The Moon Festival

In China there are many holidays, perhaps even more days off than back in the states, which is totally awesome for me because that means I get lots of breaks from teaching and a chance to explore the area of China I live in.  Right now is one of those holidays where people get 8 days off to visit their families in order to celebrate the Moon Festival.  From what I have come to understand it is kind of like Thanksgiving, but with lots of Moon Cakes, instead of turkey dinners.  They also sing to the moon at some point.  There are two big days during this break the Mid-Autumn Day Festival and right after that is National Day.  Since we had some days off my roommate and I made some plans to go into Xi'an (a larger city near us about a $45 minute bus ride) with two other foreign teachers from South Africa who teach in a smaller city near us called Xingping.  The original plan was we were going to relax maybe do some sight-seeing near the hotel and then do some clubbing at night (I don't drink, so clubbing was only marginally exciting for me, but I was happy to go and stay out for as long as my eyes would let me).  I knew I had to go back to Xianyang on Sunday morning as I had agreed to do some promotions for the school (I get $100 RMB for every extra hour I work ).  The plan seemed great, but we know how plans usually go: nothing like they were supposed to.  So it went like this.

On Friday, we headed off to Xi'an by bus, I still don't have my bus balance so I fling around a lot and Chinese people feel sorry for me and give me their seats, even old men and women (either you take the seat or someone else will, so I usually just sit and it makes that person happy).  Since it was the holiday buses were quite full and it gets really hot inside, unless the bus has windows you can open ($3 RMB) or an operating aircon ($5 RMB = about $0.75 USD).  I was lucky to get a seat as the bus ride is about a good 45 minute drive.  Once you get into the city you have to change buses and this time I didn't get a seat, but I was happy to stand it's kind of like being on a roller coaster. Our hostel was very nice, but also very expensive $100 RMB a night (so for two nights I paid $200 plus a $100 RMB deposit... Next time I will just find a cheaper hostel as I only use the room for sleeping).  The staff were very friendly and most of them spoke English, so it was easy to ask questions.  A lot of foreigners stay at this hostel because it is easy to communicate with the staff, other westerners stay here, western food and the rooms are clean, internet and aricon in all the rooms.  Even though there is western food, the food is quite expensive (a burger, which was delicious, was $54 RMB).  

After we ate we decided to walk around Xi'an for a bit.  We looked at all the decorations on the buildings celebrating the Moon Festival.  We also bought some China flags (mine was only $5RMB for a small flag like you buy during the 4th of July) to show how much we love it here.  We got back to the hostel and I tried to take a nap and I think I succeeded until a man started cutting through metal outside and so sleeping was no longer possible.  I relaxed with my friends from Xingping hearing their stories of their travels into Thailand.  I love hearing other people talk about what they have experienced, it is so cool.  We decided we would go to the zoo the next day with two of their chinese teachers from Xingping, but we would have to get up at 7am in order to meet them by 8am.  We were sad about the early time, but excited to see the panda at the zoo. It was getting late in the day, so we got all dressed up and went to Burger King for dinner.  

After our bellies were full we went to a club called Muse.  Inside this place was super nice looking, but also very busy.  We wanted to get a table, but all the nice round cushiony tables had been rented out for the night and all the other tables were occupied.  We had a chinese friend with us, his name was Felix and he helped us out a lot with translating.  We ended up getting a tiny nightstand thing between two nice tables were we put our drinks down.  We literally stood and drank for 3 hours (since I don't drink Felix ordered me some water, such a sweetie, too bad chinese people drink scalding hot water instead of cold water, so my water was literally too hot to drink... Felix ordered me some ice).  The music was nice, but there was just so many people I felt uncomfortable and everyone was looking at me because of my blonde hair, so if I even started to dance people would all look.  There was no windows in the club and smoking is permitted and everyone smokes, so my eyes began to burn a lot.  I made it to about 1:30am (really late for me) before I had to call it quits (I also knew I had to get up early).  I told my friends goodbye and Felix walked me out and told my Taxi driver where to take me.  I passed out and woke up to hearing my friends coming up the hostel stairs.  I glanced at my watch, it was 5:30am.  I let my roommate in and she passed out on the bed almost immediately.  

