你好！

大家好！我今天有好注意。 我要天天在这个博客写汉语。

我给你们自我介绍，好吗？

我叫Stephen Smart。我的中文名字是田明。 我是25岁加拿大人。

我住在山东潍坊。我是一位外教在一家培训学校。我的学生平时青少年和成人，都想要出国学习，出差或者移民。我觉得他们都很好的学生，他们总是问我很多的问题练习英语。他们让我的职业简单。

我来中国两年了。我爱教英语，而且我也爱学习汉语。明年我想考汉语水平考试，但是现在我还没准备好了。我希望这个博客会让我练习汉语进步我的水平。

好了。我的介绍完了。 我明天再写。

Well, regular classes resume tomorrow

Start back teaching the kids after roughly a week off (I only had 4 hours this week, which was excruciatingly boring at times.) I have all higher levels tomorrow, which may or may not go well. Hopefully the kids are pretty strong. I have no Chinese teachers in the class, probably because I give homework assignments such as this. I hope I teach that kid again.

I need to start looking for some private students, because I’m only on 20 hours now. I figure I can make about 3200RMB extra a month tutoring, so hopefully I’ll bring some money back with me. I can get the application for U of T’s Faculty of Ed next Tuesday, so I will need money for that in a year.

In all, just looking forward to October, when we have the National Day holiday.  Yay Mao, and so forth.  Might go traveling if I have enough time off.  Will update soon, and check Facebook for some updated photos.

Cheers

Saturday morning

And I’m praying that the sun can break through the smog so that my jeans can dry soon.

A whole lot of teachers left this week. It was kind of sad, because I’ve only ever known Dalian with them all here. But I’ve made some good friends that I’ll be keeping in touch with.

Start the new semester on Monday, but only have two adult classes this week. Saturday is when the real fun begins. My schedule has me teaching mostly higher classes, which could be good or bad. It is the age I prefer, but they can be shites and I would have no Chinese Teacher to smack them around.

Going to upload loads of photos soon. I’ll probably put them on Facebook, because it’s easier to do.

Cheers!

School’s out… for autumn

So, the intensive semester is all but over. I have a few classes left, but they’re mostly make-up dates, in which I’ll be playing loads of games. Plus I have two presentation classes. We may have a few days off after this weekend, in which I might decide to go to Beijing for a few days. I really want to go back there… had a blast last time I was there.

Gotta love classes, at the moment. The women’s WC all but exploded at school today, completely flooding one of the stairwells with a fresh coat of urine. Lovely.

On the bright side, my Chinese lessons are going well. Tonight I had a good conversation with a cab driver. I actually understood him when he asked me what country I was from… but I was a tad disturbed when he groped my arm hair. Creepy bastard.

I will update some photos soon! My camera got smashed around in my backpack and the zoom function broke, so I’m kinda waiting on a Chinese friend to help me get it fixed. I may end up having to buy a new one, which will slightly put a dent into my income. Check back later,

Stephen

Well, I hate to say it

But I won’t be voting this upcoming provincial election. At least as long as the Tories support ridiculous (and so obviously opportunistic) platforms such as this.

In my opinion, they should be running on a platform of revoking public funds for Roman Catholic schools. No religious institution should receive taxpayer money. Nothing more to say beyond that.

-Stephen

Edit: Speaking of education, this is fantastic:

Well…

Ended up working today after all. My flatmate has a nasty foot infection, so I covered. Six hours work is piss easy and it’s a nice bit of money. My next paycheque is going to rock.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll get to sleep in.

I did make a kid cry today, and it was hilarious. He threw another kid’s glasses onto the floor, so I took him down to the management office so they could call his parents. Wasn’t my student, so I didn’t give a damn. He’ll think twice next time I sub, though.

-Stephen (drunk with power)

First day off in about 12 days

I’m gonna love it. I’ve got nothing to do, except maybe buy some socks (too lazy to do laundry.)

Went to KTV last night. Had a good time, as always. I made sure to get a little CanCon into the rotation by singing Sundown and Heart of Gold. I think this is me paying homage to Neil Young.

There was a huge storm last night, so it was the perfect excuse to go singing. Then again, any excuse to go singing is fine with me.

Not too much else happening here. One week to go with the intensive schedule, and then I start my regular semester. One of my classes really wants to see a horror movie, but I think it should be PG. If anyone knows any good ones that fall into that category, let me know. All I can really think of is Ghostbusters… maybe I’ll show Temple of Doom. I started with seven students in that class, and now I’m down to two, so I really don’t give a damn and I’m pretty much up for doing anything they want.

To conclude, I bought an oven today, off one of the teachers that is leaving, so I can’t wait to make muffins. Maybe that will be my weekend plan right there. Will be back with more later.

Cheers.

One of the more fun things to do in Dalian

And also, one of the weirdest. At Labor Park, there is a cable car, which goes to the top of a small mountain where the TV Tower is (first photo.) Once there, you can either take the long way down (stairs) or the fun way. Another teacher (Scott) took these.

100 points if you hit the goat.

A strange Stepford-looking suburb behind the TV Tower. The school there says Maple School, so it could be a residential area for foreigners.

The view from the top. Only a little haze that day.

Workers of the World, Unite. Ryan and Myself.

More photos to come.

Sweet Moses

I’m sick as a dog with some super Asian bug. Glad I only worked half a day today, because I have the rest of the afternoon to sip OJ and watch DVDs.

Tomorrow is a review day, and the exam is being given on Friday. Don’t think I’ll be failing anyone this time around… all the students seem pretty good.

Not been up to much since I last wrote. Should start my Chinese lessons in the next week or so. I found a tutor for 40RMB an hour, which is good.

My head hurts. More later.

P.S. Are we screwed?

Athletes who participate in the sport of shooting

Apparently they’ve got something to do with the gangs who shoot children in Toronto:

When it came to allotting the institution’s scarce resources, the committee couldn’t reconcile firing weapons on the university’s grounds with the U of T’s core values of “discovery and education,” safety and maximizing the opportunity for dissent, he said.

“Shooting a gun on campus. Sit with that for a second. It leaves me cold,” Steiner said. “This campus is a gun-free area, full stop. You can learn about safety on campus and shoot somewhere else.”

Thank god U of T is now safe from gun crimes by Olympians in training. Can anyone update me on how the rest of David Miller’s hand-gun ban is going?