Welcome to my blog, everyone.

This seems easier than sending out group emails to everyone; it might not be. I reserve the right to stop doing this at any time. Just thought I'd better make myself clear, lest I upset someone dearly if I should stop blogging in the future.

OK, let's move on. I've been in Beijing for a little over a month, and I believe that I am starting to settle in. For those of you who aren't sure, I am teaching English at Beihang University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA from here on in.) If you should happen to have a map of Beijing lying around, it is located on the southwest corner of the Fourth Ring Road and Xueyuan Lu. BUAA is a rather prestigious university; it is China's top ten (supposedly.) BUAA is also directly responsible for the recent Shenzou-5 launch – over 90% of the engineers and technicians were trained at BUAA.

I am one of eight foreign teachers at BUAA (there was one more, but he left three days ago due to family problems.) Let me give the demographics – 4 guys from the US, 1 guy from Canada (pronounced “gie” up north but he lives off campus) 1 lady from the UK, and 2 sheilas from Australia. The seven of us live on the fourteenth floor of a building that is what I would call “soviet bloc-chic.” The fourteenth floor has forty apartments, but since it is reserved merely for foreign experts (I have a card that says precisely that. It is by far the best souvenir a guy could have) no one lives in the thirty-three apartments that are empty. I have an empty “buffer” apartment on one side, and the lady from the UK on the other. Thankfully the rooms are sound-proofed; I can be as loud as I want whenever I want.

I am presently teaching 20 hours a week; the amount changed recently due to the departure of Ben, a very professional teacher who was carrying quite a load of classes. I also picked up an editorial position that Ben had at College English, a magazine that caters to college students who would like to learn English but aren't enrolled in classes. I will also be recording myself reading articles from the magazine – the recordings will be available online so that the people who purchase the magazine will be able to hear a native speaker and mimic the pronunciation (I'll include a link when my recordings go online.) This is on top of my contract, and I will be paid extra for this (I include this to prevent the email I would receive from my mother if I didn't include this information. Sorry.) I will also be collaborating with a professor in the Foreign Languages Department on a study that she wants to conduct on the results of native-speaking teachers in TESL classrooms. So I've got quite a bit on my plate at the moment, and it looks like I'll only be gaining more as time marches on.

All of my classes are Speaking/Listening – which means no papers to grade, although it will leave me in nebulous place when I have to give out grades at the end of the semester. I recently assigned a 5 minute speech for each of my grad students (14 hours, 500 students, classes range from 30 to 70 students) and my class of sophomore English majors (20 students, 2 hours.) I had another class of the same, but I lost them in the shuffle after Ben left. I haven't met my other class yet; I picked them up from Ben. I believe that it is a group of six students that are traveling to Toronto next August, and they need to grasp as much American/Canadian slang as possible before they leave (4 hours.) The Canadian Six could be a lot of fun – I can't wait to explain hockey to them as well as the thirteen different uses of the word “eh.” I think I remember Ben saying that their grasp on English left something to be desired, and that his feelings towards them were muddled – a love/hate relationship. Here's hoping that he was talking about a different class.

I sat through a mini-performance review on Thursday, and I seem to be doing a good job (this is China – everyone's concerned about saving face, so they won't tell you if you're doing a horrible job – you have to read between the lines.) My boss said that if I keep this up, I'll teach the Ph.D candidates next semester - this is apparently a great honor. I couldn't tell why it was a great honor – he tried to explain, but his answers didn't make any sense. So when I figure it out, I'll let you know; I promise.

(The next section is a rehashing of the group emails that I sent out. If you read them before, feel free to skip ahead – you won't miss out on anything.)

First Email – 10/04/2003
I arrived in Beijing on Saturday, Sept. 27 at approximately 6 p.m. (My plane was delayed for 4 hours or so at O'hare- one of the engines, to use the apt term that the stewards used, blew up. So we had to wait for a different [better?] plane.) I managed to collect my luggage, which thankfully was all there, ready and waiting, and head out out into the teeming throng of former passengers and aggressive taxi drivers. Someone was standing there holding a sign with “Duog Lubers” on it, and I nonchalantly sidled up and introduced myself. She was so happy to see me for the following reasons: I was under the age of forty – apparently there are quite a few older TESL teachers out there, and they are not known for there ability to make the classes they teach “fun.” I had bothered to show up—she'd been waiting for me since noon. And, she eventually confided in me that she had a test scheduled for 7 p.m., and she might actually make it back in time.

