In China, On-line

Hey everyone,

Year 3 of "The Skinny White Kid" is back! Congratulate yourself for surviving a whole summer without the most entertaining and informative blog in history, and rejoice that it has returned!

I've been back in Wuhan for about two weeks. I planned on blogging quite a while ago, but the internet in my apartment was down the first week. The school IT guys were able to get us set up again. Unfortunately, I missed two fantasy football drafts! So that problem might mean a few more losses this year.

Anyways, as you would expect, a lot has happened the past two weeks, so I'll try to give it to you in quick bullet points.

- Kirk and I flew over together. It was about as smooth a trip as we've had. No canceled flights or delays. During our layover in Los Angeles, we were able to meet up with Daniel (our teammate for the past two years) and Joe (a high school friend). We ate at the famous In-N-Out Burger near the airport. We even saw a famous actor (Topher Grace) even though we were only there for a few hours.

- When I arrived at my apartment, I was pleasantly surprised at how clean it was. Last year, it was really dirty, and there were even a bugs running around. At the end of last year, I tried to clean my place really well hoping that would control the mold and dust this time, and it did.

- The school originally told us that we would start teaching on Monday (Sep 5). However, I got a call last Wednesday (Aug 31) afternoon from a teacher. He told me that the Senior 2 teachers (Rebecca, Mandi, and I) were going to start the next day! We were frustrated because we hadn't prepared to teach or made copies of information sheets that we needed to give our students. Luckily, the three of us have all taught before, so we had an idea on what to do the first day and we were able to have the copy room ladies make them just in time. The first week of classes went well overall.

- Tony, our new Chinese boss, has been great. This year, he convinced the school to buy us soft couches for our rooms. For the past two years, we've only had wooden chairs and benches. It's so nice to have somewhere soft to sit besides my bed!

- Tony also has the foreign teachers taking Kung Fu and Chinese lessons from the school. The Kung Fu class is with a bunch of students and is all in Chinese, but it'll still be fun to hopefully pick up a little.

- All the teachers decided to buy bikes this year. They're not the nicest, but they'll get us around. Our school is a little out of the city, but the area is growing. Now that we have some stores, restaurants, and our gym within bike-riding distance, it'll be nice to have them.

- Our good friend Patrick (he's in a picture in my last post) moved away from Wuhan over the summer. Fortunately, he is here this week for a business trip. It was fun to go to Papa John's and play some pool with him.

I also wanted to give you a list of the foreign teachers at my school, so you can know who I'm talking about when I mention them. It's a great group, and we're all good friends.

Kirk: 3rd year teacher from Ohio, teaching Senior 1, also one of my best friends from college
Rebecca: 3rd year teacher from Michigan, teaching Senior 2
Taylor: 3rd year teacher from California, teaching Senior 1, he used to teach at our school, but this is his first year since I've been here
Mandi: 2nd year teacher Louisiana, teaching Senior 2
Nathan: 1st year teacher from California, teaching Senior 1

That's a quick update for now. I'm hoping to start getting some pictures up on here soon. My next post will be a list of some of my favorite names and questions from my students on their first day.

Philippians 4:6-7