An English Teacher in China: Easter in Bǎodìng (保定市)

Helen, Caleb, Me, Joanne, Dave & Julie

Once again I find myself falling behind in my regularly scheduled blog posts… Sorry about that, but there is just so much going on over here! So let me start off on my “catch-up” by talking about this past Easter holiday.

The IECS teachers were supposed to spend this Easter holiday in the city of Tianjin (天津Tiānjīn) but accommodations didn’t work out. Thus we ended up falling back to Hebei Finance University (河北金融学院 Héběi Jinróng Xùeyuàn) in the good city of Baoding (保定Bǎodìng). Team HFU was kind enough to open up their apartments to the lot of us and we squeezed the whole pack of Americans in nicely. Team Tianjin reminded the masters of ceremony and helped facilitate a great Easter celebration.

I was super excited to get to Boading to see two of our newest IECS teachers: Dave and Julie. Who are Dave and Julie? They are a wonderfully sweet couple from Maryland whom I had the privilege to work with back in the states. Before coming to China, I used to volunteer at an ESL (English as a Second Language) training center in West Friendship, MD. I spent almost two years as a volunteer English teacher at Chapelgate and that’s where I got to meet a bunch of really great people. Dave and Julie were two of the teachers at this great training center. Truth be told, it was Dave who originally invited me to come to China. So you can blame him for getting me over here!

The story goes that Dave and Julie had visited China through IECS for a number of English Weeks. (An English Week is a special two week excursion hosted by IECS that allows people to visit China and teach students.) English Weeks are a lot of fun and I highly recommend going... But, that’s beside the point. Anyway, Dave and Julie invited me to join them on last year’s English Week to China. We were supposed to go together to HFU but Newt, the previous IECS director, had other plans. Dave and Julie were sent to HFU but I was transferred to Langfang. I was sad at the time for the separation but how glad I am now that I was sent to Langfang. I simply fell in love with the college here in Langfang and the city. I ended up deciding to come back to China for the school year and Dave and Julie decided to come for the following spring term. They are here now and it’s great to see them.

Now, back to Easter… Easter at HFU was pretty laid back and we had a lot of spare time to find our own things to do. I spent most of my time with Dave, Julie, and their students. One of their students, Joanne, really enjoyed hanging around with us. Joanne is a smart little cookie with a great sense of humor. Her current hobby is reading English books on global economics and “Treasure Island.” (I enjoy the later better myself.) We played badminton, explored the campus, went shopping, cooked America style food, and watched movies together. It was pretty relaxing. Dave and Julie have a real passion for the students and you see how much the students love them in return.

I also got to spend the weekend with Frank, Helen, and Caleb. They are a Chinese family on staff with IECS. They help us with just about everything. They are such a great couple and they have the cutest little boy. Caleb is a little over two and he's a really smart cookie! Caleb calls me, "Shu Shu Ben" (叔叔 Shūshu), which means "Uncle Ben." I call him my "Chinese Little Buddy" in honor of my own nephew's nickname. Caleb and I are getting to the point where we can both say the names of animals in Chinese so we both have a lot in common.

The night before Easter, all of us went out to a great Italian restaurant named “Sophie’s” in the heart of the city. There we had some very delicious American style pizzas. I had a not so great salad that was more akin to ranch flavored cold slaw. Not bad for cold slaw but terrible for a Caesar salad. The next day, the Easter celebrations began. We did music in the morning and then Team Tianjin planned an Easter egg hunt for us using plastic eggs. The plastic eggs had prizes inside including candy and numbered tickets. The numbered tickets corresponded to much larger prizes; such as a 1 lbs. chocolate bunny… yum!

Most everyone left Sunday afternoon but I stayed around two more days to spend the time with Dave and Julie. I got to visit some of their classes and even play the class clown. Dave and I ended up teaching together it was just like the good old days back at Chapelgate. It’s a joy to teach with such great people and to teach such great students.

Happy “Belated” Easter!