Xiamen Yingcai School

Now that I'm only a weekend away from beginning classes and have a better sense of what I'll be teaching this year, I thought I'd do a quick expo-blog on my new school.

This year I'll be teaching at Xiamen Yingcai School's International Education Center. Xiamen Yingcai is a private K-12 boarding school with around 3000 students and 600 faculty and staff. The International Education Center is specifically devoted to preparing Xiamen Yingcai high school students for future study at universities in the States (or other English speaking countries).

Outside of the International Education Center

As of right now, I will be teaching Senior 3 Advanced Writing and Senior 1 Speaking. Class sizes are about 20 students per class which I'm pretty happy with. Anything bigger and it can be harder to keep tabs on everyone and anything smaller and it limits the amount of activities and exercises you can do.

The staff at the Center is made up of both native and non-native English teachers. I haven't officially been introduced to everyone yet, but the Chinese teachers I have met so far all seem incredibly friendly and helpful. We all share a huge office partitioned off into mini cubicles so I'm sure we'll all get to know each other quite well this year.

At the moment, the foreign teachers consist of myself, Loren (USA), and Maffi (Philippines). There was supposed to be another American girl joining us but she had to drop out at the last minute. They're holding interviews now to fill the position so there should be a fourth member joining our little party shortly.

The campus itself is huge (over 41 acres!) and has computer labs, a library, art center, gym, outdoor Olympic--sized swimming pool, a huge music department, etc., etc. It's easily larger than the small university I attended for undergrad. It's also relatively close to the downtown area of my neighborhood so most of what I need is within walking distance.

Below are a few pictures (as promised) of the school and the supermarket:

View of the basketball courts and some of the buildings on campus

Construction in front of Sun Square (the front of the school)

Kindergarten building

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Sidewalk outside of the school--on the way to the supermarket

Our two level supermarket with escalators!

Xia-wha?!

Since this is my first post about China, I feel like I need to preface it by saying that these are my first, fresh-off-the-boat impressions of Xiamen. They are largely impressions and not facts and will undoubtedly change over the course of my time here.

I like to do these "first impressions" entries because in ten or twelve months its always amazing to look back to where I started and where I ended up. Living abroad changes you in so many ways and sometimes, unless we document those changes, we miss them altogether.

So. Xiamen...

The very first thing that popped into my head as myself, Sunny (a fellow English teacher), and our polite but tight-lipped driver made our way from the airport was that Xiamen reminded me an awful lot of LA. The heat, the sunshine, the palm trees, the beaches, the ever-present sheen of smog on the horizon. I had to continually check the Mandarin-emblazoned billboards on the side of the highway to be sure I was in fact in China and not southern California.

Xiamen does, however, seem to have a lot more construction going on than LA. Everywhere you look there are towering, half-finished skyscrapers, high-rise condos with cranes resting lazily atop, and construction sites walled off with colorful illustrations of what's to come. At first glance, it would seem that Xiamen is a city on the rise. And perhaps it is. But from what I've heard a lot of the construction is subsidized by the government and a lot of these new condos and apartments that are being built can only be afforded by a small minority.

Of all that I've experienced so far, the biggest adjustment for me has been the weather. It is just SO. HOT. Like step-outside-and-simply-breathe-and-you'll-be-drenched-in-sweat hot. Between the blazing sunshine, the humidity, and lack of air conditioning in most places, I feel like I'm trapped in a ginormous sauna from about 8am until 6pm when the temperatures finally start to drop. I'm sure between the heat and the multiple climbs to the sixth floor of my dorm building (yes, there is no elevator), it's doing wonders for my figure. But I really can't wait for mid-September when the summer is over and the temperatures are closer to the 70s than the 90s.

The other huge adjustment, coming in at a very close second, is the language barrier. This is my first time in a foreign country where I literally cannot communicate at all. I spent brief weekends in France and Belgium, but they were weekends and I was always with a tour group. I'm in China for a year and it's clear that I'm going to need at least a functional level of Mandarin to do the basic things: grocery shopping, navigating around the city, exchanging pleasantries with my non-English speaking co-workers, etc. Right now I'm relying heavily on Loren, one of the other foreign teachers, to be my translator and tutor of sorts. He's been fantastic about teaching me a lot about the language and culture. I'm hoping that between him, David, and whatever self-studying I do, I should be able to handle myself within the next few months. Or here's hoping anyway!

Another thing that's really stood out to me is the amount of attention I receive as a foreigner here. I don't think I've ever been stared at so much in my life. And it's not like the sly, out of the corner of your eye staring. It's like the "let me gawk at you as we walk towards each other on the sidewalk and then stop and turn around and continue to stare at you as you pass me by". I mean, I guess it's flattering? Or unnerving. Regardless, it's going to take some time to adjust to.

