Teacher Kerry

Today I am feeling the result of yesterday's activities. The tennis session was a bit too intensive. We played between 13:00 to 17:30 in 30°C and compensated with many bottles of water. The tennis courts were all available for a reason and the activity must have looked stupid to others. It was fun though, and I really enjoyed playing double with a Chinese student called Mosquito against Armin and a girl called Maggie. We were leading in the beginning but somehow we ended up losing. Probably because of my mistakes. I was expecting pain all over today but I am just a bit stiff in my back and ankles and my suntan is slightly improved, as well as my back hand. I must admit I took a break from writing this post to play tennis for another 2.5h today before going to cooking class. This weeks dish was fried pumpkin with egg and salt, my favorite! I know I should take it easy due to my lung problem, but I cant. For me it is worse watching the other kids play basketball, tennis or practice Kung fu from the bench than worrying about surgery. I need to move! And I really enjoy these sports. If I feel bad I will just take it easy.

Céline is back in town after some travelling and that is good news! We decided to study together at the library more frequently and I really need it. She is an excellent study-partner. Somehow I learn a lot studying with her and it seems that she thinks the same about me. I know that the French girl also improves her English with me so it is "win win". The past weeks have been really "easy living" so not it is time to get a grip of the Chines language again. My score in Chinese writing and reading exam went down from 81% to 70%. Not so bad, especially considering that the last exam was totally in Chinese characters, but I can do better.

Teacher Kerry, that is me. As I wrote in the last post I took a part time job as English teacher, offered by James. Every Thursday I meet my class of Chinese businessmen to teach them the English language and also exchange some cultural knowledge. The job is very satisfying in many ways. I found out I really enjoy teaching and think that I am pretty good at it. Of course, I am a rookie and there is much to improve but I have a solid base in my opinion and my students seems to be pleased. Another positive side about this new friends and connections. Already the first session I got a few hints from one of my students who owns a shipping company and a trading company. If I will leave China she talked about an agency in Sweden and that might be interesting. Almost everyone is involved with trading or shipping here so there are many opportunities if your'e just a bit curious, social and open minded. Not sure yet, I might have other plans, but maybe trading as a side business isn't a bad idea.

Teaching my class i relatively easy. All of my students are somewhat advanced with Chinese measurement, and they are very curious about western culture so we never run out of topics. My job is mainly to make them speak and use the English language. The first lesson I got instructions from my employers how to run the class and I followed the orders. The next lesson after that I totally ignored it and ran my own race. A session often starts with small chat about work or activities that took place the recent week.  When I think we had enough of it I read an article to them and they follow and they are trying to learn how the words are to be pronounced. Then we have a discussion about the article and I can hear if they understood the text or not, and what to improve. The last hour we play a game and they really enjoy it. I prepare words for them and one by one they will explain the word to the others without revealing it. If they succeed they receive points. This forces them to speak up and practice. I am there to correct and encourage. I see huge improvement compare to the first session. Mainly that is because they are more comfortable about speaking up now I think. They told me that they feel relaxed with me as their teacher, and I hope it is true.

Last week James asked me if I could do a private English session with a 19 year old man to prepare him for a test that would take place 3 days later in Shanghai. He applied to an English university and needed to take test in writing, reading and attend an oral interview. As normal, James asked me 2 hours before the session would start and it was 2 days before my exam. I accepted though, thinking it could be an experience and some extra money could not hurt. The kid was son of a successful businessman who owns a large factory in Ningbo.
When I entered the classroom the kid instantly stood up and greeted me in the most polite way. I could tell that his kid have been drilled in behaving properly. Probably through his fathers business events. It was very clear when I gave him my business card later that evening. He made all the correct steps by the book in how to receive a card properly.

It took almost 5 minutes before he could say one word correctly, except his name. I was thinking that it would be a long lesson and he cannot speak English at all. It turned out he was extremely nervous and I could see him shaking. This was his first meeting with a foreigner and to many people here that is a big thing. The day at the opera a girl approached me and said "Hi, this is a big honor for you. This is the first time I speak to a foreigner and it has been one of my greatest wishes for years". I was not really surprised but it felt a bit weird. I greeted her and I could hear her heart beat like a drum-set. "Wow, you are so handsome! Now I need to go because I have something to do. Bye!", she said and disappeared quickly. I wonder how much courage it took before she decided to talk to me.