At 7am my alarm woke me and I realized my roommate was not going to go to the zoo, but luckily her cousin, Damian, had stayed awake and was ready to go (I wouldn't have been able to go by myself as I have no cellphone and have no idea what the CT's look like).  So it was just us two with a tiny map, trying to find these two women.  We called them up and they told us we have to take the metro to get to them, whereas we thought we were meeting them at the metro.  So we figured out where we had to go and we paid $2 RMB for the metro train and loaded ourselves in and we were off.  During the ride everyone again was staring at us, while we were finally realizing how freaking big Xi'an actually was (it is bigger than LA I believe). We found the CT's and I was introduced to Coco and Ana, such funny friendly girls.  

We took a bus to the rural part of Xi'an and got off at this random stop and we were herded into a minivan type car, apparently we were going to visit Coco's old kindergarten where she used to work.  This place was in the middle of nowhere and it was awesome.  The kindergarten itself was super colorful and the kids were adorable. Again everyone stared at me and Damian because they have never seen foreigners before.  They fed us Chinese bread and some potato slices.  We waved goodbye and got a free ride to the zoo from one of the teachers.  As we were driving Coco told us we can get into the zoo for free, but we have to hop a gate first.  We just said okay. When we got there we couldn't find the gate, so we paid $100 RMB to get in and we were told the panda had died.  We were bummed but we still wanted to go inside, so me Damien and Ana (Ana had never been to a zoo before as she is deathly terrified of snakes; don't ask me how that translates to why she has never been to the zoo it was just her reasoning lol) continued on while Coco waited outside (she thought we were only going to be inside for two hours lol we were inside for 4.5 hours).  

The zoo's in other countries are much different, as they have different regulations and less strict policies towards the treatment of the animals.  This zoo wasn't the best zoo ever, but it was still cool to see all the different animals they had here in China.  The zoo it huge, which meant most of the animals have lots of space to roam.  We went on the safari ($30 RMB per person) which meant we had to get onto these trucks with cages in the back, but we had to get  into the cages and we rode around in it taking pictures of all the animals (reminded me of Jurassic Park the entire time).  We saw almost every animal, even went to the circus, although I couldn't watch everything as they began to hit the tigers when they didn't listen.  We saw an equestrian show as well and even contemplated going into the amusement park for one or two rides.  

As we were leaving I noticed some men taking pictures of something, so I walk over to investigate and there sat a teenage panda.  I called my friends over and we were so happy to see a panda.  He was eating his bamboo and we realized that the panda had just been brought in a few minutes ago (they had literally just delivered it to the zoo).  Hopefully that panda will survive a lot longer than the others, only 1,500 panda's are left in the wild.

We finally leave the zoo and we are ordered some lunch, even though we said we weren't hungry, but once we began to eat we realized we were hungry.  All the women touched my hair and complimented my eyes while I ate.  We got a taxi to take us to the bus stop and we took the bus to the metro and the metro back to the hostel (we of course got lost quite a few times, but we made it back).  We ate dinner at the hostel (another $54 RMB) and decided we weren't going out, as I had to travel back to Xianyang in the morning and the others were going to go see the Terracotta Army (it was a bummer I couldn't go, as I had already agreed to do promotions, they got to do a lot of stuff for free because this Chinese man who was friends with my roommate from Xianyang paid for everything like; lunch, the tour, a mini-van with aircon, a mountain tour, mini terracotta statue's, an English speaking tour guide, a palace tour and a ride back home. Super jealous lol).  I will just have to go another time.  

The next morning we check out of the hostel and we go our separate ways.  I find my first bus and then get off to find my second bus back to Xianyang.  That is when I see the monstrosity that holiday's reek upon traveling in China.  There was so many people waiting for the same bus, which happened to be my bus.  It looked like the city has just received a bomb threat and everyone was trying to flee the city.  I waited an hour and a half, but every time I tried to get to a bus they would run and push in front and I hate being squished.  So as I was trying to figure out how much a taxi would cost me a bus pull right in front of me and opens its door, just as I was about to get in I was squashed from all directions.  I was so squished, that I could move my arms and every direction mob went I went.  It felt like my arms were breaking.  Somehow I was squeezed into the bus and I managed to get a seat, thank god.  My arms were burning from being crushed by all the people and their damn moon cake boxes, I can literally see the bruises forming on my body.  So the bus ride was kind of hot and about an hour long back to my city, so it was decent.  When the bus dropped us off at this random place, I was like well shit, I have no idea where I am (I had an inkling of an idea) and I have no phone, so I just followed the giant mass of people.  I saw some familiar things, but that doesn't mean anything in China because there are a lot of duplicate things.  I got thirsty so I stopped to get a drink and asked the lady if she knew which direction my place was (I literally just said the hotel's name that I live by in chinese, they all know it since it is next to a park) she pointed in the direction I had already thought it was in so I had been correct in where I was, the lady even told me what bus number to take.

