Health Screening

Since I have a work visa because I am an expert in my field and I will be living here for two years. I had to get checked out by the government at the hospital here in Wuxi. This is the most expensive western hospital and therefore my health insurance does not cover it. It is the only western hospital in Wuxi. Anyways I had to get my blood drawn. Then I was sent to the bathroom to give a urine sample. Then I had my blood pressure taken, height measured, and weighed. Then I had to get my heart checked with this really weird contraption. Then I had a doctor poke and prod me to make sure nothing was wrong with my stomach. Then I had a guy check out my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Then I had to get an ultra sound to check my kidneys and gallbladder. Then I had to get a chest x-ray. I saw about seven or eight different doctors. I could not keep track because I went from one doctor to another. It was an absolutely crazy whirl wind. Oh and all of this cost 500 yuan which is about 100 dollars. Which to me sounds kind of expensive and since we went to the one hospital not covered we are going to get reimbursed. However I did take a loan out from the school and I used that money to pay for the check up. I don't think that I have ever been checked so thoroughly in my life. It was a crazy experience. 

Weather and my Chinese

So I forgot to mention the weather. It has been some what humid, but really not bad at all. It has been raining a lot here. I have been telling the Chinese staff that we wouldn't call it rain in Oregon. It has come down pretty hard other times that it would be considered rain in Oregon though. There has even been some thunder and lightning. I thought I brought the rain with me. I felt like I have been in Oregon this whole time. I am told that it does not get too cold here during the winter kinda of like Oregon. So it sounds like I will love the weather here. I am told the campus is beautiful in Spring with all of the flowers. 

The Chinese staff has been impressed with my knowledge of Chinese art and being able to read Chinese characters. I was told my pronunciation is very good as well. I am picking up a few words here and there. Some of my Chinese is coming back. It is still really not up to a good level though. I am hoping to get much better at it. I was thinking of forcing myself speak nothing but Chinese with the Chinese staff at certain times. We will see how it progresses. 

The Journey So Far

The flight went well. I managed to get through customs with three of my big bags on a cart and one being dragged behind me. I was immediately thrown on a bus to Wuxi. The bus driver did not like that I had three large bags. I met the physics teacher from my school on the bus. We talked along the way. We made a stop at the Shanghai railway. Me and him almost got off there. However we saw people getting back on the bus so we followed suit. Thankfully we made it to Wuxi. One assistant was sent in a taxi with three of my bags. The other taxi took my bag as well as the two the physics teacher brought. We also fit me, the other teacher, and the assistant. We got all of my bags into my hotel room. I pretty much fell asleep once I got there. However I noticed that my hotel door didn't close all the way. At the time I didn't care. Then I slept some before I called someone about the door. They couldn't fix it so I had to move rooms. I moved my bags down a few rooms. I lazed around the hotel on Sunday and tried to get on the internet, but I couldn't figure it out. Then come Monday the 22nd I moved into my apartment. Yet again I had to take two taxis to get there because I had so many bags. It was two bedroom and it is pretty decent size. It is definitively the right size for one person. It is in a brand new building right across the street from my school. Then I spent Monday running around buying things for my apartment and then set up my bank account at the bank of China. I also set it up so my gas and utilities bills would be withdrawn from my bank account. Then I got a Chinese cell phone. The next thing I knew I was out for dinner with the rest of the teaching staff. It was great to finally meet everyone. The whole crew got along great and I look forward to working with them. As I explored what is around me and walked to the Emart to get more things for the apartment I noticed that everyone stared at me. I didn't notice the looks when I came to China before, but then again I stayed in the tourist areas of China. Now I am walking around a Chinese apartment complex and store. Sometimes they will just say hello so they can practice English. I have gotten good at catching a taxi and pointing at a piece of paper that has the address on it. Oh man speaking of taxi's. The traffic here is crazy. No one stays in there lanes and pedestrians don't have right of way. You just go and expect people to move around you. As a pedestrian you have to watch for cars turning right because they expect you to let the car go first. I am still not used to the crazy traffic. I have gotten better about crossing the street to go to school though. Although it is still weird just crossing and then waiting in the middle of the street waiting to finish crossing the street, but that is the Chinese way. 

The food has been great. I had some great soup dumplings that are very well known her in Wuxi. I also here there is a mango restaurant downtown that I look forward to trying. Those of you that know me know I love mangoes. I have tried lots of stuff. I have been very adventurous with the food. I love the Chinese food here. 

The conference for all the teachers were great met everyone in the company and learned a lot. I will talk more about that in my teaching blog and illustrate the differences in education. 

