The following are all of the posts that I had previously listed on a different site. Due to the spam that was hitting that site, I have moved to the location you are now reading from. The following entries are in order from oldest to newest.
Post subject: Nicholas Brosius (Updates)
Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:41 am
I'm not really much of a forum/blog person, and I don't do journals much, but I’ll give this a shot. If nothing else, I'll try to give a snapshot of what it's like for someone who might be thinking of coming.
That said, I went to China with the 2003 summer team, and after a 3 year hiatus (for the sole purpose of finishing school) I’m finally going back long term. It’s been quite a hike so far and I haven’t made it there yet. I’ve had my city of assignment change once (not bad really) and just as it was coming time to leave I broke my collar bone. Fortunately, I have Someone watching out for me and the third “complication” has kept me in the States longer than hoped. It’s been good though because I’m getting more time to recover at home. Everything is lined up now though (as far as I know), and it’s just a matter of time before all the paperwork comes in and I get my visa. I’m working on the time change now, so hopefully I’ll be ready to hit the ground running. School starts the 11th, and I probably won't fly out any earlier than the 8th. It'll be tight and busy, but it'll work. That’s all for now. Spirits are high, and I’m all set. Will write more when I get there.
Nicholas
Post subject: I made it!
Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 7:59 am
Well, here I am. I arrived last night and things are going well. We had a "meeting" this morning with "family," but before I get going on what it's like here, let me back up to just before I left the states. The Father's been really good to me. As you all know (if you didn't, you do now) I broke my collar bone about a month ago. That of course led to medical bills. Well, the largest bill for the ER was $1,200+. When I called about financial information, the lady I spoke with sent out an application and told me I could come down to see her. I did, she took one look at my contract to teach in China and told me I qualified for financial aid. I thought that was great! I mean, half off is A LOT of money, but it wasn't half off. I looked at the paper she had printed out for me, and it said that my debt was paid in full! Talk about feeling like the guy who'd been forgiven a large sum of money. Well, that was what happened before I left. The flight over was rather eventfull as well. On the international flight, I was seated next to a woman who had her grandson (1yr 3mo) with her. That might sound bad, but he was pretty good the whole flight. The bad part came at meal time. I had just finished my bowl of chinese noodles (thankfully) when he decided to kick and I got a lap full of broth. Aside from being very warm and very wet, it wasn't bad. Fortunately it was only about half way into the flight, so I was dry by the time we got off. Now here's the cool part. The guy who sat on the other side of me was headed to the same city as me for business. We chatted some, and exchanged stories. Most of the time you meet someone on a flight, you get off, say bye and go your separate ways. Well, we got to Beijing (that's Danae and I -- Danae is another teacher), and neither of us realized that we had to pick up our luggage in Beijing and check it in again for the flight into Dalian (We had checked it through to Dalian at our respective initial departures). When we went to check in, they told us our flight was delayed and changed our tickets to an earlier flight. At that point I started to wonder what was going to happen with the luggage. Well, who else is there other than the guy I sat next to on the plane? He has a chinese friend! We got him to ask for us (at which point we found out that we were supposed to have gotten our luggage before going through security). Oh what fun! Somehow he got us back through, and someone else told us to go look in this big glass room. All I have to say is that Murphy's law has no effect when you express your need to the Father. Our luggage was right in the doorway! We were able to get it and had no trouble getting back out of security again. We made it all in one piece with all of our luggage, and to top it all off we were early! So what's it like here? This post has gotten so long, and rather than change subjects, I'll put that in the next post.
Post subject: What's it like?
Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 12:57 pm
I'm telling you, it's great here... I'm living in an efficiency, so I've got a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen. It comes with a tv, some furniture, countertop burners, washer, small fridge, and microwave. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. If you want more details you can ask for them. The food's been great so far, and eating out is REALLY cheap compared to the states. You can get a pretty decent meal for around $2.50. So far, the only "different" foods I've had are squid and lamb (had 'em both before), but it's only been about a week. I did break down and buy a phone when I realized that it might not be a good thing if I were stuck in the middle of nowhere by myself, and for what I probably would have paid for a basic phone in the states, I got one with an mp3 player (only really significant to me b/c I can set any song as my ring tone that I want if I have it on my computer), a camera, and most importantly an English to Chinese dictionary all built in. What can I say, it was as cheap as one of the phones that only had the basics, and a friend has one and she said she had no complaints with it. Enough about the toys, what's my life going to be like? Glad you asked! I start classes on Monday (I have freshmen and they've had military training all week, so they start when I do). I'm sure it's not this easy in every city, but Dr. Pilger, you're going to love this... I have ONE prep for the whole week! I have one lesson that I'll be teaching all week to a different class each time. It doesn't stop there though. Since all of the students take the same exam, I only have to come up with one lesson from scratch. The freshmen teachers take turns, and we each write one lesson plan a semester so that the students are all getting the same material. I do have the liberty to modify someone elses lesson plan, but there are a few elements that I cannot change. Talk about being spoiled! This is not what the first year of teaching is supposed to be like. All in all, I make a little less than $500 a month (based on current exchange rates -- just a little less than ¥8 to $1), but housing, water, and all the good stuff is pretty much provided. I know that may not sound like much, but $500 can go a REALLY long way here. Sure there are little "set backs" here and there, but it's not usually anything major. The campus is somewhat large. For me to walk from my room to my office can take anywhere from 15-20 mins depending on whether I walk fast or not. I think the dorms have at least 7 floors, and most of the class room buildings have 3 or 4 (haven't really counted). The school is kinda set right on the edge of the city, so if I'm not rushed for some reason, I can walk to the stores. I'll say this much, it's been good exercise getting around. Oh, I mentioned that I got a phone. I didn't list a number simply because I don't have one yet. The place where you get service (they are kinda like pay as you go here) was closed when I got the phone, so I have to wait until tomorrow to get my phone number. I'll come back and edit this post when I have it (Sorry, if I give you the cell number and you call me, it'll kill my phone. My home number is 011-86-411-8473-6255. Yes, that has all of the country codes and everything.). I don't have my schedule yet, so I can't say when I'm teaching throughout the week (see the next post), but from looking at the other teachers' schedules, it's not too bad. How about the language barrier? Well, so far I've hung out with people who know a little Chinese, or I went out with a Chinese person who spoke English. From what I understand, they will start Chinese classes soon and I'll be able to get to work studying. How about something random... They just put a railroad engine on display in the middle of the campus. Yesterday, there was just a small section of track (large enough to put an engine on), and this morning when I walked by, it was just sitting there. I'm not sure when they brought it in or how, but it just appeared nonetheless. That's all for now folks.
