Yeah it has been a very long time since my last update, so I guess this is going to be a sort of massive post. Hmm where should I start…
First of all I finally met up with the German interns who are here doing the same program as me. They’re names are Jan and Dennis and they’re from Kiel I think. We had few drinks, went to another bar for a bit then they left while me and my colleague went to club Propaganda (again!). It was an ok night except I knew I was going to be so dead for the program training the next day haha. In one of the bars I found a very interesting list of shots, the one that stuck out to me was Taiwan Duck Fart which me and Dennis had because we were intrigued by the name. The shot consisted of Kahlua and other sweet shit which tasted ok but yeah it would not be my drink of choice any time soon.
Here’s a photo of the shot list
Well I had my training for the social issues sujects a bout 3 weeks ago, it was great I started getting more insight into what we shoud teach and how we should go a bout it. I had training with many of the other exchange participants who are also here on the same if not similar program. The room was like the United Nations, we had people from all over the world such as Poland, Australia, England, Korea, China, Russia, Indonesia, Germany, Holand and many more.
International Love?
A few of the guys went to the AIESEC Member Commitee party that was on that night, I was planning to go but ended up falling asleep in my nap, yes that is what I get for going to training hungover and with lack of sleep hahaha.
Oh yea our trainer of the day was Adam he’s from England and currently works in a NGO in China and has been here for a long time.
Haha
The people at the training were all pretty cool, we all had very different and interesting personalites and backgrounds. Most of the trainees were not really active AIESEC members, they just used AIESEC for the exchange program which is fair enough but I was not really able to share AIESEC ideas with them. The training was very interactive and fun, there was not too many “sit down and listen to me teach” moments and I think we all learnt a lot from it. A lot of the China commitee members were surprised with my level of Chinese and apparently I speak with a southern Chinese/ Taiwanese accent?? I also got to know a lot of the Commitee people in China including Jose the Member Commitee person running the training. Overall it was great learning what we did and getting to know each other. The last night of training we all had a few drinks together and went to Propaganda (yea AGAIN! Oh my God). Had some fun together then went home did not really have a huge night.
The training really gave me a great idea on what I should teach and how I can go about it, I decided to teach my first few classes a bout Health. The first lesson I thought them a bout the importance of exercise and “finding 30″ and towards the end of the class I split them into groups and they were to come up with an advertisement for their classmates to encourage them to exercise. Most people did well and got into it where some just sat there and let one person do all the work. I mainly had posters but I had one guy come up and do an info-mercial and one guy did a song which were great haha.
2 weeks ago I went to the Summer Palace (hungover again haha), the views were very beautiful and the place had a very peaceful vibe. I took some pictures but not many beacause my camera had low battery but my colleague Carey took many pictures so I might post more later when I get them off her.
Here are some pictures:
During this weekend I met some interesting people, met up with a fellow Aussie AISEC member who is here studying Chinese because he just finished up his internship, also I met up with a former LCP (Local Committee President) from the USA. It was great to finally share some AIESEC visions and ideas with these people and it gives me more motivation to run for a leadership position. Oh yea I also went out Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday night. My liver hates me.
I am doing this after coming off a 6 day in a row partying streak (yes I know shush). I also visited the temple of Heaven yesterday which I felt was just so so. I will finally be taking a break tonight and sorry for the lack of pictures because I was too lazy to charge my camera battery. I am charging it now and hopefully this will lead to a more picture friendly blog in the future.
Peace
It has officially been one week since I have landed in Beijing. Yes although my clubbing nights have been the highlights of my trip, I have got to say that being a teacher is a really great experience. Teaching in this school is probably much different compared to teaching in many other schools. The kids here pay like 100,000 yuan a year or something to go to this school and are in class from 8am to 10pm every weekday which is crazy. Most of the kids here really want to learn and make something of themselves, yes kids will always be kids but most of these kids have a goal they want to reach in life. I mean when I was a kid I hated school, I went to school to much around with my friends and damn sure did not care what I was going to be doing in 10 years time. I had this insane idea that I was going to be like a professional sports star or something and I would not need to study to make money, boy was I wrong haha.
Anyway back to the kids, its crazy how this 12 year old kid told me how he wants to study in America because there are so many Chinese graduates that do not get good jobs and he does not want to come out of University to go work in a place where he cuts meat (yes quite strange expression but oh well). Although I believe a lot of these kids are very disciplined, they are also quite cheeky hahaha.
