Year of the fire rooster! Well... year of the rooster. The Chinese translation of rooster is "fire chicken" so anywhere that says "fire rooster" is translating literally. Anyway, how have you all been? I feel like I've written more recently than after the typhoon but evidence would contradict that assumption.
So, what have I been up to? I'll start with the fall.
The first, and by far the most important, thing that happened was meeting this girl:
This one right here ---->
Isn't she awesome? Yes, she's awesome. Any of you who have talked to me at all in the past few months know that. She'll feature heavily in this blog post, and rightly so.
Some of you already know, but I'll say it anyway. Her name is Nicole. I went to a toastmasters meeting here in Xiamen as I was bored and didn't know many people yet so it seemed like a good idea. I enjoyed it and I was added to their social media group. Once I was in that group several people added me on the platform. This was nothing new. Chinese people, especially those learning English, jump at every chance they have to connect with an English speaker. Many of these conversations are incredibly dull as they're all the same. "Where are you from?" "Do you like Chinese food?" "Why did you come to China?" etc. I talk to them anyway but the conversations usually die within a day or two.
However one of the people who added me was not like this at all. One of the first things she said was that she likes games and lord of the rings. We talked for a bit then decided to meet. Then we decided to meet again... and again. Well, you get the idea. Anyway, we've been dating now for four months and I am beyond happy with her. There is just so much to love about her. I can't wait for everyone to meet her, I'm hoping to bring her to Canada this summer. But, rather than fill this ENTIRE space about how great she is, I guess I better move on.
Classes at my new school here are tough. It's still a college and the school itself is significantly better than my last school however at my last job I taught English majors with class sizes of about 30. Now I teach a variety of majors with about 50 students in a class. Many of these students feel that English class is a waste of time and their Chinese teachers reinforce that by telling them my class isn't really that important for them academically. This makes my job difficult as many of them will refuse to use English at all if I'm not directly standing there, but I also cannot supervise 50 students at a time. I manage, and the majority of students really seem to like my class, even the ones who think English is dumb. I'm trying now to figure out what to teach next semester as my normal curriculum I've developed would not work in these conditions.
Outside of work I've had a lot of fun exploring Xiamen and its surrounding area. There are lots of gorgeous mountains and mountain villages. I bought a Yamaha YBR250 motorcycle and it's been great for taking Nicole and I around to lots of interesting hideaways.
On the main island of Xiamen motorcycles are not allowed. It's annoying as I have to take a bus to get there when I could drive but not living on the island means I can own my own bike and go to all these cool places on the mainland.
Once a week I also had people over to my place to play Dungeons and Dragons. It was all people new to it except me so I ended up leading it. There was definitely a learning curve but people seemed to have fun and we're planning to continue this year.
On November 6 I turned 30 and I had a big party at my place. We went to a restaurant then back to my place where I told people to bring their favourite desserts. I made several non-bake (I have no oven) cakes as well as chocolate-covered peanut butter balls and they were a massive hit. I even had a friend fly in all the way from Qingdao just for one night for my birthday, it was really special.
Nicole's birthday is exactly a week after mine but, after the craziness of my party, we kept it low key. I made her a few gifts which she loved. Like really, loved. It's so much fun to give her things and see her eyes light up.
I always like Christmas. Especially in China, it's a chance to make my home feel like home. In Dongying I used to decorate my place and my patio and last year I even decorated an area outside for students to see. This year I had Nicole to help me set up. It was a fun experience to teach her about Christmas traditions. I was pretty happy with the end result and figured it should be shared, so I asked around and, when it became apparent that no one else was doing it, I planned a Christmas potluck for my place.
I was done teaching just before Christmas, but Nicole and I had planned to go to Philippines together in mid-January so I had a few weeks to relax, explore, and play some PS4 but the whole time I was really looking forward to my upcoming trip with Nicole. It would be our first time away together. I had zero doubt it would be awesome.
I was right.
We flew to Manila Jan 14. We only stayed one night as Manila isn't really an especially interesting city and I wanted to get to our next destination. I realize now that was a mistake, next time I want to stay a few days more for her. We arrived and found our hotel then we went walking around the city for awhile. Manila has A LOT of street kids. Nicole had never seen anything like it before and she was definitely fascinated/moved by it. Next time I want to take her to visit my friend who runs a school there for kids like that. He's told me he'd love to have us there and I know she'd really find it eye-opening.
The next morning we flew to Coron. I had always wanted to go here as I was told it has really good diving so I figured that would mean snorkeling as well. While there wasn't snorkeling immediately off-shore, it wasn't hard to get there by boat.
During out time in Coron we did a lot of snorkeling. Nicole isn't a great swimmer and wore a life jacket but she got better quickly and by the end she was trying some on her own. I also did a day of diving. Nicole came along as a snorkeler but has decided that "next time we go" she wants to try diving.
