"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade." -Charles Dickens


I thought of this quote today because we finally got a taste of spring; it felt great outside in the sun and I ate my lunch and wrote some letters on the steps of my front porch.


I definitely took the warm weather in Thailand for granted after awhile and I am missing it now as I huddle up next to my heater wearing slippers and wrapped in a blanket.


Day two in Khao Sok National Park involved floating raft houses and caves. Sean and I joined a group tour for the day and were really lucky to be with a fun group of people. We started the day with a longtail boat ride across the lake which allowed for more views of incredible limestone cliffs that stuck dramatically out of the water. We arrived at the floating raft houses and had time for swimming which was a lot of fun. The floating raft houses are just like what they sound - small bungalows made out of reeds, sticks and bamboo that float on the lake. You can stay overnight there and we really wanted to but we didn't have time. There was even a homemade diving board made out of bamboo that everyone enjoyed launching themselves off of and into the lake. After swimming and exploring the raft houses we had lunch (sweet and sour chicken with vegetables, omelets, fruit and rice) and then we loaded up once more into the longtail boat and headed to the main cave of the park.


To get to the cave was about a two hour trek in the jungle and on the way we saw a lot of interesting (and quite big) insects, bamboo and gigantic trees. The opening and the inside of the cave was huge at the beginning but got narrower and narrower. While we walked we could see impressive and varied formations and towering stalactites and stalagmites. We had been instructed to wear sturdy shoes and clothes that could get wet and we all quickly realized why. In many parts of the cave we had to wade in waist-high water with a fast current. In other parts we actually had to swim through huge and deep passages while holding on to a rope. As if swimming in almost-complete-darkness through freezing water with a fast current when you can't touch the bottom wasn't unnerving enough, the guides were always pointing out new creatures they found like blind catfish, cave toads, bats, and ridiculously huge spiders. I don't think I have ever seen Sean swim as fast as he did through that cave.


After finishing our cave tour and hiking back to the boat, we returned to the floating houses to snack on some exotic fruits. Then we took the boat back to the pier where Sean and I caught an overnight bus to Bangkok so we could be back in time for the ultimate frisbee tournament. It was kind of a rushed tour of Khao Sok National Park and though we saw most of the highlights, I wish we could have stayed longer and enjoyed some more hikes and the peace that the park offered in comparison to the crowded and very touristy beaches.

I think I'll alternate between posting about what's going on in Changzhou currently and what happened on vacation - I hope that is not too confusing.

Currently it is Tuesday night and like the title claims, I have already taught 3 of the 4 classes that I need to teach this week. My 3 classes so far have been " The Society and Culture of English-Speaking Countries" and the first classes went ok. The students are mostly female, sophomore English majors who happen to still be completely enamored with their previous foreign teachers, Peter and Dave. It is pretty funny - they ask me all the time if I know them and if I think they are attractive. In my Monday 8:00 class I have 33 students, in my 2:00 class I have 35 and in my 10:00 class today I had 37. I think this class will be more of a challenge for me to teach and maybe not quite as much fun as oral English. For one thing, I don't really know that much about the society and culture of England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. And for another thing, I have never really had a class where I have had to lecture before. I am going to try to make it as fun and interactive as I can, but it is still going to be a big switch from teaching conversational English. The other thing to get used to is the classrooms. Now all of my classrooms have media/technology and are held in larger auditoriums with multiple chalkboards that can be rolled up and down. Considering I always had issues with using technology at OSU when all of the buttons were in English, I am a little apprehensive of how using media is going to go here.

I always get nervous before the first day of class, but really, first days are the most fun and easy days out of the whole semester. Before class I had written some different words on the board that in some way or another referred to an English-Speaking country (i.e. baseball, 2010 winter Olympics, the Beatles, the Great Barrier Reef etc.) and after going over what everything was, I asked the students why they thought I had written those things down. They had obviously figured out by now that everything related to the title of the course. Then we broke into groups and discussed some of the main points one might look at when studying major English-speaking countries. Their top picks where: history, music, fashion, places to visit, food, famous people and sports. Finally, we had a competition to see which group could think of the most countries that used English as an official language. We finished the first hour with a partner guessing game using some of the main information of the major English-speaking countries.

In the second part of the class I went over the format, grading and rules of the course and then introduced myself. I showed maps and pictures of Michigan along with pictures of my family and friends back home. Then I let them ask me any question they wanted. In comparison to the freshmen, the sophomores were a lot bolder and were mainly interested in my political opinions, boys, my love life and my college life. Here are some of my favorites:

"Do you like the food in China? What's your favorite?"
"How many Disney parks are there in America? Have you ever gone?"
"How many Chinese words can you speak?"
"Do you mind telling us your life goal?"
"Can you tell me something about American life? Is it nearly the same as the TV show 'Friends'?"
"I want to know the college life in USA? If they don't want to enter to college, what will they do?"
"Can I become your friend?"
"How do you think about Chinese boys?"
"Do you like our class so far?"
"Have you ever dissected the frogs? What did you feel at that time?"
"Do you have boyfriend?"
"What food does American eat every day?"
"Who do you think is the most handsome man among foreign teachers? Peter?"
"Which country do you like better USA or China?"
"What do you think about Obama?"
"Your hair is very beautiful, is it nature?"
"Do you have any Chinese friends yet? Who?"
"How many countries have you traveled?"
"What's your habit?"
"What's your attitude that the USA sell weapons to Taiwan?"
"As an American, what's your attitude to China?"
"We want to know your love stories"
"Do you like Chinese boys?"
"What do you think of Chinese men? Are you willing to get married with a Chinese man?"
"What's your attitude to Taiwan?"

