Week One Over

Apart from avoiding to use the bathroom in the school， the first week here has been fantastic！ As most of you know I have been teaching english to teachers. As I have discovered this week, most of them have not been practising or using English since their days in middle or high school. Most of them have been told that they will be teaching English to their students this coming September as a new requirement to their teaching repetoire. Unfortunately they have had only 6 months of prior training in English. That's the way it works here. So in these weeks we can only do our best to reinforce the English that they do know and get them to practice speaking it over and over.

Its been a great experience, which has giving me more confidence being up their teaching as well as peace in this coming year. I already think that my stomach is accostume to the usual food that the people eat here. The only thing that I would need encouragment in would be to make sure that I don't get burnt out. The team and here right now have been pulling 10 hour days so that's something that I have to watch for when I start in September.

Today we went to a "Forest Park" about an hour away from the city. There were Monkey's, Snakes, and other exotic fauna that one would expect to see when coming to a location such as this. Again I have seen the ingenuity of the Chinese when it comes to making money. There was a exotic bird exhibit with all sorts of ... birds... which were trained to fly to the audience member who were holding at least 10 or more yuan... (dollars) They they would take the money and fly it back to their trainer, genius! Then we watched an elephant show with REAL elephants! The trainers called us to feed the elephants for 10 yuan. Okay so, We pay you and we get food to feed your elephants? So you don't need to spend any money on food at the same time you make money? I'm in, I'm goona get me a St. Bernard and the next time you see me, if you give me $5 bucks i'll let you feed my dog! Sound good?


PS. No time for uploading pictures, you'll have to wait till I get back to Hong Kong.

In Yunnan Now

Wow.. I can't believe I found out how to add a new post, everything on this computer is Chinese!!! Well Its been a couple days, but I've now flown to what will be my new home. The weather is much cooler then Beijing, Hong Kong and Xi'an. Okay sure the food is laced with delicious chili peppers, but I haven't felt the digestive effects from it yet. There was this one really spicy crab dish, which I ate and basically changed the way I tasted food for the next hour. Now that was nuts...

We went to the school and taught english for the first day today, there are about 30 teachers fair sized class, knew much less English then I expected which is okay, except for the fact that now I just have to re-adjust all my lesson plans to follow suit otherwise I'll be talking to about 30 yes men. Pretending to understand but not saying a thing. Well it can make me feel like I'm doing a good job. Some of our teachers got to recieve English names today, some of the more unique ones where Study, Cookie, and Cutie, but there was a student in another class whose name was Penguin. That's a lucky kid. I wish I was named Penguin, he's apparently the most popular in his class so he's got what it takes to pull it off.

I've got to keep this short cause I've got a meeting in ten minutes but if you can, mail me some chocolate.. or Harveys! Oh and if you have any idea's for classroom english activities.. Add em to the comments. I have to teach 6 hours a day!

Zai Jian!

My New Waredrobe

In the process of belonging to another culture, one must start to dress, speak, and act as the those that belong to the culture. Dress has been the first and easiest step for me as the following photos will reveal!

Watches should be as wide as your wrist, that way its easier to tell the time especially if you have trouble looking at your watch at the right distance.

Those monkeys help to eat up odor. I think this is more of a psychological effect.





Cheers for now! Yeahhhhh! Tommorrow is the big day, we are flying back into China to teach English for 3 weeks. I hope I'll be able to continue to post from there! Many thanks to all your encouragements!

Interesting new ways to use the English language

Oh not to forget, in China I have discovered many new ways to use English, ways that I've come to appreciate especially from the signs that I come across.
I challenge you to come up with reasons for any of the signs.

The Chinese eat anything, including pork scratchings. That must be some itchy pork! Itchy pork, itchy pork, itchy pork!





Many things are also prohibitied in China, just take a look at this list. Staying in your hotel room is the safest way to obey all these laws.





As opposed to non-traditional chinese technology? Now that sounds scary.







Scribbling here is a crime... so print neatly, no cursive please!







