Stories from my time living in China.
“How many times do you think Ryan will cry today?” Jason asked. “I don’t know. Maybe he won’t cry today,” Replied Michelle. “I bet he’ll cry five times. How many do you think?” “Um I think maybe only two.” “Ok, loser owes the winner a massage.” “In a massage parlour?” “No. Loser will give the … More The Moon Cake Festival 2013: misconceptions of man
“LOOK OUT!” I screamed as Nate’s basketball bounced off of the rim of the net and straight at a man with a small child. The man did not understand! The ball was hurtling towards him, there was no way to stop it! THUNK the ball made contact with the man’s head and fell to the … More Visa Run Number One
It was very hot out and I quickly regretted the jean capris I was wearing. Nate and I had gotten up early for a trip to the market where we planned to restock our supplies of fresh produce. The long tables that used to hold the abundant supply of vegetables were gone, the covered market … More The Note and Tiny Broom
I was teaching my class, Papaya, about bathroom, so I had brought soap, shampoo, and toilet paper as props for class. The toilet paper was a convenient prop. Nate and I had both developed head colds so it came in handy well before class. “Do you need the medicine?” Candy asked me as my toilet … More Head colds are not fun.
We knew there must be an entrance to the spring. Jinan was known as “The City of Springs” for a reason, and we had first spotted the pool of water during a hike up one of the hills near our apartment. While teaching English for a company called “Happy English”, we worked Wednesday- Sunday, but … More The Elusive Spring
I had a bad feeling about the day and did not want to get out of bed. I was to head to the West end of town, the location of a second branch of our ESL school, for training. Training with Happy English, in Jinan China, so far had been a disorganized mess. For two … More “Training”
During the week Nate and I worked Wednesday- Friday 1:00 pm- 8:00 pm, so we had lots of time to ourselves. Saturday and Sunday we made up for it by working a brutal 10 hour shift each day. Lounging on our colleague, Katrina’s couch became a regular Sunday night activity. Every convenience store sold alcohol … More Hangovers and Hamburgers
My first class was four hours long, with a ten minute break every hour. I was carefully watching the clock so I would know when to call our first break. I got mixed up, and thinking we had gotten through all of the material early I started killing time. Victoria, the Chinese partner I had … More Teaching Begins
“AMY MESSED WITH CHANDLER’S COMPUTER” Jason’s voice was much too loud for the tiny office all of Happy English’s staff were crammed into. My first thought was Jason hates fun. Ten minutes later the situation escalated even more as Jason marched around claiming loudly that AMY had lost Happy English two customers. Let me tell you it was … More Don’t pull pranks on day 2.
Suddenly the city buildings came to an abrupt end and we found ourselves standing in ruins. It was our first day off, and we were on a mission to climb the hill that jutted out behind our apartment. We’d followed a colleague’s rambling directions to get this far, but now we were on our own. … More Fresh Water Jellyfish
"China" Figure it Out 