After answering their questions we talked a little about symbols that represent ourselves and our countries. They explained what the Chinese flag meant and I went over the meaning of the American flag. Then I drew a flag on the board that represented me and included pictures of different things that are important to my life. For the rest of the class, the students worked on making their own personal flags as well and then explained what they meant to the class. It was really fun and some of the drawings were pretty hilarious. I found the idea online here if you want to try it in your class.

It was really cold teaching today and I am trying to get over a cold so I spent the rest of the day napping, watching movies and drinking tea. It's nice to be back on campus where I can enjoy a custom-made hot soup for 60 cents and a milk tea for 30 cents.

After weeks of beaches, Sean was ready to head north. I am the type of person that can hang out at beaches indefinitely, but there is so much to see and do in Thailand that I readily acquiesced and we planned a trip to Khao Sok National Park for the following day. Khao Sok is known for limestone cliffs, lakes, caves and amazing jungles. Lonely Planet says "The Khao Sok rainforest is a remnant of a 160-million-year-old forest ecosystem that is believed to be much older and richer than the forests of the Amazon and central Africa." But all of those reasons were not why we wanted to visit this national park, we wanted to go to see the rare Rafflesia flower, the largest flower in the world. Not only is it the largest flower in the world, but when it blooms it emits a stench of rotting flesh that attracts pollinating insects (its name means "meat flower" or "corpse flower". Cool, right?! The only not-so-cool aspect of the park was the guidebook warning to take heed of the numerous blood-sucking leeches - not casual advice one typically likes to hear.

After a lovely little breakfast in Krabi town, we took a long van ride north to the park and after securing accommodations in jungle huts (with special monkey-proof doors and windows) we arranged a guide to take us to see the flowers. Unless you know where you are going, finding the flowers by yourself can be tough (even if you do have a knack for sniffing out carrion on your own) because the park is so big, there are not many flowers, and they only stay in bloom for about a week (read: you're going to be lucky if you can see a flower in bloom at all). When we reached the trailhead, we encountered a group of three men who had just come from seeing the flowers. They were drenched in sweat and carrying several empty two-litre water bottles. They warned that it was a long, intense and straight-uphill climb. My sore muscles from climbing the day before were not jumping up and down upon hearing this, but we were up to the challenge.

About 3 hours later of straight uphill climbing, after my heart rate had reached levels that I had never dreamed possible, sweat was pouring off of me and I was inhaling mosquitoes by the mouthful, we reached the flowers. They were so neat to look at! They were huge, red and cartoonish-looking; they looked like something out of the Flintsones or the Land Before Time. We got to see many other flowers in different stages of their life cycle including dead ones and those about to bloom.

But after about 10 minutes of looking at the flowers and taking pictures of them, our guide, who I swear is part gazelle, urged us back as it was getting dark and there had apparently been some large cat and bear sightings as of late. Whether this is true or if the guide just wanted to get back quickly for dinner, I will never know, but our returning pace was brutal in comparison to the climb up which was already fast enough for me. Combined with the oncoming darkness, the steep cliffs, and the perceived noises of tigers loping right behind me, I was ready to be out of the jungle. We only stopped to rest when our guide pointed out some gibbons, smallish apes, swinging around the trees at dusk. When we finished the hike, I was really glad to be done but also really happy that we were able to see the flowers in bloom. I was only a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the park's other rare animal, barking deer.

This last picture shows some flowers about to bloom (brown balls) and the aftermath of a flower that just bloomed (gray mass upper right corner)

It's good to be 'home' again! Whew and what a trip home it was. After the day-long border crossing from Hanoi in Vietnam to Nanning in South China on a bus we stopped off at the train station to buy tickets back to Shanghai. After exhausting my already pathetic Chinese skills in trying to order tickets, I finally gave up and after calling Teddy I just handed the phone to the agent to let him translate for us. Sigh. So much of learning a new language is re-learning how to feel frustrated, humbled, inadequate and stupid all of the time.

We finally got tickets for a soft-sleeper to Shanghai that was leaving in two days (you can't really get tickets in advance in China if you are not already in the city so trains often fill up). We found a place to stay and spent that night and the next day exploring Nanning. We left for Shanghai early Thursday morning and reached Shanghai 34 hours later. Don't get me wrong, I like trains and all, but 34 hours is a long time to be on one. In Shanghai we had to get tickets again to Changzhou and since almost everything was sold out so we had to take a slow train that got us home 3 hours later.


The weather here is so cold and it was a shock coming from the warm, humid and sunny climates of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Yesterday morning it was sleeting and in the afternoon it turned to snow! We spent the day unpacking, relaxing and chatting with Teddy, Steve and Ken who stopped by to welcome us home. Later that night all of us (Daniel, Jordan, Sean, Ken, Qin Chen, Zhao Min, Zhen Zhen and Teddy) went out for hot pot (basically over-sized fondue) and then out for beers at the Euro Bar. It was really fun listening to what the others did on their vacations and hearing the stories and adventures from the other teachers' trips.

Today is Sunday and I have been on Skype a lot but am also trying to think about what I am going to do this week in class. All of us teachers got really lucky and have hardly any hours this semester. I am teaching a total of 4 classes which amounts to 8 hours a week. I have 3 sophomore classes of "An Introduction to English-Speaking Countries" which is basically a culture class and another class called "Coventry" which prepares a small group of students to study abroad in England the following year. Sean has 4 classes of freshmen oral English and will probably have many of the same students he had last semester. In the meantime, we're all trying to figure out what we will do with all of our new free time.