It took a few minutes before I found out what kind of interest the kid has, and I tried to make him talk about them and be curious. His nervousness suddenly took a change. He traded his seat for another one next to mine and explained about Taekwondo with glowing eyes. Until he started to study English for real he used to practice Taekwondo 6 days a week and he has a black belt. The Chinese humor is not like mine, but after I tried some jokes with him he was much calmer. After the first hour his English was not so poor after all.
I did a fake interview to prepare him for the real one. I have received questions from James earlier, but it was obvious that the kid had practiced the questions over and over again. If I asked something else he was totally lost. Even if I did ask the right questions but in the wrong order he was confused. So, I threw the paper and started to perform a quite hard interview with him with my own questions. He gave me some real good answers after some guidance, and they sounded much better than the standard replies he was provided with.
I met his parents after the lesson and he seemed quite happy with the past 2 hours. His mother thanked me I don't know how many times. They asked me if I could teach him for another 2 hours on the day before the interview and I accepted. It was the same day as my ordinary class but a few hours earlier. I spent the gap shopping so it was perfect. Our office is located in the center on Ningbo.
His parents drove me home in their brand new Audi S8 after both sessions, which is much better than the taxis' here, and fortunately not faster.

He called me last Saturday just after the test and interview to tell me how it went. He said that the writing was very easy but the interview was a bit tricky. All in all he was happy with his performance. I was very pleased to hear it. I was also very happy that he called to let me know.

Mayday

I woke up from a nice dream about one hour ago, at 06:00. I dreamed that I was photographing a sports event in a stadium and my pictures were marvelous! Of course, I woke up empty handed but at least I had some inspiration. I decided to go out for a walk. It would be nice with a shower or a bath, but I lack a bathtub and I do not want to wake up my 'wife' Simon with water-pipe music. Even though I only had 5 hours of sleep I feel like a million bucks today. 06:20 outside I was met by bird-songs and pleasant fragrance from unknown flowers. The birds sounds nothing like home, but then again; neither do the people here. The sun was already high on the sky filling the campus with light. I grabbed my camera and started a walk around the lake located in the area. There were no wind at all so the reflections on the surface were really great so I had a few good pictures. Posting a sample below.
Main library building


I was surprised to see how many students that were active at this time of day. Guess that many are heading for their homes in other cities. Today is a holiday, labor day, and most people are having 3 days off. The Chinese call it May day. Hmm...May day. Makes sense now when I write it. People have been talking about "mayday" for a few days now and I was wondering if they were in some kind of distress.
Anyway, I was glad to see that the food stands were already open because it was time for breakfast. I went to a hole in the wall that serves some kind of pancake. You can fill it with different ingredients, and I chose egg, leek, tea-leaves and some kind of tortilla. A pretty good meal for only 2.5 Yuan (~2.5 SEK).

I love working in the morning and now I really need it. Got tons of things to do. The fragrance of fresh coffee has already filled the room, but I will move the laptop to the balcony. It is a good morning!

Cloud connected

Yesterday started much better than it ended. We celebrated Viyaleta's birthday at a nightclub located in Lao wai tan. The party was great, but I had way to much to drink, way over my limit. Armin and I drank a few beers at my place before we hit Bass clef for more drinking. We were in a hurry because of the party but managed to sink 3 beers in less than 30 minutes. Was only going to have one beer but the manager insisted and treated me more. Not a very good start, especially since I have not eaten anything since lunch. The evening was fun, but somehow I ended up having a discussion with a dear friend that did not end so well. I did not want to have this discussion but I think I was the one who started it. Mixing alcohol and emotions can be a dangerous combination. The worst thing is I have no memory of what was said during the evening because I was to drunk, but I remember feeling shocked afterwards. Therefore the day today was filled with agony and feeling very bad physically and emotionally. So now I am writing it off me. For some reason I seem to express myself better in written words than spoken ones. I don't know what happened to me yesterday, but I have been storing lots of stress and emotions inside me for the past time and I think the bauble burst. Can't say that I feel better today though. I hope it has not affected my friendship with her. First think, then drink.

As I wrote, the day yesterday started good and the whole afternoon was filled with laughter. Armin and I took a walk towards Wanda Plaza with the cameras, mostly just to have a walk. On the way there we passed a huge hotel building which we photographed like many times before. Armin had the idea that we could enter the building and take some pictures from the top floor, if we could get the permission. We decided to give it a try so we entered the hotel and walk up to the reception after passing an uniformed man who welcomed us. The woman in the reception did not seem to understand our business so she called the hotel manager. The manager arrived within one minute. He was a bit taller than an average Chinese and his appearance was irreproachable with a perfect shave and a dark suite. He introduced himself and he offered escort to the sky restaurant located in the 52:th floor of the building. We could really feel the pressure-difference while we ascended 52 floors in 34 seconds and I was a bit worried about my aching lung. The restaurant wasn't what we expected. It contained several dining rooms for private dining, and not a larger hall. We entered one of the rooms and were first impressed by the decor and then stunned by the amazing view. The sight was very good this day and watching Ningbo from the blue sky was a mighty experience. We felt cloud connected.