I finally arrived home, but I went straight to my school and waited for the CT to arrive.  They told me what I was going to do and gave me a bright pink shirt to wear (ugh!).  We went into a mall and to the kids play area where I took off my shoes and hopped in with them and played London Bridges and Duck Duck Goose while singing the ABC's.  Then I was herded to a toy store where no kids were (one it is the holiday, so most people are with their families and two what parent with any sense would willingly bring their child into a toy store and think that the child will not want anything, just saying). So since their was nothing to do I headed back to school and then back home.  As I was riding the bus (sitting in a seat because a woman gave me her seat) back I realized that I hadn't eaten at all yet (was almost 5pm), so I decided to go to a small restaurant where they know me.  

All the staff waved at me when I walked in and I ordered sweet & sour chicken with rice and shrimp with cashew nuts.  As I was eating the shrimp with cashews, it brought on a memory of me and my mom sitting down at our secret Chinese Restaurant in Concord, California.  We would order kung pao chicken and a shrimp dish like the one I was eating.  It was funny because I got teary-eyed while eating dinner and I remembered that while I had stayed at the hostel I had been trying to find something in my backpack and I pulled out a set of keys my mom had given to me for my PT Cruiser because I was going to take my drivers license test in July before we realized she was dying.  It is funny how moments like these drag you back into the past and make you miss so much, but as you once again become aware of your surroundings, that memory floats away.

Tomorrow I do two more promotions and hopefully they pay me right after, so I can have some spending money while everything is on sale for the holiday.  I start work on Thursday where it's 7:30am 7:30pm (same for Friday - Sunday), so it is going to be a long weekend lol.

Flattered

 My second week of being a foreign teacher is complete and although it did get a little easier other factors made me struggle.  My C1 class went a thousand times better this week because I was prepared for that specific class and I knew what they wanted to do: play games.  I literally only played one game but that kept them entertained for my 30 minute class.  My Parent/Child class was sadly worse this week because the children were very naughty and rowdy, so even if I tried to play games with them they were too rough with one another, so I stopped the games and sat these six little 5 year olds down.  

My upper level classes went almost the same as the first week, but I think the students themselves are becoming more comfortable around me so they are asking more questions.  My C11 class, which is my highest level, is probably my favorite now because it is just me in the classroom teaching eighteen 14-16 year olds about English.  I like making them do role-plays and get into groups because it makes the class go faster and improves their English skills.  They have to read their homework out loud, which of course they don't like, but I think it not only helps their pronunciation but also their ability to see and hear where they made mistakes in their writing.  I also get to hear what they enjoy about English and what they think of me.  A lot of the girls said nice stuff about me (5 male students and 12 female students) like my teacher is very pretty, I love her blue eyes, she is very nice and smart.  I was very flattered to hear these things, but then the boys got up and they said I speak to fast and one even admitted to not liking listening.  Boys are always so critical.  I liked that they said I speak too fast because I actually don't, half the time I repeat myself anyway, but they have to understand they need to be able to listen to a foreigner and start picking up the gist of what I say even if it is too fast, they are higher level so that is one of the things they must begin to learn to do.

China is beautiful, but it also has a lot of pollution you don't realize is there until you start coughing.  That's what happened to me, my body is trying to adapt to the pollution my body is sucking into my lungs, so coughing is what I have been doing since last week.  Now normally, coughing is okay but constant coughing keeps you awake, especially when you're hacking up stuff, so I got very little sleep.  Even with cough medicine, it only soothes it for a bit until the coughing begins.  The coughing makes it very hard to teach, especially with pronunciation and with being loud for the younger children.  Each day on the weekend is a twelve hour day teaching, standing on my feet, so naturally you get very tired, but when your sick it makes it worse.  Thank god my cold didn't come until after classes were over, so now I am spending my days off grading hw, watching series, coughing shit up and blowing my nose.

