China: Thoughts on the City vs the Countryside + a Story | This is China

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I talk about the countryside and the city. I quickly mention and discuss some of the good and the bad of both places - the comfort vs the hardship, the beauty and quiet vs the noise, and more! I bike out to a couple of villages just outside of Chengdu on an Ofo and show you guys what there is to see!
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What's Up? (Videos and More)

So, as you might have noticed, I've been away from my keyboard lately --- I've been given an extra assignment by my boss which has kept me pretty busy these days.

She wants to demonstrate her "co-teaching" system to the Gansu Province Ministry of Education, so she's making me prepare a couple of special classes that she'll film and send to the Ministry. Basically, there's me and a Chinese teacher who teach a combined speaking/listening class. We take turns teaching, and we help each other out during the 2-hour class. I talk some, they talk some. It's a pretty neat system, and as far as I'm concerned, it's great!

Because this is China, they want to endlessly prepare and make everything as perfect and artificial and fake as it could possibly be. That way it'll look good. It doesn't matter if it's the real thing or not. If it looks good, it sells, you know? I'm fighting against that, and I made my boss a little unhappy with how I did things today.

We just had the first one today --- it went pretty well. She had a couple of suggestions, but I'm debating on whether I actually care or not about what she says.

My students love my class (80-90%, anyway), and my co-teachers love me, and that's enough for me to keep my job. My boss doesn't have to like me  hahahaha

I'll try to get a copy of one, and I'll make my own little video with splices of teaching in it. I hope you guys will enjoy that -- you'll get to see what I actually do for a living.

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Okay, now for a shock. I've started running, exercising, and "eating right" in a general effort to be healthy.
WHAT???? GREAT ODIN'S RAVEN, WHO HAVE YOU BECOME, AUSTIN GUIDRY???? 

I know.....it's a shock. I've been that person who always made fun of healthy people, but now I'm starting to possibly, maybe, sort of......be one.

I'm not gonna be vegetarian or vegan --- no freaking way, but I've had some recent health episodes that I don't want to talk about, and it's kind of scared me straight in the past couple of months, and I really just want to treat my body well. I'm only gonna have one life, so I should try to make it good and worth living.

...........Plus, it'd be nice if I could play Ultimate Frisbee or football (soccer) for more than 5 minutes without stopping for air.

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In my next post, there'll be a couple of videos, and I'll be talking about teaching and cultural differences! I've got a lot to talk about. I'll be traveling soon, and I've got some great news I'll be sharing sometime before my  birthday (January 31st).

Anyway, until next time!

Austin

"Don't Lose Your Sense of Wonder..." and Upcoming Projects

Well, I have run out of things to do today, so I guess I will put up a blog post! It's funny, blogging was so important a few days ago, and I have totally neglected documenting this "just arrived and still adjusting" time.

I spent yesterday and today at Lanzhou University of Technology, my old school, to see old friends and help one of them do a crazy difficult and heavily technical translation for a recruiting presentation. It was so difficult and seemed impossible at times, but together, we did it! I feel pretty accomplished because I was able to translate pretty well in my own right except for some really, really technical things (like different kinds of engineering projects and statistics kind of technical).

Basically, that made me realize that I DON'T want to be written translator. Ever. That's just too tedious, and because of the nature of written vs. spoken language (not just Chinese, any language), it's much harder and it takes the human element out of the equation. No fun.

Besides that, I hung out, had a few meals with, and joked around with my friends who are still left at L.U.T. - they kind of became my family during that time there, and it brings back memories of great times to see them.

Anyway, you didn't come here to read about me waxing nostalgic - you came here to read about me and Lanzhou (or just Lanzhou.). 

I met a couple of American teachers who live next door to me at Lanzhou Jiaotong University, and they are really cool - they're in their early 40s and the wife has spent some time in Kunming and Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. They can't speak much Chinese, so I gave them some advice and said I would help them out anytime they needed. I like them a lot, and I hope we can hang out more.

Campus is still kind of crazy with all the new students - I see people giving tours to groups of 30-50 people at a time and people are clogging the shops to stock their rooms with snacks, water containers, etc.

Living in China is a constant exercise of your patience, your sense of adventure, and your capacity to deal with unfamiliarity. Pretty much how you do everything in China is different from how it's done in America. The public transportation system is the best way to get around, which is new to most Americans, water must be boiled before drinking, walking is just part of life, not an exercise regime, people drink tea instead of coffee and soda, eat rice, noodles and dumplings instead of pot roast, steak, hot dogs, and burgers, and live in apartments instead of suburban houses. It's a whole different way of life.

