Undeterred by the Great Firewall of China

Youtube has been blocked since March, the anniversary of the Tibetan rioting last year.  More recently, China has blocked access to both of my blogs and we’ve had spotty internet access.  Not to be thwarted, my friend and former teammate Rachel [http://www.vrugginks.blogspot.com/] will be taking care of this site for me until I return to the States at the end of June.  Rachel is an inspiration to many and I picture her when I think of the Proverbs 31 woman (if you don’t believe me, look up her Earth Day crafts on her blog) and I hope to be half the woman she is someday.  Thanks, Rachel! 🙂

Speaking of returning to the States, I am leaving Beijing on June 20 and will be in the U.S. until July 29.  I’ll be all over – New Jersey, Ohio, upper New York state, Washington DC, and possibly Florida.  If you are in any of those places in those five weeks, then I’d love to see you and catch up!

My tentative teaching schedule for the next school year is four senior high history classes and three international classes, all of which meet twice a week.  It’ll be an interesting foray into previously unexplored territory, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.  The students and I are in much of the same boat as foreigners living in China.  I’ll be teaching English to students from all over the world – Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Mexico, the United States.  The three classes are ranked according to Chinese ability.  Once the students’ Chinese is good enough they get matriculated into normal Chinese education at the school.  Until then they are in a special international section to improve their language skills.  Therein lies my challenge: it’s very possible to have an American and a Korean who can’t say “hello” together in the same class.

I’m moving!  Before I take off for several weeks in the U.S., I’ll be moving into a new apartment building on the west side of campus.  If you’ve been following the moving rumors and you’re familiar with China, you know that moving next month when we were guaranteed to be there by September 1, 2008 is right on schedule.  🙂