Here are a few of the funniest things I’ve been told/asked so far:
“Do you like Chinese girls or Western girls better”
“Who do you think is the prettiest girl in this class”
“I think you will find the girls in China very refereshing”
“My hobby is to go to the hooker house with you”
“A lot of my friends think you are handsome”
Hahaha, it is quite fun teaching Chinese students but challenging at the same time. It is going to be quite difficult to teach 1st year Senior High students about social entrepreneurship when they do not even know what it means. So far I have only done introductions and played games with the students, nothing major. The last two days I have been asking my students to write me a letter telling me a bout themselves which was interesting because I really liked some of the stuff I had to read. A lot of these students are really fascinated with foreign teachers and want to learn as much as possible. I really enjoy getting to know these students because they are just full of joy and want to learn so much from you.
By the way, there are no pictures in this post because I have not really taken any of the students. I will probably take some at the end of my trip. Oh today is teachers day in China and a student just came in and gave me a flower haha. It is still going to take a while getting used to people calling me teacher, Mr. Aaron and Lao Shi hahaha has not quite sunk in yet.
Till next time
Peace
Hey guys, just thought I would finally blog about my trip here to Beijing since facebook is banned here its gonna be hard for me to upload pictures and stuff so I’ll put a few pictures here.
Well here’s the story…
When I first landed here it was around 10ish at night, I kinda felt the culture shock because most of the buildings had Chinese writings and I had no idea what they were. Pretty much just went to a hotel the night I landed, I just walked around the block at night and went to sleep since everything was closed.
The next day I woke up and the President of the Beijing Jiao Tong University AIESEC came and took to to get breakfast and walk around the BJTU campus. There were lots of old buildings there and I swear there were more dorms than actual study buildings. There were many students roaming around because it was a new semester and many students were going around for orientation. I forgot to bring my camera so I did not take any pictures this trip, nothing special really and the toilets were disgusting. Yea note to people who want to go to China in the future, make sure you bring your own toilet paper or just avoid going to the toilet outside your accommodation area in general because the toilets are disgusting and there not toilet paper in there.
Went to the school I was working at after, it is MASSIVE. I was told about that I was going to teach bla bla bla, I found out that only my first two months are volunteer work and I will get paid after that. I also found out that I will be teaching Oral English to the junior high school students which are kids 10-12 on top of the Social Entrepreneurship program.
Here are a few pictures of the campus
I was also shown my office, here are a few pictures of it
Went to this club with a friend Chris from work, its crazy how its soo easy to make friends here, I made friends with an Indonesian guy on the Subway who just graduated from Curtin!! Small world much? The club we went to was called Propaganda in the Wudaokou city area, its a place where there are a lot of foreign students because it is where a Beijing Language and Culture University is located. Drank a few Tsing Tao’s (famous chinese beer) and we went it. Made a few friends over there who were really cool and showed us around. Tequila shots were only 5 yuan in the club which is like 1 aud? Even the expensive drinks were only like 25 yuan or something which is nothing compared to Perth. Partied real hard and yeaa here are some pictures..
After we went home 4 hours later had to wake up and we went to climb the Great Wall of China. The view was excellent and it was pretty fun, just wish I was not so damn hungover that day. The great wall had a lot of nice views and a lot of people there trying to rip tourists off hahahaha.
The mountains
Train ride down the great wall
Bears at the exit
After visiting the Great Wall of China we went to where the Olympic stadium was, it is very beautiful and is MASSIVE.
The famous “birds nest” Olympic stadium
The 7 Star hotel
Sunday night went out again to Sanliandun and then Progoganda again. Went to a bar called 9.9 I think that was the name (night was a bit of a blur) its a small nice looking bar, crowd was not big but they had really good music and had cheap price drinks (10 yuan for shots/beer and we got 1 free for every 3 we bought). The bar also had a lot of interesting graffiti
Here are some pictures of the drawings:
HAHAHAHAHAHA this was inside the toilets
Another one inside the toilet
big bootay
Here are some other random pics throughout the night
KFC in China (Wudaokou)
This picture is for Team Mack 
Oh did I mention that the driving here is extremely terrible?? Well it is
Grant Theft auto style baby
Bus was literally in front of me hahaha
Monday had my first few classes, it was cool the kids had better english than I thought and they were really cute. One class had a lot of cheeky lil monsters in there hahaha so going to have to find a way to organise them better. Its awesome how a kids laugh is so pure and I miss it so much, I have not really seen it in ages. The kids here are really respectful and disciplined, not many brats around thank God. Hopefully I will be able to be a good teacher and help this kids learn a lot and