My dad told me,

"Hey, while you're over there, don't lose your sense of wonder and appreciation at where you are. You have a really unique opportunity, and you need to not lose sight of where you are and where you come from."

That's been rolling around in my head a lot these past few days, and while the wonder is still fresh in my head being sort of "fresh off the plane" for this time, it's my third time to come to China and to Lanzhou. It's more or less daily life, and it's hard to shake your head out of the daily routine and remember where you are. Most days last year, I totally forgot I was living in China - it was just life. Anyway, I'll try to stay conscious of that.

Anyway, I will make a video about all of that soon - I've been a bit busy and distracted to film much stuff. I've got about 2 minutes of raw footage I could spin into a video, but I want to wait until I've got enough for a good video. I want to make good stuff, you know?

I met an American couple online who are in Lanzhou now who said they saw my videos and read my blog about Lanzhou, and they said it gave them a lot of really good information, so I'm very happy about that, and the American couple who live next door to me said they read my blog and watched my videos as well, so it appears that what I'm doing is at least reaching a few people.

I know  that Lanzhou seems like a relatively unimportant place in a world with cities like New York City, Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai, London, Sydney, and Chicago, but that doesn't mean that it's not a place worth visiting. It's a whole different kind of city, with great people, great food, unique culture, and a long history.

I will be putting together a series of pages/posts about a "Guide to Lanzhou" project, and I'm hoping to get some feedback from my readers and the people I know here as to what they want to see in it. In the future, I'm kind of hoping that my blog will become a significant stopping place for people who want to visit northwest China, and hopefully Lanzhou in particular. It's got it's faults, sure, but I like it just the way it is.

Until next time,

Austin Guidry

I Got This!......Wait, No I Don't

So, yeah, I was walking around campus after going to 西站 or the "West Station" in Lanzhou.

I just bought a Chinese version of Tom Sawyer, a few snacks, explored the final corners of campus, and was just thinking,

"Wow, great, I could really get used to this. I've finally got the hang of the area and campus."


And then I proceeded to get lost.
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That's what you get, I guess. I finally got my head on straight and found my apartment, and THIS time, I really think I got the hang of the campus layout. It's a big place, so it's a little easy to get turned around the first day or two. But I got it now! (I think)

I was kind of annoyed at the lack of restaurants and shops on campus at first. Actually, really annoyed. Pissed, really. But I had neglected a corner of campus that apparently had ALL of them haha

It's cool now. I'm not mad anymore.

It seems that most universities are like that - they can pretty much be self-sufficient. There are shops, restaurants, offices, and all kinds of stuff on campus. But if you want raw vegetables to cook or some special items, then you gotta get off campus.

I'm settling into my new place. It's not a two-bedroom apartment, so it's a lot smaller, but hey, it's pretty cool. It's more decorative and....I dunno, unique than apartment at Lanzhou University of Technology.

This is the living room. Just to the right of the photo is my desk and computer/printer.

I like it a lot, and I've unpacked everything. After going to the market, it's starting to look a little bit like a home.

There's not a lot going on besides the move itself. I've got a few things that need to be taken care of like my residence permit and foreign expert certificate, but other than that, I'm pretty much free for the next week!

I spent part of the morning and early afternoon off campus wandering around Lanzhou's West Station and bought the aforementioned Tom Sawyer.

I got lunch at KFC, which was not bad, although the KFCs in China are a little more bland than their western counterparts. I got the "Double Stacked Sichuan Sandwich" with some fries and a mango-peach juice or something like that because they were out of soda.

I'm happy to be back in Lanzhou - it's a great city, although it's really big. I was sitting on the bus earlier today and thinking, "Dang, this city is big.....I kind of forgot about that."

The area around Jiaotong University is a giant shopping center and doesn't have a lot of the family-operated shops that I liked so much about Lanzhou University of Technology.

It IS a lot newer than the stuff around L.U.T., and maybe that's why I don't like it as much. It doesn't have the character that

However, I've only been here a couple of days, so I can't say that I've found everything, but that's just my impression so far. I can't make all the decisions and judgments about the place in two days - this is a nice campus and it's just a different area.

As open as I am to living in other countries and traveling and stuff, it's weird how much I don't like change......I keep thinking:

"Man, this isn't L.U.T.. I want to go to You Jia for my favorite potato dish and that Sichuan place for the spicy fish and beef dishes! I don't WANT to go to these restaurants around here!!!!"

What the heck is wrong with me?! hahaha

I'll be back later with some more updates and pictures! I don't know if they'll be interesting or not, but hopefully they are. I've seen a couple of cool alleyways with lots of shops and restaurants that look promising. You'll like those pictures!

