A tour around the place

John Norman, an Australian going on his 3rd year here as a foreign teacher, gave us a tour of the university today. Wow, it's big. Many of you might have read about it on the website we sent via our first email. If not, take a gander at www.zist.edu.cn/english/about.htm.

John is a retired teacher and principal. He spent a lot of time with us and took us to the important buildings like the administration building and the building where our teacher's office is located. We also met the head liaison, Oliver, who gave us our class schedules. More on that down the road. Anyway, in 102 degree heat we walked about 2 1/2 hours, and then he showed us a hip restaurant that has its menu in Chinese and English with dishes like omelets, spaghetti, different sandwiches, curry chicken, and all sorts of Western items. This place also shows films on the wall and plays American music. It’s close to the university so we might end up back there for lunch.

Our class schedules to date make Michael a very busy guy. He’s slated to teach English Majors, students in Public Administration and International Trade. With 16 periods a week his day off is Tuesday but his busy day is really Friday. Bummer! We were hoping to get either Mondays or Fridays off to make long weekends of it.

Cindy’s class schedule has really not been sorted out yet. We only know that she is teaching post grads and starts a week after Michael does. By Saturday this should be all sorted out. We have our first staff meeting on Saturday.

Then John walked us down to what he called the open market. Another 2 hour walk. It’s a series of streets with many different shops like DVDs, fresh veggies, restaurants, flowers and bicycles. This is where Cindy purchased her sissy pink older looking but new one speed bike. The school reimburses us 200 RMB (Chinese money) and that’s exactly how much this bike with basket, book rack and lock cost. Why hot pink you ask? Well, who’s going to steal a sissy hot pink bicycle?

Michael wants to look around a bit for a sturdier bike for himself. Preferably one that has Harley Davidson written on the gas tank

As for dinner we got together with the foreign teachers (FT) again. It is Molly’s birthday today (22) and the school purchased a cake in her honor. It was a nice meal at the same hotel we’ve been to three times before with the seasoned FTs. Guess they prefer it to others.

the Metro store

Yesterday was the day we -- foreign teachers -- were taken down to the German owned Metro store. For many in the U.S. this store would be considered a Costco of sorts. This company also ownes Trader Joes and Aldies.

It was arranged that each of us would get our own membership to make it easier for us to shop for those Western brand foods we love so dearly and can't do without. Cheeses (the Chinese do not each much), cereals, and so much more...it's hard to describe.

Some of you have asked about prices of items. To give you an idea, we purchased 22 items in total: 2 large firm pillows, a 10 pack of toilet paper (kleenex brand), oranges, skippy peanut butter, mainland cheese, laundry detergent and dish soap, a 6-pack of pepsi, a jar of jam, saran wrap, garbage bags and a 3 and 10 pack of package of tissue. Yes, we use a lot of tissue. Not only for our noses but to wipe off the sweat and if need be, the toilet.

This is the short list of our shopping extravegansa but in the end we paid 323.45 RMB (the Chinese currency) and that converts to $40.69 U.S.

Today's temperature will be over 100 Farenheit and a dew point in the 70's. We're not going out for much today.

Fireworks

It's 5:20 AM on August 28th. Can't sleep then, all of a sudden, a large boom!

What the hell was that? Don't worry, it's only fireworks being shot off between high rise apartment buildings causing a large boom with echo. Sounded like WWIII invasion from a hostile country. Too bad the buildings were in our way and we could only see a small reflection off the windows in a neighboring apartment block.

Oh well, maybe this is just normal in China on the 28th of August to celebrate something obscure that we don't know about yet.

Since we're up and writing we'll tell you about a few of the teachers we met last night at dinner.

1. Stephen. Our foreign teacher/Canadian liason to the university. Going on 4th year here. Pauline, Steven's wife, we have yet to meet. She arrives from Canada on the 30th.
2. Molly. Recent college grad from Philadelphia whose sister taught at this university after she graduated. New to teaching.
3. Karl. From Irland and taught last year at a middle in Hangzhou proper. Recent graduate of college.
4. Erin. From a small town in Ohio, graduated college a couple of years ago and also taught middle last year in a small town close to Hangzhou.

More teachers to arrive in a few days. All seem okay on first impression.

Keeping in touch with friends and family

Hi folks.

Anyone out there who wishes to use Skype to call us may do so using another email. We are not on our royben account yet so please use this account: Michael-Cindy1

Email, call, snailmail....we accept all visitors and thank all those who keep in contact.

Fondly,

Your hosts to this party :-)

Overnight trip

It’s Sunday, August 27th as we write this. We just got back from Linan Mountain with our friends Shirley, William and their 16 year old daughter, Elsie. Of course, these are their English names.

It’s been so hot and humid in Hangzhou (today was 100 F) that yesterday when Shirley and William came over at 9 AM they told us that they wanted to take us to the mountain where it would be cooler. This was a surprise as we didn’t know this was on the schedule and what pleasant one. We were their guests for the whole trip and they were very gracious to us. As for weather, it ended up being around 70 F today on the mountain. The humidity was pretty high however but what a beautiful place and a wonderful way to begin our adventure.

With lots of road construction Linan is about 2 ½ hours away from Hangzhou. Presently, the government is building a new freeway that will make this trip much shorter but while they are building it, the road sometimes is less than desirable.

The mountain hotel we stayed at is100 years old and located under a canopy of greenery so beautiful it’s hard to describe. Okay, so we’ll try.

