Sun 9/27/2009
Greetings from China after a very busy first session!
I know its been a few weeks since I sent an update, but its been a busy month. We just finished our first session on Saturday, so we're on break for two weeks until our next session begins on October 12th. We're planning on doing some sightseeing locally (Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, Bird's Nest, Water Cube and etc.) and just relaxing because our next session, we're expecting about 450 students. It'll be even busier and more hectic than this first session which had only 197 students.
I had a great middle level class this first session. There were 29 students in this class and all but 2 of them were teachers, which made things much easier as all of then wanted to do well. As I got to know my class better, I noticed they were very precision like and wanted to know every little detail about everything. Also, when I introduced a new vocabulary word, they would all repeat it together until they got it perfect. Its weird to have 29 people hang onto your every word. Towards the end of the session, all the students have to give a 10 minute speech on a topic of their choice. This was a very stressful thing for them, but we prepared them from week one teaching them how to write a speech outline and the art of public speaking. I'm glad to report that all my students did fine and they all graduated on Friday night. My students are such a nice group because they surprised me on my birthday with a big poster they all made and signed. They also got me a gigantic cake and flowers. To top it all off, as part of the culture here, the students take their teachers out to lunch or dinner at the end of the session. Well we ate at this really fancy restaurant on Saturday...very good food! I am truly touched by how nice and generous they were to me especially because these students are all teachers and their salaries aren't much, but here they are pooling their money together to get me a cake and flowers for my birthday and also took me out to a fancy lunch at the end of a session. I'm truly humbled by their generosity and thoughtfulness. They made my birthday very special and it was difficult saying goodbye to all of them on Saturday. I wonder if saying goodbye to the students each session will get easier or will it be just as difficult as Saturday? Perhaps this class was special because they were my first class? I don't even want to think about how difficult its gonna be to say goodbye in July 2010...to the students, the staff and China.
So you all must be expecting some photos. Well I'm very sorry to report we are still using this very slow 3G internet and its really bad. I'm positive that dial-up is quicker than this!!! I promise as soon as they get us this faster internet, you'll get some photos.
Last weekend, one of the teachers made a home cooked meal...pasta!!! We all really enjoyed it as we've been getting Chinese food...well everyday. Oh and speaking of cooking, I've officially learned how to cook a grilled cheese sandwich. No not on a George Foreman grill or a sandwich iron.....on a pan like a real grilled cheese sandwich should be made! I know what you're thinking...has hell frozen over?!? Are pigs flying outside your windows??? Settle down, its just a grilled cheese sandwich. Baby steps people...baby steps!
Alright, that's about it for now. I'm having a great time here in China and looking foward to having some fun and enjoying this two week break before the next session begins.
Hope all is well...miss you all. I'll send another update soon...hopefully with photos.
Timothy Wong
Monday, September 28, 2009
Return from Inner Mongolia!
Sun 9/6/2009
Inner Mongolia was quite an experience! Let's start from the beginning. The 6 of us left on Saturday evening and made our way to the Beijing train station. If any of you think NY Port Authority or NY Penn station is big, you ain't seen nothing! The train station in Beijing makes NY's Port Authority or NY Penn station look like your local train station. It was absolutely ridiculous how many people were there. What was even more mind blowing was that people and families were just camped out sleeping on the street waiting for their train. Anyways getting back to our trip...we had one of the Chinese staff come with us to Inner Mongolia and she supposedly knew her way around Beijing, but we ended up getting lost and going to the wrong side of Beijing and wait for it...we missed our 9pm sleeper train to Inner Mongolia. Alright time to regroup. The good news is we were able to trade in our tickets for the 11pm train, but we weren't gonna get to sleep in the soft sleeper train as we originally purchased. Instead we had to trade down to economy class. So we're thinking economy class...it can't be that bad right? Well if you've never taken a train in China, you're about to get a lesson in culture. In China, if you're riding on economy class even if its a 10 hour + train ride, you'll be squeezed in there with or without a seat for the duration of the ride. I'm not talking NYC Subway squeeze, I'm