Bicycle and Holiday in Hong Kong


I now have two weeks of work under my belt and quite a few classes. I feel like everytime I step in front of the classroom and teach I need to tweak something about my teaching. I think that is good and I hope I can always improve on what I'm doing as a teacher.

This week was heavy on marketing. Marketing includes going to schools in the area and passing out flyers to parents and children. Everyday I did not really feel like going to pass out flyers, but everyday I had a great experience.

The first day, I passed out flyers and said "Ni-Hao" to all the students and their smiles made it worth it. Then on Wednesday a girl about 15 or 16 came up to talk to me and she spoke excellent English. She told me she wanted to go to the United States and she had high hopes to do so. In our long conversation, I told her that no matter what she should keep her dream alive and work hard and she could make it come true for herself. She took down my email and I hope she emails me sometime.

Finally, on Thursday and Friday I went to a couple of primary schools where the kids aged from 6 to 10. They wanted me to speak in English (a couple of kids particuarly liked me saying twenty-five for how old I am) and many smiles were exchanged. Numerous ones said in that amazed voice that kids everywhere do- "LAO-WI" which means foreigner. I think my big, tall, white, hairy, left handed, American Football loving ways make for something very different than what most kids, and people, are used to around here.

Before I finished work yesterday (Friday), I took my fresh wad of RMB (it was payday) and spent 738 of it on a new bicycle and heavy duty chain. An excellent bike I priced in Waco, Texas, USA a few months before I left was over $400. Now I have this brand name, beautiful, one year service-warrantied bike, which came out to.......(drum roll)........less than $100. WUHOO

I have already taken the bike to and from work. A few more weeks and maybe I'll be able to scale Gushan (the mountain) and go to places beyond. Places especially like Huang Shan a place I have read about from a book in my mom's library. There is a peak there called "Capital of Heaven". Many Chinese people consider it the most beautiful place in the country. I do not think I could leave here without visiting.

Now that my first two weeks are done it's time for---vacation??? Yes! It is National Holiday time for the year and what better way to celebrate the banishment of Chang Kia-skek (in my readings and study I have found him to be a stubborn idiot, who probably got what he deserved) and the welcome of Communism, than to go the freest place in China, Hong Kong.

I actually didn't choose this vacation, rather I have to go get a work visa because my travel visa runs out in a few weeks. I might have already mentioned this in past blogs, but the trip was planned, then cancelled, then planned again because of the possibility that I needed a medical check. Apparently the school thought I needed one then found out I didn't so Hong Kong is a-go!

I have many more trips planned, and I should probably get my camera out and take pictures pretty soon. If you are reading this and you are not on my mailing list but you would like to get updates the same day as I update my blog, email me at aggiejamz@gmail.com and I will put you on the list.

Thanks for visiting, come back to Fuzhou soon!

It has been a little over a week since I arrived Fuzhou, China. My brother asked me a few days ago if am still happy or if I regret my decision. I must say overwhelmingly: I am very happy with my decision. Like any place there are a few setbacks here and there, but I have enjoyed my time here without a doubt.

I started teaching a few days ago and my impressions reflect an idiom I've heard from teachers many times "I think I learned more from the students than they learned from me". My students are as young as 8 and as old as 30.

The first class I started was one for Chinese students wanting to go abroad and need some basic English to get around. I came into the class feeling I was so smart and had so much to impart on them. After 5 minutes I noticed the confused look on their faces and realized they really didn't understand much of what I was saying. I've also noticed that idioms are mostly useless in conversation with students and people that aren't excellent English speakers. In the going abroad class I used the term "guinea pig" and then realized I had just went over everyone's heads. I teach that class again soon so we will take Chairman Mao's advice during the Industrial Revolution and take "...two steps back to take one step forward".

The translators (official title=Course Consultant) at English First Fuzhou are excellent. I have made very good friends with the only guy, Jerry. I don't think they get paid that great, but the service they offer helps all the teachers (especially the new ones that know only about 10 chinese words). When it gets around Christmas time I might ask that my friends and family send Jerry something. He's a very good guy and speaks excellent English. He said he learned watching American movies. You might consider putting Jerry in your thoughts when you think about me...

I have done a bit of observation of other teachers and one of the best experiences I've had in Fuzhou has been observing at Fuzhou Primary School. It's a local public school and the children there are so loving and wonderful. When I was around those children I got a warm feeling realizing that the smiling faces and laughter was one of the things that made me want to teach.

Yesterday Jerry, his girlfriend, and I went to the local mountain, Gu Shan. It's a very high mountain at the edge of town. We climbed up for a good way with numerous breaks in between (because of the big out of shape American in the party). We unfortunatly ran out of time for the day, but I plan on going back. I plan on getting a bike very soon and that will aid my health and amount of exercise greatly.

Because the area is quite smoggy I have been fighting a good bit of throat and drainage issuses. I think my stomach is starting to get used to the food, but I'm sure there's a nice case of food poisoning right around the corner.

If you have read this let me know how you are doing, I love getting the updates and such. I miss everyone but I am happy to be where I am!

More adventures today! I went and put travelers cheques in a bank account this afternoon, we tried a couple of banks and were rejected each time. Finally we (I had a translator named Jane) went to the Bank of China Fujian Province Branch, and after alot of translating and explanation that even I wasn't sure of, I have money in my pocket and money in the Bank of China.

