Our last semester in China starts...

Teaching has started. Students have found their pencils and sharpened them thoroughly. And we are ready to continue what we started last semester. Or, at least we thought so.

Much remains the same, Red Cross teaching started again two weeks ago and Christian's school has started. Well, Tom's school has started as well. But the difference is that Christian has started teaching. And Tom is still waiting. Tom went home from Beijing two weeks ago and thought that his teaching would start the following Tuesday. But no, on the contrary. When he finally got to Yinchuan, his superiors tells him that teaching is not in another two weeks. Kind of a bummer when you have your family visiting and you could have stayed longer in Beijing.

Anyway, after having been in China for over half a year, you get used to "expect the unexpected". So instead of asking why, Tom decided to tell you about the changes made to his subject.

It seems now that Tom has the same amount of teaching. But what used to be two classes have now doubled. So Tom is going to teach two lessons a week in four different classes. And where he had students who were randomly chosen last semester, he now has all new students who had to apply for a seat. Big changes. But foreign teachers in China are really popular. So I guess they had to be made to make more people happy.

So now he is just preparing for next weeks lessons, and waiting eagerly to hold the white chalk again.

Enough about the teaching, today is Women's Day, worldwide. And we would like to congratulate all women, young and old. We would not have been here if it were not for you! Thank you all for giving this world more than we men could ever give.

Last thing, thanks to family members for coming to visit during our holidays. We really appreciated it, and promise to repay you with dish-washing when we return to Norway. =)

Two newly educated teachers on their way to China

Tom Christian (right) is a smiling and nice guy from Isfjorden in Romsdalen. He is 24 years old, interested in movies, reading and football. He is an educated teacher with English and Theatre as main subjects. His favourite teams are Fredrikstad FK and Liverpool FC, and he knows a lot about these teams. He is full of knowledge and loves to meet new people.

Christian (left) is a just as nice guy from the innermost part of Sognefjorden, Gaupne in Luster. He is just as old as the one mentioned above, and he loves to kayak and everything else that involves the nature. He has a bachelor's degree in Russian studies from the University of Tromsø, one year of Comparative Politics from the University of Bergen, and took Pedagogy last year at Sogn og Fjordane University College. He is hard working and loyal, and he misses his girlfriend a little bit as well.

This is our blog which we will use during our year in China. Due to a busy schedule during the introduction weeks the content of our blog will be quite limited. More will come eventually, and we hope you are patient and will visit our blog every now and then...

Best regards,
two good neighbours (in China)