talking squeezed like chickens in a coop. At first, we all couldn't believe this was actually happening. It was absolutely unreal and an experience we all will never forget. On top of all this, they actually tried to squeeze a food cart down the aisle followed by a lady selling newspapers and then a guy selling ice cream. We were literally on top of each other to make way for them to come through the aisle. Anyways we were stuck and had no way out and with the cigarette smoke everywhere, it really made things unbearable. So what to do when you're stuck in a situation like that? Make friends with the people you're stuck with for the next 10 hours. At first, we could tell the locals were looking at us silly Americans and wondering why we were riding in economy class, after all their perception of us is that we're Americans so we must have money. So we explained to them that we missed our original sleeper train @ 9pm and that's why we ended up on this train. Somehow, that story carried onto a lengthy conversation and then I pulled out my portable DVD player (thanks Phil) and everyone around us got so excited. As we were going through the DVD selection, the Chinese instantly recognized Will Smith on the cover of the "Hitch" DVD, so we ended up watching Hitch and the Chinese were all so excited and appreciative for that. So much so that they ended up sharing or giving up their seats to us. Thank God because some of us were getting really tired of standing after 4 hours especially since this is around 3am in the morning. Although this experience is something I will NEVER want to repeat, it was such a humbling experience and we will probably never ever complain about flying in economy class because we all realized that this is how the Chinese live on a regular basis taking a 10 hour or longer train ride from Beijing to wherever in these less than safe and ideal conditions. These atrocious conditions we experienced would never be allowed in the U.S. in a million years. It also made us realize that even though we didn't speak the same language and only two of the people in our group spoke Mandarin, the Chinese showed their compassion and kindness and either shared or gave up their seats to us. Perhaps a random act of kindness or God watching over us?
So we finally arrived in Inner Mongolia around 9:30am on Sunday morning. We were greeted by friends of the Chinese staff that came with us. They drove us to the hostel where we were staying and we got a quick shower before getting lunch. Afterwards, we headed out to the Gobi desert where we got to ride camels and go sand boarding. Seeing the desert was an amazing thing. The scenery goes on forever and it was absolutely beautiful! We all agreed that the Gobi desert was the best part of this trip.
The following two days, we headed to the grasslands. We stayed in a "Yurt" which is a Mongolian tent or hut. It was actually pretty cool and very well insulated. We took in the scenery of the grasslands that went on for miles. We checked out a local temple and a few people went horseback riding.
Came back to the city part of Inner Mongolia and the next day we checked out the local city scene. Kinda like Beijing, but smaller and with less people.
So here's the part of the story that you won't believe. As we made our way back to the hostel to gather our luggage, I checked our tickets for the sleeper bus ride home. I noticed that the date wasn't correct on our tickets. So we had to high tail it to the train station early hoping to rectify the situation. Luckily, we were able to trade in our tickets for an earlier sleeper bus home that evening. Needless to say, the sleeper bus was a much better situation than the train ride to Inner Mongolia. We were all exhausted after our trip, but we got home safely on Thursday morning around 5:30am.
So despite some traveling woes, we all had a great time in Inner Mongolia, but this is definitely gonna be an experience we'll never forget and something I'm sure we'll all look back on and laugh about.
Today (Sunday) marks one month since we arrived in China. Wow, how time flies! We got our teaching assignments on Friday and I will be teaching a middle level class. We interview the students when they arrive on Monday and depending on their English proficiency, they will be assigned to either a low, middle or high level class. The staff tells us that the middle level classes are the biggest classes so I should expect a full class of about 40 students. We'll have approximately 250 total students for this first session that begins tomorrow. I'm excited and looking foward to things finally getting started!
So I'm sure you're all wondering where are all these photos from the trip to Inner Mongolia? Well the slow 3G internet connection hasn't improved, so while I would love to show you photos from our trip, its gonna have to wait until we get the faster internet hooked up.
Anyways I hope you all enjoy your Labor Day weekend back in the U.S. Enjoy a nice bar-b-que for me. Miss you all and hope all is well with everyone. Take care, talk to ya soon.