Nicholas
Post subject: Teaching Schedule
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:02 am
Monday: 8:00 - 9:40; 1:30 - 3:10
Tuesday: 8:00 - 9:40; 1:30 - 3:10
Wednesday: 1:30 - 3:10
Thursday: 8:00 - 9:40; 10:10 - 11:50; 3:40 - 5:20
Friday: 10:10 - 11:50; 1:30 - 3:10
Then consider that there may be an english corner or two thrown in there for an evening.
Post subject: Getting into things...
Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:55 am
Well, the first week of teaching is completely over, and I'm already halfway through the second week! That means I’ve been here almost 3 weeks already! Time is really flying. Next week I take this figure 8 strap off, and I’ll probably go to see a doctor here. For the most part everything with my clavicle is coming back around to the point of feeling normal. I have pretty much all of the movement back, and it’s just going to be a matter of building the muscles back up. Along the lines of good news, I get my new bank card today, so I’ll finally be able to access the money that has been sitting in my account that I haven’t been able to touch as of yet. Secondly, we heard back from the Doylestown Emergency Physicians, and they dropped their bill from $432 to $108! PTL! He really is good! They also said they will accept as little as $5 a month which is good for me because that mean my parents can make monthly payments from the money that I left in the States (wiring money home is a hassle, and you lose some in transaction). So now it looks like I’ll be good to go, and hopefully, I’ll be able to pay off any remaining bills with what money I can bring back from working here in China. As you can probably tell, I’m incredibly grateful. The first week of classes was introductions. That went pretty well. This week we are finally getting into things and going over material, and two weeks from now we begin speeches. For the most part the kids are great and I love what I’m doing. We have next week off for the October Holiday, so maybe I’ll get to travel a little and see another place in China. Last night we had a banquet for all the English dept. The food was … different. Some of it I recognized, some I didn’t. Most of it was really good. Just to give you an idea, some of the things on the menu consisted of duck, lettuce, jelly fish (in stuff), beef (I think), fish (mild in flavor), shrimp, pork, dragon’s beard (don’t know if we have it in the States), mushrooms, rice, beans, sesame seed balls, watermelon, and more that I can’t remember. It was definitely not western food, but most of it was pretty good. Following dinner, there was some karaoke (it’s a big thing in China). They wanted me to sing, but they only had one page of English songs, and I didn’t recognize any of them. All in all, it was a good time, and I had a lot of fun (and free food). That’s all for now.
Nicholas
Post subject: October Holiday!
Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:51 pm
Well, here I am three weeks into school and on vacation! The first holiday of the school year is October Holiday. I guess it starts with National Day and lasts the week. On Monday, I went and climbed a local mountain with some friends. On Tuesday five of us decided to take two day trip to Bing Yu Gou. It was pretty cool. We took a bus to get there. The ride lasted about 2 hrs or so. I slept most of the way there, so it felt more like 20 mins. When we got there, we got two hotel rooms (one with a bathroom and one without), and split the cost. When it was all said and done we paid about $2.50 a head to stay the night. Now we were almost out in the middle of nowhere, so you can imagine what the hotel might have been like. It wasn't the cleanest place in the world, but it was a place to spend the night and an experience to remember. After getting the rooms and putting our stuff down, we set out to hike around the parkish (I made that word up) area to see what there was to see. It was pretty cool. This "park" that we were in was all in the mountains, and had a river running through it. We followed the well beaten path, took one that wasn't so well beaten and just had a good time seeing everything there. There were a couple of zip lines here and there and one section that had "amusement rides." Other than that, it was pretty much just sight seeing as we walked the trails (mostly paved). By the time we finished the sun was completely down and we were all tired of walking. The meals we had were rather interesting. I think I'll just leave it at that and say that the food in the city is more appetizing. For our second day, we took a trip to the hot springs. I can honestly say that I have never been to a hot springs before. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but I think it was a little warm to spend all of the time that I had in hot water. I got in a couple of times, and spent most of the time out of the water just enjoying myself. I got a little sun, and after that was all said and done, we hit the road and we on our way home by bus once again. Upon arriving back in Dalian, we promptly found a good place to eat and had a big meal. Classes have been going well, and all else seems to be in order, so until next time, keep “thinking” of all of us here.
Nicholas
Post subject: It's been a couple of weeks...
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 5:33 am
So what's been going on? Things have been pretty normal around here. You might say that there hasn't been much of interest that has transpired. Classes have gone pretty normally, and the students... well, let's just say they really aren't any better than the High School students I know in the States. I've heard that often times students will work their tails off in HS and then when they get to college, they relax and don't take it seriously. I must admit though that the second week of speeches went much better than the first. Some of the students copied work, but we'll see how much it happens again now that I've told them that I give both people zero's for copied work. They are to write out their speeches so most of the time all I have to do is skim them and look for similar sounding speeches. Most of the students have quite a ways to go, but some are pretty good with speaking and holding a conversation. I finally got an oven (not that many people knew I was looking for on), and the Father was pretty good to me. I was looking around at the prices, and the one I wanted was going to cost me about 300 Yuan. Well, I was waiting and looking around for a better deal when someone came to me and told me about one that was for sale. She told me it was exactly what I was looking for and that it was 50 Yuan. Needless to say I scarfed it up. I even got a toaster to boot, so I'm sitting on top of the world right now. Now if that's not good enough, I decided to press my luck again. I got up "early" this morning (8:30 is early for a Saturday), and headed down toward the beach. Okay, so what's at the beach other than water and a little park? Glad you asked. There's a nice little bicycle shop down there! You see, I took a trip to the hospital and got an x-ray. They said everything with the clavicle looked good and sent me on my way.
