A letter from China

I thought I would send you an update e-mail that you could pass on to the family. Sorry I haven't been updating much. Facebook is blocked 99% of the time, along with the website that I was going to use to write my blog. I've been able to talk to mom and dad through skype which has been great, though.

I'm currently teaching primary school in Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, China. I'm teaching grades 3-6, and I teach 9 classes two times a week for a total of 18 classes. I had a rough start but the last few weeks have gotten a lot better. There are still a few classes that are completely out of control, but that's to be expected. I can't discipline them because I don't know Chinese, so I pretty much stand around and wait for them to calm down - sometimes that takes the entire class.

My grade six class is fantastic. They are very well-behaved and they know enough English that I can joke around with them and it doesn't get lost in translation. I have a lot of fun with them. I haven't been able to explore the city as much as I would like. I have a bike so I've rode around a bit, but I haven't been outside the city. I get paid tomorrow so once I get paid I will actually be able to shop around and check out the city. I've been living the last two weeks off of about $15 dollars. Thankfully, food is cheap.

I'm a celebrity in Hanzhong. I think there's a total of 11 westerners in the city, so everytime I go outside I get the older generation staring at me. I constantly hear "megguo" (american) and "Lao wai" (foreigner) as I walk by them. I also get people running up and saying "hello hello", laughing and running off when I say hello back.

I don't know how to cook anything so I've gone to restaurants every day. Some of the restaurants have pictures, so getting food is easy enough. Other restaurants just have a menu, so if I'm not with my Chinese friends I have to either have a Chinese write down what I want, or take my chances and point to a random dish and hope it works out. It usually does.

Starting on Thursday I get a week long break for National Day, which celebrates the anniversary of the founding of the PRC. It's the 60th anniversary, so there are lots of festivities going on throughout China. My friends and I are travelling to Xi'an, a town of about 5 million and one of the ancient capitols of China. It is the home of the Terra Cotta warriors, as well as various ancient cities and pagodas that have been preserved. I'm very, very excited to go.

I still don't know any Chinese. The school is supposed to give me lessons, but, well, they haven't. Sometimes you have to pick the right fights. I have Rosetta Stone so once I get the discipline I'll start to take lessons with that program.

My freetime has been spent applying to graduate school. It's pretty strange applying to school from another country, but I haven't hit any bumps yet. I've been staring at my statement of purpose trying to figure out what to say to make the admissions committees let an otherwise average (based on their test and gpa averages) student into their programs, but nothing is coming.

Anyway, that's all for now. I hope you all are doing well. Eat lots of McDonalds and Taco Bell for me, I miss it.

Love,
Corey