Timothy Wong
Inner Mongolia was quite an experience! Let's start from the beginning. The 6 of us left on Saturday evening and made our way to the Beijing train station. If any of you think NY Port Authority or NY Penn station is big, you ain't seen nothing! The train station in Beijing makes NY's Port Authority or NY Penn station look like your local train station. It was absolutely ridiculous how many people were there. What was even more mind blowing was that people and families were just camped out sleeping on the street waiting for their train. Anyways getting back to our trip...we had one of the Chinese staff come with us to Inner Mongolia and she supposedly knew her way around Beijing, but we ended up getting lost and going to the wrong side of Beijing and wait for it...we missed our 9pm sleeper train to Inner Mongolia. Alright time to regroup. The good news is we were able to trade in our tickets for the 11pm train, but we weren't gonna get to sleep in the soft sleeper train as we originally purchased. Instead we had to trade down to economy class. So we're thinking economy class...it can't be that bad right? Well if you've never taken a train in China, you're about to get a lesson in culture. In China, if you're riding on economy class even if its a 10 hour + train ride, you'll be squeezed in there with or without a seat for the duration of the ride. I'm not talking NYC Subway squeeze, I'm talking squeezed like chickens in a coop. At first, we all couldn't believe this was actually happening. It was absolutely unreal and an experience we all will never forget. On top of all this, they actually tried to squeeze a food cart down the aisle followed by a lady selling newspapers and then a guy selling ice cream. We were literally on top of each other to make way for them to come through the aisle. Anyways we were stuck and had no way out and with the cigarette smoke everywhere, it really made things unbearable. So what to do when you're stuck in a situation like that? Make friends with the people you're stuck with for the next 10 hours. At first, we could tell the locals were looking at us silly Americans and wondering why we were riding in economy class, after all their perception of us is that we're Americans so we must have money. So we explained to them that we missed our original sleeper train @ 9pm and that's why we ended up on this train. Somehow, that story carried onto a lengthy conversation and then I pulled out my portable DVD player (thanks Phil) and everyone around us got so excited. As we were going through the DVD selection, the Chinese instantly recognized Will Smith on the cover of the "Hitch" DVD, so we ended up watching Hitch and the Chinese were all so excited and appreciative for that. So much so that they ended up sharing or giving up their seats to us. Thank God because some of us were getting really tired of standing after 4 hours especially since this is around 3am in the morning. Although this experience is something I will NEVER want to repeat, it was such a humbling experience and we will probably never ever complain about flying in economy class because we all realized that this is how the Chinese live on a regular basis taking a 10 hour or longer train ride from Beijing to wherever in these less than safe and ideal conditions. These atrocious conditions we experienced would never be allowed in the U.S. in a million years. It also made us realize that even though we didn't speak the same language and only two of the people in our group spoke Mandarin, the Chinese showed their compassion and kindness and either shared or gave up their seats to us. Perhaps a random act of kindness or God watching over us?
So we finally arrived in Inner Mongolia around 9:30am on Sunday morning. We were greeted by friends of the Chinese staff that came with us. They drove us to the hostel where we were staying and we got a quick shower before getting lunch. Afterwards, we headed out to the Gobi desert where we got to ride camels and go sand boarding. Seeing the desert was an amazing thing. The scenery goes on forever and it was absolutely beautiful! We all agreed that the Gobi desert was the best part of this trip.
The following two days, we headed to the grasslands. We stayed in a "Yurt" which is a Mongolian tent or hut. It was actually pretty cool and very well insulated. We took in the scenery of the grasslands that went on for miles. We checked out a local temple and a few people went horseback riding.
Came back to the city part of Inner Mongolia and the next day we checked out the local city scene. Kinda like Beijing, but smaller and with less people.
So here's the part of the story that you won't believe. As we made our way back to the hostel to gather our luggage, I checked our tickets for the sleeper bus ride home. I noticed that the date wasn't correct on our tickets. So we had to high tail it to the train station early hoping to rectify the situation. Luckily, we were able to trade in our tickets for an earlier sleeper bus home that evening. Needless to say, the sleeper bus was a much better situation than the train ride to Inner Mongolia. We were all exhausted after our trip, but we got home safely on Thursday morning around 5:30am.
So despite some traveling woes, we all had a great time in Inner Mongolia, but this is definitely gonna be an experience we'll never forget and something I'm sure we'll all look back on and laugh about.