You know what that means... It was time to get back on a bike! Well, I picked one up this morning. It certainly wasn't the cheapest investment in the world, but it's pretty nice, and it will be cheaper than a taxi and quicker than walking in the long run. It's better than most bikes that you'd pick up in Wal-mart or some place like that. It rides nicely, and it's much better than the bike I have at home. It feels good to be back on two wheels. I think that's the biggest news for now. I almost had a second job working for HP, but that fell through. The job would have been through the school here at Neusoft, but the two companies couldn't come to terms, and they called it off just before I was supposed to sign the contract. I would have been convenient because the HP building that would have been working in is right here on campus. I guess He knows better than I do. Maybe I wouldn't have been able to handle it. It would have been two hours on Thursday evening, and if you'll recall, Thursday is my busiest day of the week. I'm not going to worry about it. Chinese classes are fun, and I’m learning a little (very little), but you have to start somewhere, so it’s good. As for the weird and random… it seems like every day is Halloween in China. When I say that, I don’t mean that people go around egging people’s houses and cars. What I mean is when it comes to fashion, pretty much anything goes in China. You’d laugh pretty hard if you saw some of the outfits people wear here. Thanks for all your “thoughts”.
Nicholas
Post subject: Time flies when you're having fun...
Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 3:15 pm
I'm not quite sure where the time is going, but I knew this was going to happen. It's like I blinked and missed 2 months of my life. Fortunately, I haven't missed them, and it's been a great time. I've gotten settled in, and it almost feels like I've known everyone here my whole life now. Things are really going great and Opportunities have afforded themselves. I'm really loving my job, and life is good. Sure there are little set backs and all, but that will happen anywhere, and overall, it's been great. I'd love to expound, but I won't at this point in time. Aside from obvious reasons, it would make this post balloon, and my previous posts would probably look bite size in comparison. Changing keys, I'd have to say that students surprise me. I mean, I know to expect the unexpected, but their honesty about dishonesty was quite a shock. We had speeches the other week about "Your friend is having trouble in class and asks to copy your work. What should you do?" Sounds like a no-brainer, right? I was quite shocked to find out how many students wrote down that they felt is was their obligation to cheat! They basically said it was their obligation to help their fellow students in a time of need. Forget the fact that it could hurt their friend’s chance at a much better job in the future. I realize some of it is engrained in Chinese culture, but something tells me the roots lie much deeper (if you know what I mean). A lot of kids in the states would do the same thing, but something tells me that most of them would never admit to it. So you wondered why test scores are so high? My guess is that it's often one big joint effort because a lot of these kids seem like average Joe's to me. Many procrastinate just like students in the states. Some are less than prepared for class. Although at the expense of losing points, many are motivated. All things considered. They're just like the ones back home. Some try hard and succeed. Some don't try hard and succeed. Some don't try, and their grade is evidence of that fact. I have low, average, and excellent students. I was in English corner (explained at the bottom) and one of the girls that was in my group came to me afterward and asked if I'd like free Chinese lessons. Now this isn't anything unusual so I was slightly skeptical until she said she wasn't from my school. A lot of times students will tell the foreign teachers that they will help them with Chinese. That's great if they have a game plan and know how to teach it. Well, as it turned out, this girl is from the language school in the middle of the city, and her major is basically teaching Chinese as a second language. It sounded good to me. I learned a couple minutes later that to earn money doing that, people have to register with the government (you even have to register your pets here!). To register with the government, you have to have experience. Now how do you get experience? Offer free lessons to a foreigner, I guess. The only thing I was worried about was the whole guy/girl thing. Wouldn't you know that Someone is watching out for me? That same night I was in my Wednesday meeting, and one of the other foreign teachers (from another school) mentioned that for one reason or another the person who had been teaching her Chinese no longer could (I don't remember the reason). Anyway, at the end, I mentioned the proposition that had been made to me, and it looks like her problem and mine might be solved. My first lesson with my new teacher is scheduled for next Saturday (11/11). Now I'm up to three Chinese lessons a week. Yay! Now for the bad and good news... The bad news is I popped the back tire on my bike (no clue how). The good news is I got it fixed, so I'm back in business. And last but not least, my random comment for the record... Don't eat the little round things. I have no clue what they are, but your whole mouth will go numb in a matter of seconds. We call them ... FACE IMMOBILIZERS! (Don't you just hate it when people type in caps?)
As always, thanks for keeping us "in mind,"
Nicholas
English Corner:
Every Wednesday here from 3:40-5:00 some of the teachers give a presentation (on a rotation basis) about a designated topic. It might last 15-20 mins. The rest of the time, all of the teachers there that day break up and go to different places in the room. The students go to whomever they want and just talk with that foreign teacher for the rest of the time. It never really stays on the topic that was spoken about and turns into a question and answer session.
Post subject: LET IT SNOW!
Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 2:44 am
That's right folks, it's going to be a cold one... eventually. The weather has been interesting the past couple of days. We've gone from, "Wear your short sleeves" to "Hey look, it's snowing," in two days. It was quite bizarre. I woke up and took a look at the weather report which said it was snowing! I ripped the curtain back and took a peak. Sure enough, there were little white flakes wafting through the air. By the time I made it outside they were much bigger and coming down at a more steady rate. Unfortunately, the temperature isn’t that cold yet and nothing stuck to the ground. I guess it’s just as well though because the temperature is supposed to be back up to 62° tomorrow and 67° on Wednesday. That’s the latest and greatest in the past 24 to 48 hours since my last post. We’ll see if the weather continues in these strange patterns.
