Backpack's Back

Well, some good news now. While I was out walking the other morning, Susan gave me a call to tell me that the airport now had my luggage ready to be picked up. I walked back to the school and met Susan and a driver at the front gate, and we took a van to drive to the airport.

I am so very relieved to have that back in my possession, as I had quite a few important and convenient things packed in there.

The day before I got my backpack, Susan took me down the street to help me buy a SIM card for a cell phone. Another English teacher Lilian has given me her spare cell phone to use now, and I just had to buy a new SIM card to put in it. It's a simple, basic phone but it works fine. Not sure if I will buy a new phone sometime, but if I do I can just swap the SIM card over to the new one.

Yesterday I finally ventured down into the city. I can take a bus right in front of my school that takes me several miles down to a subway station for only 2 RMB (or about 30 cents). When I got to the subway, I just picked a random place on the line to go that might take me somewhere to the denser city, and paid 5 rmb. I got out and walked around a bit and found a good view of the Guangzhou TV and Sightseeing Tower, which is the 2nd tallest building in the world currently, so I took a couple photos.

I was getting pretty hungry and looked for a place to eat. I saw McDonalds and KFC upon exiting the subway but wanted to avoid them for a number of reasons. I ended up walking down a random off-street and found a little restaurant with a photo menu on the wall, I pointed to a dish that looked appetizing and sat to wait. I'm pretty sure it was some kind of Chinese Muslim restaurant, as there was a little bit of Arabic script on the walls and the Chinese woman working there had some kind of headdress. The food was delicious - a plate of homemade noodles topped with diced tomatoes and egg - very filling.

As for eating around my neighborhood, I discovered a little restaurant that sells dumplings, so I've been eating there quite often now. The dumplings are delicious and they sell 10 of them for 3 RMB, or about 50 cents.

Made it to Guangzhou

After 4 airports, 3 flights, and about 20 hours of flying, I finally made it to Guangzhou.

One bit of bad news: I lost my one big check-in luggage backpack! Somewhere along the way it must have been misplaced or something, because the last time I saw it was in St Louis, and I never saw it at baggage claim in Guangzhou. I filed a report at the airport and a teacher at my school, Susan, is talking to the people at the airport to find out the status of my luggage. I really hope I can get it back eventually, I have some important things in there.

The teacher Susan came to pick me up at the airport and take me to the school the night I arrived. She gave me my apartment key and led me to my 10th floor single apartment where I finally got some sleep after all the flying. Though it needs some moderate cleaning, my apartment is pretty nice. I can see Baiyun Mountain from my back patio.

Guangzhou is pretty hot and humid, but it's nothing I'm not use to after being in Missouri the past month or so. Besides the warm temperatures, I was expecting the air pollution to be pretty awful, with Guangzhou being China's third largest city. However, so far the air seems pretty good, at least in my region - I live in Baiyun District, up north aways from the city center. Instead of the pollution being all-present, it seems to come in bursts, like when a big truck passes by or you walk by a small factory.

Yesterday, Susan and Lilian (the English speaking teachers), the school headmaster, and a couple other school officials and I went down the street to eat lunch at a Hakka restaurant. Like many nice Chinese restaurants, we had our own private dining room and sat around a table with a big lazy-susan that the waitresses set different dishes on, including roast goose, chicken, bamboo chutes and other things along with Hakka wine, which is a stange drink that's like a sweet, moderately alcoholic cooking sauce.

I've been taking some photos, but since my camera cable is with my lost luggage, I can't upload any photos yet. I really hope they can find it and send it to Guangzhou soon.

So I've decided to go back...

好久不见 - Long time no see. I stopped writing in this blog last year when my semester living and teaching in China ended (and also when China decided to block access to blogspot during the last few weeks of my stay...ugh)

So why am I writing here again? Well, I've decided to go back to China! I had such an interesting experience last year that I wanted to come back and spend a little more time in the area.

So why China? Again? Well, why not? I graduated from college and need something to do next. I don't want to go to grad school yet, as I'm a bit burnt out on school at the moment and need a good break (plus I don't know what I want to do yet）. And with this economy, there's not much right now for English majors fresh out of school, so I might as well go teach abroad. I'll be experiencing an interesting part of the world, continuing my education in a sense, and getting paid for it.

So what exactly will I be doing and where will I be? I accepted a job in Guangzhou to teach English to 12-14 year-olds. Like the last time I taught in China, the kids already have some understanding of English and have been learning it from their Chinese teachers for years, but my job is to give them experience listening and speaking with a native English speaker. The school I'm working for is providing me with a single apartment on campus to live in.

Guangzhou (known in the West as Canton) is the capital of Guangdong province. Last year I was in the small town of 五华 (Wuhua) in the east part of Guangdong province, and now I will be in the big city, closer to Hong Kong.

My departure date is just about here, Tuesday, August 17th. I have three separate flights: St Louis to New York, NYC to Shanghai, and Shanghai to Guangzhou. It's about 20 hours or so of flying, plus the time zone change. I leave STL at around 11 am on Tuesday, and I arrive in Guangzhou at 11 pm on Wednesday.

I'm looking forward to this crazy adventure. And like last time, there will be lots of photos...