My Students at Jinling High School

Hello all,

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post. There hasn't really been too much going on.  But that will soon change - I am officially on holiday for an entire week and one of my students has offered to take Maggie and I around to different sights. 

This is the school's emblem that is everywhere on both the school buildings and the students' uniforms.

The last few days I've had my camera in the classrooms video taping the students' speeches that they have been working on for a week and a half.  While I had the camera I decided that I would take a picture of all my students to introduce them to everyone.  |Most of the students are photographed below with the exception of two of my Grade 11s and all of my Grade 10s. 

 This is my last class of the day and they are all hams but really great students.  Their names are; Boys (L to R) Alex, Hanson, Jovian, N'aix, Arthur, Joseph, and Tom; Girls (L to R) Linda, Rosemary, Flora, Amanda

This is my second class of the day, they are the most skilled at English and are really fun to teach.  Their names are; Boys (L to R) Nemo, Arron, Chace, Leon, Edward, Jerry, Robert, Sandy; Girls (L to R) Conni, Tiffany, Gloria, Iris, Sara, Shirley, Trista, Tina

This is my second to last class of the day, they can sometimes be the most challenging because I have them right after a 2 hour lunch break but they are still good kids.  Boys (L to R) Sparrow, Heath, Allen, Somnus, Evan (Jax and Karry are missing).  Girls (L to R) Tracy, Sakura, Cindy, Irene, Garry, Cheryl, Alisa, Victoria, Alice, Dora.

I really like their uniforms here.  First off they remind of Hell's Kitchen with the boys wearing blue and the girls wearing red but because the uniforms are all polos with track pants and a track jacket the issue of clothing being inappropriately worn is not an issue like it is at schools in Ontario that have uniforms. 

Tune in often over the next few days as I will be posting a lot of pictures of different sights here in Nanjing.

Walking Tour of the Apartment Complex

Two posts in less than 24 hours! Don't get used to this. 
Today is such a beautiful day I decided to go out and take a tour of the apartment complex, I'm not sure exactly how many buildings are in the complex.  I live in building 15 and I saw a sign for 18 but nothing lower.  There are quite a few buildings though.  Here are some pics of the little compound I find myself living in.  

You can't tell but my apartment is visible in this picture.  One of the balconies nearest to left is mine, on the tenth floor. 

The lake within the compound, quite beautiful and full of fish.

Already out and enjoying the sun, will definitely be bringing a book down here before it gets too chilly.

Kids' playground.

The swimming pool, that I couldn't seem to find the entrance to.

There are a few of these areas in the compound, housing the residents' scooters.

My second week of teaching is done!

Hey everyone,

I have officially completed my second week on the job.  It had a few rough patches at the beginning of the week but thanks to the other teachers here and the International Director of Bond things are starting to look up.  I still don't really know how I should be teaching these students but I am trying different activities to see if they will respond to them or not.  

Last night Maggie and Paul and I were invited to meet up with the other Bond teachers at the other school here in Nanjing at a restaurant a 13 minute subway ride from our apartments.  It was for Teppanyaki which is Japanese, it is essentially fried meat (beef, lamb, fish) that is fried on a flat top right in front of us.  It was quite good and my stomach enjoyed having food that it not only recognized but deemed as meat and protein.  It cost RMB 180 a person and the people who paid with two 100 kuai bills did not get any change back, considering we were told this was a non-tipping culture.  The restaurant happened to be filled with foreigners that night, they seemed British or American based on their volume and need to have a beer in hand at all times.  We are able to have some conversations with the other teachers and get to know them all, but next time we are going to try a place that is slightly more intimate so that we can have more conversations. 

This is lamp chops that were dipped in a sauce before being put on the grill.  It was quite good.

These scallops were grilled and then served to us in their shells.  The first round for some reason they were not fully cooked but the second round they were more cooked.

This is bananas and ice cream that were grilled and then flam-bayed with brandy.

The reaction of the brandy on the hot top.

Above is a quick video of the bananas getting flam-bayed.

My Apartment

Since the video wouldn't upload yesterday I went back and took pictures of the apartment to show you all.

My tiny but functional kitchen.

Pretty empty living area but I have been promised a sofa later this wek.

My balcony, which doubles as my dryer.

Pretty white bedroom, gotta change that though.

So that's the apartment, in a few weeks to months I expect it will look totally different. 

