I'm back!

Hello, lovely readers.  I am finally back to blogging after a pretty long absence.  This was due to a mysterious glitch on my laptop which prevented me from accessing my VPN provided by UBC.  I tried to uninstall and reinstall the service several times but then it just would not reinstall, I kept getting error messages.  This prevented me from accessing uncensored internet here for a pretty long time (a pretty frustrating situation as you can imagine...)
You may be wondering how I am able to get back on.  Well, this little problem of mine pushed me to take a look at some technological alternatives, and I ended up looking into finding other gadgets that might be able to install the UBC VPN service.  I tried using my iTouch, but it would not support the installation either.  At this point, I remembered that technological devices are incredibly cheap in price compared to what I'm used to in Canada.  For example, the iTouch (newest version!) that I bought here after losing my iPhone only cost 1,500 RMB, equal to about $215 CAD.  I started thinking, if the newest iTouch is this affordable, surely I should look into buying some kind of a Notebook Laptop computer.  It would serve as a backup from the current bulky laptop I have from Canada, not to mention far more convenient, and probably about the same price as a new iTouch would be.  There is a great place here called the technological market in Weifang that would be the place to go to check this out.  I had been there once but I did not know the name of the place in Chinese.  I played around on google translate and got a Chinese coworker to help me with the pronunciation (it's ke ji shi cheng).  A friend and I headed to the place a few days ago, and we looked around.  The place is HUGE, and they sell pretty much every kind of device you might ever want or need.  After spending a bit of time searching, we found the best deal: a Lenovo notebook that cost only 1,600 RMB.  I was right!  The price was so affordable.  Not only did it include this great new piece of machinery, it also came with a free attachable mouse, a slick and nice case that also doubles as a small shoulder bag, a mouse pad, and they even offer a warranty should the hardware malfunction.  It took them 2 days to install Windows XP because I demanded the English version and then I made them try to connect it to the internet before I gave them payment, which did not install properly the first time.  But they got it working eventually.  Now, here I am, enjoying my new purchase in the comfort of my apartment.  Works like a dream.
After getting back from Beijing, I've been super busy with work.  Here's how it works: I teach 4 college classes, a business class on Mondays, two listening classes on Tuesdays, and another listening one on Wednesdays.  Each class is 2 hours and takes place in the morning and all my students are in first year university.  My business students have far better English than students in my other classes (theirs is called speaking and listening).  Each class has anywhere from 25-50 students.  My business class consists of a lot more talking, presentations, and debates than my listening classes.
Thursdays and Fridays are my "weekends".  On Saturday mornings, I tutor a 15 year old for an hour and a half and we just talk about Canadian and Chinese differences in culture and customs most of the time.  In the afternoon, I teach a set of grade 4 students a class called "SuperKids".  A textbook and curriculum is provided so this class is easy and fun.  I have developed a system of awarding stickers to students in order to motivate them whenever they behave or learn something new.  When they receive 10 stickers, they can choose a prize.  They are highly competitive kids, which is good because it makes my job a lot easier to get them to learn the material I need to teach them.  On Sunday mornings, I teach a few middle school aged kids for about two hours and then I teach another two or three middle school aged kids for about forty minutes.  Usually, I make my students stand up one at a time and give an "oral presentation" such as show and tell or just have them tell me what their favourite music/movie/book is.  The point is to just get them talking about something in English.  Their English is quite high, higher than most of my first year college students in the listening classes.
They are very sharp kids.  We used to talk about small things, but they are keen to learn about politics and more contentious issues.  Yesterday, we talked about the Holocaust, but only because our conversation somehow took us there because one student brought it up (to my surprise).  The other kids did not learn about the Holocaust yet in school, so we spent the rest of the class talking about history and world cultures and religions.  
I was very impressed with them after that class, as you can imagine.  They are far more mature and open-minded than I might have expected.  I can now plan more stimulating lessons for them in the future.
I'm going to wrap up this post and then I'll make a new one on my trip to Beijing shortly.