Just chillin out near Youhao Guangchang (Friendshi…

Just chillin out near Youhao Guangchang (Friendship Square) on a Sunday afternoon. Spent the morning walking around with a few people, and had a great lunch at this place that was more or less a hole in the wall. But they had awesome dumplings. Last night I had Korean food… barbequed beef. No dog, I think.

Earlier today, we found this little bootleg DVD place… they’re all over, really. Basically, $1.00 CDN for a DVD. I bought “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Seasons 1 to 4 for $13 CDN, and a Chinese film called “Still Life,” about the effects of the Three Gorges Dam on families, and how they’re unable to find each other after they relocate. If you want any films that are still in theatres, let me know. I can get pretty much anything. I also found this little market with vendors selling all kinds of wood and jade carvings. I want to try my haggling skills later this week, and try and get a few gifts for the family. I need to buy red underwear, because I was born in the Year of the Pig, which is this year, and wearing red undies during the Spring Festival is good luck. That’s in just a few weeks, and should be a lot of fun.

Speaking of which, I have laundry to do tonight, which is always a treat. The apartment is cold, so sweaters take forever to dry. But I have this spinner, which I throw t-shirts and jeans in, and it dries them nicely… there is no such thing as a clothes dryer here.

I think tomorrow I’ll teach my adults a lesson on complaining and making excuses. I should be able to do some fun stuff with that. One of the fun things about teaching Chinese kids are their names. Teachers will give students a name if they don’t have an English one. You get a lot of Jacks, Jims, and Johns, which is really irritating when it comes to remembering names. But you also get some really unique ones. I had a guy named Apple and a woman named Echo in one adult class I subbed in. I also have two Cocos and a Yoyo in my C8 class. The best name ever, in my opinion, was a kid named Begbie in a C6 class I subbed in last week. I want to find the sick teacher who came up with that one.

I should add, that my email address is s.smart@gmail.com. I can access gmail without problems, so write to me there.

Will update in about a week. Cheers!

-Stephen

Alright lads, I’m back in business here. My blog w…

Alright lads, I’m back in business here. My blog was screwed up, and I had to figure out how to upgrade to the Google version using only the Chinese characters on the screen.

Been really busy the past week. Besides working my own schedule, I’ve been substituting loads, and when I haven’t been doing that I’ve been sightseeing. It’s a beautiful city, especially if you go just outside the urban area… it’s surrounded by mountains on three sides, and then the sea on the other.

My apartment is all sorted out now. I had a bit of a crisis last weekend… I came home late Friday night, and my key broke off in the door. No big deal. I just called somebody and crashed at their place. But during the night, a pipe in my radiator burst, and flooded the place. It got fixed, though… they simply removed the radiator. My kitchen is now kinda cold, but at least it isn’t wet.

On the teaching side of life, things are brilliant. I really love this job. My C8’s are my favourite class. My students never cease to do things that make me laugh. The adult class I teach seems to be warming up to each other, too, so that’s good. I’ve just thrown away the awful textbook for that class, and now I’m making up lessons myself. If you can think of topics that teenagers would like, send them my way. I can literally talk about anything in that class. I did a humour topic yesterday, and tried to introduce political satire. It went well. I got some funny stuff about Bush and Kerry. Sarcasm also went well. I’ve got Chinese kids doing air quotes now. Thursday, I taught them about tabloids, and had them role play being Britney and Kevin… Stuff like that seems to appeal to them.

I need to start thinking about traveling a bit. I was going to go to Harbin this weekend… got asked at the last minute to join a few people. Unfortunately, the train was sold out. Definitely still plan to go to Dandong, though. Even if I don’t get to travel too much, given my schedule, I am going to re-apply to come back here for the Summer Intensive program, and then maybe stay six months to a year. I can’t really complain at all about my salary, especially in relation to how much things cost here. I don’t have this kind of spending power at home.

Anyways, that’s all for now. I really miss hockey, but the Leafs still suck as far as I know, so I can live without it for another month or so. Keep in touch.

-Stephen

Ni hao! That’s how you say "hello." Have a day o…

Ni hao! That’s how you say “hello.”

