It's been raining for days, I don't have to teach today and I am currently not motivated enough to try and study some Chinese so I thought I'd take a second and briefly introduce the other English teachers that are here. Sean and I feel really lucky that all of the other guys here are really cool, fun and easy to get along with.

Ken hails from the great state of Iowa but went to school in Tulsa where he studied economics and Spanish. He's studied abroad in Spain when he was an undergraduate and can speak Spanish (he's also getting pretty good at Chinese). He was here teaching English last year as well and has been a big help and a great resource for us. Ken is always entertaining to be around and his most recent exploit has been to start a beer club on campus in which the culture of beer is discussed and new types are sampled bi-weekly. His blog is listed as "Ken's blog" if you want to read more about what he has to say.


Daniel has also been here for a year already and is from Washington D.C. He went to school in Madison, Wisconsin where he studied creative writing. Daniel has done a lot of traveling in his life and has lived in Australia and Belgium with his family. He is always up for planning a new trip or adventure somewhere and trying out new bars and restaurants in the city (our most recent experiment was a Brazilian restaurant where they constantly brought different grilled meats to the table - delicious). I have heard Ken call Daniel a "renaissance man" because he knows a lot about a lot of things especially history, literature, current movies and books and pop culture. If you want to read more about his experience check out "Please don't run over me."


Peter is from North Carolina and went to school there as well. I think he studied philosophy or religion and German, but I am not sure. He can speak German and he speaks Chinese well. Peter has been teaching at a different school in China through CIEE for the past six months but decided to switch to this school for the rest of his contract. We are glad he switched because he's really fun to hang out with and is quite the dancer. The students are fascinated with his blond hair and I always have students who want to talk about how he looks like a "pop star" or how he is the identical twin of Michael Schofield from the show Prison Break (when he had shaved his head). If you want to read Peter's blog it is called "The world is polygonal."

Jordan is new to living in China and teaching English just like Sean and I. He was in our orientation with CIEE and came to this school with us. Jordan is from Lake Tahoe in California and is finishing up his masters degree in psychology. He decided to come to China because he wanted to do something different. He is into art and has studied a type of Chinese martial arts before he came here. He used to be my neighbor in the neighborhood of the villas but has since moved to the hotel for some better accommodations. Jordan is really easy-going and the students adore him (especially the girls).

So that's the group of English teachers at Jiangsu Teachers University of Technology. It is really nice to have a group of Americans to hang out with and travel together. Everyone is curious, adventurous, intelligent and funny which makes for a fun time when we get together.

*Ken, Daniel, Peter and Jordan - sorry if I didn't get your details right, I tried my best!

2 comments

1. Chen on November 12, 2009 at 9:35 PM

   I like your hairstyle in the last photo. Your hair look so great~~~

    
2. bob davis on November 14, 2009 at 2:08 PM

   thanks so much for this blog. we couldn't get to meet everyone when we traveled in china, so it's great to learn more.