 I'm off to read Tom Sawyer!

Lanzhou Jiaotong University 兰州交通大学

So, today I will be writing about the university I'll be teaching at. It's called Lanzhou Jiaotong University, and I actually have a video talking about it!

This last trip I took to China in June, I was able to visit there a couple of times, so I've got some pictures and some video of it, so here it is!

Lanzhou Jiaotong ("Gee-Ow Tong") University is a former railway institute/college, as evidenced by the train heads located right here. They don't work, but they are sort of the symbol of the school. It is mostly known for its engineering and transportation majors/concentrations, but has a rapidly expanding foreign language department.

English, Japanese, Russian, French, Spanish, and more - I'm not exactly sure how many languages are there. At least the 4.

They actually have whole block of buildings dedicated to foreign teachers housing right here.

See that writing? That says:

"FOREIGN TEACHER'S HOUSING."

How segregated is that?! Haha

Yes, China usually puts all their foreign teachers together on campus. That's pretty much the way the universities do things. China hasn't quite gotten to the point where having foreigners in their countries is no big deal. It's still a big deal. Foreigners are often segregated and watched pretty regularly, but that's because there's not many of us and they're not quite sure how to deal with us yet. Give them some time - things will get better.

The school is located on the north side of the Yellow River in a district called Anning - unfortunately, it's not as close to the "downtown" area of Lanzhou...whatever that means in China. Everywhere is downtown. It's about 40-45 minutes from the areas that used to take me 10-15 minutes to get to. That's unfortunate, but I'm sure Anning will eventually become home.

Anyway, about the school - it's got a pretty good reputation in Lanzhou at least....people seem to be really impressed that I'll be working there, so I assume it's a strong school that has fine students.

I actually shared a cab with a guy who was a train driver/conductor or whatever you want to call it who actually graduated from Jiao Da (what people call it for short). Pretty cool!

As far as the campus itself goes, it's actually much bigger and the facilities themselves are much nicer than at Lanzhou University of Technology. Not that Lanzhou University of Technology is a crap school...it's just got character. LUT is an older school and doesn't have the funding that Jiao Da has. Plus it looks like Jiao Da has finished renovating recently. Things look newer, cleaner, and generally kept up better.

I'm pretty excited about my future with Lanzhou Jiaotong University - good times are ahead!

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I hope you liked this post! I'm going to be putting up another post about the process of becoming an English teacher in China. The idea really took hold when I read another "become a teacher in China" blog post, so maybe if I write my own post, someone will read it and be inspired. One can only hope, right?

Until next time!

Update: I'm Officially Going Back to Lanzhou!

Hey, everyone!

So.....things have rapidly changed in the past week or so! I have been offered a position at Lanzhou Jiaotong (pronounced "Gee - Ow - Tong") University, and I am going to take it! I signed the contract last night and sent it back to them!

I couldn't be happier about returning to Lanzhou! Although I will not be returned to Lanzhou University of Technology, a position at a reputable university in a city that I have already lived in and have connections in is a great thing for me!

Some of my friends will still be in Lanzhou for another year, so it will be great to be able to hang out with them again.

I miss the city - I really do, and I'm pumped to be able to get back to Lanzhou.

This opportunity will be a great chance for me to really get to know Lanzhou really well. It'll give me the opportunity to explore new places, revisit old haunts, and travel throughout the Northwest, which is my favorite region of the country thus far.

In regards to the Always English School in Zibo, Shandong, I really appreciate them being honest and open with me about everything, but this ultimately is a business and career decision. A year of experience as a university professor in China will look better on a resume than a year as an elementary school teacher in China.

It will give me more chances to hang out with people around my age, see them outside of class, and talk about deeper subjects of life than Hello Kitty or whatever it is that elementary school students talk about.

It'll also give me a chance to continue my language study in the same area that I learned it initially. That way, I don't have to worry about mixing up dialects and people communicate with each other in a way that I'm familiar with. As part of the deal, they offer free Chinese lessons!

I'll be getting paid more for working less hours as well as better benefits! It really seems like a win-win situation to me.

Although I am saying goodbye to Lanzhou University of Technology at the moment, I will still have the chance to see friends there and hang out in my down time.

I will meet new people at Jiaotong, of course, and I might see Lanzhou a lot differently as a teacher with responsibilities and a real job rather than as a student who didn't really have a care the world, but I am grateful for the opportunity to go back.




Please leave comments below - I want to hear from you guys about how you like/dislike the blog, how I can improve, and what you want to see from me!

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