Have a day off today. My first two days of teaching seemed to go well. The classes are quite small. My C8 class, which is around age 10 to 13, has about eleven students, and my C2 class (age 6 or so) has maybe fifteen. I have a Chinese colleague sitting in on both of those classes, so it’s not too bad. The C8’s are quite advanced, though, and need little Chinese translation. I also have an adult class in the late afternoon. My first impression is that they need more encouragement to talk, but I got a few ideas today from my teacher trainer this morning. Basically, the textbook is garbage, and I’m going to do my own thing with them.

Overall, I’ve not had any problems at all, with the exception of possibly not planning enough to fill 2 hours. I’ve sort of breezed through my plan, and then just filled an extra 15 minutes with games… but games which reinforce what they just learned, so it’s alright.

You will be happy to know that my water heater is now working. I still don’t really get hot water, more lukewarm, but I’ll take anything I can get. I seriously thought I gave myself frostbite the first few days I was here, because it was just so cold. My cable has been cut off for some reason. I’ve thought about complaining, but I can’t really be arsed, to be honest. The only English channel on there was CCTV 9… state run t.v. So, the news and documentaries were all hilariously biased. Hmm, think the CBC.

Gonna do some more sightseeing of the city when I’m done here. I might check out Labour Park this afternoon. Heard there is some cool stuff there. I wish I could upload photos, because I’ve taken quite a few. I’m looking into planning a weekend trip to Dandong, which is on the North Korean border. The Great Wall ends there, and it’s supposed to be quite spectacular. I just want to see as much as I can while I’m here. Seven weeks just isn’t enough time.

I’m very impressed with the country so far. I just want to reiterate that I’m not in some sort of police state, so don’t worry! Everywhere you go, you see signs of a country that is rapidly opening up and modernizing. Capitalism is thriving here. It’s kind of funny, because I was asking my students how they felt about Walmart and McDonald’s in my adult class yesterday, and they just loved them… so convenient, they said. I don’t think you’d quite get the same reaction from western 20-somethings.

I’m quickly picking up useful Chinese phrases… we went out on Monday for two of the teachers’ birthdays, and in the cab home I almost had a real conversation… if you can call saying stop here, and then yes, a conversation.

Anyways, if you can come up with any ideas for teaching which gets students to talk, I’m open to any suggestions. That’s the focus… talking. Anything that can get students to speak to each other in English is useful, so let me know!

Will update again in a few days.

-Stephen

Hello friends! Here I am half way around the world…

Hello friends! Here I am half way around the world.

I’ve found a pretty decent internet bar near the city centre, so I’ll probably come here maybe once or twice a week to update this, if I can. My days off are Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The school also has internet access, but it is very touch and go at the moment.

Dalian is probably the most chaotic place I’ve ever been. The most shocking thing that I had to adjust to was the traffic. Essentially, traffic laws do not exist here. Sure, there are crosswalks and traffic lights, but they’re pretty much only there so that somebody can have a job. The wide avenues here are great for traffic congestion, but a real pain in the arse for pedestrians. You just go lane by lane, though, and the cars should go around you if you stand between them.

The contrast between rich and poor is quite stark. The middle class is growing, but it’s still very small. You’ll see freshly waxed Lexuses parked next to small, three wheeled p.o.s’s. And condos towering above what I can only describe as hovels. It really makes me realise just how rich I am at the moment, compared to the general population. Another teacher was saying that they probably look at the foreign teachers here the way we look at Paris Hilton at home… we’re young, rich, and ignorant of any culture. We go out and drop 10 Yuan on a single beer… just shocking.

My apartment took some time to get used to. I’m by myself, which can admittedly be a bit lonely at night, though I’m usually so tired from walking around or working, I crash pretty quickly. There are a lot of western grocery chains here (Carrefour, Walmart…) and I can do a week’s worth of shopping for about 70 Yuan (around 15 bucks maybe.) But I still don’t have hot water; initially, I just took cold showers, but I gave up after four days or so. Now I just boil water in my kettle and fill the bathroom sink to bathe. I’m maintaining a minimum standard of hygiene, which is really all anyone can expect here. Hey, it’s China. Clean is a relative term.

