First Post

This is my first post/blog of my experience living & teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in China.  I got the idea to do this blog probably by my new/best friend here, Laila, which she is doing too.  This blog is really starting out just as a hobby.

I'm in a program of about 150 foreigners teaching English in China.  I'm teaching English for the school year 2011-2012.

I arrived approx 3 1/2 weeks ago so I need to do a little catching up.

The program is Center for Teaching & Learning in China (CTLC going forward).  CTLC trains all their teachers in Beijing for approx 2 1/2 weeks.  This encompasses both teaching TEFL as well as learning/reading/speaking/listening/writing Chinese.  After training, teaching would/will be in Shenzhen, China.  Beijing is northern China and Shenzhen is southern China.

I did a little research of China before I came here and heard about the smog, the phlegm, the enormous population, the non-queuing, the child split pants, the pollution, eating everything w/ their back-sides up, etc.  

As soon as you land in China (I landed in Beijing - at night), you will immediately notice the pollution/smog by looking out the airplane's window.  You can see it in the lights.  Simply amazing/revolting.  I even commented on it to Laila, who had the window seat (this is where we 1st met).  The smog was unmistakable.  The Chinese do not like when you talk about smog.  It insults them.  They like to think it's cloudy.  Really?  If you don't like "smog," do something about it.  But that's for another day...

There were about 10 fellow teachers on my flight from Atlanta to Seoul and then another 40 from Seoul to Beijing.  Of course of the 100+ fellow teachers, I was one of the six whose luggage didn't make it.  I was told it would probably be delivered the next day (it was).  All 100+ of us took a couple of charter buses to the Xinhai Sports Hotel in Beijing for training.  We arrived late at night.  The hotel is next to Peking University (the "Harvard of China" - more on that later).  Peking is where our training would be.

The hotel stunk.  The internet was horrible (too many of us using the network plus the internet, well, is Chinese internet).  The cleaning maids never vacuumed, or cleaned, the rooms.  They gave us laowai's (foreigners) new towels every day.  yippee!.  But no cleaning.  There were good & cheap restaurants all around the hotel.  Everything for the most part is super cheap such as a 22 oz bottled beer for 3.50 kwai (approx 50 cents USD).  So many different restaurants near the hotel; single dishes, extremely cheap street vendors, hotpots, western, street stalls, etc.  For lunch, I would often get su cai jiao zi (vegetable dumplings).  For dinner, the common theme was ma po tofu (tho it may have contained meat - more on that later).


I shared a roommate at the hotel.  His name was Kevin.  Where I was a beginner in Chinese, he studied it for 3+ yrs and spoke it fairly well.  I remember one night coming back to the the hotel from a night downtown and he was speaking w/ the taxi driver for like 15 minutes in Chinese.  Chinese taxi drivers rarely, if ever, speak English.  I asked what he was talking about?  The Chinese driver was putting down America and Kevin egged him on saying he hates America too (he doesn't).  Pretty funny.  Kevin was a cool roommate and a friend now too.


Well, I think I'm calling it a night.  It's past midnight and need to wake up early tomorrow for a police registration/function (don't ask - it's China).  I will probably talk about Peking University next.  That's where I taught for my teaching certificate as well as took Chinese classes.  The photos of my hotel are included above.  I will include many photos going forward in this blog....