A quite tall woman in a traditional red Chinese dress with a slits that reached all the way to her waist entered the room. With a face like a goddess and a body from hell she managed to diverse our attention from the view to what might be the most beautiful Chinese woman I have met so far. She introduced herself as Sabrina and I think she was some kind of boss for the hosting service. The question about our business in the hotel came up, and I felt really silly about the photographing now when more people were involved, so I told her that we are hosting a dinner party and were looking for a suitable facility. She guided us around the floor and we followed with the cameras like Japanese tourists visiting Disneyland. Each room were more beautiful than the other with the crystal chandeliers 7m up in the air. It was interesting to see the table setup with exclusive chopsticks instead of knives and forks.

The tour continued to a function hall. We were escorted by both Sabrina and the manager during the whole tour and we kept the conversation going about the "dinner party". We had to wait for about 5 minutes in the hall until a woman from the staff turned on the lightning for us. The beautiful lights were made of seashells. I can not even guess how much  they cost to be manufactured. Sabrina told us that the hotel is not a 5 star hotel. It is a 5 star deluxe hotel. I believe her. The building was finished 6 years ago but the hotel opened 24 days ago. I am guessing that is a long time for preparing a hotel.
We took a glass elevator down to the lobby. I always wanted to take a ride in a glass elevator in a 5 star 'deluxe' hotel. Down in the lobby they followed us to the entrance where we said good bye, after receiving Sabrinas business card. I accepted the card in the correct Chinese way by the book, just as we have been taught. With both hands, look at the card, memorize the name and repeat it loud to show that you know it. Out in the street we were giggling like schoolgirls, still a bit amazed by what we have just experienced.

Armin with the manager

Sabrina in the function hall

Lighting made of seashells

Glass elevator

Hi, my name is Kerry

Right now I have to much to do. More than I can handle really, and that is why I have no time to update the blog. I am doing it now because I find it relaxing and I've noticed that my blog has some readers. Thanks for reading by the way! I really do appreciate it. Near loved ones got a bit worried that I have been away for a couple of days now. Sorry for making you worried, but I have been and am still very stressed and busy. But, I am also having the time of my life!

We meet many interesting people here almost every day and I have received many business cards. I have understood that these cards are quite important to have here for a foreigner, even if you don't do any business. Armin and I decided to print a bunch of cards. Even if I like a clean card I wanted some symbol on it. Ruru picked bamboo for me because in China it symbolizes honesty and rightness. When I told my friend Jonas about this he said "two attributes that suites you well!". Thanks Jonas, it really made me happy! Here is a pic of the result:

The name on the card says Han Kai Rui, which is my Chinese name, and is pronounced Han Kerry. Han is the surname and refers to my Swedish surname Hansson. I changed it from Lee to Han recently.

"Excuse me, can I have a photo taken with you?" is a common question

This Friday Armin, Emilie, Vincent, Helen, Charles and I went to a school to hold a presentation due to a request from James, our student coordinator. The school is teaching English to Chinese businessmen, students and others. As always we were informed with a very short notice so it was very stressful to assemble information and create presentations about European economy and culture. Celine, Emilie and Vincent did a great job doing this. I was part of it but can't say I provided much, my head was to slow that afternoon and felt useless and I hate doing a bad job. Anyway, we were picked up by a guy named Echo and he drove us to the school in a brand new Jeep. Vincent and I held the presentations for the audience of about 25 Chinese people with different backgrounds. Vincent did a great job as always. He presented 90% of the information himself. I got a bit stressed when I noticed that the audience did not pay much attention to us so I thought it seemed like a waste of time. During the talk afterwards I understood that it was because of their poor knowledge of the English language. They simply did not understand what we were talking about. I really did enjoy the discussions afterwards and a girl even offered me a part time job. Will find out more about it tomorrow but it seems interesting and the pay is extremely good. I really need the money because I am probably going to Greece this summer and the plan is to visit Tibet before that.