Yesterday was a bad day for me teaching, I was questioning why I am here because I have been thrust into a course that I do not know anything about so I therefore am struggling on how to teach it.  I was feeling very bad yesterday and then the secretary of the school told us that today we had to go get a medical examination done for the visa requirements as a resident and that we needed extra passport photos.  Neither Maggie or myself had brought extra photos so we had to go to a photo store that was three blocks away from the school.  We decided to walk there even though it was the opposite direction of our apartment.  We were talking and stressing while walking down the street when someone we passed said "Hey" to us.  I stopped in mid-step and went back and introduced myself and to ask for directions.  His name is Chaste and he is from Vaughn.  He told us that we were in heading in the right direction.  He too is here teaching but at a different school near us.  He gave us his number and we continued on our way. 
After we got the photos we were near to a Wal-Mart like store so we went in to get a few necessities for the apartments and then took a cab home. 

Today we went for the medical and even though we did everything in Canada, because Bond took all our originals we had to do all the tests over again.  It wasn't so bad, and was actually pretty quick.  It was weird that they brought Maggie and I into the rooms together for the tests like the EKG and the ultrasound.  The results should be in on Friday but I don't think we are returning to that building, the British teachers will probably pick them up for us.  I missed my first period of teaching today so now I have to figure out a way to keep them from falling behind the other two classes that I have this afternoon.  I'm sure I will figure it out but after my day yesterday I'm doubting myself. 

I have arrived!

Sorry for the delay on updating, it's been a very busy week.

Here are a bunch of pictures and a short video just to give you an idea what I've been experiencing so far.  I just got into an apartment on Sunday September 10, after spending a week in a hotel while the school put finishing touches on our apartments.  The accomodations that I was welcomed to last Monday night were horrible and we refused to stay there for even one night.  But that's okay now we are in our homes and I can't wait to make it my own.

For those of you who do not know, when I arrived at the airport I was told that myself and the other Bond teachers on the same flight as me had all been upgraded to Business Class. Below are some pictures of what I experienced while on the flight.  In general the movie selection on the airline wasn't that good but I spent most of my time sleeping, reading and listening to my audiobook so it didn't bother me that much.

My feet barely reached the seat in front of me, let alone the floor.

Here is one of the other Bond teachers modelling how far down the seats went into sleeper seats.

My dinner on the flight, about an hour after leaving Toronto.

The airline put us up in the Hilton in Beijing overnight while we waited for our connecting flight to Nanjing.

It was a nice comfortable room that I didn't want to leave.

To the left of this picture were the toilet and shower each in their own little walled in stalls.

This is the view from my window at the hotel, luckily the room was very well sound-proofed I barely heard any planes when I was struggling with jet lag that night. 

Here are Maggie and Paul, the main two teachers I will be working with this year as we wait for our connecting flight to Nanjing.

Here is the terminal, off this little round room there were five gates all with flights arriving and departing every few minutes.

This is the apartment I was shown to when we first arrived.  This is actually a converted dorm buildings that all teachers live in.  There was no kitchenette and no real space.  The bathroom had chipped floor tiles.  The beds themselves had such large body imprints it was disgusting.  The shape of the walls were not much better.

This is the top of the tv and it is absolutely caked with dust.

I must remind you this is not where I am living but when I saw shown this it was very hard to picture myself living here for the next two years.  Must admit Maggie and I were both contemplating a return to the airport we were just that disgusted and upset. We were taken to a hotel shortly after these pictures were taken and we never had to see the rooms again, we stayed in the hotel from Monday night until Sunday afternoon.

The building on the right is the one where my classroom and office are.  We are located on the fourth floor of the building in the International Department.

This display greets me every morning when I reach my floor. On this floor is also an American program that has two teachers teaching the AP program.  

Every morning when we arrive the students are doing their exercises. All 5000 or so of them group together on the sports field and do various stretches and other exercises, it usually takes them about 30 minutes or so.  They jog from the buildings to the field and then jog back afterwards.

On Thursday night, the Bond administrators wanted to take us to dinner.  We drove about 30 minutes outside of the area that we live in, to the Confucius Temple, which is now a large shopping district with both Western and Eastern stores.

The restaurant we ate at specializes if giving tourists a taste of various local dishes without having to pay for an entire plate full.  Each of those little dishes in the picture is a local meal that we could find at any other restaurant full sized.  I tried a lot of the stuff but most of it wasn't really to my taste. 

After dinner our hosts took us on a night cruise through the canals to look at the lanterns that are found all around the buildings. 

I'm really enjoying my time here, despite Monday's accomodation debacle.  I'm trying different foods but I haven't eaten yet what we would consider a full meal all week.  This afternoon after school Maggie and I are hitting a grocery store so hopefully tonight's dinner is full of protein and I am able to eat it all. 

I wanted to show you a virtual tour of my apartment but the video is not uploading. I'll have to go back and take pictures of the apartment again and do it that way.  So until tomorrow then folks.