The End of September

So much has happened since my last post. I started to teach English at the High School. I have 11 different classes this year. I am really enjoying it. Since I am at one of the best High Schools in the country, most of my students English level is very high. They can, almost always, understand everything I am saying. There is about 50-60 students in every class. This year I have 3 "special classes". 2 of the 3 classes are filled with students who didn't have good enough test results to get into the school but have super-rich parents who paid a lot of money to get into the school. They will ALL study abroad. Almost all of their classes are taught in English, but some of their English levels are not that high. It takes a lot to get these kids motivated to learn because everything has been given to them their entire lives. I am slowly learning what motivates them and adapting my teaching style. There are 4 German students in these classes. They are a little older but they are enjoying China so far.

The other foreign teachers and I are participating in a Kung-Fu class at the High School. It's all in Chinese and we are learning with the Germans (we call the German exchange students "the Germans" or "Zee Germans", they think it's funny) and about 50 Chinese Students. It's really fun! So don't mess with me anymore!


I am taking one Chinese class at a local university named "HUST University". It's a top-10 University in China. I have the class for 2 hours 4 days a week. My Chinese language is really improving. I try to use it as much as possible. It's a very fun class. All the students are super motivated to learn. There are 6 older gentlemen from NORTH-Korea in my class! They all dress in business casual and they all have a pin on their shirt of their "leader/dictator" Kim-Jong-Ill. They keep to themselves most of the time but I try to make conversation with them as much as possible. I know one of them is a mechanical-engineer! They are all learning the language very quickly because they are the most motivated in the class! So Step-It-Up America!!!!

We had one holiday weekend in the middle of September and David, my old Chinese Roommate invited me to his hometown in Tang Shan (Near Beijing). He lives in a simple house in the countryside. I had a great time. Despite not being able to understand their spoken dialect, his parents loved me. In 1979 this city was destroyed by an earthquake. Hundreds-of-thousands of people died, mostly the rich who lived in high-rises. Both of David's parents were near the area. His father was a little further from the city and was not in any danger. His mother was a factory worker at the time and was very poor. She said most of the factory workers would sleep outside when the weather was good. The earthquake was in the middle of the night and she said the buildings around her came down and woke everyone up.

We went to a memorial site and museum but they didn't allow us to take any pictures.

On our way back to Beijing, we stopped at the Ming Tombs. During the Ming Dynasty the kings believed that they could do things to protect them in the afterlife. They would build turtle statues to represent a long life because turtles lived a long time. They would put treasure in and near their coffin so they would be wealthy in the afterlife. So we went to these tombs built for the emperors and their wives. Most of the tombs were underground. The temperature dropped 15 degrees because it was pretty far down. It was, overall, an interesting place.

Well thanks for reading. Check out the pictures!