Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Spring Festival to one and all! Four holidays later, I’m back in the blogosphere, ready to awaken this beast from hibernation.
I’ve been keeping busy with work, to say the least. My company, EF, is in a constant state of flux with new policies, new directives, new goals, and new plans every week; my school is constantly expanding, with new teachers, new students, and new schedules all the time. We’re teaching more classes every week to more students every week. For a couple weeks, some of us (including me) were also working 6 days a week to cover for a teacher on leave.
This perpetual state of change and well-sized workload makes it difficult to settle into a rhythm and manage everything. For a Renaissance man and creature of habit such as myself, that makes it especially hard to keep on top of it all. I’m hoping to begin the healing process now though, with a much-needed blog entry…
As some of you may recall, this post was supposed to be part three in my epic trilogy: a three-parter aimed at providing a comprehensive summary of everything I’d been doing up to now. Once that was out of the way, I could then begin to keep up with the blog in real time. Of course “now” by this point has become “then” and I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to talk about. I guess I’ll try to start with an update.
A lot has changed here over the last couple of months. For one thing, it’s gotten a lot colder, and there’s even been a little snow. The past few days have been especially wintry, dumping Shanghai with a messy mixture of snow, sleet, and rain. Shanghai is not alone in this regard. As some of you may have seen, China's experiencing a winter the likes of which it has not seen in 50 years. I don’t think the locals know what to make of it. “It’s global colding!” my students like to joke. Derp!
Conveniently, I haven’t gotten a haircut since I arrived here, taking my hair to a level of shagginess unseen since possibly high school, but keeping the ol’ noggin a little bit warmer. There are barber shops on every corner, and if there aren’t barber shops, you still might find a barber. There’s a guy with a couple of stools and a pair of shears at the end of my alley who gives haircuts and shaves to any willing passerby. I’ll settle for a daily gel-down of the old ‘fro for now…
My landlord tells me I’ve gotten a little skinny. Part of this is a diet dominated by cornflakes, apples, and soup noodles. Another part is that I go to the gym only slightly more frequently than I blog. The cage fighter within will have to wait his turn…
I’m also currently in the midst of one of my semi-annual experimentations in facial hair, perhaps catering to the hippy within, perhaps subconsciously growing a “playoff beard,” or perhaps quietly rebelling against my “sweater and slacks, speak articulately, and be friendly all the time” job. (Oh sure, I’ll be nice to these people, but I won’t care enough to groom myself for them!)
Now, don’t get me wrong. I like work. My colleagues are great, the office is great (there are pictures up from Christmas on my Shutterfly page), the students are mostly all very nice, and classes can be fun. But, as with any job I suppose, sooner or later it gets in the way of life. I came to China to teach English, but I really came to China to study the language, travel, network, and continue to improve upon the skills I built in grad school. Having to commit 50 hrs a week to a job that can bring more stress than satisfaction and has little significance as far as long-term plans are concerned, really steams my rice sometimes!
It all comes down to time management though and trying to keep a cool head. I’m in China, I tell myself, and that in of itself is huge. Plus, most of the time, if I make the effort, I can do many of the non-work things I want to do. It’s just tough.
Everyday I work from approximately 12:30 to 9:30 pm. I get out at 8:30 on Saturdays and Sundays and have my “weekends” on Thursday and Friday. The students at the center are mostly working professionals or recently graduated university students. Some are doing post-grad work; some are still in high school. Others are housewives or arm-candy just looking for something to do. The bottom line is that peak hours are after work and on the weekends.
Every week, I teach approximately 25 classes, each an hour long. Classes vary in size and topic. “Workshops” hold up to 25 students and have 3 main focuses: academic, cultural, and professional. In addition to Workshops, there are small discussion sessions called “Face-to-face” with 1 to 4 students. The topics of both F2F’s and Workshops for the week usually center around one broad theme, for example, “Halloween” or “The Future.”
In addition to these, teachers also can organize their own classes that target topics or language skills. During my first few weeks of work for example, a trial by fire in which I had to cover for a colleague on leave after just 4 days of observation, I ran the pronunciation and writing skills classes. As I’ve gotten settled and established my own schedule in the months since, I’ve taken on “life clubs” of my own. I’ve been teaching Current Events Club for about two weeks, where I help students dissect and discuss recent news articles of my choosing. Beginning next week, I will start teaching Music Club with my fellow teacher Chris, where we listen to and talk about an English song with students. Both suit me quite well I think.
The schedule certainly keeps me busy. Class preparation is very heavy at the beginning of the week and then lightens up by the end, leaving some time to read or study at work. Usually though, I’ll just elect to relax and browse NFL.com’s video index.
