Settling Down

This past week we have begun settling down into our new lives here in China. We have been picking up a little more Chinese and are better able to get around town and accomplish the mundane things in life. Much of the useful information has been gleaned off of T.C., the fellow American in Chungzuo who has been living here for 4 years and has a very helpful wife named Xue Chan. Because T.C. is western he knows what we are looking for and knows the best places to eat, the best places to buy things, how to work the TV, and other enigmas of the area. Below is a photograph of Chungzuo city center called “Jiangzuo.” The population has tripled in the past four years leading to massive apartment buildings being built yet there are still little farm plots spread throughout the city.

Back at our University I find my teaching is a little repetitive. I teach the same lesson 11 times every week. This week I taught my 500+ students how to make phone calls in English. At the end of the class I taught them an American pop song called “Telephone” by Lady Gaga. I never liked the song and I liked it less and less every time I heard it. But I actually really enjoy teaching. I think I get a laugh out of the class about every 2 or 3 minutes. Here is a photo of Fiona and I standing in front of the school entrance.
We have also been pretty physically active – playing badminton, basket ball, ping pong, and running track. The Chinese are very good at basket ball and ping pong but seem to have never considered running for the sake of running. Every other Friday and Saturday nights are “Dance Parties” where the students practice dances like the Cha Cha and Waltzes. This week Fiona taught the students Popcorn, the Hokey Pokey, the Chicken Dance, the Cupid Shuffle, and the Cha Cha Slide.

Everyone had a great time.

One day we hiked up the local peak which turned out to be more treacherous that I would have expected. The native limestone rocks formed knife-like edges and the thorny plants proved exceedingly inhospitable. But the view from the peak made it all worth it. Below is a photo of Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities (right) and the new development of Chungzuo (left). All the roads and buildings in the panorama are brand new.

Right click and open the picture in another window to get the real panoramic effect.


On Saturday we got up at 6am to take the 2 hour train ride to Nanning. From our train car we saw the beautiful agricultural countryside amidst the hilly karst topography.

Nanning is city of 3 million people and is the capital of Guangxi Province which makes it very crowded and chaotic.

But we were guided through the city by three of our clever students: Bruce, Jeremy, and William.



Nanning has many western amenities including American fast food, Wal-Mart, and most importantly cheese.

We picked up enough cheese and pasta sauce to last us a month. Every company that is thought of as cheap in the United States is considered classy in China. Wal-Mart is akin to a Safeway, Pizza Hut has waiters, and while the prices at these places are a little cheaper than in the United States they seem like a rip off in China.


The Chinese are very fond of high fashion runway shows. Every weekend there is a fashion show right outside of the Wal-Mart. This week the theme was “wedding dresses” and we watched for about 10 minutes as the never ending procession of models paraded down the runway in their poufy attire.

Sunday we bought a second-hand gasoline powered scooter for about 150 bucks.

It only has about 2,000 miles on it and is in good condition. We now can get into town without having to pay or deal with the rickshaw drivers. It will save us money especially considering that we probably can sell it for about the same as we paid for it. We also will be able to freely explore the surrounding area yielding great photos and better blog posts!
-George