The past week I’ve just had my teacher training. There are 13 new teachers for the intensive course I’m doing, from Canada, Britain, America and South Africa. All good people. Basically, the trainer went over the principles of Aston Schools, and taught us how to do effective lesson planning. I sat in on a few classes yesterday, and got to teach a bit using someone else’s plan. I did pretend job interviews with a more advanced class. The kids came up with some funny shit. One girl wanted to be a diplomat, and said she had written a Ph.D. thesis that made President Bush cry, so that’s why she was qualified for the job. Another kid wanted to be in the NBA. The younger kids seem to be… a little more impish. But they should be fun. I have to be at the school tonight for an open house/party, so I’ll probably meet some of my students.

In general, I’m very impressed with Aston. The school I’m at is called Future 3 (all the schools are Future Schools, numbered 1 through 7.) The teachers are very dedicated to ESL theory, and the lessons seem to be effective. The foreign teachers focus on speaking and listening, while reading and writing is left mainly to the Chinese teachers who work there. For several of my classes, I’ll have a Chinese teacher with me, to assist if I really need it.

Oh, yeah… they smoke everywhere. This internet bar is pretty bad. And I nearly coughed up a lung the morning after going to a bar with the other teachers. That might have been due to the copious amounts of Chinese beer and baijiu we consumed, however. Also, people spit a lot. Inside or outside, it doesn’t matter. And while my apartment has a western toilet, they are not common. Think hole in the floor. I’ll be throwing these shoes in the garbage when I get back…

I’ll update in a few days, when I’ve got some real teaching time under my belt. Cheers!

-Stephen

Khan!

My best Kirk impression, there. Liberal backbench MP Wajid Khan is now a Conservative backbench MP. No big surprise. It does once again alter the balance of power in the minority parliament, however. From the CBC:

In the event of a confidence vote, the government needs the support now of only one opposition party. If you recall, it was previously that way, after David Emerson defected from the Liberals. Then the government lost that advantage when Garth Turner defected from the Conservatives. And now Khan has defected…

I stand by my belief that a floor crosser should sit as an Independent until the next election, and then go through the process of properly seeking the new party’s nomination. Hopefully Khan is not acclaimed as the Tory candidate in his riding automatically, though I do get the feeling that he can get elected as a Tory. He was a rather conservative Liberal, as it was. At least he wasn’t offered anything in exchange for crossing, which I guess is mildly less unethical.

I leave Sunday morning at 10 AM, so this is likely my last post for a while. If I don’t update, check this blog. You never know if one may be unaccessible… for reasons… unknown. I will really miss Canadian politics, if nothing else about this frozen land I call home (well, I guess not so frozen these days.)

The back up blog. I know that I should not have a…

The back up blog. I know that I should not have any trouble accessing this, but I hope I don’t have to use it. I really hate Blogger.

-Stephen

Here in Ontario

…the government unjustly controls the sale of liquor, and it can only legally be purchased at Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) stores.

Now, I personally haven’t been asked for ID when purchasing alcohol for some time now, but why is it that when somebody must prove their age at the government operated LCBO, some government issued identification, such as driver’s licenses, is accepted, while other government issued identification, such as health cards, is not?

Oh, well. It’s irrelevant. The industry should be privatized; here are some facts about Alberta’s experience.

As if we needed another reason

…not to purchase a Zune. Fox News is on the case, as always.

Is it wrong to laugh at the idea of a kid opening up over an hour’s worth of A Rear and Present Danger on Christmas morning?

This is interesting

Ingenious, really. A foundation is developing $100 laptops for distribution to children in developing countries. When you compare that to the relatively high cost of textbooks, linking kids up to the internet and its wealth of information makes much more sense. From the Beeb:

The laptop is powered by a 366-megahertz processor from Advanced Micro Devices and has built-in wireless networking.

It has no hard disk drive and instead uses 512 MB of flash memory, and has two USB ports to which more storage could be attached.

Not a supercomputer, of course, but it’s really just about getting the basic tools to communicate and learn for the best price. Flash drives are getting cheaper all the time, so lack of memory is not really a problem.

I suppose a hurdle to this is the fact that a lot of people who are being targeted by this project do not have electricity in their homes. But according to this site, the laptops could be charged with hand cranks or foot pumps.

I sort of want one myself. Pictures here.

Florida

Where else in the world could this:

Turn into this:

Click here for the story. It might explain why God keeps sending the hurricanes…