29 November, 2008

Life going on

So my school took me and 20 teachers to escort about 300 children to a theme park on thursday...all out insanity. although the kids really enjoyed themselves. It was pretty insane though, i can't imagine doing that in the states...too many kids running rampant and possible lawsuits. It was great to get to know more teachers around the school though. Rode a bunch of rollercoasters with them to prove I wasn't scared...and they all grabbed on to me for safety...psh, act like they're so tough...

It was intersting getting to spend some time with teachers outside of school though...learned some are buddhist and pretty much none are from Shenzhen. They all come from all over China and have pretty cool stories. One teacher spent a year in England and thus "knows how to drink like wetserners" according to her. And the PE teachers, I have found, can really keep up with our American drinking styles...haha. At least better than most of the lightweight Chinese.

I have befriended a bunch of people that work on the island by my apartment now. They all work at a bar that I frequent, but they say they don't like it when I drink there because they think it's too expensive and feel they must treat me to beer, not let me pay...so, we often go to the beach and hang out, go climbing together before they have work. It's a little tough with such different schedules but it's pretty entertaining...most of them have promised ot take me back to their hometowns with them too which is exciting...meet their families and all...

anyway, that's most the update for now...more to come...

17 November, 2008

Nice break

So the bro in law came to china this week doing some business. It was nice to see some family and get out of town for a bit. He showed me aroudn to some pretty cool stuff in Hong Kong, so I think I am finally warming up to that city. Went to a pretty cool rooftop bar there, overlooking downtown HK which was pretty badass. Got to catch up a little on events back home too which was nice.

Other than that this weekend was pretty uneventful. I made some new chinese friends that are really nice and fun. They work at a bar next to my place, but we go to the beach and hang out sometimes during the day when they're not working. They speak pretty good english I think for being waiters...they want me to teach them and ask me for translations all the time. They're from all over which is kind of cool too, one from sichuan who is going to teach me the sichuan dialect which will be awesome (in exchange for english) (oh and he's a migrator of 16 years old...crazy. he looks older though. the rest of them are my age...but i can't imagine leaving home at 16 and not knowing when you're going back...)

Other than that things are as usual. Going out as usual, having my chinese mafia friends taking me places and getting me free stuff...you know, the average life...haha. oh, apparently there is a volleyball tournament coming up that me and ben are expected to take part in...so that shoudl be interesting/fun. can small chinese people spike the ball? we shall see...

11 November, 2008

More School

So I think the whole “new kid” at school thing is about over...I'm mostly adjusted to the school and everyone knows me. I guess this is routine...

Anyway, guess the most recent interesting news is that one of my students tried to hit me actually...and also said some profanities...I guess I did hit him on the head first for acting out, but still, i don't think this warrants a kid trying ot get back at a teacher. Anyway, we had some words after that, and the class was not so happy for hte rest of the class, but of course the way kids are, the hard times were over by the end of the day and htese kids were back to following me around and coming to my office to play...

Met some more Mexicans and Colombians here last night at a friends dinner party too. they had some kids running around the restaurant who I played with for a little bit while we were at this brazilian place. I think they follow me to China because I meet more spanish speakers here than any americans...

Other than that, things are going swimmingly...I enjoy classes, am learning a good amount of Chinese, and have made a few friends, but have started to miss some of the smaller things back home finally. God I want a thundercloud sub...