Longhua Middle School 龙华中学

Longhua Zhongxue 龙华中学 was founded in 1956 and people like to brag that it's one of the "oldest schools in Shenzhen." This isn't entirely true because the city of Shenzhen itself is only a little over 30 years old. Longhua was a small town (and in a way it still is) until it was recently added to Shenzhen, and is now one of the city's outer districts. 

This is a small courtyard in my apartment complex.

A street full of flower and plant shops that leads to my school.

My school! Longhua Zhongxue. 

This is Houyi 后羿, a popular character from Chinese mythology. Basically, at one time in Chinese history ten suns rose up in the sky. This was causing lots of problems, such as crops being burned and people having to take multiple showers a day. This guy Houyi said, "Not on my watch." He took out his bow and arrows and shot down nine suns, leaving the one sun we have now. Now as far as I know, he's not the mascot of our school or anything like that. I think he's just one of the more popular gods in Chinese mythology  (I've heard the story a few times) and so why not have a big statue of him at the school entrance?

These guys almost look Western, but I'm certain they are Chinese characters.

My school is gorgeous and I told the other teachers this when I first arrived. They were shocked and asked, "Do you think it is more pretty than your middle school in the U.S.?" "Um..yes...it definitely is." I really have no idea whether they are trying to be modest or some actually don't think too highly of Longhua Zhongxue.

This area is behind the main classrooms and close to the administration offices. The pathway is lined with busts of famous scientists, philosophers, ect, with many of them being Western. It looks like we have Newton here.

Who's in the distance?

Einstein right there.

I took this picture from one of the top balconies. You can see the school clock tower blending in with the apartment complexes in the background.

My school is awesome because any school with a botanical garden on the roof is awesome.

Sign next to the main gate of Longhua Zhongxue. The name is in traditional characters: 龍華. A teacher at my school explained to me that "lóng 龍" means "dragon," and "huá 華" is another name for "China." But my school's name isn't  "Dragon China Middle School (though that would be pretty sweet)," Longhua is just a name in China.

I tried to take this picture at night with the least amount of blur, but now I actually like the way it ended up.

Back in China!

I've been in China now for almost two months and this first blog post is way overdue. I'm teaching 7th and 8th graders (in China they're called Junior 1 and Junior 2) at Longhua Zhongxue 龙华中学, or Longhua Secondary School. I arrived in Shenzhen via a 24-hour train ride from Beijing in late August. Beijing was where I had my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) training at Peking University 北京大学 through an organizaion called the Center for Teaching and Learning in China (CTLC). Here are just a few pictures from Beijing and Shenzhen.

Walking through Peking University after a long day of TEFL classes.

After about three weeks we finished our training and received our official TEFL certificates from Peking University and CTLC.

The Goodfellas!

One of the first pictures I took in Shenzhen (first time I saw palm trees).

We stayed in a resort hotel the first three days in Shenzhen while we had orientation. 

This spider was as big as my hand but I didn't end up getting a picture with my hand next to it because it moved a little and I thought it was going latch onto me.

Our contract signing ceremony at the end of our orientation with the Shenzhen Education Bureau.

Everyone was greeted by members from their school. This is me signing my contract with my vice-headmaster, Mr. Zhen. And yeah, those are flowers my school gave me. I also got some flowers on Teacher's Day from my students, but they were later stolen by a female teacher that didn't get any flowers. They are a hot commodity here.

I will try to have another post very soon with pictures from my school, it's really beautiful!