As for the weird and random… Don’t try the Black Black gum ‘cause it ain’t black licorice. It smells like a Vicks inhaler and tastes just as bad.
Nicholas
Post subject: With Him, all things are possible...
Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 8:02 pm
This time I decided not to write about everything that has happened since my last post. I'm going to try to keep this one short. We'll see if I have accomplished that by the time I'm finished. I could start with the bill from the hospital, but you've already heard that. I could start with how He provided the summer that I came, but I can't remember if I wrote about that already. I could recall how He got me through college and paid my debt off by the end of summer after graduation. I could list every one of these situations and more, and all of it would testify to His ability to turn the impossible into reality, but on Friday night (it's now 3:14 AM Sunday) He reminded me of a time that He acted on my behalf prior to any of the afore mentioned events. When I was just a baby, I had some terrible bouts with asthma. The doctors aren’t sure why I made it. They said I’d always be as skinny as a twig and never able to do any physical activities. The years went by. I grew older, and had trouble with asthma. Most of it was brought on by physical activity, but it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be remedied with an inhaler. I can remember when I had to stop running simply because I couldn’t breath. My muscles said, ‘Keep going. We aren’t tired yet,’ and my lungs would tell me, ‘You’d better stop. We aren’t getting any air down here.’ I must admit that it was rather frustrating. As a tribute to His goodness, I have to admit that He has proven the doctors wrong and given me a chance to breathe! On Friday night I was supposed to play badminton with some friends. We had a court reserved for 2 hours. The one girl that was supposed to come got hung up at the office and popped in for the last couple of minutes. It was the end of the week, and though we’d had 2 hours to release our tensions on a birdie, she hadn’t had the chance to unwind yet. She asked who was up for a run, and I figured, ‘Why not. It’s only been 2 hours of badminton.’ I must admit that I don’t do too much running here. I walk quite a bit, but that’s a little different. When she said how far she wanted to run, I immediately reserved myself to a third of her goal. After all, 2 hours of badminton had taken its toll on me already. However, by His grace and the work that He's done in my body physically, I can say that I made it the full three miles that she planned to run without stopping! I honestly didn’t think it was possible, but then again, who am I to say what He is capable of? The simple truth made plain is that with Him, all things are possible.
As for the weird and random: If you want to say asthma in Chinese, repeat after me… 气喘病。
Nicholas
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nbrosius
Posts: 22 Joined: 24 May 2006 Location: Dalian Post subject: Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:34 pm
And since I'm late with this post and it's over, let the Christmas music begin! Weeks are turning to days, and it almost makes me afraid to blink. Thanksgiving was ... well, just another day here. I taught three classes and went to an English corner in the evening. So it sounds like a busy day, but it wasn't all that bad. The highlight was the evening when our "Family" grew by 14! I'm sorry I can't go into all the details now! Friday evening we had a dinner at the Swissotel (Yes, we would say Swiss Hotel). That was the best western food I've had since I've been here. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes (yes, the nasty boxed kind), sauerkraut, stuffing,... I ate so much that I could barely move when I was finished. It's a good thing I don't get food like that all the time. It was an excellent meal. I wasn't sure what it would be like. After all, the Chinese people never eat turkey, and the "western" food that they have is always tainted by the Chinese way of cooking. Friday night was definitely the exception. I guess I've definitely had plenty to give thanks for.
I have a confession to make. I haven't exactly been the photo taker that I was the first time I came to China, but I have gotten around to posting some pictures for everyone to take a look at. Granted these ones are really old, but it's always better late than never. While at Bingyugou during the October Holiday, we took pictures! Of course some of them wanted to be really cantankerous, so I didn't upload them, but I'm sure there will still be plenty to peruse. You'll find them all
here .
Let's see... weird and random: In honor of the Christmas season that is now upon us, I thought I'd share one disappointing element to the Chinese Christmas season. Pretty much every artificial tree you see set up for Christmas is a Charlie Brown tree. They all look really pathetic!
Post subject: Exams are here already?!?!?
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:38 pm
It's been a little while! It hasn't quite been a month yet though. Let me start by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! My room is all lit up for Christmas complete with a tree and a few presents under the tree. There's snow on the ground outside, and hopefully it will last another day. There's a chance for some snow Christmas night as well right now, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it comes a little early. I guess you could say the mood is set, and I have plenty of Christmas music. All I'm missing now are my family and friends back home, so why don't you come on over and pay me a visit sometime.
If you'd like to see a few pictures, you'll find some of the snow
here . I may be adding more pictures to this group as time goes on, but I'll let you know if and when I post more.
Exams...