My roommate went off to Xi'an while I stayed home because of my sickness and also because of the news of violence spreading like wildfire in the cities (which makes me happy I don't teach in a big city).  I needed to go shopping so I waited to around 6:30pm to leave the flat and go to Vanguard (a chinese grocery store).  The store has 3 or 4 levels, but once you pass once you cannot go back down (they have carts, so you can just bring them upstairs by taking the flat escalator, which is magnetized to hold the carts in place).  It's not very hard shopping in China, yes everything is mainly in Chinese, but there are a lot of things that look like the stuff back home and if not you can usually tell what it is just by looking at it.  Something a little disturbing is that babies are allowed to pee on the floors here, so watch out for puddles.  I mainly went to get some drinks (as the only place that sells diet coke is Vanguard) and fruit (pomegranate season is coming!).  While I was buying drinks this young man approached me, I was already nervous about being out alone but this guy made me very tense.  He started speaking to me in broken English while his friends stood by and watched.  I said hello and he asked me my name.  He told me his name was Amos and that he was 23 (a year older than me lol), he knew I taught at Aston (most foreigners in city teach at Aston so it's common for everyone to know where I work) but he wanted to ask me if there was any classes for 23 year olds and I said I didn't know and that he would have to ask the school.  He followed me around for a bit saying if I ever wanted to go out I could call him and that if I ever needed help that he could help me.  I said goodbye to him as he was nice, although also weird.  I realized that many people had been watching him talk to me and I began to understand why.  

Most people don't talk to me because I cannot speak Chinese, but this boy got up the courage to talk to me in my native language.  I had been nervous because I was alone (no one to walk me home) and I didn't know what he had wanted from me, so I was also scared.  He was just being nice and yes, in a way flirting with me, you could tell by his erratic heart beat in his throat and the sweat coating his forehead.  Although I was not interested in this boy, it was flattering.  Here in China many people still have not seen many foreigners, even my children like touching my hair or talking about my eyes.  Boys are the same, they often try to catch my attention by using English words and smiling.  Again it's flattering to be noticed, but I'm honestly not used to it.  In the US there are a lot of blonde blue-eyed girls who are much prettier than I, but here I'm seen as beautiful.  It's definitely a first for me to be admired by women and men wherever I go.

Due to the tension between Japan and China, there has been numerous riots and demonstrations in the larger cities against Japanese citizens and any products that were made by Japan.  Many people have been beaten, even Chinese, because they had been driving a Toyota (Japanese made car).  Tensions have been growing for months in the dispute over ownership of a string of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Those came to a head last week when the Japanese government said it was purchasing some of the islands from their private owner to thwart a Japanese politician's plans to buy and develop them.  China reacted angrily, sending marine patrol ships inside Japanese-claimed waters around the islands, which Tokyo has administered since 1972. Some state media urged Chinese to show their patriotism by boycotting Japanese goods and canceling travel to Japan.  The tension continues to thicken as China moves closer to the anniversary of a 1931 incident that Japan used as a pretext to invade Manchuria before World War II.  It is a scary time to be a foreigner here because if China an Japan do not settle this issue, they could definitely go to war within the next year or so.

My schedule has gotten longer as the English Corner classes start up this week on Thursday.  So I will teach two EC classes on Thursday night and one on Friday night.  Also our Mandarin Lessons begin this week so Thursday at 2pm I go for my first hour lesson with my roommate.  I really want to learn Chinese.

Me? A Foreign Teacher?

My first weekend as a real teacher came so quickly I hardly even believe it happened, and I lived it.  My schedule is not bad as I have Monday through Wednesday off every week.  Thursday's I will either be doing promotional gigs for the school in the afternoon or teaching English Corner which is a review day for kids who wish to review material before going to their regular English classes on the weekend.  Friday's I have my Office Hours starting at 2pm going to about 5pm then I have a class at 5:30 or 6:30 for about an hour.  Saturday's are my longest days as I have eight classes and only an hour break to get lunch; Sunday's are a lot easier as I have two 2 hour breaks, but the downfall to Sunday is I have two upper-level classes back to back which means two hours for both classes.

