Tuesday, February 24, 2009

My Brilliant Idea

OK, so I have a great idea and am finally putting in to action. First, I should have a part-time tutoring job teaching one, young child English one or two days a week for just one hour per session for 200 RMB, almost $30 per hour. That's great.

Now to the great idea. While at EF in Dongguan, we always talked about advertising an hour where Chinese people could come, relax and have conversation with all the teachers for the low, low price of 100 RMB. This is very cheap in comparison with what the schools charge. I've printed up fliers and I'm going to put them up at our school and try to get them up in our apartment complex and the other teachers' apartments. I'm going to call it Shenzhen English Hour.

The second great idea is that Vivi and I are going to call some nearby companies and see if they'd like to have what we called Life Club. It's where one foreign teacher comes in for an hour, once a week to just have a discussion about a predetermined topic. Companies pay a lot for this service. First I'm going to call the EF that's down the street and find out how much they charge, then I'll just charge a little less. I'm not sure if this will go well or not but it's worth a shot.

I believe one of these ideas should work and all the teachers at the school want in on it because they think it's a good idea, too. This could be great extra income if it all works out. I'll be sure to keep you informed of how it's going.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Saturday Lunch


Yesterday, Saturday lunch time, Vivi and I went to find a traditional breakfast tea house. I love these places because they serve dim sum, like dumplings and things that are similar to that, I love those restuarants. I'll post pictures of the food there when we find a place that serves it.


Anyways, we went to where my school is because that area has a lot of traditional restaurants. We walked around for a while and eventually just decided to make our way to Woman's Street, just the big shopping district in town. They have a ton of great street food there. All I really wanted was some jiao zi (dumplings). There are these little restaurants all over China that serve jiao zi very, very cheap. I love these places, too. Luckily, we found one on our way to Woman's Street and stopped to eat lunch there. These restaurants are Fujian style, a province in China. One thing that makes the jiao zi so great is that they have a peanut sauce that's amazing but the hot sauce they make is by far the best in China. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it now.


After we ate, I asked Vivi to find out if they made the hot sauce or they buy it. Well, of course, they made it there. Vivi asked if she could have a bottle and they said no way. Then Vivi told them that I was an American and loved their hot sauce and that I really wanted a bottle to take back to America with me. This made them proud and they said ok. They deffinitely overcharged us for it but I was willing to pay their asking price. Now, we have a lovely bottle or amazing hot sauce at the apartment.


Vivi hates that the people who own restaurants in China won't tell Chinese people their secrets or ingredients and will never sell them special sauces; BUT, if she points to me and says the American loves it and wants to know or wants some to take home, they all become very proud and say of course. Sometimes it's a great thing to be an American in China.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Things...

Everything has been great with me and Vivi so far. She currently doesn't have a job but has sent out dozens of emails to employers and is waiting for replies.

We go to the local fresh food market three times a week to buy food, it's great and it's really, really cheap. We buy enough food for 3 dinners and it's about 35 RMB, roughly $5. She's a great cook and I eat at least 4 servings of vegetables every night and just a little meat and of course fruit later in the evening, great. They have a better variety of green vegetables and a vegetable that is lotus root, amazing. I've got Vivi hooked on peanut butter and jelly, especially peanut butter. Vivi's been eating so well that she now has to unbutton her pants after some meals, it's really cute.

I clean the dishes some nights and help with chores around the house but she still does more than I do and won't let me help as much as I offer, honestly. I know what my Mom and my sisters are thinking, but it's true.

We've been living on a tight budget because we have just enough cash to get through the next 5 weeks, until I get paid at the end of March. Why the end of March? Because my February paycheck will go to the rent, utilities and management fees. They require 2 month's deposit and I only had enough for 1 month's rent and 1 month's deposit so this month we have to pay that again. I thought it might be a little difficult but it looks like we'll easily get by and have extra money to spend on some nicer things for the apartment, make it more like home.

Today's Big Scare

Today at school, the head Chinese teacher, Simon, came in to my classroom at 9:05 and said, "Nick, come find me on the third floor at 9:15." I went upstairs and found him sitting with 3 other foreign teachers on the roof hanging out. I was a little confused so asked what was going and they began to explain it to me.

The school was notified that the government department over education was coming to visit our kindergarten today. The problem wasn't the teachers but the fact that the school only paid the government based on having 3 international classes, not the 8 that they have. The problem with this is that they have to pay a lot of money for each international class they have. So they decided to hide a couple of us on the roof while the maintenance people went around and took the name plates off the classrooms and everything else that said international on it.

We hung out on the roof until lunch time because they never came...surprise, surprise. They were supposed to be there at 10:00 but we were told they were held up at another school before ours so instead of working late, they called it a day. That's the way it seems to work.

Needless to say, this Friday was an extremely easy day. Great Friday. I got to know all of the teachers who have been there longer than me so it was nice. There is one from Canada, India, Australia and South Africa. I'm one of the three new teachers; one's from Denmark (but went to high school in England) and the other's from New Mexico. There was another teacher from America who actually went to Emory University and graduated a year after me but he didn't work out. He's never taught or worked with kids before so he just wasn't cut out for a kindergarten. Oh well...great day.