No way to avoid the stumbling.. But when you stumble be cautious and you should be okay!








Yeah! uhhh, yeah your head! You've got one... so .. uh.. Watch out, cause its yours!








The person who translated that sign is dangerous, ambiguity is never a comforting sign.

Pictures and Fun Facts about China

I'm taking a break from ranting about tour busing and instead I'll give you chance to see some pictures and sites from Beijing, Xi'an and Hong Kong... Here are some classic sites from Beijing. A building in the Forbbiden Palace is first and then a shot of the Heavenly Temple.


Beijing is a massive city and construction was rampant where ever we drove, buildings such as the one to the left are everywhere. They also don't use our mundane 'box style architecture' either.



1. Here we have the Terra Cotta warriors found buried in Xi'an.
2. An area in Xi'an that is being prepared for development (probably because of the next Olympics), while in the mean time it is used as a market for locals.
3. Alice and I in an nice Red, While strip background composition.
4. An Electronic shop in Beijing (across the street) that tried to sell us a 512 memory stick for $70 Canadian dollars. (You should be able to find it for less then half that amount... (and a boy in the foreground waiting for a bus).
5. Finally, we have a show that we saw in Xi'an with traditional Chinese music and dancers.

Touring China... Watch out

Hey y'all I finally decided to start my blog, yes I know I've already been out of the country for about 2 weeks but its been hard to find time and a place to blog. So right now i'm in Hong Kong in a internet cafe.. or more of an arcade There are about 200 computers here and looking aroung I see that i'm the only one that is not playing a game. The decible level is pretty close to a nightclub so don't be suprised to see me in hearing aids. Soooo what have I been doing these past few weeks? Okay so I went to Beijing and Xi'an to tour with Alice and her parents... Bare with me if you can. Oh and sorry that I don't have any pictures up yet, those will come in due time in the mean time humor yourself with the following engrish: "Danger! Hot Work Below!" Yeouch!! Hansel is so hot right now.

Now for part one of my touring China tirade!

4 words, Avoid tour bus tours.
They leave you tired, broke, over stresed and frustrated.

Okay okay, that's a little harsh... how about, Avopid tour bus tours in China? See I'm not generalizing anymore. So I am not that exstatic about the week long tour to Beijing and Xi'an, but I firgured that somethihg like this would happen. I'm not a tour bus kinda buy. I like freedom, flexibliliy in an American kinda a way... Throw the schedule out the window! This is not what a tour with a tour bus is like.

4 Days in Beijing
2 days in Xi'an

Great wall, Summer Palace, Great Buddhist Temple, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Emperors park, Heavenly Temple, Government Administratino Buildings, are just a few of the places I got to check out. But the truth is we spent so little time in each of them (about an hour or less) that its hard for me to be able to appreciate them. We were herded by the guide one place after another as cattle header for the slaughter. Okay I am being a little critical, and I'm not saying that touring is.. wrong, for some people its how they have fun, tourism is good for a country, its economy, don't get me wrong. But I can tour without a company pushing me around. How about...
Avoid tour bus tours in China if you don't like the structure?
Whoa, I'm seeing a whole new perpective to this now. So I went with Alice and her parents, which explains why I went with the bus in the first place and I really appreciate them for inviting me to come and exjperience all the sights with them. Kudoo's to them. I also see that its not the tour guides or any of the people involved on the tour either for the basis of the tirade. Perhaps its the role that we put ourselves in... or the system places on us when we become 'tourists'. Wow this post is becoming a little long, so i'm gonna break it up through a couple of days :) I mean, while touring do we really get a truthful view of the culture? Do we get to see the current culture not only the historical?

Some things to think about. As for Hong Kong, quite the crowded city but i'm enjoying it, the food is great! And tonight i'm picking up a friend from the airport.. some of you might know him from Toronto, Ryan N. Anyway's I've really got to go to the bathroom right now so I have to end it. Maybe its something I ate.

Till next time!