So we headed on to BUAA, and I learned many interesting facts as the driver attempted to kill us all with the greatest bravado, or at least make me poo my pants. I will confess, that had the airline food been anymore plentiful than it was, I might have had a problem. Some of the facts I discovered: there are two thousand students in this program; I was the first of two foreign teachers to arrive; we would each be teaching seven two hour classes; all of the students in the program would have AT LEAST one class with either of us. Those of you who are good with logic problems should have no problem understanding why I was little quieter after this discussion. After a good hour of some of the scariest stop-and-go traffic that I've ever seen we pulled onto the grounds of BUAA, and I was ushered into a large soviet-era block style building, onto an elevator, and whisked up to the fourteenth floor. My concierge waved a fob which let me pass through a formidable, shiny door, and I followed her down a pristine hall to my door, which has sort of a jail house chic thing going on. (My door is really two doors—the outer is a steel monstrosity that would do any jail cell proud, and the inner is a typical solid wood door. ) I stepped into my apartment.

My pad is pretty fly – it's a one bedroom, 500 sq. ft. loft. I kid you not, the ceiling is really twelve feet high. All the furniture is from IKEA and it all looks pretty new. The bathroom and kitchen are rather tiny, but serviceable.(the bathroom deserves it's own email) I'll send y'all a picture or two once I figure out how to make that work – one task at a time.

So my concierge left, and I was alone and I realized: I'm thirsty. This posed quite a serious problem. The tap water in China isn't fit to drink – you need to boil it to kill all the little baddies that are living it. So I searched-no kettle, pot or pan. There was a plate, a cup, two mugs, and a set of chopsticks, but I being tired, was not up to my usual creative problem solving self. Well, I thought, I saw a snack shop downstairs, I'll just mosey on down and buy something to drink. And that's when I realized my sheer ineptitude – I hadn't exchanged any money at the airport. I had absolutely no Chinese money on myself.
And it was dark outside – so I decided to wait it out 'til morning, rather than go exploring in the dark. It was a long, thirsty, and most importantly, long night.

I was up at the very crack of dawn, and I wandered around for a couple of hours until I stumbled onto a Bank of China ATM (compatible with the Cirrus network- check the back of your ATM card) and made a sizable withdrawal. I then walked next door to a snack shop, gestured wildly for a few minutes, and ended up with a large plate of food and a big pot of tea. After a good half hour or so I was contented, and I headed back to my pad for a little shut eye.

I have managed to adjust to the time (Beijing is 12 hours ahead of EST) and I'm getting around to adjusting to the food. My classes start on Oct. 9 (Oct. 1 is National Day and the nation takes the week following off.) and they are all oral classes – so it does not appear to be too much work. Each class meets once a week, so I only have to prepare one lesson per week. All my classes, with the exception of one, are finished before noon, so if you would like to visit, feel free.


Second Email – 10/05/2003
I'm going to take the time now to root through some of the minutiae. Hopefully I can head off the slew of questions that will soon be heading my way. So, you may read on at your own risk (I'm not promising that this won't be confusing, didactic or boring.)

Let's start with the classes that I'll be teaching. Everyone of my students is in a graduate program; not a single student of mine was an English major. They all have had at least four years of English, the majority have had six years, and about 20% have had eight years or more. Each class meets for one two hour period per week, and I'm teaching seven different classes of people a week. (I only have to plan one lesson per week.) My classes range in size from 35 to 65 students per class. (Stephanie, the other teacher in this section has a class of 125. Sucker.) The lesson planning is minimalistic for the textbook does not leave a lot of room for improvisation, which is just fine as far as I'm concerned. Once I get comfortable, I should have little problem supplementing the lesson plan with fun, but the first few classes might be rather dry. Oh well.

Next, the campus. It's really large and spacious. I know you don't believe me, but it's true. BUAA's campus sprawls over a square mile. I'd say it's about the same size as Calvin's campus. (I know that doesn't help quite a few of you, but it's what I know. Sorry.) My building is next to a large park, sort of like a college quad, except that you aren't supposed to walk on the grass. (I assume that's what those signs mean, and I haven't seen anyone on the grass.) The campus is really quite quiet and subdued.

There are numerous teahouses, restaurants, banks, internet cafes, pharmacies, and department stores (really) within a twenty minute walk of my apartment. As a bonus, Beijing recently completed a new loop of the subway, and there is a station right off campus – so I have cheap, (5 yuan for a round trip ticket - $.60 American) fast transportation to downtown (where the action is.) There is even an IKEA nearby -it's maybe a forty minute walk away. (Someone at Repcolite needs to tell Dick O.) There is a grocery store right around the corner and there are perpetually-open cafeterias almost everywhere. Everything is incredibly cheap – I spent 6 yuan ($.72) on a three course takeout meal so large that I'll have leftovers for a couple of days. You can pick up a CD for 5 yuan, a VCD for 7 yuan and a DVD for 8 yuan at a store on campus (of course it's pirated – there is no such thing as copyright law here. So quality is suspect, and legally, I can't take them home. But I digress.) It appears that when a movie is released in the states for viewing in theaters, it's also conveniently for sale in Beijing in DVD form at the corner market.

