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!