The classes are created by level of English you can speak, so Jungle Gym 1-4 are for little children basically learning their English names (all the kids get English names; I got to name a kid and I named him Coal, it was super exciting, but some of the English names are weird, like Dragon/Tiger/Whisteria/ Kiki (for a boy) and a lot of them names are repetitive so I will have like David 1-3 or Katie 1 & 2).  Then there are classes called PC1-3 (where the parents come in with their children and monitor them, I have a PC1 class and it's very nerve-racking to have the parents watching your every move), these classes are only 30 minutes long for the FT (FT = Foreign Teacher = ME and CT = Chinese Teacher) but the poor CT's have an entire hour with them.  Then the levels move into C1-C6, which all vary in ages and skill level, obviously the higher the level the more English skills you have, usually these classes are an hour long for the FT I have a C1 class, two C2 classes, one C3A, two C3B's, two C4A's, one C4B, two C5's,(sometimes the classes are placed into half sections so C3A/C3B and C4A/C4B because the books material proved to challenging for some students so they split the book in half) .  C7-C10, I believe, is where the FT teaches for two hours, but the CT is there to provide help/ translation as a last resort if needed (I have one C7, and one C8).  Now the C11-C15 classes is where the FT is all alone, no CT, so its two hours of just you and the kids, ranging from 12-18 (I have one C11 class, and I have 18 students).

Now, there are some perks to being a Western Teacher in a foreign country, which include: you get a nicely sized apartment, you get paid a nice amount every month, get to feel like a rock-star wherever you go (everyone stares at you), everyone wants their children to say hi to you, everyone wants to take pictures of you, everyone watches the things you buy (and they look at that thing afterward as well), usually, but not always, people respect you and don't push you, and when being a teacher people automatically respect you.  It's weird how I was sitting in my class, watching my students in C11 write in their notebooks about what they really wanted to learn from this English class, the thought struck me that I used to be just like them only a short period of time ago; writing frantically, filling in the questionnaire as quick as possible.  I used to be a student, but now I am a real teacher.  I smiled to myself, remembering all my many teachers I have had and what I liked about them because that is what I want to be.  I want my students to like me, but also respect me, I want them to learn things from me that will help them succeed, I want to enable them to be comfortable in a classroom where they can ask me any question.  For some teachers this comes naturally for me, I'm still so young that I have no idea what works and what doesn't work.  As an example: my C8 class right before my C11 class had just begun and I was watching the kids write away, one girl go finished and asked me: "Why are you smiling so much?" This question threw me off as I was smiling because one I was trying to figure out how to make a game out of grammar points and two because I am finally a teacher, so when asked this question I said "Because I enjoy teaching." She repeated her question so I became stubborn and playfully frowned at her whenever I looked her way.  After ten minutes she asks me another question, as she finished before the others, she said, "I like your pretty ass." Again I was taken aback and I asked her to repeat and then she said, "I like your pretty blue ass." That's when I realized she was pronouncing eyes like ass.  I said thank you to her and continued to teach.  It's moment's like those where you think of teacher to student boundaries.  Being careful about your words and phrasing is important as a teacher, and making the kids repeat their questions can save you a lot of confusion later on.

Other perks to working at an English school with other foreigner's is that you get to experience many different personalities and cultures besides your own.  As the only American and the youngest FT out of the two schools in our city, I'm treated very nicely and sort of like a little sister.  So far I have met, British, Scottish, Canadian, European, and South African people, which is a delight.  Every couple of days we go out to eat/drink together as a group, chillax at someone's flat and/or do some Karaoke TV (KTV).  Everyone is super friendly, especially the Chinese Teachers who also sometimes join us for an afternoon (I swear everyone of them has at least 10 pictures of me, I was nearly rendered blind that night).

Food is everywhere and it's cheap so most of the time we just go out to eat, the street vendors aren't the cleanest, but $7 yuan for two noodles bowls with meat and a fruit beer is amazingly cheap (equals to about $1 USD).  Fruit is also cheap here, but if you don't speak Chinese it can prove difficult, not the getting what you want across, just the simple fact that everyone stops to watch you buy something or stops to help translate (it makes you feel under pressure).  They sell huge walnuts here, which are delicious and pomegranate season is coming soon so I'm super stoked about that.  Bakeries are hard to find in smaller cities, but luckily we have three within walking distance (not a big sweets fan, but I even bought something because most food is either salty or sour or spicy here so it's a nice change for the taste buds).

Night markets are the best thing ever, one because you can bargain prices and two because they literally have everything you could ever want to posses.  Not joking: You need a turtle? It's across the street.  You need a snake, hamster, scorpion, tarantula, desert lizard or a water snake? It's down the road.  My roommie is allergic to furry pets so I told him when I have enough money I want to get a turtle or a lizard for the apartment.

