine with. Chinese parents can be very demanding sometimes. I've been observing other teachers, but for some reason I'm told that I've only send "bad" classes. Which can be a downer sometimes.
In my last post I made it sound negative about the job... And to be honest, I don't really like it yet. The reason is that it's not really a school, but more like a company. The school doesn't get any government funding, so for income they solely rely on the "tuition" of the parents paying for their kids and/or themselves. Because of this, we become more like entertainers first, rather than teachers. Students don't really want to be here, and are being forced to come in addition to their regular school, which I'm told is not that pleasant. So the kids are looking forward to playing games or something of that nature. I don't agree with this at all, and it upset me quite a bit. I'd rather teach, then play games... Sure you can teach THROUGH games, but that doesn't appear to be working very well, or I simply haven't gotten the skill down yet. Another thing, Chinese people cheat. Not like other nationalities don't, but the Chinese will tell you they cheat and give you the attitude like what are you going to do about it. They won't even hide it, they'll do it with you standing right there.
There are simply a lot of frustrating things that were mis-interpreted when reading the job-description. I was looking forward to a teaching environment, but instead I'm in more of a circus environment. I'm looking forward to the year being over it...
There is a Chinese national holiday the first week of October, so we (all the teachers) will be getting some time off... It's like 5 or 7 days, not sure which.
Life is pretty routine here: Wake up, maybe shower, go to work, pre-pare for classes, get on internet, teach classes, maybe go out with some of the teachers after class, go home, eat, watch a movie, go to sleep, wash, rinse, repeat...
I really hate my pillow - I only have one, I'm used to sleeping with 4... It's tiny too... I used one of those sleeping blindfolds tonight, and it worked out quite well. One thing about being here is that it's always pretty bright outside, either w/ sunlight, or the lights of the city... There are quite a few windows in the apartment too, so sometimes it can be difficult to sleep... There also appears to be fireworks on almost a nightly basis. I'll be sitting there and then I'll hear some boom sounds, I'll get up and look out the window to see fire works going off in the distance. That's pretty nice, but they aren't very special ones either. Maybe it's testing of the day's products produced? Hard to say...
More to come later
I've finally decided to start the blog that I had planned to start prior to even coming here... Things simply got in the way which stopped me from starting this. Once I got here, I decided that I wanted to wait a couple weeks before starting it, because sometimes first impressions are... Skewed, and I wanted this to be an accurate representation of what's going on in my life abroad.
So this is where the adventure begins:
I arrived in China on September 3rd after a long, argues, and very stressful time dealing with airports, and uncomfortable chairs. The first thing that entered my mind upon arriving was, "I can't believe I'm here." I spent the rest of that night in pretty much a blur, thinking it was all some sort of dream, and that it really wasn't happening. While sitting on the couch, I remember having the feeling of landing in the airplane. My vision would jerk downwards and back up, like when you first hit the run-way after a flight. This feeling was very annoying, and I wanted it to stop. The first night I didn't even wait to see the night life. I simply ate some food that was left for us, observed the place that I'd call home for the next year, and attempted to watch some television, but failed miserably due to it not being in English. I then fought with the air conditioner (the remote is in Chinese too!) but was finally able to get it turned on, and simply called it a night.
I awoke the next day, and slowly pulled the curtains back, still thinking this was all a dream, I found myself looking out upon the Wuhan skyline, of which there wasn't much of due to all the pollution, and skyscrapers in my view. The sun was bright, the air didn't smell very good, but I was really there... Venturing out of my room, Doug was just getting up as well, and we made small talk about what we had done, and how we were glad the traveling was over.
The rest of the week went by. We walked some places, found out where the nearest grocery store was, met our co-workers at the school, and more importantly found out where the school was. We attempted to go out random places, but didn't venture far away. Some co-workers took us some places and sadly we began working... I say sadly, because well it's just work to me...
There was one thing that sticks in my memory though. That is when we had to get the health inspection. Keep in mind that to my knowledge, I've never really had a physical, so all this was new to me. We met some people at the school and they took us to the hospital. We were told to sit while they went to the front counter to discuss everything. After a short bit of time passed we were told to follow to the first room. The door to the room looked menacing to say the least... It was big, and appeared to be metal, kind of like a vault door to a bank - just not circular, or as thick. We were told to take our shoes off (boots) and go in one at a time. I had no idea what this was, but when entering there was a lady sitting in a different section of the room and was telling me to stand somewhere, but since she wasn't speaking English, it was all being done in hand signals. I was confused but managed to figure out what it was she was saying, and finally I was stood between the machine while it made an awful noise and moved around my chest. This appeared to be an x-ray. I ended up going 2nd, so by the time I got out, Doug was already ready to go to the next location. We started to put our shoes back on, but was told we would have to take them off again, so we didn't even bother lacing them up. We went up some tiny stairs, with a low ceiling (lol), and went into another room... This appeared to be a sonogram where they rubbed the jelly on us and looked at our innards. We went to various rooms to check different things, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Both our blood pressures were high, mine was extremely high, probably due to not doing anything like this before. Doug had problems with the vision tests, I went through it like a breeze of fresh air. Then... The blood drawing came... This is where it got scary for me... First off the lady couldn't find my vein, so she had me switch arms. She still couldn't find it on this arm, but attempted to try anyways - the pain didn't hurt, but she couldn't get enough blood. Next she tried on the hand and at this point, I was getting really hot (sweating), and peoples voices started to get more and more distant. I began to feel light headed... Doug came over and started rubbing my shoulders, not because he saw I was looking bad, but just as a friendly gesture, and things started to come back to reality. I asked him not to stop, and the lady was still unable to get enough blood. She told me to sit down and she'd try again later. Doug went up and was able to get it done on the first try, a Japanese guy went also on the first try and then I went up again... She used the first arm again, and this time was able to get it - she told me "Success!" through the window as the blood flew into the tube like a free flowing river. I didn't enjoy this, and hope that I don't have to go through this anytime again. As a matter of fact, the bruises just NOW cleared up, 2 weeks later...
Well, I think this post is long enough for a first one, so I'll post more at a later time... Anyone can post comments (or they sould be able too) so feel free to ask whatever it is you want.
~Thomas
Name: Thomas Lane(vpr)
Age: 26 years old
Date of Birth: November 24, 1981
Horoscope Sign: Sagittarius
From: WuHan,China
Information: My Profile
Email: 
