At The Office

Lately I've posted mostly photos of my travels, but little of my daily life in China. I'm packing up to leave on summer holiday, so I wanted to leave you with 31 days of posts that paint a picture of what it's like to live in China and what my current life is like. If you want to join in the sharing I'd love it if you would place a link in the comments back to your post. I hope you enjoy and have a great summer!

The building I teach in

For those of you who don't know, I'm a university teacher in China. I just finished teaching my second year here and it's been an interesting experience. There are a lot of things I took for granted and incorrect assumptions I had about the educational environment in China. I've had to learn how their system works and how to teach with limited access to quality resources. It's been quite a challenge, but I feel pretty comfortable at this point. 

Here's a look at the building I teach in, my office and part of the campus.

View of the track and west campus from my classroom window, the cafeteria is the white building in the back

View from the classroom window on the backside of the building

Flowers in bloom in the Spring

This is the Foreign Teacher Office. I share the space with the two other American teachers at my university. It may not look impressive, but our office has come a long way since I arrived in August 2014. At that time I didn't even have an office to work in. Three months later they gave us this room, which was completely empty and filthy. Over the past two years, we've received furniture, computers, computer software, Internet access and other necessities. I'm so glad to finally have a functional work space to use between classes. Prior to having this space, I either sat in an empty classroom between classes or walked the twenty minutes back to my apartment for longer breaks. 

Similar to university courses in the states, my teaching schedule varies. I don't usually have classes every single day. In addition to teaching, I also have to prepare lessons, grade papers and meet with students. When I'm not in class, I'm not required to be in the school building. Since I didn't have a work space when I arrived, I developed the habit of working from home, a local coffee shop or a restaurant in the park. I usually only use the office on days when I'm teaching more than one class. 

Foreign Teachers Office

What does your work space look like?