China is awesome, but it also has its bad points.  Smelly bathrooms (as they don't have a good sewer system here most of the toilets are squat toilets which people, especially females have trouble aiming correctly), all the meat smells the same (a spicy musty smell on the street, which you can never escape), access to facebook and most reports on the internet are blocked (China is very restrictive to what it's people can and cannot access, although with VPN's and other free codes I don't see why China still insists on it), Wifi is illegal in places of non-business (I still haven't figured out why but we got wifi in our apartment), people stare at you all the time (sometimes it's nice to be looked at, but to be stared at for long periods of time while you're eating is unpleasant) and lastly it takes a long time for anything to get done unless you get mad and in someone's face (also unpleasant as it isn't very professional, but sometimes it needs to be done in order to get the urgency of the matter across).


I'm enjoying my experience here, as is my roommate.  I still can't believe that I am a teacher living in China!!!

Welcome to Xianyang, China

I made it into China!!! It's still kind of surreal that I am here already.  Everything seems to go incredibly fast, but for my reader's sake I will try to remember the last couple of days.

 
The trip to the airport from the hotel was crazy due to the realization that our training was complete and we were leaving Cambodia.  Although I did love Cambodia, I was definitely ready for a new pace and a more modern environment.  The man who picked me up from the airport also drove me back to the airport which was nice of him, but it was probably because we had to pay for this ride LOL.  We had to pay about $97 for an extra 10 lbs. (he was nice and didn't charge us for 20 lbs) which wasn't too bad and he told us we would have to pay for our bags again once we entered into China, but that it should be cheaper there (I was traveling with 3 other LC graduates who were also traveling to China, two of them were landing in Xi'an with me). 
 
Arriving at Guangzhou airport was like getting stuck in a tornado, and no I'm not talking about the landing.  Not many people speak English and because all of our bags were overweight we were sent to another section, the airport has check in places like A01 or D10 and they also have gate numbers like A01 and D10, so you can understand our confusion as we wondered around for about an hour trying to find out where we had to pay for our bags.  We finally found it (nothing is in alphabetical order in China, nothing!) E21, but then they said we had to pay then come back, so we wandered to E10 and paid for our bags, then went to find security (honestly getting through Customs in China was easier than trying to pay for our bags, side note: they have thermal cameras to see if your sick when you go through Customs, its totally awesome but scary at the same time). 
 
We split up and I went to the security line and that's where I realized it was raining outside and it was raining so hard that it sounded like rain above my head.  It was my turn and all m stuff got scanned and then they told me to open my backpack because I had my Kindle and it was blocking their scanning process, so I took it out and they scanned it through again, which this time they found my scissors (oops) and then they scanned it again, and then they found my exacto-knife (double oops) and they looked at me and asked "What is this for?" I said "Cutting paper, what else?" They let me go without my scissors and exacto-knife (this took about an hour, but they got so tired of me that they didn't find my emergency matches that I forgot I had lol).
 

When arriving in Xi'an/Xianyang Airport it was raining, but it was so cool (temperature) that I just wanted to curl up and sleep (I didn't get much sleep the night before).  I got both my bags and I said goodbye to my friends and met up with a man named Brian, who is an Aston teacher like me.  We chatted in the car as we drove to my apartment.  The apartment is in the city center of Xianyang and surrounded by restaurants and a park. It is on the 4th floor (no elevator, so Brian helped me carry my heavy suitcases, but he was weezing by the time he reached the door lol) with a secure metal door.  The apartment/flat is lovely (my roommate Heyneke had it cleaned thoroughly) and very spacious; we have a huge living room with a nice big aircon and maple colored leather couches, my bedroom is very nice with a big bed and lovely blue curtains.  Our bathroom is decent, it has a western toilet and a shower, but the bathtub isn't working and kind of scares me.  We have a space past our bedrooms where we can hang our laundry to dry (the washer looks like some old alien contraption lol so I'm afraid to use it or touch it yet).  Our dining room is also nice, with a decent sized fridge and big freezer, the kitchen looks out over the town and forms a lovely view, but a lot of the stuff looks foreign to us so we haven't used it just yet.

At the airport I exchanged some USD to RMB ($1 USD = $6-$8 RMB) so this is what Chinese money looks like.
 
