Teaching

Looking Back At My Life In ESL

So, today is officially the first day of the next ‘phase’ of my life. It’s hard to chunk stuff into nice little boxes, called “phases”, but as my memory tends to work best when I remember defining moments – lets call this one. Yesterday ended my run as an ESL teacher; a roll I somehow …

June 29, 2007
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I’m Not Kid Friendly

I often relay to people the story of my flight over to China back in January of 2005. I had travelled quite a bit at home and abroad, but had never set foot in the Middle Kingdom. My total combined knowledge of China at that point was a rough hash of info compiled from reading …

April 4, 2007
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Finally made it to the Guardian, sort of…

I’ve generally been a fan of The Guardian since becoming acquainted to it via Brits I’ve met while abroad. Now, as a journalist cum blogger, I’ve fallen out of like with the modern manifestations of traditional media and have started to rely on less “corporately suave” mediums for my news. However, generally speaking, I still …

March 10, 2007
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Quid Pro Quo: So Cool For School

Possibly the coolest part about stretching my legs and leaving the safety of the True North Strong And Free is that I meet some amazing people. Actually, sometimes it's a bit overwhelming to be surrounded by such cool people and realize my biggest concerns are that people at work didn't notice I shaved my beard. …

November 7, 2006
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On The Other Side Of The Tracks

This past week I’ve been doing this add-on job working at a rather wealthy school here in town. I got the lead from my friend Gabriel, and deciding I might need some extra cash for my trip home this summer, followed up on it. For a 45 minute session it’s 150 RMB (about $21 CND), …

June 8, 2006
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Hello Teacher

Right, so I figured that today I’d just go in to the school, chill out, maybe sit in on one of Tom’s classes and get a feel for the whole thing… but a sickly Matthew last evening put a kink in that. As there is only five foreign teachers at the Jinzhou school, and I’m …

January 16, 2005
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Orient-ation

It’s 7:30 a.m. and I’m just waiting for the water to warm up for my morning shower – sadly, though constantly reminding myself last night I forgot to turn on the water heater before bed. I’m heading into my second day of orientation and yet another day of trying to track down access to my …

January 13, 2005
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