I'm really happy with the food so far. I'm still dying to get my hands on a giant bowl of noodles, but the meals in the cafeteria have been more than sufficient. And they're free, so who's complaining? There's always rice (of course) and the meats and veggies (half of which I have no idea what they are) are always amazingly seasoned and relatively easy to eat with chopsticks. I don't know that I'm going to miss American food that much while I'm here, but it is strange to know that it isn't readily available if and when I want it. There is a massive store near downtown Xiamen called Metro that specializes in imported items, like peanut butter and cheese (which apparently you can't find anywhere). So I guess I can always soothe my cravings there if it gets to be too much.

A typical lunch in the school's cafeteria

The rest of my experiences so far are little things and more of an "oh, well this is different" and not an "oh man, how am I gonna live like this?!" Things like my weird bathroom, encountering squat toilets for the first time (that was an experience), discovering that small children do not wear diapers and simply wear crotch-less pants so that they can pee anywhere (and I do mean anywhere), realizing that it will be a long time before I see forks and knives again, and so on and so forth.

These little "encounters" will be the basis of some fantastic stories I'm sure, so that'll be something to look out for in future blog posts. :)

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I've had a ton of requests for pictures and I promise I'm on it. If you're on FB you'll see that I've posted a few pics already. I'll do my best to have an album to post on here shortly.

Also, for those of you who are new to this blog, there's a place on the top right hand side of this page where you can enter your email address and be notified each time I put up a new entry. That way you won't need to bother with checking back here or my FB page for updates.

Pics and more info about the school coming soon!

My newest "home away from home"

Okay so I'm trying to make the most of the brief amount of downtime I have before classes and chaos begin to get in a few entries about what's going down here. I've had lots of requests for pics so I will try to get a few posted before the week is out along with my "first impressions" entry and more info about the school and what exactly I'll be doing this year.

To tide you over until then, however, here is a quick video of my "suite" here at the school. I'm currently living alone but the other bedroom will more than likely be filled within the next few weeks with another foreign teacher.

Enjoy and comment below!

Continent #5!!

So.

I'm starting off this latest blog entry with mixed emotions.

I am beyond excited to brush off this dusty blog and start typing again. I mean, hello! I'm going to CHINA!!!

Yet instead of breaking out into my happy travel dance, I have to admit--I'm mildly terrified.

After the "Honduras incident" it seems my eagerness to hit the road has significantly decreased and my anxiety about living abroad again has significantly increased. Regardless of my fantastic experiences living in the UK, Australia, and Ecuador, my time in Honduras really shook my confidence in hopping on a plane and jetting off alone to yet another international destination.

What if disaster is once again waiting on the other end with open arms? What if in two weeks time I am running for the airport, desperate to escape? What if I just can't handle it???

Thankfully, I have wise siblings who interject my frantic stream of consciousness with profound statements like: "Amanda, worrying doesn't solve anything."

Which makes me stop and realize a few things.

First: Worrying doesn't solve anything!!! (Simple enough concept, but definitely worth repeating--especially for us tightly wound, Type-A people)

Second: Even though things in Honduras went sideways it showed me all the things to do and NOT do when preparing for a teaching position abroad. This time around I've quizzed my supervisor on the curriculum, the classes, and the living situation. I received and reviewed my contract before leaving the country. And I've even been in contact with a foreign teacher who currently works there who has been brilliant about giving me all of the insider info I need about the school and life in Xiamen in general.

Third: The buddy system is important. When you're all alone in a foreign country and things start to get hairy, even the slightest issue can rapidly turn monumental. I think one of the reasons why Honduras was such a challenge was because I was literally down there without anyone. According to what I gathered from the locals, I'm pretty sure I was the only gringa residing in El Paraiso. While this might sound like a grand and daring adventure, in reality it's exhausting and lonely and it really sucks when the cockroaches outnumber you ten to one and you can't call in backup. My point: everybody needs somebody. Even more so when you're hundreds of miles from home. So, I'm happy to say that my brother, David, will also be living in Xiamen this year studying Mandarin at Xiamen University. While we aren't exactly neighbors, knowing that he'll only be a taxi ride away makes me entirely more comfortable with the situation. (And I'll have a travel buddy during school breaks so no more solo bus trips where I may or may not end up getting stranded in the middle of China.)

But yes, all of that to say I'm off to CHINA!! And I'm so excited to share yet another adventure with all of you!

My suitcases are (mostly) packed. I've figured out how to say (butcher?) "Hello," "How are you," and "My name is Amanda" in Mandarin. My passport has a fresh new visa in it. Come what may, I've been given a fantastic opportunity to experience Eastern culture firsthand and mark yet another continent off my list.

So, bloggies, here we go again!