Work Day

I just finished my first full week and I thought it'd be a good idea to let everyone know what exactly I'm doing here.

I'll start off by describing my class. I have 24 students right now ranging from 2 to 4 years old. They're great. I no longer have any who cry all day or stand outside. They have finally been broken...yes, broken.

Every morning I have to be at school at 7:50. This means I wake up at 6:30 and leave the apartment at 7:00. Usually, there's a bus (#25) at 7:05 and that takes less than 15 minutes to get to a nearby bus stop. From there, it's less than a 10 minute walk to the school. That means I usually get there early so I stop and pick up the English newspaper on the way in to read while I wait for the kids to start showing up.

At 7:50 all the English teachers get together by the entrance to greet the kids and parents. We say, "Good morning!" to everyone who walks through the door and give the kids a low five and maybe tickle a couple of them.

At 8:10 some music starts over the intercom which signals the kids to come to the common area to get ready for morning exercises. On Mondays the kids perform a flag raising ceremony instead of exercises. Tuesday through Friday begins with the foreign teachers in the front singing some songs, asking some questions then leading the school in a dance; right now, it's the chicken dance. We've already come up with a new dance for next week.

After our dancing, the Chinese teachers come to the front and lead the kids in a dance they've come up with (ours will be waaaaaay better).

At 8:30 my class heads back to the classroom to eat breakfast. All the classes break up in to three groups to do more exercises in smaller numbers during the rest of the morning. We eat breakfast until 9:00 which is when I begin my first English lesson, it's just 25 minutes. The kids take a 5 minute break to go to the bathroom and get some water.

At 9:30 the Chinese teachers do some songs and dances with the kids. Usually, I join in and play with the kids.

From 10:10 to 10:40 I teach my second English lesson. At 10:40 I have to go to a different class to teach one English lesson until 11:05. This class doesn't have an English teacher so we all rotate and teach one lesson per day. After this class I return to my classroom where the kids are getting ready for lunch. I hang around and help out until 11:25, which is when I leave the school and head back to the apartment for lunch and a wu shui (afternoon nap).

I get back to the school between 2:30 and 3:00 which is when the kids are waking up and eating their afternoon snack which also includes some fruit, which is nice. From 3:00 to 3:25 I teach my third English lesson of the day. The kids get another 5 minute bathroom break then it's back to me for a 25 minute review of what we learned during the day. This review usually gets cut though in order to reward the kids who behaved during the day and punish the ones who didn't.

We load some of the kids on the buses and we just play with the kids as their parents pick them up. I have to stay at the school until 5:00 but I usually just stay until all of my kids have been picked up or their parents have shown up.

I play A LOT with the kids. They love being picked up and flipped upside down. I also really enjoy tickling them and I've taught them to say stop when they've had enough. This is very important because we all know that tickling can turn in to a bad experience if it goes too far.

Ok, this was a long enough post for now. I'll describe the lessons later when I actually have all of them to report on. We're not in full swing yet but should be next week.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

First Pictures!!!

If you go to my Picasa website (you can find the link in the "about me" section on the right side of this page), you can see the photos of our apartment. All the photos from my first trip are also on the site so if you're new to this, feel free to browse. Normally, I'll post pictures when I post blogs and let you know in the blog. Enjoy.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentine's Day


So, yesterday was Valentine's Day. I woke up early, went out and bought a bouquet of purple flowers for Vivi. I quietly got back in the apartment and placed them by the bed so she was able to wake up to the beautiful flowers. It was a great start to the day.

We spent most of the day at a supermarket called Jusco (Japanese) and another supermarket, Metro (German). I had never been Jusco but the other foreigners were saying how great it was...it wasn't. Instead, we made our way to Metro which is much, much better. I bought everything I needed to make a large Italian dinner for Vivi so she could try some new stuff.

We came back and cleaner the apartment a little and then I started to cook. This was a little difficult considering there's only two burners on the stove. I made spaghetti with bolognese sauce for one dish, the classic. Then I made penne pesto with shrimp for the second dish. Next, I made some salmon and served it with pesto. Finally, I bought some minestrone for soup, since Chinese people always soup with every meal.

I sent her to buy forks, since we only have chopsticks and spoons. When she came back, I had placed her bouquet on the table, lit some candles and dressed in some nice clothes so when she came back, the table was set...very nice.

We ate a nice dinner then sat back and watched some movies on tv (yes, in English). Overall, pretty good Valentine's Day.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Ai Xin Kindergarten

That's the name of the kindergarten I work at in the Futian district of Shenzhen.

I've worked for three days so far and it's been really fun. I almost feel bad getting paid for it, almost.

I have to be at the school at 7:50am every morning, which is easy since I'm still waking up early thanks to the time difference. I wake up, head out the door to the bus stop and take a 13 minute bus ride to the nearest bus stop to the school. From there, it's less than a 10 minute walk. It's an easy trip to school, which is nice.

