I Don’t Give A Figgity Figgity Figgity What?
The seventh Chinarchy audio post. This episode I talk about TEFL training and my first day of the new semester.
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Note: Just a heads up, at one point I drop the F-bomb about ten times. I also sing. Just letting you know in case you find that (the singing) offensive.
Beer Fest and Training
The sixth Chinarchy audio post. This episode I talk about going to the Qingdao beer festival and the week-long training I did for new English teachers in beijing.
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Update: I realized I mentioned “scantily clad Chinese girls” in my podcast and I failed to deliver any visual representations of those aforementioned subjects. So in the interest of good journalism, here are some photos from the festival:
Is it me, or is she a little bit cross-eyed? She looks like a Chinese Cheri Oteri.
Friday the 13th
Just a quick update about what’s going on here.
This weekend I’m heading to Qingdao for their international beer festival. So expect a post about that when I get back, hopefully with a lot of photos.
Then next week the company that hired me is bringing in about 90 new foreign English teachers and they asked me to help train them. I’m hoping to meet some cool new people and I’m sure I’ll have some thoughts about the experience, which you’ll get to hear in a tangent-filled podcast.
And then the following weekend, I’ll be studying and taking a test to receive my TEFL certification.
I’m going to be pretty busy so if you don’t get any updates for the next week or so, that’s why. But once it calms down I’ll have a bunch of good stuff to post.
And by the way, it’s Friday the 13th! I don’t really remember what’s supposed to happen on Friday the 13th…you have to be careful or there’s bad luck or something something superstition? Whatever it is, watch out.
And one more thing, remember to visit www.chinarchy.com/helpout and you can enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card. Do it…
IASISK – Shanghai
Casey, who teaches English in South Korea and runs the blog It’s Always Sunny In South Korea, recently visited Shanghai with me. Since I never got around to talking about it on the last podcast, I figured I’d just recommend her article.
Here’s an excerpt:
Shanghai has a cosmopolitan, big-city feel but there is also something quite unique about it. The architecture is simply fascinating – check out some of the photos below to see the stunning skyline. There are some buildings that look like they came straight out of a sci-fi movie, while others have clearly not been renovated in many years.
As cool as it was to see the futuristic element of Shanghai, my favorite part of the time we spent there was wandering through back alleys and random neighborhoods, seeing how average people lived. It was shocking in some ways – for such a developed city, people were living in sparse and often dilapidated apartments. In one area, I noticed that the sewage system was an exposed pipe near the front door.
We did have one sobering encounter with a little boy, which I still struggle with when I think about it.
We were leaving the Jade Buddha Temple (which is really just a huge, ridiculous farce that I will cover in another blog post) and heading to lunch when a little boy, about 10 years old, started walking beside us. His face was filthy and his shirt was covered in dirt and he was giving us the saddest look I’ve ever seen.
The boy clearly wanted money, and was clearly experienced at begging for it. Even after being told no, he kept pace with us, repeating the same phrases in Chinese over and over again. At one point, he stuck a finger down his throat, I assume to indicate that he was hungry. I could feel my stomach starting to turn.
It’s not that I’ve never encountered a beggar before. I’ve lived in New York City and Washington, D.C., so I’ve met my fair share of homeless, desperate people, some more heartbreaking than others. But this was the first time I’d been approached by a begging child. It was horrible.
To read the rest, head over to IASISK.
Happy Conception Day!
Hey everybody, today is the day that Chinarchy was conceived.
August 8, 2009 I was sitting in my apartment and thinking about the possibility of going to China and came up with the idea for this website. It would be another 6 months before I actually ended up in Beijing and began writing (which I guess would be considered Chinarchy’s birthday).
In order to celebrate this glorious day of conception I’m giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to whoever helps me introduce the most new people to the blog. To find out more head over to http://www.chinarchy.com/helpout/.
And also, I just want to thank everybody who has been reading for the past six months. If it wasn’t for you guys I would have quit this blog a long time ago. Thank you.
Update: I figured I’d throw in some nerd proof. “Record created on 2009-08-09 21:40:06.”