I've signed up for Mandarin classes, so eventually I'll be able to communicate without using my formidable skill of pantomime (thankfully honed to perfection through many games of charades) and ability to repeat phrases ad nausea in English until someone who understands both English and Mandarin walks by. My Mandarin phrasebook just aggravates people since I can point at the phrase I want to say (thankfully written in both Chinese characters as well as in English) but if the answer isn't a simple yes or no, their response falls on ignorant ears. But a phrase book is a comforting thing to have; it's a traveler's security blanket.

Third Email - 10/21/03
My classes are going very well; in fact I couldn't be happier with their progress. My seven classes of grad students are moving well, so well in fact that I have been assigned two other classes to teach. These classes are smaller, and are full of sophomore English majors. I'm actually looking forward to teaching these classes – I'm sure that they will be a great time. Grad students are talkative, but I've heard that these classes are driven to learn. I've been mentioning most of you to my classes – they love a good story, and I've got plenty.

I started taking classes in Mandarin on Monday, and I'm all giddied up to learn. My teacher doesn't speak a word of English – but the book we are using has plenty. So the teacher goes very slowly, and we all piece together what she's trying to say. But I'm learning a lot very quickly – I can pronounce the pin yin (how the characters sound – it is written using the roman alphabet) correctly now, and I can do all the tones, so all I need is to memorize the pin yin of all the words I need. Then I can at least speak to people (I'd have to spend a lot time memorizing the characters to be able to read signs and so forth, but I'd be happy just to be able to speak mandarin well enough so that the average person could understand me.

I went to Longqianxia this past weekend; it's a little town east of Beijing that is very touristy. The neat thing is that it is aimed at Chinese tourists. I chaperoned the trip (it was for about 30 English majors) with another teacher, and it was a blast. I have some pictures, and eventually I'll place them on this blog. The city is set in a canyon – there is dam at one end of the canyon and past the dam (on the river) is the amusement park.

(End of Rehashing)


Halloween was both awful and a wonderful time. My Halloween started early - I awoke at 3 am, all cramped up and tasting bile. I raced to the bathroom and spent the next six hours hugging the porcelain throne. Food poisoning is awful no matter where you are, but I can assure that a case of food poisoning in Beijing is a special occurrence.. As I reclined in my minuscule bathroom, I had plenty of time to ponder the great mysteries and paradoxes of life. Nothing brings enlightenment faster than the prospect of death; After three hours I was sure that I was going to die in my pajamas on the floor of my bathroom in Beijing.

At 9 am I felt a little better, and I realized that I had to email a lady from BICF (Beijing International Christian Fellowship – a church that I've been attending that isn't under gov't control, since it only allows in expats) to let her know that I couldn't be a camp counselor over the weekend. It took nearly half an hour to log on to the net – the internet has been remarkably slow lately – and open my yahoo account. To my great delight an email explaining that I wasn't needed was waiting for me – I was so happy I did a little dance of joy. When I finished celebrating I packed up my textbooks and went to class - I only had one class on Friday then, and the lesson called for very little speaking on my part. So I went and suffered through it. If I had canceled, I'd have to make up the class. I'm not going to do that. I'll suffer through before I cancel.(The lesson was on Western health care – what to do when you get sick in the West. Appropriate, no?)

After my class, I went back to my apartment and slept for about five hours. I awoke to the grating sound of my doorbell (a combination of fingers on chalkboard and cat in death throes) and lumbered to the door to find most of the other teachers waiting for me. They were wearing club clothes, and they wanted to know if I'd like to go get some pizza and then go out to Bar Street (Sanlitun? I think – they called it Bar Street) Clubbing didn't appeal to me, but pizza did, so I agreed. We went to this place called Le Jazz – a pseudo-American style eatery (what people in China think American food is like.) It was cafeteria-style, and the food was filling and bland (good for a nauseous tummy.) I had a good time – though Le Jazz had absolutely no connection to France or jazz. I even felt well enough after to eating to go to Bar Street.

Beijingers celebrate Halloween the same way most Americans do – costumes, jack-o-lanterns, candy, parties. It was comforting, and I had a pretty good time, all things considered. I even danced (after a lot of cajoling and a very well thought out philosophical argument) at GROOVE, a dance club that was throwing an all night Halloween bash. Eventually, I moseyed back to my flat and slept well.

I spent most of Saturday being lazy, but I went over to Mike and Christie Brasser's place for dinner (M&C went to Calvin – they graduated a year before me.) I can honestly say, without any doubt or hesitation, that the tacos that I had at the Brasser's were the best that I have ever had. After dinner, Jared (a friend from Calvin) coerced us in to playing the Newlywed (board) Game. Jared and I vs. M&C. Suffice to say, Jared and I lost, but not by a great margin. After that we played a little Scrabble, talked for a while and eventually went our separate ways.