We stayed at quite a few different places but everywhere we went Nicole seemed to make friends with whoever was there. There's just no danger with her that she'll sit in a corner and feel sorry for herself if I'm not right there at the moment.
The older girl in this picture worked at a travel agency. We went in looking for snorkeling information. We didn't want to do island hopping at this time as it only gives you about 30 minutes at each spot and I wanted to be able to relax and help Nicole as this would be her first time snorkeling. The girl working there said she didn't have anything like that but her dad had a boat. If we met her the next morning she'd take us to her town and her dad would take us to a nearby snorkeling spot. So that's what we did. In this picture we're riding in a tricycle along with the girl's friends/sisters.
I had booked hotels for everywhere except 2 nights of the trip. Those 2 nights I figured that we would figure out when we arrived. We decided to do a 2 night camping trip around some of the islands. The company would give us a boat with 2 people to be guides/run the boat and they'd take us to lots of interesting places for a few days and we'd sleep on some private beaches. Sounded cool so we went for it and it was awesome.
We saw some great coral spots with lots of fish. I had brought a loaf of bread along. Most of the fish would come up close if there was food but they were skittish, however one area I could tell they were more aggressive and they ate right out of your hand. Here's a video of Nicole trying what I showed her:
After 2 weeks Nicole headed home for Chinese New Year and I went to an island called Siargao for 2 weeks. It's a surfer's paradise. I'm not a surfer and have no interest in it as they seem to float out there for an hour before finally choosing a wave that they like but the waves there were massive. It was fun to just watch them. I love playing in waves but couldn't here as the rip tide was insane and the rocks were a little bit too intimidating. I basically just relaxed and read books during this time.
On my way back I stopped in Manila for 3 nights and met a few friends. I also did some shopping, loading up on things that are made in China but not sold in China.
I'm back in China now. Everyone told me that it's "so cold" here right now... well it was 10C last night which is a bit cold since houses only have space heaters but today it's already almost 20 so I think I'll be ok. I'm getting ready for the next semester now and soon I'll start the visa process to bring Nicole to Canada this summer. It's a really long, annoying process. You're prayers are appreciated for this as I really want to bring her home.
I've put lots of pictures. There's no way for me to share all at once anymore so each album needs a link. So here they are:
Pictures from October to December 2017 (I've added new pictures here since last posted)
Pictures taken on my phone from the new year's trip
Pictures taken with my underwater camera from new year's trip
I've captioned a lot of my pictures that I've uploaded, if you'd like more stories from my trip, feel free to look there. I don't know why the captions are so tiny at the bottom but I've looked everywhere and that's just how it is on this site, sorry.
Hope you're all having a great 2017 despite the current insanity in the world. I always love to hear from you. Drop my an email if you think of it!
Josh
So, what have I been up to? I'll start with the fall.
The first, and by far the most important, thing that happened was meeting this girl:
This one right here ---->
Isn't she awesome? Yes, she's awesome. Any of you who have talked to me at all in the past few months know that. She'll feature heavily in this blog post, and rightly so.
Some of you already know, but I'll say it anyway. Her name is Nicole. I went to a toastmasters meeting here in Xiamen as I was bored and didn't know many people yet so it seemed like a good idea. I enjoyed it and I was added to their social media group. Once I was in that group several people added me on the platform. This was nothing new. Chinese people, especially those learning English, jump at every chance they have to connect with an English speaker. Many of these conversations are incredibly dull as they're all the same. "Where are you from?" "Do you like Chinese food?" "Why did you come to China?" etc. I talk to them anyway but the conversations usually die within a day or two.
However one of the people who added me was not like this at all. One of the first things she said was that she likes games and lord of the rings. We talked for a bit then decided to meet. Then we decided to meet again... and again. Well, you get the idea. Anyway, we've been dating now for four months and I am beyond happy with her. There is just so much to love about her. I can't wait for everyone to meet her, I'm hoping to bring her to Canada this summer. But, rather than fill this ENTIRE space about how great she is, I guess I better move on.
Classes at my new school here are tough. It's still a college and the school itself is significantly better than my last school however at my last job I taught English majors with class sizes of about 30. Now I teach a variety of majors with about 50 students in a class. Many of these students feel that English class is a waste of time and their Chinese teachers reinforce that by telling them my class isn't really that important for them academically. This makes my job difficult as many of them will refuse to use English at all if I'm not directly standing there, but I also cannot supervise 50 students at a time. I manage, and the majority of students really seem to like my class, even the ones who think English is dumb. I'm trying now to figure out what to teach next semester as my normal curriculum I've developed would not work in these conditions.
 |
| She's going to be in most of my pictures. Get used to it. |
On the main island of Xiamen motorcycles are not allowed. It's annoying as I have to take a bus to get there when I could drive but not living on the island means I can own my own bike and go to all these cool places on the mainland.