The only other minor disaster that makes for a funny story now is that I returned from hanging out with my fellow teachers really late and the doors to my apartment building were closed

I suggest that you don't bring travelers checks. I had to argue with the bank about ONE of my letters not matching. I guess they were so worried that they couldn't exchange it because of a minor difference. I couldn't even see the difference. I doubt in America that they will be looking that closely at the signature. I have been able to access my money with my American debit card. Bank of America has an agreement with the Construction bank of China not to charge fees. So I have been going that bank which is near the local grocery store. I have not had a problem accessing the money. 

So far I have had access to gmail, but nothing of my google docs. I have been able to access delicious which I am happy about because it had useful sites that I wanted to use in my teaching. So far so good. We will have to see if this e-mail gets through to my blog. I will add some pictures of the apartment and eventually the school. However the school is so much prettier in the spring with all the flowers. 

My Road to China

I hope I can post on this blog site. I realized I can post to the blog by emailing my posts to blogger. I think that will work in China better than accessing the site. I have heard that blog spot is blocked in China. I am hoping that my e-mails will get through though. So I may or may not post to this site depending on how it all works.

However lets move onto more pressing issues like my big move to China. I am really nervous and really excited. I think it is going to be amazing, interesting, and I am going to learn a lot. However it is kind of scary. Plus I am an organizer and a planner. I usually don't like the unknown. So that is getting at me. I know everything will fall into place. I just want to be all settled and have things figured out.

I think I was meant to go to China though. I went to China for the first time in the Summer of 2005. I went with my choir Heart of the Valley Festival and Chamber choir. It was my second international tour with the choir. I am glad that we ended up going to China. I got to see a lot and meet a lot of people. My eyes were opened up to a new and interesting land. I was interested in the culture and the art. So when I returned I ended up reading lots of books about Chinese history and culture just for fun. This inspired me to take lots of courses on Chinese history and culture. I took an amazing Chinese Art history course that helped me learn more about the art that I admired greatly. I was then blessed to be asked back to go on a special alumni tour to China the summer of 2007 after my freshmen year in college. I was excited to see lots of the art and be able to talk about the meaning behind it. It was this second opportunity that inspired me to look into being a Chinese minor. When I looked into I discovered I had already taken several courses that counted towards the minor. I just needed to take the language. So I signed up for beginning Chinese for the following term. The second time I went I got to see smaller cities (at least smaller for China). We went to Guilin which was absolutely beautiful as you can see in the photos below.

I enjoyed seeing something that was more real China that tourist sites like Beijing and Xian.

So after returning from my second trip to China I started studying the language. It was tough and takes a lot of work to learn. It did not come as easily to me as French did. I never really had to study French and it sort of just came to me even in college. However Chinese was hard. If you really wanted to be good at it you had to spend a lot of time outside of class studying. We learned how to read, write, and speak Chinese. A lot of my friends who are Chinese only knew how to speak the language and often spoke the language at home. So learning all three of those skills was really difficult and I did not put in enough time into it. I did not want to put that much work in it because I was a lazy college student and my math classes were my real priority. However I stuck with it. I was determined to get that minor. I took two years of the language and then a semester of the third year class. The last semester of the third year class was focused on reading and writing the language like most third year language courses in college. Suddenly Chinese class was in nothing but Chinese and the syllabus was completely in Chinese. I was not prepared for this by the previous teacher and got through by the skin of my teeth. Some of my classmates wondered why I wasn't taking the course next semester. I didn't need to take the class for the minor though and that is why I was taking the courses. I also didn't want to take the class while writing my thesis. I enjoyed learning the language, but not as much as the culture and history. I think I would have enjoyed the class more if I was not being graded. So now I have a real chance to master the language while I am living there. So this will be my first time in China after studying the language. I am looking forward to that and using those skills. However my skills were not good to begin with and now they super rusty.

I also took a course called Chinese Microcosms. It was an interesting class about how the Chinese saw and represented the world or society. One unit was on Classical Chinese gardens. I enjoyed this greatly. We also visited the garden in Portland and wrote an entire paper on it. I will be teaching in Wuxi which is very close to Suzhou. Suzhou is famous for its type of Chinese gardens and has many famous Chinese Gardens. The rocks that are often used in Chinese gardens come from Lake Tai hu which is right next to Wuxi. So I am really excited about seeing the gardens of Suzhou after studying it for so long.

So that is what lead me to start teaching in China. So I think I was meant to go to China and after my Chinese Microcosms class I was meant to go to Wuxi. I will be teaching AP Calculus in English. I will have to help my students improve their English, but I am told they have great English. I thought about teaching in China, but I figured that meant I had to teach English. You wouldn't want me teaching English. So this job combines my love of math, my interest in Chinese culture, and all of my coursework towards my minor. I will do my best to keep everyone posted on my adventures in China as best I can. Hopefully using this blog and if not using a Chinese blog site. If I do end up using a Chinese blog I will post the link on this site as well.