Speaking of which, how bout them GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG-Men?! I’ve been sure to disrupt my sleep schedule every week to get up and listen to Big Blue’s games on internet radio. We got out to a bar for a few rounds of the playoffs too, including for last week’s fracas on the “frozen tundra.” The area of the bar we sat in was packed with chain-smoking cheese heads, who, despite losing, were significantly less profane and offensive than many New York sports fans I’ve encountered. My head-turning “Woooooo!”s every time Michael Strahan came on screen or my lone “YEAH!” when the final field goal went through set the dynamic for the morning. We went home hoarse but happy. It appears the football gods decided to grant is one more day…
Now to clarify, I have not just been using the royal “we.” Nicole, my lady, arrived here in Shanghai the day after Christmas! We’ve been getting up for or getting out to the Giants’ games every week together. She argues that her arrival has brought the G-men good luck…I’m sticking to my playoff beard theory…either way, I’ll take it!
She and I have been settling in over the past month, she to her new country, and me to my new roommate :). She’s quite the pro at living abroad, though this is her first time in Asia. As with any big change, it’s difficult, but she’s doing quite well, I think. She has a couple of part-time jobs/internships in her field (speech pathology) and those are both slowly getting off the ground. She’s going to begin Chinese classes this week, and she’s found a good group of friends to go out with on the weekends and explore the city while I’m stuck teaching “bio-material engineers” and “logistics coordinators" about “Christmas around the World.”
Things have been hectic, but now that my schedule’s starting to settle back down again, hopefully she and I will have some time to travel and explore together. We’ve explored the city a little bit and checked out a few restaurants and such, but there’s quite a bit to do outside the city walls. I’ve got a week off for Spring Festival/Chinese New Year coming up, and I think we’ll venture out of town and explore somewhere interesting for a day or three…
I guess that about does it. Finally, something like a foundation upon which to build. I think now that I’ve got a basic update down in the books, I can begin to get a little more focused and insightful with my blog posts. That’s means shorter, more interesting entries, more often. Haha.
As I alluded to above, there’s some traveling to be done in the near future, so keep an eye out for updates on that. I’ll also fill you in on some other select aspects of my life here…the commute to work, studying Chinese, and China vs. technology, will make some interesting topics for the coming weeks. I’ll get back on the music/vocabulary bandwagon with the next post…which will be soon, I promise. Also, I'll be adding some pics and vids to this post in the coming days.
Until then...
Be well. Go Giants.
-Will
I’ve been keeping busy with work, to say the least. My company, EF, is in a constant state of flux with new policies, new directives, new goals, and new plans every week; my school is constantly expanding, with new teachers, new students, and new schedules all the time. We’re teaching more classes every week to more students every week. For a couple weeks, some of us (including me) were also working 6 days a week to cover for a teacher on leave.
This perpetual state of change and well-sized workload makes it difficult to settle into a rhythm and manage everything. For a Renaissance man and creature of habit such as myself, that makes it especially hard to keep on top of it all. I’m hoping to begin the healing process now though, with a much-needed blog entry…
As some of you may recall, this post was supposed to be part three in my epic trilogy: a three-parter aimed at providing a comprehensive summary of everything I’d been doing up to now. Once that was out of the way, I could then begin to keep up with the blog in real time. Of course “now” by this point has become “then” and I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to talk about. I guess I’ll try to start with an update.
A lot has changed here over the last couple of months. For one thing, it’s gotten a lot colder, and there’s even been a little snow. The past few days have been especially wintry, dumping Shanghai with a messy mixture of snow, sleet, and rain. Shanghai is not alone in this regard. As some of you may have seen, China's experiencing a winter the likes of which it has not seen in 50 years. I don’t think the locals know what to make of it. “It’s global colding!” my students like to joke. Derp!
Conveniently, I haven’t gotten a haircut since I arrived here, taking my hair to a level of shagginess unseen since possibly high school, but keeping the ol’ noggin a little bit warmer. There are barber shops on every corner, and if there aren’t barber shops, you still might find a barber. There’s a guy with a couple of stools and a pair of shears at the end of my alley who gives haircuts and shaves to any willing passerby. I’ll settle for a daily gel-down of the old ‘fro for now…
My landlord tells me I’ve gotten a little skinny. Part of this is a diet dominated by cornflakes, apples, and soup noodles. Another part is that I go to the gym only slightly more frequently than I blog. The cage fighter within will have to wait his turn…
I’m also currently in the midst of one of my semi-annual experimentations in facial hair, perhaps catering to the hippy within, perhaps subconsciously growing a “playoff beard,” or perhaps quietly rebelling against my “sweater and slacks, speak articulately, and be friendly all the time” job. (Oh sure, I’ll be nice to these people, but I won’t care enough to groom myself for them!)