Money shouldn't be that big of a worry for me though. I will pay a little over $100 and get a years worth of internet. It's not wireless but I have a CAT cable that should work (thanks bro!). I will have to get a cell phone here (DRAT!) but it only will cost about $30 and you pay as you go (apparently for very cheap). I'll also be getting a nice webcam for about $10.

Other expenses aren't bad, from the time I stepped off the plane in Beijing I had $20. After a trip to Wal-Mart for necessities, numerous bottles of water, and taxi rides I still have about fourty cents! Apparently they are going to show us a bus route to get to our apartment which will run me under a dollar a day for transportation. I am going to wait a few days before I work on the headache that will be sending money back home (hang tight mom!its on my list of things to do). If you want to talk to me on the phone go to skype and download the program. If we speak computer to computer its absolutely free and you can ask family members and they will tell you it has excellent sound quality, my friend Christina said "It's just like you're in Waco". I am not being paid for that advertisement btw.

I don't know if I said it before but if you know anyone that would like to receive my blog feel free to let them know about it and let me know their email address. I know this one is coming a little quicker than the others, but alot's gone on.


That's all from Fuzhou for now. Have a good one!

What a day Thursday was for me! It started at 6 am in Houston, TX and by way of San Francisco and Beijing I ended up at Fuzhou, China at 11:30 China time. That's 26 some odd hours of travel. I wrote some general impressions yesterday so I'll share those now:

I barely saw much of San Francisco though I was spellbound by the general area by the airport. The airport is a massive structure and a true work of architecture. I decided to attempt to see some of the city during my layover. I took a hotel shuttle (don't tell anyone because I really wasn't supposed to take it because I wasn't staying at the hotel). I had hoped to see some of the aestetic sites of San Fran proper.

Nestled is the best way to describe the area of the city I saw. The area also seems like its a very dense population-like you'd expect from California. The shuttle had big windows and I loved looking out of them and seing far and wide. Gas ran anywhere from $2.90 to $3.05. Little did those suckers realize that Texans were paying $2.21 per gallon. I got to see the Pacific Coast Highway for the first time, that is the famed HWY 101 that shows up in Hitchcok movies and other oldies but goodies.

San Francisco Bay itself was neat. I didn't see the Golden Gate Bridge or Alcatraz while I was there. There was another bridge further south on the pennisula SF sits on that I saw from afar. I walked for awhile and when I started back I was hoping to catch my flight.

The best thing about all of my flights was that I had an aisle seat every time. The 12 hour flight from SFO to PEK (Beijing) I was really lucky because my seats were at the front of a grouping and I had plenty of leg room. There was a couple sitting next to me that was planning on adopting a Chinese baby (Tanya I thought of you when I heard that).

I passed through customs rather easily. I didn't see any armed guards with AK-4 7's so that's a disappointment I can live with. The worst part of the whole customs and luggage experience was that the strap on my black duffle bag ripped in Beijing when I tried picking it up. A Chinese gentleman from Dallas saw my Texas A&M hat and pointed me to the information desk when I had questions (it pays to be an Aggie-even in China).

I ate some weird bread on the way from Beijing to Fuzhou. I think it had kelp in it or something, it had a very different tasted. I have seen many pretty Chinese girls, though I assure all my readers that I am not in a proactive search for one.

I will let this go for a day and then I will post general thoughts on Fuzhou when I've had longer than 12 hours to contemplate them...I will say this though: the drivers are MAD!

Hope you enjoy!

The basics: I am a 25 year old with a bachelors in History from Texas A&M University. I am keeping this blog for the adventure that will be teaching English in Fuzhou China.

I had even planned out a better blog before now, I have to be done packing before Wednesday afternoon(So much to do between today and Thursday!). Maybe I can do a better pre-China blog before Thursday. This one will be some basic information about my flight and the city of Fuzhou itself.

If you're keeping score at home (and I actually mail this out to a few people) please pray that 25 hours on a plane doesn't drive me mad before I get to Fuzhou. Here's the travel itinerary:
United Airlines 993
Depart:
7:51ammorning
Houston, TX Houston George Bush Intercntl. (IAH)
Arrive:
10:00ammorning
San Francisco, CA San Francisco International (SFO)
View/change seats
Depart:
1:38pmafternoon
San Francisco, CA San Francisco International (SFO)
Arrive:
4:55pmafternoon
Beijing, China Beijing Capital (PEK)
Depart:
7:50pmevening
Beijing, China Beijing Capital (PEK)
Arrive:
10:25pmevening
Fuzhou, China Fuzhou (FOC)

I'm pretty sure most of the readers here are CST kinda people. Keeping that in mind, Fuzhou is 14 hours ahead of of our fine central standard time. The whole of China operates on their own time zone (despite the fact they occupy at least 6 time zones--must be that whole focus on the worker thing). I'll be crossing the International Date Line for the first time in my life, that's pretty danged exciting as well.

Here's a few websites that can tell you more about Fuzhou that I'm currently able to spit out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzhou

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/fujian/fuzhou/index.htm

http://www.chinatour.com/attraction/fuzhou.htm

If you don't have time to look at all of them you should at least look at the wikipedia article. That's mainly because I feel like hot stuff for finding wikipedia before it was trendy to look at wikipedia.

In the next blog, I will talk about goals, travel plans, etc..

That's all for now, I'll be working on trying to send this out to folks for the rest of my internet time this morning/afternoon.