laughing traveler

I was at Burger King yesterday with 2 of my American friends and in an almost empty restaurant this young Chinese guy comes and sits right behind us. I assumed he was hoping to practice his English by listening in on the foreigners’ conversation. Well I hope he learned his lesson. The conversation quickly turned to our shared battle with cock roaches. The king of all roaches has held my bathroom hostage for the last 3 days. I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom the other day and thought I saw something but ignored it in my half-asleep daze. The next morning this monster roach was fearless and didn’t even try to hide when I flicked the lights off and on. I slammed the door and tried to pretend it wasn’t real. I literally opened a new toothbrush and brushed my teeth in the kitchen. It wasn’t until that night that I got the courage to face him again. Armed with a tennis shoe in both hands, I took a deep breath and went in swinging. The first throw was a miss but ...

After my first week of classes I had been observed 3 times by the head teachers and the feedback was, “I like the way you yell at them.” I teach one class of senior 1 (10th graders) with 30 students, two of which are foreign exchange students from Europe(very intimidating to me). Then another class of senior 2 (11th grade) which has 11 students, 10 of which are boys! My students are geniuses, no joke. The first day I walked in and started talking in my simplified, slower English I used in my middle school last year. They pretty much laughed in my face and responded in full paragraphs to my “How – are - YOU - today?” Lesson learned. Whenever I teach I do 2 classes in a row, so I basically have the students for an hour and a half with a 10 minute break in between. That’s just too long for them to listen to English and the last 20 minutes are always a struggle. The first week I individually got in each of their faces and gave my “I’m a good teacher, you need to be good students”...

It was a crazy trip to Shenzhen, I think a total of 30hours travel time. The journey didn’t start out too well when Roz called me after we had been on the road to Dulles for about 30mins and said, “Is Regan another name for Dulles?” That’s right we had all read the itinerary wrong and where headed to the airport. So we pull over and set the GPS on my dad’s truck which takes us through all these winding roads. I was completely silent in the car as my dad’s frustration began to rise and me and Amy both closed our eyes trying not to get car sick. We somehow got there in ok time and Roz and her family were sitting at TGIFridays laughing. I straggle in looking half dead and plop down in the seat beside her dad who immediately says, “You need a drink!” it’s amazing how different our families are but still so alike. I am so lucky to have a friend to travel with. The trip would have been unbearable without Roz to keep me company, plus I love her! So first they made us fly to Chicago on Amer...

I guess it was last month I went with a few of my American friends to visit this English culture club (training center) their friend had opened. They were having American style KTV! Which I miss ever so much! In China the KTV is individual rooms with just couches, 2 mics and your own karaoke machine. It works out well bc I get to sing as many times as I want! Unlike in the US were you sit around for hours for your name to be called for your 3 minutes of fame! I always like a bigger group to go to the KTV here, but it seems my Chinese friends would prefer 3 or 4 people in a room. WHY? They are serious mic hogs! Like they put me to shame, as if I am a shy little girl in the corner, which you know I have never been, when it comes to singing. Also public stares of descent are not effective in Chinese culture. So if they did American style KTV here you would literally have to drag the people off stage. Even in a room of friends there have been some mic hog arguments. This one guy wanted to ...

SO I am officially staying in China for another year. I was shocked when my worthless contact teacher texted me saying she and the school would be happy to have me teach at their school another year. And even more excited when my program said they wanted me back to teach another year. Even though they wouldn't tell me this until almost a month after my school offered me a position. So I went crazy worrying about what this meant, all for nothing. My original thought was that I should just stay in my current school. I know the area, I won’t have to move my stuff, and I have teacher friends there. However, Betty (worthless contact teacher) told me they intend to have 2 foreign teachers at my school next year so I would have a roommate in my small apartment. This wouldn't be so bad, except I have gotten used to having the place to myself and I have used every inch of this apartment to hold my ridiculous amount of crap I have accumulated. Plus, more than you want to know, but, it is...

One of the biggest treats in China is a genuine Whopper from Burger King with your American friends! I recently learned there is one 10 minutes from my school, a discovery that would have made me very fat if I had found it earlier this year. The food taste EXACTLY like it does back home, which is shocking but wonderful. However importing all those ingredients makes the food relatively expensive. So, like the pizza-hut, they class the place up and market it as a fancy restaurant. There is a Starbucks style atmosphere with cozy booths and hip art painted on the walls. They advertise business space and encourage business meetings and interviews to be held in one of their private rooms. It’s an adventure every time we go. One day when it was very crowded and the manager came up to me and my friends and had us sit down. Then he sent over one of the workers to take or order! Mind you, there is a line of Chinese people at the register, but we were somehow chosen for the VIP service! They bro...

The relationships in china always start in an unexpected way. My favorite teacher, Mrs Li, came up to me in the office one day and said, “I think we will be friends.” and that was it! Anything I mentioned, she sprung into action and got it done. This is the same teacher that brought me to my first Chinese wedding and took me to the fashion factory. When it was just starting to get cold, she asked me one day when I was free to go to the factory again, because she thought I wasn't wearing enough clothes. A common phrase I was told by all of my co-workers who were shocked that I wore short-sleeves in 70 degree weather! This was around Christmas time, so I was very busy. “How many classes do you have this afternoon, let me see.” she said grabbing my schedule and walking away. When she came back a few minutes later she said, “OK now you have no classes, we go to the factory. This is Ms. Qian she has the car.” And that was it. I grabbed my purse and we were out the door at 2 pm on a Mo...