Now, don’t get me wrong. I like work. My colleagues are great, the office is great (there are pictures up from Christmas on my Shutterfly page), the students are mostly all very nice, and classes can be fun. But, as with any job I suppose, sooner or later it gets in the way of life. I came to China to teach English, but I really came to China to study the language, travel, network, and continue to improve upon the skills I built in grad school. Having to commit 50 hrs a week to a job that can bring more stress than satisfaction and has little significance as far as long-term plans are concerned, really steams my rice sometimes!
It all comes down to time management though and trying to keep a cool head. I’m in China, I tell myself, and that in of itself is huge. Plus, most of the time, if I make the effort, I can do many of the non-work things I want to do. It’s just tough.
Everyday I work from approximately 12:30 to 9:30 pm. I get out at 8:30 on Saturdays and Sundays and have my “weekends” on Thursday and Friday. The students at the center are mostly working professionals or recently graduated university students. Some are doing post-grad work; some are still in high school. Others are housewives or arm-candy just looking for something to do. The bottom line is that peak hours are after work and on the weekends.
Every week, I teach approximately 25 classes, each an hour long. Classes vary in size and topic. “Workshops” hold up to 25 students and have 3 main focuses: academic, cultural, and professional. In addition to Workshops, there are small discussion sessions called “Face-to-face” with 1 to 4 students. The topics of both F2F’s and Workshops for the week usually center around one broad theme, for example, “Halloween” or “The Future.”
In addition to these, teachers also can organize their own classes that target topics or language skills. During my first few weeks of work for example, a trial by fire in which I had to cover for a colleague on leave after just 4 days of observation, I ran the pronunciation and writing skills classes. As I’ve gotten settled and established my own schedule in the months since, I’ve taken on “life clubs” of my own. I’ve been teaching Current Events Club for about two weeks, where I help students dissect and discuss recent news articles of my choosing. Beginning next week, I will start teaching Music Club with my fellow teacher Chris, where we listen to and talk about an English song with students. Both suit me quite well I think.
The schedule certainly keeps me busy. Class preparation is very heavy at the beginning of the week and then lightens up by the end, leaving some time to read or study at work. Usually though, I’ll just elect to relax and browse NFL.com’s video index.
Speaking of which, how bout them GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG-Men?! I’ve been sure to disrupt my sleep schedule every week to get up and listen to Big Blue’s games on internet radio. We got out to a bar for a few rounds of the playoffs too, including for last week’s fracas on the “frozen tundra.” The area of the bar we sat in was packed with chain-smoking cheese heads, who, despite losing, were significantly less profane and offensive than many New York sports fans I’ve encountered. My head-turning “Woooooo!”s every time Michael Strahan came on screen or my lone “YEAH!” when the final field goal went through set the dynamic for the morning. We went home hoarse but happy. It appears the football gods decided to grant is one more day…
Now to clarify, I have not just been using the royal “we.” Nicole, my lady, arrived here in Shanghai the day after Christmas! We’ve been getting up for or getting out to the Giants’ games every week together. She argues that her arrival has brought the G-men good luck…I’m sticking to my playoff beard theory…either way, I’ll take it!
She and I have been settling in over the past month, she to her new country, and me to my new roommate :). She’s quite the pro at living abroad, though this is her first time in Asia. As with any big change, it’s difficult, but she’s doing quite well, I think. She has a couple of part-time jobs/internships in her field (speech pathology) and those are both slowly getting off the ground. She’s going to begin Chinese classes this week, and she’s found a good group of friends to go out with on the weekends and explore the city while I’m stuck teaching “bio-material engineers” and “logistics coordinators" about “Christmas around the World.”
Things have been hectic, but now that my schedule’s starting to settle back down again, hopefully she and I will have some time to travel and explore together. We’ve explored the city a little bit and checked out a few restaurants and such, but there’s quite a bit to do outside the city walls. I’ve got a week off for Spring Festival/Chinese New Year coming up, and I think we’ll venture out of town and explore somewhere interesting for a day or three…
I guess that about does it. Finally, something like a foundation upon which to build. I think now that I’ve got a basic update down in the books, I can begin to get a little more focused and insightful with my blog posts. That’s means shorter, more interesting entries, more often. Haha.
As I alluded to above, there’s some traveling to be done in the near future, so keep an eye out for updates on that. I’ll also fill you in on some other select aspects of my life here…the commute to work, studying Chinese, and China vs. technology, will make some interesting topics for the coming weeks. I’ll get back on the music/vocabulary bandwagon with the next post…which will be soon, I promise. Also, I'll be adding some pics and vids to this post in the coming days.
Until then...
Be well. Go Giants.
-Will
