August 2011
7 posts
Back
Hello.
I’m back in the United States. After a 14 hour flight where we left at 6:55 AM, I finally got back to the States at 8:15 AM.
My parents picked me up from the airport and I slept from noon to 7 PM. Changing back to a different time zone is going to be insanely difficult.
I’m definitely having some reverse culture shock. I’m really sad that I’m back…hopefully...
THE GREAT WALL!
Well, I was extremely excited for the Great Wall. We woke up early and ate breakfast in the hotel at 7:30 AM this morning. The food wasn’t as bad as the day before…but I definitely miss peanut butter from home. We were supposed to leave at 8 AM, but the bus was having difficulties, so we left around 8:30 AM.
I was exhausted so I slept the whole way to the Great Wall. We went to a spot that was...
Temple of Heaven
Today, we woke up at 6:30 and headed to breakfast at 7 AM. The hallway was entirely dark so we got lost at first and went back to the room to wait a little while because we thought the place wasn’t open yet. Finally, we realized the hallways was just dark so we headed in. The food was kind of sketchy, but I still ate some rice and had some watermelon and bread in the morning.
After breakfast, we...
Beijing Travel time
Well Wednesday was the day we left Tianjin for good to head to Beijing for three days of sight-seeing before we leave. We had to wake up early and be ready to go in the lobby by 6:30 AM. I was really glad that I had bought that extra suitcase the day prior, because I know that having to purchase one in Beijing would be a pain, but my bag would be overweight for sure.
We headed to Beijing on a bus...
Last day in Tianjin
I’m pretty sad about this post. It’s our last and final day in Tianjin and I am dreading leaving. I’ve had such an amazing time and I really love this city. I need to come back somehow, so I’m definitely going to look into that.
I woke up this morning at 7:30 AM (so much for sleeping in) and couldn’t get the internet to work. That is the main reason why these posts...
Spontaneous trip to Beijing!
Well…the trip to Beijing was a lot of fun. I can’t really remember a lot of it because it wasn’t planned and I don’t know the names of the places. Hopefully I can find out from Dr. Mahon later.
We woke up early Sunday morning to head to Beijing. Simon was coming with us and then leaving Monday night to visit his girlfriend for her birthday. I was super excited because we...
July 2011
24 posts
Lazy shopping day
Well, today we were supposed to go shopping with Jim and Alexa’s student Vicki at 10:30 AM.
Due to some issues at home and the late night last night, I only had slept like 2 or 3 hours so I felt awful. I decided to forgo the experience and just continue to sleep. I’m glad I did, as I woke up at about 1:30 PM after falling asleep at 10 AM. So this post is naturally going to be pretty...
Graduation Day
So finally, the day of graduation was upon me. I don’t think I could prepare for this because it’s really a weird thing to meet and befriend so many people, just to know that in three weeks, it’s likely you will never meet them again.
Graduation involved every class sitting in Room 511 to perform presentations of any kind to celebrate the past three weeks and the confidence and...
Let's go to the market!
Last night, Dr. Mahon came in the room at about 10 PM and asked us if we wanted to go to an antiques market in the morning 5 AM. A part of me said “NO WAY!”, but the tourist side of me said “DEFINITELY!” so I decided to go.
After waking up at like 4:50 AM, Mary, Lisa, Dr. Mahon and I headed out to find a taxi and go to this apparent antique market that was allegedly famous...
dinner with jim!
Today, class started with Dr. Mahon giving about an hour presentation on Mexican-Americans. She tried to explain a lot of the stereotypes and misinformation that comes with being a Mexican-American. She touched on the border issues, but also on Mexican and Mexican-American culture, like food and holidays.
Dr. Mahon presenting on Mexican-Americans.
Dr. Mahon teaching about Mexican-American...
Another lazy day
As the end of the week begins to near, I can definitely feel myself getting really sad about my students heading home after classes Friday. It’s only been a little over two weeks, but I would love to see all of them at Heidelberg! I know some of them will be there in a year, but I won’t be there in the fall so I still will only get a semester with them. Either way, I have made a...
An off day
Today was pretty much the laziest day we’ve had while here in China. With everything we did last night with my students, we didn’t have any offers by any others to hang out for the day. That wasn’t really a big deal, seeing as we are all really exhausted from yesterday and the weekend.
In class today, all the classes came together in room 511 where Dr. Wasserman gave a...
Everybody's Zooin' It
There are going to be a lot of animal picture so bear (haha GET IT?…) with me.
Today was literally a non-stop adventure from 8:30 AM to 8 PM at night. The day started with Dr. Sanders, Ms. Green, Mary, Lisa, and I going to Culture Street to get our shop on from 9 AM to noon. Dr. Sanders is a definitely bargain shopper and she was so helpful in getting Mary, Lisa, and I some great deals.
I...
Saturday in Tianjin, Part 2
So Saturday is the day in our contract where we get to go sight-see and do all sorts of fun things. So today we had planned to go to the China House, botanical gardens, Culture Street, and Italian Street.
