A Quick Look at My Day-to-Day

The view of the Pearl River from my balcony at sunset - not bad!

Sorry for the delay, folks. Going to start getting into a better blogging habit, as I (foolishly, it seems) promised before I left for China.

It's hard to believe that this is my three-month mark. There's no way I've been in Guangzhou for three months already! No way that it's been even longer than that since I was last in Tampa! But the date is probably more reliable than my perception of time, so I'll trust it.

I certainly feel settled now, and have some semblance of a routine. My days off are Tuesday and Wednesday, for those looking for the best times to Skype with me, although I try to fill my days off with adventures around the city or much needed errands.

Mondays are my easiest days: just one class at the moment, of adorable four year olds, at 7pm. I often go in early to lesson plan and prepare for the week ahead, but they're always low-key days. I also only have one class on Thursdays, at 7pm, but we often have teacher meetings and trainings in the afternoon, so I have a few more obligations. Plus, some of the teachers at my center do a hip-hop dance class in the studio downstairs, so I'm usually at the school around noon to get my groove on (a hilarious experience that I wish I could share, but we all vowed to not take videos).

Fridays are the start of the weekend, aka the start to my busy days. Two classes, one at 5:30pm and one at 7pm. I usually go in early on Fridays to finish lesson planning for the weekend, and we also often have teacher trainings in the afternoon, so it's the kick off to my longer weekend hours.

A quick note: almost all of the classes at EF are co-taught, either with a local and a foreign teacher or two foreign teachers for the older, more advanced kids. The younger students meet twice a week for an hour each class, so I see my younger classes every week, but the older students I only teach every other week for two hours. This means I have a lot of variety in my schedule, which has its ups and downs. I like teaching the full range of ages and levels, but seeing kids more often would be nice because I would get to know them better. There are some classes I don't like as much, so I get to teach them less, but then I spend less time with the classes I do really like. Oh well.

Saturdays and Sundays are busy. There's no other way to describe it. Different days and weeks mean different schedules, but I have three or four classes each weekend day. The first class starts at 8:50am and the last one gets out at 6:10pm - long days. But everyone has a break from 12:15pm to 1:10pm, and again from 3:20pm to 4pm, and on days that I only have three classes my breaks are even longer between classes. Still, busy.

Who needs Panda Express? Chinese buffet places are
cheap and delicious, and only a little sketchy.

Most of the time we get lunch or dinner delivered to the center, since everywhere delivers (even McDonald's!). My lunch is rarely more than 20 kwai ($2.50), since I often order from the Chinese places instead of getting Western fast food. My favorite at the moment is the place we just call “the bowl place” (I don't think any of us know the Chinese name), which specializes in a big bowl of rice topped with meats and veggies. I often get the pork, tofu, celery, leek and pepper bowl, for 13 kwai ($2). Not bad!

I take the bus to work, and still haven't taken a taxi in China by myself (a fact that I'm quite proud of). There are 4 buses I can take to and from work, and the ride takes about 15 minutes and costs 2 kwai (35 cents). I could also take the metro, but that involves longer walks and a transfer between lines, so I only take it if it's heavily storming (to avoid the inevitable bad traffic) or if I'm heading to work from somewhere other than home.

I also have a gym membership, and try to go use their treadmills or spin bikes at least three times a week. Look forward to a post all about the gym, because the outfits people wear to the gym here deserve more than just a sentence or two.

So that's my day-to-day! Not too different from a day-to-day anywhere else, really, just in China. Feel free to ask any questions! And look forward to some posts soon about the best lobster soup in Reykjavik, the one thing I packed and now will never travel without, and the struggle to motivate yourself to explore a city that you consider home. And, of course, on the hilarious highlights of going to the gym in China!