email from Huaibei Normal

So I got an email from Byron, who is the other USA teacher at Huaibei Normal. I'm slowly sending him a few questions about teaching and living over there and planning on coming over. So Byron is a 26 year old from Salt Lake City. He has felt that Huaibei ias a very large city (but then again a small city in this province China is 10,000 people, which is certainly larger than a lot of US cities.) He also claims that the people are friendly, but foreigners are rare, so it's common for people to stare, follow you, and call you "Laowai", which means foreigner. He says, otherwise, the people are nice and they always want to talk with you, and help you if they can. UGGH At times, it seems much more appealing then my current situation where I'm not really connecting to people other than my parents and a few people who knew me before I could walk.

On the negative side, many of the social networking sites are blocked in China. Facebook is one of the sites I know of (also myspace, twitter and youtube, which I don't really use). I'm just hoping that Google isn't blocked or else I will have to find a new site to host a blog and email. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that I don't have to change anything on that one. MSN isn't blocked I do know that, since Byron uses hotmail...

As far as teaching and a teaching towards a syllubus, he claims that there isn't much of a syllabus. I would have an English book that I'm supposed to use for class, but he claims that most of the foreigners sit down and prepare out lessons together and are free to teach what they like, which is nice. I guess a this point, as long as I consider that the most important thing to do is to keep the students happy.

Apperently it is difficult to get books other than the classics in my city. I think I am going to bring a few over, but I think I may also invest in a kindle, assuming that Amazon is not blocked. I just find my ability to read Chinese in a year an extremly hopeful wish. With the quantity I read, it may be a sound investment, assuming I can get kindle books. This way I don't necessairly have to travel to Bejiing or Shenghai everytime I want to update my reading material. On the plus side, DVDs are cheap, so I think it would be a safe bet to leave my movie collection at home.

I'm trying to figure out if there is a taylor in town that I can have make clothes for me. Chinese fabrics are stunning, and instead of updating my wardrobe with things I may not even be allowed to wear once I get over there, may be incredibly stupid. I'm in between sizes, anyways, clothes are hard to find for me, they are either baggy or tight. I'd rather have clothes that fit me properly. My dad swears by the shirts he gets from his Hong Kong taylors.

I also went to the dentist today, and I've got to go back on Monday to repair some wear on my teeth and I've apparently started to grind my teeth at night. In the 18 months since I had been to the dentist, I had done a good amount of damage and enamel wear on my front teeth. I went to the eye doctor yesterday and updated my glasses, sunglasses, and contacts. I had some tests done to make sure that I didn't have glaucoma or tumors or anything, basically make sure that my eyes were healthy. I still have one last doctors appointment and series of blood work tests to do (which is more for our records before I go), the follow up dentist appointment (which also wasn't required for the visa, but we just thought would be smart) getting my hair re-styled, and picking up my glasses and I'm set with appointments...

I'm meeting with our family friend to review some of her text books and lesson plans tommorrow, so I can begin to think about taking what I have in mind a step further. I've been toying with using my photography for certain lesson plans. We'll see, because it depends how well I can use powerpoint over there too. The neighbor also teaches Chinese History at Hopkins. I'm trying to arrange meetings with him. We'll see.