Back in Lanzhou!

Hey everyone!

I'm coming to you from the Lanzhou University of Technology Netbar! It's been a great day and a half here so far - too bad I can't get any pictures on this public computer :(

Evyerthing is going really well - me and Robert are both over our jetlag, and we're just chillin'!

This morning we went all around the area of campus and our hotel. We stayed at a hotel in Xi Guan (She Gwan) and we walked all around downtown Lanzhou and saw the shops, ate some 包子，and had a really great time walking around our little part of the city.

It's really great being back here - I got a text when we were coming into Lanzhou saying that there were 7 people waiting for me and Robert at the airport shuttle bus stop!! Benjamin Xi, Christina Yao, Ethan, Boss, and more of my old friends.........it was a truly happy moment to get that first glimpse of them from the bus window.

It's also a little weird being back as a tourist, so to speak. Yeah, I'll be teaching in the fall, but right now, I don't have any plans, and I'm just hanging out. I don't have to go to class, I don't have to shop, I don't really have to do anything. That's weird, and it puts up a weird wall between you being there and you being there.

This isn't to say this isn't great! I LOVE being back! I really do! It's been a lot of fun to speak Chinese and eat all this great food and be able to see my amazing friends again. Some of them will be leaving Lanzhou soon, and it will be sad to see them go. I'll see some of them again, but some, I won't. But we can't know that right now.

Life goes on in Lanzhou - there are a few new shops and vendors here and there, but it seems very much the same, which is just fine with me. There are more foreigners at the university now, I think around 30 this semester, and next semester, it will be over 50! Wow, they are really getting into it!

I have to go buy a phone, meet some people, and some other general Lanzhou things........(code for "I don't know"), but until next time, much love!

Austin

Back to China!

Hey, everyone!

I'm going back to China on June 13th! 4 days from tomorrow! It's crazy how fast time passes, isn't it? I can't really believe I'm going back.....will it be like going home, or will it be a strange experience that I won't really enjoy as much as I hope? I'm hoping it will be the former. I've actually been worrying about it more than I should lately.......

 I'm heading out for Lanzhou with my buddy and old roommate Robert, and we're gonna be hanging out at all my old haunts and with all our old friends! He visited Lanzhou briefly for a week or so a couple of years ago, and he'll have a great time meeting a lot of people. Lanzhou is great to foreigners.  It'll be a great time - a really great time.

Besides hanging out with my buddy Robert, I will be going to Lanzhou Jiaotong University to meet with the International Office director, see the campus, and meet some of the students, who know some of my old friends. It'll be a great time.

The agenda will be super crowded. I'll be in Lanzhou for about 8 days, after which I will travel to my buddy Benjamin's hometown, and then to his original home, a really small and remote village in Gansu. His family is commemorating the anniversary of his grandfather's death, and I will be there to witness it. It will be a really unique experience, not only because of that, but because I will be spending a week-ish in a cave. I'll be staying in a cave home, which will be a new and eye-opening experience.

After a week-ish of that, I'll be headed back to Lanzhou for the rest of the time. There's so many people to see and hang out with! I can't wait!

I'll put up lots of photos after I get back!

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I'm not gonna lie, though - I am really really nervous about starting this new job in Lanzhou. It's a big deal. I know that I can get along with Lanzhou's students, but that was when I was a student. I'll be a teacher now, and that creates a certain line and puts me in a position where I will never quite be "friends" with my students. It just won't quite work. Luckily, I have some friends from my L.U.T. days that I can truly be friends with. That will be a good thing.

I'm really nervous about the whole idea of teaching English - I never really considered teaching English until earlier this year. when I started my TESOL Course. There's so many different things you have to consider when teaching a foreign language.......How do you explain grammar and vocab to a low-level student without just translating everything you say? How do you keep students motivated and interested? How do you give individual attention and be a mentor/role model to classes of 50+ students? How do you be a friendly teacher without letting students walk all over you?

The list goes on.......

The good thing about China is that people really and truly respect teachers, which makes discipline pretty much a non-issue. However, the other questions, however stupid they might seem, remain in one degree or another.

If I can, I will post some stuff up while I am in China, but there are no guarantees.

Much love!