Today (Sunday) marks one month since we arrived in China. Wow, how time flies! We got our teaching assignments on Friday and I will be teaching a middle level class. We interview the students when they arrive on Monday and depending on their English proficiency, they will be assigned to either a low, middle or high level class. The staff tells us that the middle level classes are the biggest classes so I should expect a full class of about 40 students. We'll have approximately 250 total students for this first session that begins tomorrow. I'm excited and looking foward to things finally getting started!
So I'm sure you're all wondering where are all these photos from the trip to Inner Mongolia? Well the slow 3G internet connection hasn't improved, so while I would love to show you photos from our trip, its gonna have to wait until we get the faster internet hooked up.
Anyways I hope you all enjoy your Labor Day weekend back in the U.S. Enjoy a nice bar-b-que for me. Miss you all and hope all is well with everyone. Take care, talk to ya soon.
Timothy Wong
Update from China!
Mon 8/24/2009
Greetings from China!
So we've all been out of quarantine for over a week now and its nice to get off the campus and explore Beijing. We're finishing up our final week of training this week and we officially start teaching on September 6th. Each session is 24 days and then we get a few days off in between sessions. So we'll basically get new students every month. They're expecting approximately 300 students per session.
So a few of us just bought train tickets tonight to go to Inner Mongolia for our break. We leave on the train @ 9pm on Saturday night and its a sleeper train so we'll be sleeping through most of the ride and when we arrive, it'll be 7am. This will be a new experience sleeping on a train for 10 hours. I'm so excited about going to Inner Mongolia because we'll get to go sand boarding/surfing, ride on camels and see plenty of temples. We'll get back to Beijing University on Thursday morning.
So we've had over a week to explore some parts of Beijing and here is what I can tell you so far:
1) It is so crowded. Beijing makes NYC look like a suburb.
2) The traffic and people driving are crazy. There is no sense of logic or concern for safety. Crossing the street has become a game of Frogger. Now I understand why Chinese people have the negative stereotype of being bad drivers. This goes for the bus drivers as well and the buses are so crowded. There is obviously no regard for personal space in China. We've been taking the bus everywhere and trust me when I tell you, this makes the NYC Subway seem like a luxury. Wow, I miss driving my Mini Cooper!
3) In China, the men show their mid drift. They pull up their shirts on hot days and just let their stomachs hang out. Yeah, its not a pretty sight at all!
4) People spit all over the street.
5) The pollution is pretty bad here. There's trash all over the street and the air pollution is horrendous. The smog is so bad that some of the teachers are having a hard time adjusting to the air quality and getting sick.
6) You have to pay for a plastic bag when you go shopping at a supermarket or any store for that matter. That is ridiculous!!! Even though its like less than a nickel...its just crazy!
7) Cost of living is obviously very cheap here, so food is real cheap. Dorothy and I go out to eat when we can and we eat a decent size meal and it usually comes to less than $3 U.S. dollars.
8) We don't need to tip here in China. Saves a lot of money!!!
9) We drove past the Bird's Nest and Aquatic Cube where they had the Olympics last year. Those two places are huge. We haven't gone to see it up close yet, but will one day soon.
10) The people in China loves them some Karaoke. In China, Karaoke is called KTV. Don't ask me why its called KTV??? The staff took us to one on Saturday night as a team bonding thing. Yeah, it kinda failed miserably!
11) Pizza Hut is a high class restaurant here. Seriously, it is considered high class dining and its quite expensive. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some Pizza Hut pizza, but high class dining...seriously?!?
12) We had Peking Duck on Saturday night. I haven't had it in a long time. I forgot how good it is!!!
13) We found a laundry service that washes our clothes and folds them...all for less than $2 U.S. dollars. When I do laundry in Jersey, it usually costs me about $7 dollars. Better yet, I got a pair of my jeans hemmed for less than 50 cents. In the U.S., they wanted to charge me almost $18. Yeah take a second to think about this one.
So as you can see, there are the good and the bad when it comes to living in China. We've all been adjusting to the culture shock of China and I think I'm doing alright. My Mandarin is getting there. I'm not a pro, but I can order some of my favorite foods in Mandarin. Cmon, you knew that was a gonna be a priority!