The rooms at the 17 room inn have been updated and were very comfortable. Western style toilets, nice showers with hot water, clean and quaint. Just the picturesque Chinese older structure that a Westerner looks for but at the same hopes is modern. The trees by Chinese standard are tall. Lots of bamboo in the area and some as big as 5 inches in diameter. There is also a monastery with a colorful pagoda at least 6 stories high. and yes, there are monks living there year-around. With fresh, cool water streams, the mountain we were told is 3500 meters above sea level but we didn’t even get close to the top. The pathway is made of rock steps and not that difficult to climb. It was the humidity that stopped us from climbing higher

It was great and the company even better. Thank you Shirley, William and Elsie. We had a great time.

Tonight we meet a few other foreign teachers for dinner. More later.

Touchdown Hangzhou

We were only 1 1/2 hours late into Shanghai. Pretty good by airlines standards. Most importantly, all four bags arrived with us. Fanny was at the airport waiting with a driver and we quickly departed for our new home three hours away.

If there is a hotter, more humid place on earth, we would like to hear about it. We've been in steam baths that weren't this hot. It's amazing but thankfully we have air conditioning in the apartment. Also, there is no elevator and we live on the fourth floor. Our daily excercise is climbing up and down these stairs.

A little bit about the apartment. It has two nice size bedrooms, approximately 15 x 15 each, both with air. One is used as an office.Then there is a main living area with a couch, chair, tv/dvd + stand, a small square table with two not so great chairs and a china hutch of sorts. This space is approximately 18 x 25. The kitchen is small at around 7 x 12 with counters, small refridgerator, a microwave (sitting on top of the fridge) and other cooking implements. We don't assume that we will cook much but at least we can make some toast in the morning.

Today we met with our friend, MinXue (Shirley) and she took us to lunch and then to the local supermarket. MinXue also helped us figure out the air system, shower heating system and water cooler system as it's all in Chinese. The supermarket is three floors and sells electronics, luggage, makeup, lighting fixtures and some food too. Escalators are used to get yourself and your cart up to the next level. This place also sells food made on site as you wait so we might be visiting this next week instead of cooking or going to a restaurant. Essentially, this place is like three superTargets on top of each other.

Tonight we went out for dinner with Stephen. He and his wife, Pauline, have taught at this university for four years and he is the liason for us foreign teachers. They are from Canada, friendly and luckily for us, live one floor beneath us. He took us to a restaurant in a hotel. He's quite organized with a menu already printed out for us to help us with ordering. We know that there is more information to come from him.

That's all for now folks as it's only 8:30 PM and we are pooped. Email ya later with more.

8 DAYS AND COUNTING

First, to all our friends and family we say, "Thank you!"

You've supported this life adventure through positive reinforcement, humor, good meals and warm hearts.

Some of you have asked the same questions so we think it’s time to share, with one stroke of the keys, the answers for all to see.

Q: How did this venture come about?

A: First, a bit of background if you don’t mind: We’ve traveled to China before and loved the country, people and last but certainly not least, the food. First time for Cindy was back in the late 1980s with her mother Besse. Then both Cindy and Michael went for 6 weeks in September of 2001 and for one month in April of 2005.

On all three trips the one city visited each time was Hangzhou. In all three trips we were pure tourists, but in 2005, we visited because a warm friendship flourished between our 2001Hangzhou tour guide and ourselves. Her English name is Shirley, and her husband, William, and beautiful daughter, Elsie, made our last trip so special and still, we love the city itself.

Okay, let’s get to answering the damn question. Cindy has always wanted to live in another country and luckily Michael is always game to get on a plane. Since we needed to find a way to do this trip while making some money to support it we thought, heck, let’s teach. Although neither of us have teaching or English backgrounds (we both have a B.A. in Sociology) we took an ESL course, volunteered in adult ESL programs and started sending out emails.

Resumes with an introduction as to why we wanted to teach were sent to every Hangzhou University on the net. It’s a city of 6 + million and they have a few universities there, so, we sent out maybe 20 or so emails and finally chose Zhejiang Sci-Tech University.

Q: Who and what are you going to teach?

A: Oral English to university students.

Q: What’s the living situation going to be like?

A: The university provides couples with a two bedroom / one bathroom furnished apartment. We’ve been told that the kitchen has a refrigerator, microwave, hot plate and electric wok. One bedroom has a full size bed and an armoire. The second bedroom has a desk and computer with ADSL. The living room should have a couch, table, and chair, TV, DVD and purified water dispenser. There is a washing machine but no dryer. We’ll keep you informed as to what is really in the place and hopefully get some pictures up for you to see. By the way the apartment is on the fourth floor, and there is no elevator. FYI -- the tap water is not to be used for drinking hence the dispenser.

Q: Teaching hours are….?

A: Both of us will have our own classes. Each class is 45 minutes long and we teach 16 hours a week. This does not include our prep time. On Wednesdays there is also what they call English Corner. It’s basically any student shows up and we chat about anything. This lasts at least 1-½ hours.

Q: Are we going to have a western toilet as apposed to a hole in the floor?

A: Western!!!

Q: What’s the weather going to be like?

A: Summer = tropical (hot and very humid)
Fall = beautiful and similar to Minnesota’s fall season
Winter = bone chilling cold but not a lot of snow

Q: Where is this place called Hangzhou?

A: It’s a three-hour car ride / two-hour train ride south of Shanghai.

Well, that’s it for now folks. Got to get things done in order to get there. Come back to visit us. See you on the other side. (Idiom)