When we finished the job James drove us down town to what he said was going to be a party. He assured us that he had no idea what was going on, but in fact he planned the whole evening him self. The cars rolled up in front a huge karaoke-bar and we were shown into a nice room. On a table inside the room we found lots of beer, wine, snacks and many different types of fruit. This was mostly welcome because we had no food since lunch and the time was about 20:00. It was so nice to enjoy the flavors of dragon fruit, litchi and watermelon along with a glass of red wine mixed with sprite. Yes I know, it sounds awful but it was not to bad, in fact it was kind of refreshing. The night went on and we played games, drank, ate and had a good time. A few hours later we started so sing karaoke. I just had to participate in a few Abba songs, and "Somebody told me" by The Killers will never sound the same again. After loosing a round in a dice game I had to taste duck tongue as punishment. I know, it sounds terrible but it was OK. The taste was not too bad but the consistence was not inviting at all. After a few hours we were served typical Chinese food such as dumplings and a soup. Oh I love the dumplings! We had a great time until about 02:00 AM when it was time to head home. It is not that late to be China. Most parties starts around 23-00,  but we were exhausted because of the intensive day and partying the night before.

Need to run. We are having a cooking session in 15 minutes. I have been whining about learning Chinese cooking since I arrived here, and now Helen and Linh fixed a cook who teaches us a new dish every week. This will be the second time today. I don't really have the time for it but my stay in China should not be all about work and study. Will probably brief you about the sessions in a post further on.

Tomorrow I will have a meeting to check out the job offer I got this weekend. Update will follow when I know more.

The plans for today and more

Good morning Europe and good day China!

The afternoon's lecture was canceled and we do not complain. The weather is beautiful and it was a long time ago since I saw such a blue sky. To good to spend the afternoon inside a classroom. I must study really, but I will skip it at head down town for shopping clothes with Armin. We are also in the need of a tailor's skills because Armins pants has a couple of extra holes and my pair is too long. The tailor charges 3 RMB per pants so it is really cheap, but usually we pay her extra for the good work.

The tailor and Hong Wan Peng, a friendly local

If there is time enough we will try a local tea house along with some of the other foreigners, and after that we will most probably go to a club for some drinks. Andy, a new Chinese friend will show us some places. I have been  to a few bars for foreigners but I do not really like it. I can visit such places at home and I really do want to connect with the Chinese people.

The past week has been filled with studies, studies and studies. I had an examination this Wednesday in Statistical methods and I think it went OK. There will be another re-exam in one month if I fail this one, and it will not be a problem. Due to all studies I put the blog on low priority as you may understand.
I will dedicate this weekend to fun activities, I could really use that now. Just working makes me a bit dull.
And oh! I got a job offer  from the international student coordinator which I accepted. The job is about teaching English to the local police officers during evenings. That can be challenging and fun! I can also learn something from it and the pay is really good. A full time English teacher can earn about 10 000 RMB a month. Compare that with a normal salary of 3000 RMB/month. China lacks of such teachers and the demand is very high. Some classmates teaches English to kids and are payed 200 RMB/hour.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend! Hopefully I will update the blog with new happenings, but have lots of catching up to do as well about old events. More things happens than I have time to write about. No complaining here, I love it!

Just for the show

I am not going to write anything interesting, I just wanted to show you how things are looking on my balcony now(08:03 CET). We have 29°C at the moment and it feels just wonderful, but I must study. Then I got the brilliant idea of moving my job out to the balcony. Imagine sunny 29°C, the fragrance of newly cut grass and a cold drink... This is how it may look like:

Tomorrow is a good day for purchasing real furnitures for the balcony.

Also, Simon took this picture while we were having lunch earlier today.

Taxi ride down town

I don't have that much time to write today but I need to update the blog with something. Yesterday my friend Armin and I took a taxi to Tiyanyi square down town of Ningbo for shopping. The plan was to buy a camera support for my Nikon, but we ended up with lots of clothes instead after 6 hours of shopping. Armin filmed the ride with my camera, and here is a short sample:


It was good to have Armin as my wingman during the shopping. He showed me different styles and I bought clothes that I am not used to wear. I am very much enjoying my new style and I do not think that my friends in Sweden would recognize me if they saw me now. It is amazing how you can surprise yourself. I must  upload a few pictures later.

A very exciting thing happened today. Armin and I were interviewed by Chinese TV and newspaper and it was shown on the 18:00 news. I will post the whole story tomorrow when the TV-station uploads the clip on their website. I must say it was kind of cool to be subtitled on Chinese TV :-)

Flavor of the week

Last week I wrote about a bag of blueberry crisps that I bought. This week is dedicated to the flavor of cucumber. How does it taste? Not to bad really. Like ordinary potato crisps but with the fresh taste of cucumber. I give it 4/5 toasts. But then again, I like almost everything here. But I am becoming tired of tofu. I do not think I can ever get used to the smell when it is being cooked.