We're still using a very slow 3G network in another dorm building, but they are talking about getting high speed internet put into the new dorms we are living in. So hopefully that will be ready soon so I can e-mail updates on a regular basis. Speaking of new dorms, we are all loving our new dorm rooms. The bathrooms have regular toilets and the beds have a real mattress. Thank God because my back was killing me sleeping on those hard wood beds!
The food isn't very good in the cafeteria, but we found there is a connecting restaurant on the other side of the cafeteria that we can order dishes from and they will accept our meal passes. The food is much better so we've been getting our meals from there instead.
Our trip to the Great Wall got postponed last Sunday because it was an extremely hot and humid day. We all decided we would go to the Great Wall in the fall when the weather is cooler. Heck, the Great Wall ain't going no where. It'll be there in a few months.
Yesterday, (Sunday) we went to the Summer Palace. Its where the Emperor went during the summer months...hence the name. Its a beautiful place with many palaces built around a lake. Its huge and we didn't even get to see all of it yesterday. We took some photos yesterday, but I'll save the photos till we get the faster internet connection because with this current 3G connection, it would take forever to upload the photos.
Alright, that's it for this update. No worries, I'm doing well in China and excited to begin teaching real soon.
Take care for now. Another update to come after my excursion to Inner Mongolia!
Timothy Wong
Greetings from China!
So we've all been out of quarantine for over a week now and its nice to get off the campus and explore Beijing. We're finishing up our final week of training this week and we officially start teaching on September 6th. Each session is 24 days and then we get a few days off in between sessions. So we'll basically get new students every month. They're expecting approximately 300 students per session.
So a few of us just bought train tickets tonight to go to Inner Mongolia for our break. We leave on the train @ 9pm on Saturday night and its a sleeper train so we'll be sleeping through most of the ride and when we arrive, it'll be 7am. This will be a new experience sleeping on a train for 10 hours. I'm so excited about going to Inner Mongolia because we'll get to go sand boarding/surfing, ride on camels and see plenty of temples. We'll get back to Beijing University on Thursday morning.
So we've had over a week to explore some parts of Beijing and here is what I can tell you so far:
1) It is so crowded. Beijing makes NYC look like a suburb.
2) The traffic and people driving are crazy. There is no sense of logic or concern for safety. Crossing the street has become a game of Frogger. Now I understand why Chinese people have the negative stereotype of being bad drivers. This goes for the bus drivers as well and the buses are so crowded. There is obviously no regard for personal space in China. We've been taking the bus everywhere and trust me when I tell you, this makes the NYC Subway seem like a luxury. Wow, I miss driving my Mini Cooper!
3) In China, the men show their mid drift. They pull up their shirts on hot days and just let their stomachs hang out. Yeah, its not a pretty sight at all!
4) People spit all over the street.
5) The pollution is pretty bad here. There's trash all over the street and the air pollution is horrendous. The smog is so bad that some of the teachers are having a hard time adjusting to the air quality and getting sick.
6) You have to pay for a plastic bag when you go shopping at a supermarket or any store for that matter. That is ridiculous!!! Even though its like less than a nickel...its just crazy!
7) Cost of living is obviously very cheap here, so food is real cheap. Dorothy and I go out to eat when we can and we eat a decent size meal and it usually comes to less than $3 U.S. dollars.
8) We don't need to tip here in China. Saves a lot of money!!!
9) We drove past the Bird's Nest and Aquatic Cube where they had the Olympics last year. Those two places are huge. We haven't gone to see it up close yet, but will one day soon.
10) The people in China loves them some Karaoke. In China, Karaoke is called KTV. Don't ask me why its called KTV??? The staff took us to one on Saturday night as a team bonding thing. Yeah, it kinda failed miserably!
11) Pizza Hut is a high class restaurant here. Seriously, it is considered high class dining and its quite expensive. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some Pizza Hut pizza, but high class dining...seriously?!?
12) We had Peking Duck on Saturday night. I haven't had it in a long time. I forgot how good it is!!!