Once a week I also had people over to my place to play Dungeons and Dragons. It was all people new to it except me so I ended up leading it. There was definitely a learning curve but people seemed to have fun and we're planning to continue this year.
Nicole's birthday is exactly a week after mine but, after the craziness of my party, we kept it low key. I made her a few gifts which she loved. Like really, loved. It's so much fun to give her things and see her eyes light up.
I always like Christmas. Especially in China, it's a chance to make my home feel like home. In Dongying I used to decorate my place and my patio and last year I even decorated an area outside for students to see. This year I had Nicole to help me set up. It was a fun experience to teach her about Christmas traditions. I was pretty happy with the end result and figured it should be shared, so I asked around and, when it became apparent that no one else was doing it, I planned a Christmas potluck for my place.I was done teaching just before Christmas, but Nicole and I had planned to go to Philippines together in mid-January so I had a few weeks to relax, explore, and play some PS4 but the whole time I was really looking forward to my upcoming trip with Nicole. It would be our first time away together. I had zero doubt it would be awesome.
I was right.
We flew to Manila Jan 14. We only stayed one night as Manila isn't really an especially interesting city and I wanted to get to our next destination. I realize now that was a mistake, next time I want to stay a few days more for her. We arrived and found our hotel then we went walking around the city for awhile. Manila has A LOT of street kids. Nicole had never seen anything like it before and she was definitely fascinated/moved by it. Next time I want to take her to visit my friend who runs a school there for kids like that. He's told me he'd love to have us there and I know she'd really find it eye-opening.
The next morning we flew to Coron. I had always wanted to go here as I was told it has really good diving so I figured that would mean snorkeling as well. While there wasn't snorkeling immediately off-shore, it wasn't hard to get there by boat.During out time in Coron we did a lot of snorkeling. Nicole isn't a great swimmer and wore a life jacket but she got better quickly and by the end she was trying some on her own. I also did a day of diving. Nicole came along as a snorkeler but has decided that "next time we go" she wants to try diving.
We stayed at quite a few different places but everywhere we went Nicole seemed to make friends with whoever was there. There's just no danger with her that she'll sit in a corner and feel sorry for herself if I'm not right there at the moment.The older girl in this picture worked at a travel agency. We went in looking for snorkeling information. We didn't want to do island hopping at this time as it only gives you about 30 minutes at each spot and I wanted to be able to relax and help Nicole as this would be her first time snorkeling. The girl working there said she didn't have anything like that but her dad had a boat. If we met her the next morning she'd take us to her town and her dad would take us to a nearby snorkeling spot. So that's what we did. In this picture we're riding in a tricycle along with the girl's friends/sisters.
I had booked hotels for everywhere except 2 nights of the trip. Those 2 nights I figured that we would figure out when we arrived. We decided to do a 2 night camping trip around some of the islands. The company would give us a boat with 2 people to be guides/run the boat and they'd take us to lots of interesting places for a few days and we'd sleep on some private beaches. Sounded cool so we went for it and it was awesome.
We saw some great coral spots with lots of fish. I had brought a loaf of bread along. Most of the fish would come up close if there was food but they were skittish, however one area I could tell they were more aggressive and they ate right out of your hand. Here's a video of Nicole trying what I showed her:
After 2 weeks Nicole headed home for Chinese New Year and I went to an island called Siargao for 2 weeks. It's a surfer's paradise. I'm not a surfer and have no interest in it as they seem to float out there for an hour before finally choosing a wave that they like but the waves there were massive. It was fun to just watch them. I love playing in waves but couldn't here as the rip tide was insane and the rocks were a little bit too intimidating. I basically just relaxed and read books during this time.
On my way back I stopped in Manila for 3 nights and met a few friends. I also did some shopping, loading up on things that are made in China but not sold in China.
I'm back in China now. Everyone told me that it's "so cold" here right now... well it was 10C last night which is a bit cold since houses only have space heaters but today it's already almost 20 so I think I'll be ok. I'm getting ready for the next semester now and soon I'll start the visa process to bring Nicole to Canada this summer. It's a really long, annoying process. You're prayers are appreciated for this as I really want to bring her home.
I've put lots of pictures. There's no way for me to share all at once anymore so each album needs a link. So here they are:
Pictures from October to December 2017 (I've added new pictures here since last posted)
Pictures taken on my phone from the new year's trip
Pictures taken with my underwater camera from new year's trip
I've captioned a lot of my pictures that I've uploaded, if you'd like more stories from my trip, feel free to look there. I don't know why the captions are so tiny at the bottom but I've looked everywhere and that's just how it is on this site, sorry.
Hope you're all having a great 2017 despite the current insanity in the world. I always love to hear from you. Drop my an email if you think of it!
Josh
Sounds like learning English there is like our experiences learning French. The language might be important for conversing in our future lives, but I bet most students are focused on using a language they see essential for their future careers. And they're university students. With this mind frame I'd be more focused on my core courses as well. Good luck! You're probably going to need it.
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