Start to Spring Semester

Our school required us to be back in Hangzhou by Sunday, February 21^st for a teacher meeting. Spring semester classes didn’t start until Wednesday, but we still had to show our faces by the 21^st. That’s literally all the meeting was; we only talked for 10 minutes about a tentative schedule – they’d meet with us again later when it was set – and then we were free to leave.

Joanna told me that the teachers were supposed to be back in Hangzhou nearly a week before classes started for fall semester back in August. She skipped out on that meeting, and I guess since it was her second year here they cut her some slack. Basically these meetings only exist to check if teachers will show up for the upcoming semester; the school wants some lead time if a foreigner gets cold feet and the administration has to scramble to find a new teacher. Fortunately this one was only a few days before the start of spring semester; if I re-sign I ain’t coming back a week early from summer break!

Three of the foreign teachers left after fall semester – Robbie, the econ teacher, Todd, academic English, and Virginia, the dance instructor. Robbie seemed only to care about meeting local ladies; rare was a conversation without him mentioning them. He struck me as a stereotypical middle aged expat still chasing women. Todd was a bit younger (in his 30s), and although not obsessed with Chinese women, made few friends nonetheless. I never saw this first hand, but apparently students got lots of dirty joke material from his classes.

A ridiculous picture on our recruiting poster. Trevor's on the far left, and
moving along the top row is Joanna, Justin, Ralph, Tom, Robbie, and Steve.
On the bottom left (with the tie) is Todd, me, Justin G, and Virginia. We
look like a group of Jehova's Witnesses with our preacher Steve.

The only real loss from our staff was Virginia; although she and Genise (her husband) rarely went out, they got along well with the other teachers. Virginia did invite us to her place twice, and Genise played soccer with us on Sundays. Virginia’s contract was up and she had landed a job in Spain, her native country.

Virginia (right) opening Christmas gifts at Steve's place

And now the newbies: Sam, Aaron, and Tina. Sam, a Chinese-American with ties to Hong Kong, replaced Robbie as the economics teacher (I still haven’t figured out if he was born in Hong Kong or California, where he went to school). Sam is a quiet but overall friendly guy. He only went out with the group once, but hopefully I’ll see more of him this spring.

Aaron is from Canada and arrived in China around the same time as I did. He worked in Sapporo, Japan, for three years prior to arriving in Hangzhou. Aaron’s a talkative guy – sometimes too much – but overall he’s also friendly and a good step up from Todd. He initially moved to Hangzhou to be with his girlfriend, and early this semester they broke up. Whoops! She’s only just moved out of the apartment, so now he’s a free man (he’s since been hitting the online dating scene hard…hope he doesn’t turn into another Robbie!).

The last addition is Tina, our new Russian dance instructor. She already worked in Hangzhou for a year with her boyfriend. Actually she recently broke up as well – I wonder if our school has anything to do with these breakups! I didn’t mind the guy, although Ralph said he’d met the boyfriend last year (before Ralph knew Tina), and the guy came across as an asshole. Sounds like she’s better without him. Tina’s already gone out with us more than a few times, and she’s a nice addition to our crew.

Our new dance instructor Tina (left)

Aside from some new faces, spring semester started off similar to how the fall one ended – pretty boring. Since the application season is finished I have ample free time. I have worked more with recruiting for next school year, but overall my workload is light. I’ll use this time towards the end of the semester to update my blog!

Oh and just this past week we got a soccer/football coach from Scotland. In its attempt to boost China’s international soccer performance, the government is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into new facilities, coaching, player salaries, and youth training programs. Chinese government entities have invested in Manchester City football club, and with the partnership is an agreement to send coaches and trainers to China.

The football pitch needs work. It's hard to see here, but the grass has been worn down to dirt, and when
it rains it becomes a giant puddle.

We had a coach come in the fall, but after two weeks he was gone; he’d never been to Asia before and expected to be placed in Australia or the US, so this gig wasn’t the best fit. It’s also the first time to Asia for our new arrival, Robbie, but he seems more flexible. Let’s see if he can last longer!

Other than the new arrivals there’s not a lot of news. I traveled to Suzhou and Beijing on separate weekends; those were eventful trips, so I’ll leave them for posts of their own. It is hard to believe the semester is five weeks from over. Like I said, I have lots of time on my hands so now is as good a time as ever to get the blog updated!