13) We found a laundry service that washes our clothes and folds them...all for less than $2 U.S. dollars. When I do laundry in Jersey, it usually costs me about $7 dollars. Better yet, I got a pair of my jeans hemmed for less than 50 cents. In the U.S., they wanted to charge me almost $18. Yeah take a second to think about this one.
So as you can see, there are the good and the bad when it comes to living in China. We've all been adjusting to the culture shock of China and I think I'm doing alright. My Mandarin is getting there. I'm not a pro, but I can order some of my favorite foods in Mandarin. Cmon, you knew that was a gonna be a priority!
We're still using a very slow 3G network in another dorm building, but they are talking about getting high speed internet put into the new dorms we are living in. So hopefully that will be ready soon so I can e-mail updates on a regular basis. Speaking of new dorms, we are all loving our new dorm rooms. The bathrooms have regular toilets and the beds have a real mattress. Thank God because my back was killing me sleeping on those hard wood beds!
The food isn't very good in the cafeteria, but we found there is a connecting restaurant on the other side of the cafeteria that we can order dishes from and they will accept our meal passes. The food is much better so we've been getting our meals from there instead.
Our trip to the Great Wall got postponed last Sunday because it was an extremely hot and humid day. We all decided we would go to the Great Wall in the fall when the weather is cooler. Heck, the Great Wall ain't going no where. It'll be there in a few months.
Yesterday, (Sunday) we went to the Summer Palace. Its where the Emperor went during the summer months...hence the name. Its a beautiful place with many palaces built around a lake. Its huge and we didn't even get to see all of it yesterday. We took some photos yesterday, but I'll save the photos till we get the faster internet connection because with this current 3G connection, it would take forever to upload the photos.
Alright, that's it for this update. No worries, I'm doing well in China and excited to begin teaching real soon.
Take care for now. Another update to come after my excursion to Inner Mongolia!
Timothy Wong
Greetings from China!
Sat 8/8/2009
I arrived here on Thursday around 4:45pm (China time). The flight on Air Canada was actually not too bad. The seats had plenty of legroom and we all had those individual on-demand TVs, so that really made the flight go by a lot quicker.
All of us are in quarantine for a week at Beijing University because they are taking precautions against H1N1 due to what happened with the Sars outbreak a few years ago. So we're not allowed to leave the campus and are only allowed to go to certain designated areas. We've been kept busy during the day with training and orientation which will last about three weeks. All of us are trying to adjust to the time zone. I'm having a hard time adjusting because I'm going to bed by 10pm and waking up by 5am everyday. I'm sure in due time, my body will adjust to this time zone.
I've met and have been spending a lot of time in quarantine with the other volunteer teachers from around the country...2 of them are fellow Episcopalians. One from Seattle and one from Alabama. They all seem to be a great group of people, so it'll make working together much easier. And did I mention one of them is a fellow Giants fan? He has confirmed that one of his friends will record the SuperBowl and mail it to us so we can watch it...a week or two later.
The cafeteria food as expected is mediocre and the portions are a lot smaller than what I'm use to. I can feel the weight loss already! We've had rice at every meal and some of my fellow teachers are already sick of it and we've only been here for 3 days. We did ask them to order us some noodle dishes for our next meal so we can get some variety.
We are living and teaching out of a satellite campus of Beijing University. This campus is about 10 minutes by cab from the main Beijing University campus. Its in the heart of the Haidian district and they told us that is the silicon valley of China. Having said that, this college campus isn't anything that we as Americans would expect. Those of you that were on the West Virginia mission trip, think that but with air condition, but the cafeteria serves Chinese food instead of American food and Icees. In the dorms, we are sleeping on beds without mattresses. They put a comforter between the wood board and us as the mattress so this is gonna take some getting use to. And I'll spare you the details on how to use the toilets here, but during orientation, they actually spent a few minutes teaching us how to use them. I'll just leave it at this...its basically a hole in ground.
The weather here has been quite humid and we had some strong torrential downpours yesterday, but its not humid like say Belize or Puerto Rico.
The internet here is slow because they don't have DSL or cable internet. We are operating off a 3G network with a mediocre wireless router and with many of the other teachers online at the same time, checking and sending e-mails take a lot longer than expected. However Grace's old Mac iBook is working just fine! Its actually a lot faster than most of the other teacher's PC laptops. Thanks again Grace!