What else is new? Today is my first class in Taiji. I am not sure if it is the traditional 'Tai chi' or the Kung Fu. Does not matter how many times I've asked about the difference, the only answer I get is "yes". For this event and for other sport activities, I went to the mall on the lunch break to buy a pair of running shoes. I found a pair of very comfortable shoes for the humble price of 129 RMB. 

The day started at 08:00 with International Business. The professor of this course speaks excellent English, which is very rare for this country. She is also very effective. What she manages  to teach us in one days is about the same as we learned in 3 days back home, so it is quite intense. We also have this teacher in Chinese Economy and International Trade Operations. However, I will change the last mentioned course to International Management, since there isn't much new for me to learn. Management will hopefully be more valuable. On the schedule for the rest of the day was Chinese intensive writing and speaking/listening. Quite hard but we learned a lot today.

I was planning to write about the trip to Hangzhou but I am leaving that to another time. You will need to satisfy with the pictures for now. I will start to write about Chinese culture, girls, food etc, but there is so much to write about along with many activities besides that. Mingtien jìan! (See you tomorrow)

Slightly disappointed

During our trip to Hangzhou yesterday I received a call from a Swede called Robert. He asked me if I wanted to act guest speaker at some seminar today. It may seem like a short notice but we talked about it one week ago. The subject I was going to talk about is connected to my thesis, attitudes about safety and cultural awareness. The audience is a mix of Swedish students, Chinese professors and professionals from the logistic industry, a total amount of about 40 people. A presentation in English felt like a challenge and an opportunity to learn something, so I accepted. Of course I felt a bit nervous right after the call because I must prepare some material and find a way how to angle it so it would suite the listeners. For this I only had a limited amount of time. We still had a few hours before arrival back in Ningbo, and I was suppose to get ready by 8-9 in the morning next day. Not very much time for a presentation of 30-60 minutes + questions. For this they would compensate me with 500 RMB, an sum that some Chinese earns in a week.

I fell asleep almost instantly when we got back home, around 22:30. The next morning, today, I woke up early and made lots of coffee. This is the 4:th night in a row without enough sleep.
They did not call me until 12:15 and I was told to get ready. Apparently some other speakers at the seminar talked a bit to long, but they had a spot for me at 15:00 at the latest. By now I had lots of time to prepare. I must say that I was very happy with my long power point presentation. It felt professional and I think it could deliver my message in a good way with interesting statistics and some minor humor. My approach was partly to compare culture of work in China with Sweden, since the audience was mainly presented by these two countries.
My nervosity began slowly to ease, because I was very satisfied with my preparations. I even had some time to rehearsal by myself. I was ready! Then the phone rang again, and the voice in the other end of the line told me that my presentation had to be canceled. Apparently, a Chinese professor changed his mind and were suppose to talk about something after all. I know that things changes fast in China so this did not come as a surprise. I totally understand that a Chinese professor is more interesting to listen at than me.

I am not that disappointed, I was just so prepared and felt very confident. This presentation would be a way to test my self in skills of performance. The plan was to film the event with my camera for later review and self improvement. They felt sorry and will compensate me for the time wasted. I told them that it was not wasted. I learned a lot from preparing the preparation so I am not left empty handed.

Enough whining. Today is a very nice day although it's a bit wet, but the fragrance of summer rain is nice. Simon took a sneaky picture of Viyaleta and me when we had lunch on the grass two days ago. I think the picture has a lot of summer in it so I will publish it here.

An oh, I will write some more information about the trip to Hangzhou later or tomorrow. Meanwhile you can have a look at the pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=210411&id=692125169&l=4a9fac0529

Go out and play?

First I want to tell Susanne; no hard feelings, it is OK to call me at 01:40 as long as you have good news to share :-)
It may look like I am online on Skype but I am not. It just appears that way because incoming calls are forwarded to my cellphone if I don't answer within 10 seconds. But please, feel free to call me, just bare in mind that my local time is CET+7 or UTC+8.
Congratulations once again, honey! I hate to say it; but I told you so. We will be in the same business if everything works out well!

The weather outside is absolutely wonderful! People are extra happy today, the birds are singing and the campus is filled with gardeners who makes the beautiful surroundings ready for summer. You can really feel it!
So what am I doing? I am sitting in the apartment being a good student, and that makes me a bit dull. I do want to go out and play! My face could use some sunshine right now, although being a bit pale is considered to be attractive here.

Here are two photos of my living room view:

I must continue with my studies. At 19:00 (in 2.5h) I will most probably meet up with my friends for a dinner and then go bowling, depends on how the next 2 hours goes. I have never tried that before and I am really looking forward to it. The camera will be joining me for documentation. For the next 3 days I will bring it where ever I go because the weather allows it.