CHINA
Country Overview:
“Love the food, hate the government”
I arrived in China in May 2013 and left August 2020. I taught English for awhile, did my master’s of politics & foreign policy at Tsinghua University, worked for a year at China Today, and then two years at Xinhua News Agency. I spent most of my time in Beijing, but also traveled to Shanghai, Wuhan, Inner Mongolia, Shenzhen, Panjin, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Qingdao, Xi’an, Sanya, Macau, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Kids from my PK1 class, ages 3-4
Had a birthday party which explains the poorly made birthday hat that Michelle demanded she wear for the entirety of class. While Julie thought it was important to inform us every 10 minutes that she had a pink sticker on her forehead. And as for my man Pipi in the 1st picture, I have no idea.
Mickey thought he was the funniest kid putting stickers on his face
Dong Dong couldn’t quite get the hang of a foot roll up without a little assistance.
These are from my pk2 class, around age 5
Some kids don’t already have an English name so it’s up to the teacher to name them. Because of this, my school has kids named ‘Dinosaur’ 'Angry Bird’ 'Mickey’ & 'Brutus’. It’s ok for a 4 year old to be named 'Angry bird’ but when he’s 11, I’m not so sure.
At my school we do these things called ‘Outside Demos’, where we go to a public place, set up our stuff, then give 30 minute classes to whatever kids are there
Upon being asked to do this, I thought it was going to be super weird, but there were a bunch of kids and we had a good time. It’s amazing how trusting children are and how quickly you go from saying hello, to tickling them and lifting them over your head.
Smelly feet
I made a joke about a little girl’s feet smelling bad and of course, they thought it was hilarious so they all started raising their legs wanting me to smell their feet too.