Educational Monsoons

Man, a lot's happened since the last post, but such is the way of moving into a new city/apartment/job/hemisphere all at once.

We had an insanely hectic two days of training, where we were "fully prepared" to teach. Man, I wish I was telling you this story in person. I feel like I need to be there to fully exaggerate the quotation marks there.

Not that the training was bad at all. It was just a lot to absorb all at once. Suddenly, the next thing we know, we're all planning lesson plans for a full day of classes on Saturday.

Winging it would be an understatement.

But somehow, it wasn't disastrous. And I have to say, I'm really enjoying this whole teaching thing. There's just a feeling of doing something worthwhile that has been missing for... well... a long time.

That, and the kids are really fucking cute. And when they're not, and they insist on being pains in the ass instead, well... you can have a lot of fun with them anyways.

Like pushup time.



But really, these kids are damn smart. Ignoring the English levels (which are obviously very varied), one 11 year old blew me away today when we got into a discussion at break about the city population of New York. He asked me how many, and I hazarded a guess figuring it didn't really matter what I said. Boy was I wrong. I had thought he was curious, but it was more him testing my knowledge. Suffice to say he knew a lot more of the population break down of New York than I ever did. Or ever will.





My guess

His correction.

His break down of New York City proper.

And America as a whole



But what the hell, he still had to do pushups.

Anyhoo, it's raining now, and while DaLian rarely gets rain (or so I'm told), the entire city is flooded due to a non existant drainage system. Getting to school this morning was more of a platform jumping video game type experience than a commute.

I didn't really feel like taking the time out of my puddle/river dodging to take pictures, but here is a quick shot of a staricase that was more like waterfall.



Meh... doesn't really do it justice. Well just imagine waking up to view of a sea of garbage outside your bedroom window.

And on the topic of apartment views, I bid you adieu. More on Corey and my living arangements next time (when there are some good pictures).

Stay dry,
- Shawn

Dazed and Confused

So right off the bat let me just say that having the entire blogger page pop up in Chinese was an unexpected twist that caused me to lose the nice long post that I wrote. Well, you're all lucky that I'm not tired at all, because I'm gonna try to recreate it all. Just for you.

There wasn't much to report yesterday. We arrived in Dalian after a nice and long travel day. I have to admit that somehow, the twenty plus hours of traveling went by very quickly and easily. Doubtless this is in no small part thanks to two laptops, an assortment of random DVDs, and in flight pizza. We arrived in Dalian and were met by some of the staff from our school, Future 2. Corey and I also met two other foreign teachers while we were waiting for our luggage. Somehow, we were able to tell who they were. Somehow.

Our apartment is still occupied, so for the next day or so Corey and I are being put up in a hotel. Laura and Vickie (the two other foreign teachers) say that their apartments are "quite nice", and a few of the staff members at our school told us that our apartment is very big. Should be interesting once we move in. Interesting in a good way.

This morning, the four of us were all rounded up by Louis, one of the Chinese teachers, who took us to the police station to get registered with the (duh) police. Afterwards we went to our school where we met a bunch of the teaching staff. Most of whose names escape me. Give me time.

After a quick look at and around the school, Louis took us out to a traditional lunch at a restaurant across the street from the school. When you walk in on the first floor, there are an assortment of fish tanks. The four of us stood bewildered as Louis asked us to pick our lunch. Indecisive westerners that we are, Louis pointed at two, and we watched as some dude netted the fish, pulled them out of the tank, and bashed them against a bucket a few times before taking them off to be prepared to our liking.

Since we were a large party (six of us now including Louis' girlfriend), we were taken up to a private room on the fourth floor where there was a large table, a couch, and a television. On the table was a big wheel where all the dishes were put.

Now, people that know me have often accused me of being a picky eater. All I can say is: screw you guys. I ate it all. From the egg batter fried pumpkin sticks, to the standard steamed broccoli with garlic, and of course, our friend the fish from before.

Yeah. This guy:

After lunch, we went downtown to what seemed like an endless string of malls. They were... overwhelming... to say the least. I promise there'll be more on the scintillating subject of malls as soon as I have something more to say than "wow, I have no idea what's going on."

Well, it'll probably be sooner to be honest. I have a feeling "wow, I have no idea what's going on" is going to be a prevalent theme for the next few weeks.

- Shawn

Before the Beginning

It's been a long and slow build to this point, but here I am. My bags are (sort of) packed, my closet is (sort of) empty, and I'm (sort of) ready to go.

A lot of adjectives were tossed around in describing the "career move" Corey and I are making. Perhaps the most prevalent of all descriptive words was Crazy. How could we just pick up and haul ass all the way to the other side of the world and immerse ourselves in a culture we know little about? Now, I can't speak for Corey, but for me it was the answer was always sort of "Meh. I'll let ya know when I get there." Basically just jump out of the plane now, and hope the parachute opens later. And after that, hope you land right.

I really hope that metaphor made at least some sense. If not, I'll just have to come back and edit the hell out of this thing.

But despite trying to flippantly dismiss this with a skydiving metaphor, it's become a lot harder to qualify the trip like that. Because this isn't just a close your eyes and jump type thing. It's been planned for a long time. A long, long time. And now, I'm wondering if it was long enough. I mean, I still have so much to do. I need to buzz my head for christ's sake. And umm... get my glasses fixed.

I promise there won't be many posts like this once I get to China, this is just me taking a break from packing before I realize I'm actually done and ready.

I didn't write "and ready to jump" there. I'm proud of myself. Look, I'm already growing as a person.

Although, "and ready to jump" does have a cool ring to it. Very epic. But since that ending is already squandered, I guess all I can say is that it's time to finish packing, and I'll catch you all on the flip side.

- Shawn

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Yees... its tru....tenemos nuestros billetes por la avion


We're headin' out February 25th.... and roughly 24 hours later, we'll be in Dalian

Itz a niiiice one

Besos, Corey

Contracts

Quick question. When was the last time you signed a contract with the Chinese Government?

That's what I thought.


So a bit of an update I guess. These aren't the contracts mentioned in the post from the beginning of last month. Those contracts were with the Aston/Future School in Dalian. These on the other hand, are with the Chinese Government as part of the Visa process. Seeing these contracts in Chinese just struck me as incredibly cool, so I figured I'd share.

That's reall all for now, but expect word on a confirmed departure date soon. I mean... real soon.

- S