A New Contract
Trip Start
Aug 25, 2010
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78
84
Trip End
Jul 05, 2011
Xianxi, Guangdong Sheng, China
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Ms. Inna and another teacher (Eddie) met us at the gate. We walked toward the admin/teacher housing area, where Eddie left us. We proceeded around the beautiful campus, learning of the many little stores and places to eat. Students were having a class in the outdoor swimming pool, and I wanted to join them. It's a beautiful campus, far off the beaten path, and so very attractive to us with our 15 speed mountain bikes. So, it looks like the best of both worlds: the Guangzhou campus is across from Sun Yat-Sen University, one of China's top ranked 4 year universities, with it's large beautiful campus and swimming pools, close to the river. Nanhai campus, with daily shuttles back and forth and apartments on both campuses. Life is good!
While this school year has been very good in so many ways, we do prefer teaching at the college level. This was confirmed last Friday when a young man on the Nanhai campus had the boldness to speak to us, in English. By the time we went to sleep that night, we had met him two more times, along with some of his friends, and had some great, informal English Corners. Speaking of which, unlike our Changsha college, this school has no English Corners.
Yesterday was the warmest day of the year so far, hitting just above 90 F, which zapped our strength quickly. We probably walked about five miles, drank a lot of water, and had to shower and nap once we got home. Oh yes, that reminds me to mention our current schedule, typical of China:
- we worked 7 days straight 3/26-4/1,
- had five days off for Qing Ming Festival,
- worked another 7 days straight 4/7-4/13,
- had a regular week and two weekends, sort of.
We are supposed to have 7 days to leave this campus, after our last work day. GDITC says they should have a small apartment available to us, in Guangzhou, by July 1st, until our larger apartment becomes available mid-July when their school year ends. A lot's going on now as Ruth turned in her application for a new passport about a month ago, ES currently has our passports and Foreign Expert Certificates to renew our visas through the end of this school year, then we'll soon have to give our passports to GDITC for them to get us legal for the next school year.
Speaking of that, here's a China Daily article on China's current work to keep us foreigners legal while here:
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-04/24/content_15126433.htm