After looking over the apartment I jumped back in the car and headed to the school (Aston 1 in Xianyang is where I will be teaching it is only a 15 minute walk, but my roommate Heyneke will be working in Aston 2 about 30 minutes away).  I got to meet a lot of CT's (Chinese Teachers) and they love making english names so here are a few examples: Snowy, Serena, Summer, Stella, Sherri, Celina, Uncle U (Super friendly lol), CiCi, Tiffany, and (Crazy) Amber, everyone seemed very nice.  I waited for a bit and I got a tour from Hannah which is Brian's wife.  I like the school it is located on the 6th floor of a shopping center and all the classroom's have names of cities like Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin to name a few.  Then we went to dinner at what everyone calls "Orange House" because the real name is in Chinese so they just renamed it (they do that a lot like lets meet at Justin's place, which was discovered by a man named Justin, it's kind of funny).  We all ordered something and I had to use chopsticks (my skills at chopsticks are improving with every meal).  All the FT's (Foreign Teachers, thats me!) seemed happy to meet me, especially Kelly who does the A+ program at Aston, she gave me a hug.  I was told I was the youngest out of all the FT's here at the moment so I'm the baby (I also don't have a phone yet so I have to follow Heyneke everywhere but he is super nice so he doesn't mind) and I'm also the only one from America, which is odd because the Americans usually rule in numbers lol.  I didn't have to pay for dinner as it was my Welcome to Aston dinner (side note: I tried tofu for the first time and it was alright).

Sunday was very relaxed, although I didn't get much sleep because my pillow is literally made out of sand LOL so I have to buy a new pillow soon.  Me and Heyneke explored the city looking for some place to eat and we found a nice place, but we learned not to sit next to the window as everyone stares at us (side note: Heyneke smokes, but he smokes on the balcony which is uper nice of him to do). We were called in early to get our books and schedules, (which there are a lot of books and I don't even think I got them all or the right ones, so I have to check with the Manager or Brian later) I have 16 classes a week, mostly teaching on Saturday's and Sunday's starting at 8:20am till about 7:30pm and I also teach one class on Friday starting at 5:50pm, but I have Office Hours starting at 2pm and ending at 5pm.  So surprise to me I have Monday-Thursday off.  After we got our books we got an introduction to Smart Boards, which had Chinese symbols (I have used Smart Boards before just in English lol) and we were told every classroom would have these along with a laptop and projector and internet connection (each board is about 10,000RMB so this is an amazing improvement to the school). Afte the training me and Heyneke went to do some promotions for the school, we basically palyed games with children and handed out fliers, since I was new I watched and waved at people who were staring at me (especially the older women who liked to touch me lol).

 

So today, we traveled to Xi'an about 45 minute Taxi ride from our smaller city because that is where I have to get my medical exam done and do our Adton training at.  The medical exams weren't too bad they went very quick (ECG, Blood Test, X-Ray, Blood Pressure, Ultra-Sound, Eye Test, and Height/Weight), about an hour of testing.  Then we traveled to the Aston school in Xi'an where our hotel is located above it.  The hotel isn't very nice, but it will have to do for three days.  I like that it has internet, whereas our apartment internet still isn't working because the guy who installed it forgot to give us the account name and password... sigh! I also got to see one of my fellow LC friends as she was beginning to go shopping, it was nice knowing someone.  Heyneke wanted to get Starbucks and I was hungry so we wandered away from the hotel and found the place.  I got a croissant, which was yummy. 

 

We searched the undergorund mall (has like three levels underground, which is insane!), but we couldn't find anything since the stores were just randomly placed.  We went to the big mall located near the city centerm which is the Bell Tower.  The mall is huge and is still being construccted to make more floors underground, but we managed to find some batteries for my camera that can be recharged (hopefully they work!!!) and a converter for my laptop (I needed a travel sized one that I can take out of the apartment). 

 

Nothing is easy here, but everyone so far has been helpful if not very nice.  The language barrier is difficult, but I'm trying to get better (Tiffany, a CT at my Aston school, said she would help me with my Chinese and that I would help her with her English, so we became friends quickly, she is also my age...

Side Note: China doesn't understand the difference between type 1 diabetes and type 2 so its hard explaining the difference, but Tiffany said her Dad is diabetic so she would ask him where he gets his insulin from and how much it is... YAY!!)