So I've been here in China for only 3 days, but my first lesson learned is that this is exactly what I needed in my life. I've been in my comfort zone for quite some time now and taking myself out of my bubble is definitely a good thing. Every now and then we need a reality check to make us realize how fortunate we are to have the things we have and live the lives we do. These are all blessings that God has given us and perhaps sometimes we take it for granted because we fall into that comfort zone. So while my back is a little bit sore from sleeping on that hard wood bed and while the food is not exactly what I'm use to and the dorm conditions aren't exactly up to the standards that we expect in the U.S., this is how people live in China and if they can survive, I know I can too.
We will be out of quarantine on Thursday so we'll get to finally leave the campus and check out the local area and go out to dinner. I'll send another update once I experience more of what China has to offer.
Missing you all.
Timothy Wong
I arrived here on Thursday around 4:45pm (China time). The flight on Air Canada was actually not too bad. The seats had plenty of legroom and we all had those individual on-demand TVs, so that really made the flight go by a lot quicker.
All of us are in quarantine for a week at Beijing University because they are taking precautions against H1N1 due to what happened with the Sars outbreak a few years ago. So we're not allowed to leave the campus and are only allowed to go to certain designated areas. We've been kept busy during the day with training and orientation which will last about three weeks. All of us are trying to adjust to the time zone. I'm having a hard time adjusting because I'm going to bed by 10pm and waking up by 5am everyday. I'm sure in due time, my body will adjust to this time zone.
I've met and have been spending a lot of time in quarantine with the other volunteer teachers from around the country...2 of them are fellow Episcopalians. One from Seattle and one from Alabama. They all seem to be a great group of people, so it'll make working together much easier. And did I mention one of them is a fellow Giants fan? He has confirmed that one of his friends will record the SuperBowl and mail it to us so we can watch it...a week or two later.
The cafeteria food as expected is mediocre and the portions are a lot smaller than what I'm use to. I can feel the weight loss already! We've had rice at every meal and some of my fellow teachers are already sick of it and we've only been here for 3 days. We did ask them to order us some noodle dishes for our next meal so we can get some variety.
We are living and teaching out of a satellite campus of Beijing University. This campus is about 10 minutes by cab from the main Beijing University campus. Its in the heart of the Haidian district and they told us that is the silicon valley of China. Having said that, this college campus isn't anything that we as Americans would expect. Those of you that were on the West Virginia mission trip, think that but with air condition, but the cafeteria serves Chinese food instead of American food and Icees. In the dorms, we are sleeping on beds without mattresses. They put a comforter between the wood board and us as the mattress so this is gonna take some getting use to. And I'll spare you the details on how to use the toilets here, but during orientation, they actually spent a few minutes teaching us how to use them. I'll just leave it at this...its basically a hole in ground.
The weather here has been quite humid and we had some strong torrential downpours yesterday, but its not humid like say Belize or Puerto Rico.
The internet here is slow because they don't have DSL or cable internet. We are operating off a 3G network with a mediocre wireless router and with many of the other teachers online at the same time, checking and sending e-mails take a lot longer than expected. However Grace's old Mac iBook is working just fine! Its actually a lot faster than most of the other teacher's PC laptops. Thanks again Grace!
So I've been here in China for only 3 days, but my first lesson learned is that this is exactly what I needed in my life. I've been in my comfort zone for quite some time now and taking myself out of my bubble is definitely a good thing. Every now and then we need a reality check to make us realize how fortunate we are to have the things we have and live the lives we do. These are all blessings that God has given us and perhaps sometimes we take it for granted because we fall into that comfort zone. So while my back is a little bit sore from sleeping on that hard wood bed and while the food is not exactly what I'm use to and the dorm conditions aren't exactly up to the standards that we expect in the U.S., this is how people live in China and if they can survive, I know I can too.
We will be out of quarantine on Thursday so we'll get to finally leave the campus and check out the local area and go out to dinner. I'll send another update once I experience more of what China has to offer.
Missing you all.
Timothy Wong
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