My First Time Teaching in China: More Photos

Finally I can post those photos I mentioned in the last text post. Things are crazy here. Just finished marking all 150 of my English college exams and just under half of the students failed (less than 60% in China), which is fair since less than half of those students decided to never show up to my class. So of course they're not going to pass my exam. On top of this, there is a big cultural difference between China and the west when it comes to cheating and plagiarism. I made it very clear to them that cheating will not be tolerated during my exam but of course it was hard to enforce. There is a lot of pressure from the administration to pass as many students as possible despite their acknowledgement of the cheating going on which makes sense since the education industry is a very competitive business in China. Ultimately, though, I have the final say when it comes to these matters and even though most of them cheated, almost half failed anyway so I think it's perfectly fair.
Aside from work, my roommate and I have been planning to head to Qingdao on Monday morning to spend new year's eve with the all the other foreign teachers who booked rooms at a hostel there. We will probably stay until Wednesday afternoon or evening. We've never been before, so we are really excited and also just getting out of Weifang for a few days will be very welcome after a long few months of hard work.

Ilya all swanked out at the foreign language college Christmas party.

Ilya and I holding the fort just before my college English final examination.

Laurel and everyone partying it up on Christmas eve.

Not sure I remember what we were doing here tbh but it looks like we were having a good time.

Using static to keep my holiday decorations in place.

The calligraphy book I bought.

My (new) Chinese name! I totally forget how to interpret it already.

Maeva, a French teacher who lives three floors below us, performing at MBox, a local bar, a few months ago.

OOooohh that's how to read it.

Very helpful. This will come in handy in the future...

One of the Chinese teachers addressing everyone before the festivities began.

Pretty lights at the party.

Some of my favourite dishes at a dumpling restaurant near the university. From left to right; beef dumplings, a cabbage dish cooked with fish (center square dish), a raw garlic and vinegar sauce for dipping the dumplings into (bottom), and a popular egg and tomato dish.

There is a wall in one of the training schools that is covered with profiles of all the foreign teachers. Included is a picture I gave them and a Chinese version of my resume. Pretty nifty, eh?

The teacher wall.

A sea of ice a few days after the snowstorm that hit the city, just near the north entrance to the university. Since so many students walk over the snow, it becomes very icy and dangerous, but also pretty at night.

mmmm hot pot.

Some nights I like to go out and get food from the conveniently serviced outdoor mobile vendors that are so popular with the students. They can always be found here even in the cold. Here is a picture of two merchants cooking up some meat, lettuce, potato, and egg stuffed wraps. Delish.