Well, Monday's exams are over. They went pretty well, and I managed somehow to give a one-on-one oral exam with all 32 students in each class in the allotted 100 minutes. Yes, that means they're really fast exams averaging about 3 mins in length. The rest of the classes this week are reviewing for exams. Monday's classes got to go early because their exam would otherwise fall on Christmas day, and it is specifically noted in my contract that I have off for that day. Yes, Christmas is a "western holiday" -- at least to the Chinese anyway. It is gradually working its way into China, but it's not nearly as important to them. They may call it a "holiday," but it's still just another work day to them. I'm just glad Christmas falls on a Monday. That means I get a three day weekend! That pretty much covers exams and life lately here except for one thing. This is actually old news because I forgot to post it when I last wrote, but... I ATE DOG MEAT! I know. Most of you are thinking one of two things. Ewww! Gross! OR How could you?!?!? Then there are a strange few who will have read that and say, COOL! Well, I did it on purpose. I just wanted to say I've tried it. Plus you can't knock it unless you've tried it. Now the one thing that's eating at you no matter what your response was is the question, "What's it like?" First of all, let me say that eating dog isn't terribly common here. I actually got it from a restaurant that serves Korean dishes. It came in a soup, and the flavor was rather unique. I've had lots of stuff from squirrel, rabbit, deer, duck, goat, squid, to the normal stuff that everyone buys in our grocery stores back home, and all I have to say is that dog doesn't taste like any of it. If you want to know what it tastes like, you'll just have to try it for yourself. As for the texture. I'm sure they could have found a better way to prepare it because the meat was pretty tough and kinda stringy. Taking all of that into consideration, I probably won't be trying it again anytime soon unless someone orders it by mistake or someone (westerner) finds some that they claim is extremely good. I think that's enough for now. If there's anything you'd like to know, email me your questions at
nbros652@yahoo.com, and I'll try to give answers in my next post.
Keep in mind the Opportunities here. Maybe I'll send some updates of those home with my parents when they come to visit.
As for the weird and random:
In China you can buy MSG (monosodium glutamate) off the shelf in huge containers, and the literal translation of the common term for MSG in Chinese (if I remember correctly) is "counterfeit salt."
Until next time (which will hopefully be soon, being the holiday season),
Nicholas
Post subject: Happy New Year!
Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:21 am
Well, it's the January 3rd. We were going to watch the ball drop online, but the internet connection was a little slow, and by the time that the video feed finished loading, it was already a good 30 seconds to a minute past 2007 (in NYC). For us, the new year started 13 hours earlier. Anyway, the new year is here for all of us, and that means a couple of things on this end...
First of all, exams are over. We finished the Friday after Christmas just as planned. I think all of my students were on edge... probably because they waited until the last week to study. And then there were the students that didn't study at all... It was pretty easy to pick them out. Some students did excellent, and others didn't have a clue. It really shocked me that I actually had any students get less than a C. I say that because they knew what 50 of the 60 points of the final was going to be. They had a list of the possible questions for the first 50 points, and yet some of them still managed to get a zero on the final. You have to try really hard to do that. On the other hand, many of the students memorized 20 one minute speeches and the meanings of 22 different idioms with an example for each. I have to admit that it would take a good amount of time to do all of that. Then there are the students who did well because they knew the topics and were able to converse on the subjects. I'm just glad it's done, and in spite of the level of stress that it put me under to get the students done in the time I had, I'm glad we did it that way. I do pity the sophomore teachers. Their exams were longer, and their classes weren't necessarily smaller. In looking back though, my grading was done as soon as the last student finished. I didn't have to take 300+ papers home and grade all of them. That would have been a royal nightmare. Plus, I don't even want to think about all of the cheating that would have gone on (It's a way of life here). The desks are arranged in such a way that cheating would be incredibly easy, and they're bolted to the floor. On top of that, I hate grading copied papers. I'm glad the finals were oral. That pretty much wraps up the finals. Which leads to free time!
So what have I done with my free time so far? Well, most of it has been spent relaxing. We have a few more meetings coming up before we are free for good, but for now it's been down time. I must admit that the down time has been good too. I think yesterday was the most active day that I've had since exams finished. Carolynn, Danae, Christy, and I decided to get out and go skiing. That was fun! A little while after we got there, Ted (the guy who went with us to BingYuGou) showed up with a friend of his. It wasn't anything terribly fancy, but it was enough for those of us who've never gone before. We all had a great time, and I know that at least I was worn out when we finally got back to the dorms around 9:00.
I see that I've gotten ahead of myself a little here though... Let me back up to Christmas Day. Christmas went well. We got up in the morning and those of us that are here under Global Resources got together for brunch and a small gift exchange. We had a good time together. New Years Eve a bunch of us got together to play some games (one of which was Jenga). New Years Day was mostly uneventful. That brings me back to the present. Today I talked with a friend of mine from High School. He's also here in China, but in a different city. We're thinking of getting together later this month and doing some traveling down south. That's all still up in the air at the moment right now until we can get a good idea of what travel methods are available, and what it's going to cost overall. The next major thing that I have to look forward to is my parents arrival. They should be here this Sunday evening! Just "keep them in mind" for me. They've never made the trip, and with luggage and all... Well, you know how that goes. Also "keep in mind" the friends I have here that will be going home during this break. Carolynn, Danae, and Christy will all be heading back home for roughly 2 months as will other of the foreign teachers. Thanks for all your "thoughts." Let me know sometime how things are going back on your end.
Weird and Random: Who comes up with a name like Jenga when naming a game?... The word Jenga is Swahili, and it means to build. I guess it all makes sense when you consider that the inventor's first language was Swahili.
Post subject: Vacation continues
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 7:26 am
It hasn't quite been a month yet, but my parents told me that some people have been asking when my next post is coming. Well, here it is. Since a last wrote, a few things have happened. I had a birthday, my parents came, I did a week of teaching, and I finally bought a plane ticket. My parents actually got in just in time for my birthday. It was a great day. I celebrated with my friends here and then went to the airport with a friend to meet my parents. It was like my birthday lasted a whole week! I guess I have plenty to celebrate since I've made it this far. I've survived life threatening asthma attacks, fingers in car doors, a broken thumb (trampoline accident), loss of a fingertip (while working on the grounds crew at college), two bicycle accidents where I went over the handlebars (resulting in stitches in the head one time and a broken clavicle the other). I can't remember any of the other mishaps without stopping to think about it. I guess I'm glad to have made it to 24.