We left at 8:30 AM with everyone, including Ms. Li, Jim and Ellen. The first stop was the China House. This house is LITERALLY a house built with things like pottery in the actual walls. It was...
The Cambridge class says goodbye
Today was the day Lisa’s class was leaving for Cambridge tomorrow. After about an hour and a half with our usual students we headed up to Room 511 to say goodbye to Lisa’s class.
I sat with my class, next to Lulu (Frank) who asked me all sorts of questions like “how much does it cost to buy a house in Tiffin?” and “how much does a new car cost?” Since...
The Peking Opera!
Today we were back in our classes with our normal students. I’ve become quite attached to my class, I really love how funny and intelligent they are.
Dr. Wasserman presented her Michael Jackson presentation to them. That lasted about an hour and a half. Then she showed pictures of home and she really liked that a lot.
We introduced them to navigating the Heidelberg website. Since all the...
non-stop dayyy!
Today was literally jam packed from my 6:45 AM wake up to my getting home finally at 10 PM. I spent the morning getting ready and uploading pictures to WalMart’s website so my mom could print off pictures by the time I get back. That’s going to be a longgg process, seeing that I’m being a major tourist and taking pictures of EVERYTHING!
Dr. Wasserman and I did our presentations...
Dumpling Factory
We did presentations in the different classes again today. I had Lisa’s classroom and they were really attentive and friendly. We did an activity where they had to order off an American menu. It’s hard to realize how much slang we really use until you’re trying to cover the material with students who speak English as a second language.
Either way, today we treated all the...
The post office!
After teaching for the day and doing presentations on food, television, and Dr. Wasserman’s on Michael Jackson, we got to go to the post office with Stella.
Mary, Lisa, and I wanted to mail some postcards back to the states, so we got Stella to take us to the post office to buy some post cards for Lisa and to mail them. Mary had to write like 6 of them to all her family, Lisa 4, and I just...
the day of rest...or singing
On Sunday, we kind of decided to take a day off from sight-seeing. Some of Lisa’s students were talking about how much they love Chinese karaoke. Karaoke in China is really popular so Mary, Lisa, Alexa, and I definitely wanted to see how the locals do it!
Simon said he would take us to a karaoke place at 1:30 pm. So with the sleep schedule I have, I’d been awake since 6:25 AM and...
Saturday=Sight Seeing Day
I’m trying to transfer my written journal that I’ve been keeping over to this blog, while also attaching some photos. That’s why you may only be seeing a Saturday post now (it’s technically Tuesday here in China). I’m almost caught up and then hopefully I can just update as I go and that will be MUCH easier!
Saturdays have been designated as the major sight-seeing...
A birthday celebration!
So this next post will be kind of long and elaborate because there’s lots of details. It’s also probably my favorite day so far so I may go into some major details.
During our first break in class, my students Stephen and Frank came to me and asked me if I was free that day. I said yes and then they invited me to a classmate’s birthday party at their dorm. I was really nervous...
Shopping with Doris (Part 2!) and Bart
In class today (it’s Thursday!) we talked about American money. Dr. Wasserman brought in play money, which was a really fun activity. I don’t have many pictures of my students in the classroom so I really need to work on that. However, we covered how the coins work and that there are dollar bills, etc. It would be confusing when all the state quarters look different than the original...
Shopping with Doris!
I woke up, got ready, and went to class for our second day. Dr. Wasserman did not look very healthy, she was definitely still sick from the taxi incident and probably from jet lag mixed with a bug of some kind.
We started off the day doing adjective anagrams with the students American names, where they had to pick adjectives for each letter of their name that explained themselves. This exercise...
Teaching for the first time!
So Tuesday was the first teaching day. I don’t want to be a teacher, so I’m terrified going in to that morning. The day starts out with waking up at 4 am (obviously not adjusted to the time change) and just laying around and going on the computer until breakfast time.
Breakfast was served at 7:30 AM and it was anything BUT what I would eat for breakfast. Being adventurous and open...
Room pictures
Just wanted to show some pictures of the room because it’s awesome and I’m sure you don’t want to just read my life story! The room was not what I expected it’d be.
Amazing huh? Not really roughing it AT ALL.
Day One
I woke up around 8 am, getting a nice 4 hours of sleep maximum. Very refreshing…not. I was glad I slept on the plane or I would have been walking death.
The day started with Alexa and I accidentally taking a nap and waking up at 2 pm, the time we were supposed to go see the classrooms with the professors. We went down by 2:05 PM and waited and nobody was around. So Alexa and I are...
Holy Smog, Batman!
The trip started out rough, with Hagemeyer staying behind because of health issues and two other ladies, Jo-anne and Beverly coming alone instead. They’re hilarious and really nice people and I’m glad they came! However, when Hagemeyer’s flight was cancelled, all of ours were cancelled, so we spent an hour and a half rescheduling flights and checking in 20348920 bags to take to...
