Getting Out of the Bubble

We've now been in Yinchuan a few weeks and it's fair to say that it's been a roller-coaster. Coming to a new city and joining a new company is a steep learning curve, but one that I feel like I am adjusting to relatively well. The Drum and Bell Tower We've survived our first month of teaching and it's been pretty fun. The much smaller classes (from 50ish to max 18) are great, and getting to teach a larger range of ages has been interesting and at point surprising. Before coming to Aston I would have said that my preferred age group was the little ones, but the more I teach the higher level classes the more refreshing and rewarding I'm finding it. Teaching tiny kids is energetic, crazy and fun but they just don't have the same language skills let you get to know the kids in the same way that you can get to know the higher level students. Low level classes may be filled with games, screaming and the occasional tears but the higher levels have the...

The Forbidden Purple City, Hue After almost 3 months of travelling around China, Vietnam and Hong Kong we are now on our way back to China to start our new job and the next year of our life. It feels really good to be going back to China, and I'm really looking forward to having my own room and finally unpacking all my stuff again, but it also means coming back to reality and work. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to get to Yinchuan, meet our new friends for the next year, and to start teaching again but it is going to be a change of pace. For the last 10 weeks we've been working on our own schedule and pretty much doing what we like, when we like; and the freedom is fantastic! An Bang beach, Hoi An In Vietnam we wound our way down from Hanoi to Hoi An, via Hue and Da Nang, in a perfect combination of culture and relaxing beaches. Vietnam is a beautiful country and some of the beaches are truly stunning. In Hoi An we went to An Bang beach, supposedly o...