I begin the day at the entrance to the school just saying good morning to the kids and the parents as they come in. Class doesn't actually start until 9am, which is when my kids get their breakfast. I'll get more of the real schedule next week when classes technically start. The first three days have been nothing but play time because I have so many kids who this is their first time away from home so they've been crying a lot of the class.

Luckily, there are three Chinese teachers and me, the foreign teacher. The three Chinese have spent most of the time holding the 2 year olds and keeping them from crying. They're the cutest kids but they make me want to cry when I'm watching them cry and saying, "Wo yao wo de mama," which just means "I want my mama!"

I have 25 students right now and they're age range is 2-5, which I've been told by the other teachers is a little strange. My class was just supposed to be 2-3 but because of some overflow from the others, I've taken on some older kids. Anyways, I'll update this next week and let you know what the real work schedule's like.

Apartment Hunting

We stayed in a hotel the first night. The next morning, we woke up early and got a quick start to the apartment hunting. We met with Angel, a girl I had talked with online who helped connect me to the kindergarten I'm currently at. She had a couple places she said was nice and wanted to show us. So we were on our way.

Well, this was a huge disappointment. The apartments were all small and most barely had a bathroom.

Before I continue, let me explain how this works in China because it's different from America. When someone wants to rent or sell a house in China, they hire a real estate agent, normal. However, they don't have something like MLS or fMLS where when an agent gets a house, he lists it on this so other agents can view the house and see if it's right for their client who's looking for a house. This way, no matter who is selling the house, everyone can see it and decide if they want to rent it or buy it.

That's not the case here. Here, you can only view houses that the company has obtained. So we could tell them a building and they can only show us the apartments that are listed with them. There might be 30 available units but they only have one, so we don't get to see or know anything about the others, not efficient and very, very frustrating. Anyways...

Over the next couple of days, we viewed many apartments with at least five different real estate companies, nothing. One we went to was a loft style where there were stairs leading up to the open bedroom. The funny part of this was that the ceiling was so low that I couldn't stand up. The agent said it was made for Chinese people, not foreigners.

We had decided on one the first day but just a couple hours after we had seen it, someone else signed a contract before us. Then, we had decided on another one and when we went to sign the contracts with the agent and the owner, the owner said she had to wait until the next day because there was someone currently living in it and she had to make sure they could be out the next day so we didn't sign contracts and we went back to the hotel. That night we got a call from the agent saying the owner backed out. So we were again, homeless.

This is when I decided I would find what I could online, in English. We came across three listings that looked promising. We went to the first apartment but it wasn't any good. The agent had a couple others to show us and we liked the last one he showed us; it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. We went to the 2nd agent and he had nothing we liked. We made our way, tired, to the 3rd and final agent and his first place was not good at all. He told us he had a couple others to show us near the subway that were in a new building and well in our price range. We didn't get excited though because we had been let down so many times already.

We made our way to the building and it was great. It's a brand new building. They're going to finish floors 2-10 by the end of February. The building has an indoor pool and a gym on the 9th floor, which is very nice. The apartment's a big 1 bedroom in China but small for American standards. The best part in my opinion is the comfortable couch and the flat screen, high-def tv that came with the apartment. Needless to say, it's a more than suitable apartment and we're in the process of making it a temporary home.

I'll post pictures very soon.

The Return

So I'm back in China now. Today's Valentine's Day and I arrived in Hong Kong Feb. 2nd, almost 2 weeks ago. I first flew from Atlanta to Newark, NJ, then to Hong Kong from there. I had about a two hour layover which I spent eating lunch and just people watching. When we were landing in Newark, I did get my first glimpse of New York city, which just made me want to go there even more. I was able to see the Empire State building as well as the Statue of Liberty.

Anyways, during the flight to Hong Kong, the fasten seat belt sign didn't come on once. We had a perfect flight. Each seat came with a tv screen on the headrest in front and I was able to choose from over 200 movies and many, many tv shows. Needless to say, I was entertained the whole time. I shared a row of three seats with a Canadian on his way to Taiwan so we had plenty of room to sleep.

I landed in Hong Kong and got through customs with no trouble. I arranged a private car to take me from the airport to Shenzhen that night because Vivi was unable to obtain permission to go to Hong Kong before I arrived. The private car is definitely the way to go. When you take the bus, you have to get off the bus (with all of your bags) to leave Hong Kong, get back on the same bus to go over a bridge, then get off the bus (with all of your bags) to enter China. Once you're in China, you have to get on a new bus, one that people will help you find because they've placed a sticker somewhere on your person. If you lose this sticker, you're stuck and have to pay again to get on a bus, it's not fun, especially when you don't speak Chinese.

With a private car, you just go to a separate border and you don't even have to get out of the car. The driver just handed the guard my passport, he scanned it, took a look a me and let us on our way. We did have to do it one more time for the mainland border but same procedure, very easy. I arrived in Shenzhen in no time and met Vivi at the hotel.

It was an easy and great trip to China, unlike the first one.