The time spent here with my parents was great. We did a TON of shopping! My parents got here on a Sunday night and left the Tuesday afternoon of the following week. They basically got a good idea of what it is that I do here. I took them out to most of the restaurants we visit on a regular basis. I showed them all of the different places to shop from Wal-Mart to the underground malls to the Korean market where you can barter for just about everything (no, it's not really Korean). Oh yeah, and you couldn't miss the all of the street vendors along the way. We went with the English faculty (Chinese and foreigners) to play laser tag, and had a dinner afterwards. We went through one of the parks that's here in town and would have gone skiing if I had remembered the correct price and taken enough money. The week didn't go by too fast, but we still didn't get around to see everything that there is to see in the city. All in all, it was a great week. When they left, I sort of started to wonder what to do with myself. The other three teachers that I usually do stuff with all headed back the US the same day as my parents. As might be expected, the next week was not as eventful. I sort of relaxed all week and didn't do much of anything. By the end of the week I wasn't sure what to do with myself. Fortunately for me, I got a call from my boss asking me if I'd like to work the following week. When I heard how much I'd be making and that it was 6 hours a day, I readily agreed. I had a group of about 15 Computer Science faculty that wanted practice speaking in English. One of the best parts about the whole arrangement was that everyone was there on a voluntary basis! I actually had students that had chosen to come to class. The week went well, and they wanted to do a lot of talking in class which was good news for me. That meant I did not have to talk for 6 hours straight! I went out for lunch with someone (not always the same person/people) from the group every day, and we'd play ping-pong after eating. It was a good time, and I made a good bit of money that I'll be able to use for travel.
My friend and I finally set the date for travel. We're going to head to Kunming on Feb 8th, and we'll be leaving there to come back on the 25th... Yes, I'm in China, and I'm on break, so I'm going to get around and see some of the sights. I figure the 8th to the 25th should give us a good amount of time to get around down there. Kunming is in central southern China. It's the capital of the Yunnan province, and many people have told me that the weather is absolutely gorgeous there. I'll have to fill you in on all of that when I get back though. I think I've hit on all of the highlights since my last post. If I don't write again before my trip (I probably won't), then I hope all of you have a good month. It's great having a long break!
Now I must get back to my computer. For some reason WindowsXP doesn't want to load at all, and even though I can work from Linux, there are some things I'd like to have Windows for. Thankfully, I have all of my most important files on an external drive where I can get to them. I certainly have plenty of time to get myself back up and running... I hope.
The weird and random section:
You can buy Oreo cookies here... Yeah, the real Nabisco ones, but they don't sell the double stuff (at least not that I've seen), and there just isn't as much cream inside them! They're still good though.
Thanks for all your "thoughts,"
Nicholas
Post subject: "Right place at the right time"
Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:35 am
Well, there's been a new turn of events. The trip that I was to take tomorrow was canceled last Saturday when I got an email from my friend Andy. It seems he's stuck in the United States. It seems a little strange to be stuck in your home country rather than a foreign one. He's just hoping that everything will be worked out in time for him to make it back to teach when second semester starts (beginning of March). I considered going down anyway, but Andy was the one with the contacts down south. I might be able to make it on my own if I tried, but I don't trust my Chinese THAT much. I have to admit that I was really frustrated at first, but I think I'm over it now. As Tom wrote in the post before this one, "[I] seem to be in the right place at the right time." If that's the case and the Father knows best, then I'm supposed to be here, and not in Kunming. I also got all but 61 RMB of my plane ticket back. That's about $7.87! I can handle getting 95% of my money back when there's less than a week before my trip. My biggest Opportunities now will probably be with the other foreign teachers here.
Weird and Random:
Though China is officially all one time zone (that doesn't observe DST by the way), the people on the western side of the country set their clocks behind Beijing's time anyway just for convenience sake.
Nicholas
Post subject: A new semester begins
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 8:16 am
The last month has been rather uneventful for the most part. However, things are starting to pick up again. Monday was supposed to have been the first day back to class... but it wasn't. Classes were cancelled. I don't know if it was the inclement weather or the fact that, at the time that it was cancelled, we were without power and water. Yes, Sunday night was rather interesting. I left the apartments around 4:30 in the evening to go to my office across campus to pick up my class lists and was worried that I wasn't going to make it back alive. I wouldn't have minded the sleet pelting me in the face if the wind hadn't been so strong that it was literally pushing me across the level blacktop covered in ice. Yes, I stood still and rode the wind across the blacktop. It was so bad that at one point, I grabbed a wall and the wind rushed under my coat and lifted my coat halfway off my body. I did make it back to the dorms alive and the girls and I decided that we were not going to be going to our Sunday night meeting. It was just too dangerous, when people are hanging onto trees to keep from being blown away (I was one of them) you know it's just dangerous to go outside. Anyway, like I said we lost power, water, and heat! They decided around 10pm Sunday night that Monday's classes were going to be cancelled. Monday came and went, and we stayed inside (the power came back on around 5am Monday morning but the water was on and off throughout the day). It's now Tuesday and I've finished my only class for the day. I have one new class this semester and the other nine are classes that I had last semester. We have one new teacher from New Zealand. You can keep him in mind. He came to lunch with a group of us on Sunday and was asking a lot of really good questions. We'll see what opportunities are afforded there as the semester goes on. That's it for now. My schedule is below for those interested, and my weird/random comment as well.
Schedule:
Monday
»10:10 - 11:50
»1:30 - 3:10
Tuesday
»8:00 - 9:40 (only May 8th to June 19th)
»10:10 - 11:50
Wednesday
»8:00 - 9:40
»1:30 - 3:10
Thursday
»8:00 - 9:40 (only May 10th to June 21st)
»1:30 - 3:10
»3:40 - 5:20
Friday
»8:00 - 9:40
»10:10 - 11:50
»1:30 - 3:10
Weird and random:
I am currently sitting at Starbucks (where there is free wireless), and one of the workers just came up and offered me a caramel soy latte.
