Sports Competition!

Due to the week off from classes that we get for national day, most schools in Shenzhen are teaching classes on Saturday and Sunday. Not so for us as the Yantian Foreign Language School. In lieu of more classes, our school is having a two day long, school wide sports competition. The opening ceremony was actually pretty amazing. Each class marched out along the track, stopped in front of the school administration and chanted motivational slogans such as, "Achieve our dreams, touch the sky!"or "We can fly very high!". There were balloons and streamers, flags and pompoms. Quite the sight.

However, not just the students compete in the events. There are teacher only events that, yesterday, included the shotput, as well some other ball throwing competition where we threw a small 2 kilo ball over our heads like a soccer throw in. Today we have the standing long jump as well as a couple relays. Apparently there are bonuses in it for the winners...

Luckily, we all received our passports with our completed work visas before the October holiday. Yesterday, I booked a flight to Manila, Philippenes. We're leaving on Tuesday and coming back Sunday morning. I haven't looked much into the country, or what there is to see there, but I'm still really excited. It should be a great trip. We're planning on staying in Manila for a couple days, and then heading out to an island or "off the beaten trail" for the rest of the week. I'll be sure to take pictures and send out an update when I return.

Typhoon!

So as I walked into the caf to eat breakfast this morning, the headmaster informed me that classes were cancelled due to the "typhoon" that is happening right now. Dope. It's been very cloudy, and fairly gusty, but really? no school? It's really just some rain. Maybe they expect it to get worse...

Anyway, I added a slideshow of some pics on the right side of the page. Included are pictures of our apartments (new and old), some friends, going out, as well as one of Niko and I with our contact teachers. Check them out and let me know what you think.

A New Week

Finally, after about two weeks, Niko and I have moved into our new apartment. I, unfortunately, lost the coin toss for the bigger room, but I like to think that mine is way more...snug? comfortable? Anyway, I'm just happy to finally not be living out of a suitcase. Here's my room:

This afternoon I had what I think is one of my best classes yet...I may have had even more fun than the students. I was teaching a lesson on English Idiom and American Slang to my senior 1 class (9th grade). Trust me, there's nothing quite like hearing a room full of Chinese students reciting: "What's up dog?" and then responding, "Not much man, just chilling." After teaching the class a few standard American sayings, I had small groups create skits using a few phrases. One group's presentation stood out to me as particularly hilarious. Two very kind and very shy girls who were partners, came up with this dialogue:

"Oh! I just broke my leg! I won a lot of money in the lottery!"

"Wow! You're so lucky!"

"Yes, but don't be sad, I'll give you half of the money, dog."

"You're kidding me!"

"You know it!"

First, the girls didn't understand that you can really only hope someone else "breaks a leg" to wish them good luck. The girl tried to say she got lucky as "I broke my leg". Awesome. Also, I'm not sure that they understood how funny it was to me that girl 1 offered to share her money, but apparently was only joking about it. I thought it was great. Anyway, just a few more days until our National Day break. I think we may be travelling to Guilin and Yangshuo in Guangxi province. It's supposed to be very beautiful. More pictures to come soon.

A Violent Weekend

This past weekend turned out to be pretty exciting. On Friday night, at a bar in Futian district, we witnessed what I can only describe as a "brawl" between two posses. While a few of us were just hanging out at a table with some newly made Chinese friends, a man from a neighboring table approached and blindsided one of said friends. The attack seemed totally unprovoked and, naturally, the victim's friends were not very pleased. We Americans just backed away and walked out into the street, but meanwhile the fight had grown to about 5 or 6 people. Wine glasses and bottles were being smashed on people, chairs were being thrown, and things got pretty ugly. Needless to say, we took the closest cab to the nearest American Embassy (McDonald's) and discussed the incident over greasy hamburgers. Crazy.

Saturday night saw us partying in an area of Shenzhen that we had yet to visit. The Nanshan district is accross the city from us, and has a very prominent ex-pat community. It was one of our fellow teachers' birthday, so we met up with a large group at a club in Nanshan. I think we saw more foreigners that night than every other day combined in the city. The club was nice, clean, on the water, and full of ex-pats. We had a great time dancing and decided to leave the club around 4am. Upon leaving, we ran into a group of French guys who were very obviously looking to pick a fight with someone, and as Americans, we fit the bill perfectly. After some heated words and threats, we just walked away, grabbed a cab, and headed home. Yikes.

Overall, a very fun and exciting weekend. This upcoming week, we have to teach not only our normal schedule of Monday through Friday, but also Saturday and Sunday. This is due to the fact that the following week, Sept. 29th-Oct.5th, is National day: a weeklong holiday celebrating the founding of the People's Republic on Oct. 1, 1949, by none other than Chairman Mao. For us, this translates into a week of travelling around China. Where are we going? no idea. But when I know, I'll be sure to write about it. Zaijian...

Recap

I've been in China now for a little over three weeks, so I want to provide everyone with a quick recap of what's gone on here in that time. We spent our first two weeks in Zhuhai city, taking both Chinese and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) courses. After the training, we moved to a hotel in Shenzhen (the city in which we're actually teaching) to take care of some of the bureaucratic aspects of living in China, as well as to attend some banquets celebrating our success in the training and our placement at local schools.

A Texan named Niko and I were placed at a school in the Yantian district of Shenzhen called the Yantian Foreign Languages School. Specifically, we were placed at the middle school, where we teach 17 classes a week to students ranging from 5th grade up to 9th. We finished our first week of classes and are well into the second week now. Truthfully, I never realized how draining teaching is, but it's quite fun.

Right now we're living in a "transitional" studio apartment while our three bedroom permanent residence is being vacated? or cleaned? or fixed? We're not quite sure. Either way, we're about a 15 minute walk to the beach and a ten minute walk from school. Not too shabby. When I have a little more time, I'll write a bit more about the country in general and what we've been up to, but for now, I'm out.