Nicholas
Post subject: One day at a time
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 7:44 am
Sometimes I think life is going by faster than just one day at a time. I can remember the days when a summer lasted a lifetime. I'm now afraid to blink for fear that the rest of the semester will pass by before I open my eyes again. There isn't much terribly new happening here. We're at the point in the semester when all things seem to continue as they have been since the year started. That's not to say that nothing happens. I've lost my wallet, found it, and lost it again since I last posted. I signed up for a field and track day that we'll be having at the end of April. I'm supposed to run a 200 meter, 3000 meter, and a relay. Oh, and we'll be playing volleyball throughout the month of April as well. Our Friday night English corner has been interesting. We have seen several new students showing up and asking some really good questions some of which are pretty straightforward. Keep them "in mind" though because many of them are looking all over and at many different things. The teacher from New Zealand is also still seeking. He's been reading up on Anton LaVey. I don't think he's committed himself to any one thing. Over all, things are going well. I've officially told the school that I'd stay on next year, so when I come home it will only be for a couple months, and then I'll be back off to China again. I guess I don't really have much more to say. So much that we would consider out of place, I've come to accept as common and normal. I'm sure that when I come back to the States, I'm going to experience culture shock just because the odd things that happen around me every day will be virtually non-existent. Well, that's all for now folks.
Weird and Random:
Question: Since when is giving your teacher a pair of underwear considered a perfectly normal gift? (No, I was not the recipient. One of the other American teachers was)
Answer: Since the day I stepped into Chinese culture.
Post subject: A month and a Holiday later...
Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 4:05 am
Okay, I've been bad about posting updates. It's been busy, and the end is in sight. I think I'm just getting to restless to sit long enough to force myself to sit down and write. School is going well. Not much happened out of the ordinary here since I last wrote as far as classes go. I did just pick up one new class that I see two times a week. It's nice to have a class that I see more than once a week. Opportunities here are growing. If you recall the English corner that I mentioned in my last post, I asked that you keep it "in mind." Well, it's growing so rapidly that the people in charge decided to start holding an English corner on Thursdays as well! When I first started going, I'll admit that I got really tired of talking about computer stuff. Conversations have finally begun to shift to some "really good topics." The students have been asking some really great questions, and it has opened the door for me to explain a lot of things. As for the sporting events that I told you about in the beginning of April, the volleyball went okay. We came in forth place (which is amazing because we were horrible). The relay race that I ran in was so bad that I don't remember what place we came in. I took 4th place in the 200 meter. The 3000 meter race that I was supposed to run was too full and they asked me to run the 800 meter instead. 
I happily agreed and proceeded to take first place in that. -- Dr. Russo, if you ever read this, that little asthmatic baby that you took care of in Fairfax that never should have lived so many years ago, has been healed, and runs on a regular basis now. -- After the sports day, we took our travels for May Holiday! We went to Beijing and Xi'an. Some the things we saw included the Emperor's Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Huashan (Hua Mountain - one of the 5 famous mountains in China), the terracotta warriors, the Bell Tower in Xi'an, and a few other things. You can find pictures of my travels in Beijing and Xi'an if you click on the name of the city. Our travels began on a Monday night with a fight in the train station before we left. We weren't actually in the fight, but not to far from us, a lady got really upset at another guy and his wife (we're not sure why) and we were alerted to the quarrel when a bag of rolls what hurtled in our direction. Nothing really happened. They pushed each other around, the police came, and everything stopped ... after a little while. We traveled mostly on trains. We took a night train (sleeper car) to Beijing from Dalian. When we woke up in the morning, we were in Beijing and ready to start touring around. We stayed there for 2 days, and proceeded to Xi'an by train. Now this ride was a little more eventful. You see, we met up with another Global Resources team from another city and went to visit the Great Wall with them. However we didn't make it back in time to catch our train. To make a long story short, they wanted to way overcharge us for a soft sleeper and we refused. They put us on the train and told us to wait until something could be figured out. We got on and the train started moving. We chatted with one of the guys that worked on the train and made a friend. Eventually they gave us the soft sleepers for the actual price, and we got a good night's sleep. We woke up in Xi'an and visited around the city for 3.5 days. Unfortunately when we tried to get a ticket for the train from Xi'an back to Beijing, they told us that they had standing room only. We decided to take a bus. Now I've never been on a bus that has beds instead of seats, but I can't say that anymore because I rode from Xi'an to Beijing (13hrs) in a bus that had beds. In spite of the fact that we got on in the middle of the day, I slept about 10 out of the 13 hours which helped to make the trip go by a lot faster. We finally got settled in Beijing at 3am, and I continued to sleep until morning. We spent our final day in Beijing, and traveled back to Dalian Sunday night. Monday we had time to get settled back in and classes resumed on Tuesday. I started Tuesday morning at 8:00 with my new class that I had never seen before and things went pretty well. We're down to the final stretch now. I have 2 weeks of lessons when this week is over, 1 week of review, and 2 weeks of final exams! Where did the time go? It seems like it was just September and things were getting started. Here it is May, and I'm telling my kids to study for finals! I guess that's all for now folks. Will try to post at least once more before I leave.
Weird and Random:
WE LOVE CHINGLISH...
"Give me, give you, give our." - a student
"A single act of carelessness leads to the eternal loss of beauty." - a sign at the Forbidden City
"No Striding" - also a sign at the Forbidden City
"Black Dragon Ridge, as the ridge is black and like the dragon, the name is gained. The ridge is about hundreds meters in length and not wide than 3 chi (0.333meters) in width, the middle is outstanding and the side is low, the bottom is bottomless." - a sign at Hua Mountain
I find the longer I live here, the less weird and random strange occurrences seem to be. I'm going to have to start writing things down when they happen, or I'll never remember them.
Nicholas
Post subject: Home sweet home
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:26 am
Well, I made it home just a little over a week ago (June 30th 10:00PM). Yeah, there was a bit of culture shock when I first got back, and as soon as I heard a couple of teenagers around me complaining, I found myself wishing they spoke a language that was completely foreign to me. However, I'm back in the good ol' US where most people speak a language I understand. I already miss some of the food, and I just can't get over how expensive things are here in the US. Everything finished up well in China. Exams went without too much excitement. The last exam week was rather long and drawn out, but I got everything done, and turned in before it was due. Oh yeah, we also visited two other cities in China since I last posted as well. Our first stop (the last weekend in May) was Shenyang, the capitol of our province. If I had to summarize the trip in one word, I'd say "shopping." I went with three girls, and that's what they wanted to do, so that's what we did. I make it sound worse than it was. It was a lot of fun just to get out and away from the campus. We also went to one of the local parks and rented a couple of bicycles for two, and rode around the park for an hour or so. Maybe we'll go back there some time and do some sight seeing? Our second stop was Dandong a couple of weeks later. Dandong isn't too far from where we live either, and in fact, if you really wanted to, you could see everything there is to see in one day. While in Dandong, we saw the Museum to Commemorate the War against American Aggression (aka the Korean War). I found this particular museum to be very interesting. Did you know that the Chinese never lost a battle in the Korean War? Over and over they successfully drove back the aggressor! Well, at least that's the way they made it look. So when people ask why I believe our history books, I just tell them that we actually recorded our losses and teach that we didn't win every battle. It was all rather enlightening. We also visited a small part of the Great Wall that is right on the border of China and North Korea. From the top of the wall, you could look out into North Korea and see the difference in development between there and China. After we climbed down the wall, we took a little hike along the border where we were told North Korean guards hide in the bushes to make sure no one crosses over (from NK into China -- sound familiar?). We didn't see any guards hiding under the bushes, but some of our friends that went a couple weeks later said they saw them. We also took a quick boat ride between the two countries and got a good look at the bridge between North Korea and China that was taken out during the Korean War. That was about all the excitement we had during our travels. Returning back to the school setting, please keep in mind our need for teachers next year. I don't expect to see any of you there next year, but we had a couple of teachers (Family) leave that won't be back next year. We're expecting to get a good number of new teachers next year. More people to help with the Work would be great, but I realize as well, that Opportunities will be coming in the new bunch. I think I have mentioned Ryan before. I've had MANY opportunities to talk to him. He will not be returning for a second semester and though we've talked quite a bit, I'm sure he leaves with questions. Keep him in mind as he heads back to New Zealand. Seeds have been planted, I can only hope someone will water. Not much new happened with Jack this semester, which I was disappointed about, but I'm sure I'll have him again in the fall for Chinese class. Guess that's it for now. Have a great summer, and I'll try to resume posting again when school starts back up. As of right now, I leave on Sept. 8th.
Weird and random:
On the plane ride home, we had green beans with one of our meals. I found it rather difficult to eat them with a fork, and almost mustered up the courage to ask for a set of chopsticks before realizing that relearning how to use a fork was going to be necessary for the next two months.
Post subject: The New School Year Begins!!!
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 4:14 am
Schedule:
Monday
»8:00 - 9:40
»10:10 - 11:50
»1:30 - 3:10
Tuesday
»8:00 - 9:40
»10:10 - 11:50
Wednesday
»8:00 - 9:40
Thursday
»8:00 - 9:40
»1:30 - 3:10
Friday
»8:00 - 9:40
»10:10 - 11:50
Classes started this Monday (9/24). So far it's been a good start. Last week we had preparations all week. That took a ton of time. Especially since I have an additional class this year that has never been taught by a foreign teacher before. I was designated as the go-t0 person for all of the freshman teachers. With trying to keep everyone on track and develop a new curriculum, it was definitely a trying week to say the least. I think we're all on track now, and I hope that everything will continue in a smooth fashion. I have freshmen again for 4 classes, and I also acquired a junior level class. So far so good. Things are starting up. It seems like half of our team this year is new people. Currently we are missing one teacher who is supposed to be on the way shortly. It almost seems as if I never left, but at the same time there are new situations and new people. I've only been back a couple of weeks, but they have been incredibly busy weeks! On Monday night the school treated the foreign teachers who were interested to a concert performed by a Chinese orchestra. It was excellent and something very new. I saw lots of instruments that I can't say that I've ever seen before or at least seen used in a professional performance. It was very well done, and I had an excellent young woman to keep me company. "Unfortunately" for us, we had to sit by ourselves away from the rest of the group because the people who arranged the seating conveniently separated two of the seats from the rest of the group. We had a great time. It was even better than being back in college and going to Artist Series. Well, it's lunch time, so I'm going to sign off now. Until next time...
Nicholas
wedding. For those of you on Facebook, this is probably not coming as much of a surprise. We worked up through the middle of January and came home to Jackie's house in MN. We were married January 31st at 2:25ish in the afternoon. From there, we took off on our honeymoon and went north along lake Superior where we enjoyed a week of winter sports. We came back to Minneapolis for a couple of days to get ourselves together before coming back to China. For those of you who were not able to come, I have included a copy of our thank you note here so that you at least have a picture of us. Upon our arrival back in China, we started combining our lives... Women have stuff, but even more than that, women have stuff to go with their stuff. Wow! I have to admit though that Jackie did get rid of a lot of stuff she didn't need in anticipation of the event. Come Valentine's Day, I had a free nights stay coming to me because it's my third year here, and we went to one of the nicest hotels in Dalian. I'm not sure if it was 4 or 5 star. I'm just glad I didn't have to pay for most of it. Needless to say, we had a great hotel stay. Second semester has now finally started, and we're getting into a regular routine. Classes are going well. I'm back down to 10 classes a week now and enjoying it very much. We'll see what all this semester holds. We have to give our decision to the school by this Friday as to whether or not we plan to return. We know that we're probably coming back to China. We just have to decide if we're sticking with the same school.