I’ve been with EF English in Xi’an for about a month now. That month has felt like years.
For the first few weeks, I worked to find my feet in this new position teaching English again. I never thought I would teach English again. I felt I wasn’t a very good teacher during my first tour with Peace Corps.
Peace Corps was an experience that gave me the ability to appreciate this job. In its nature, the Peace Corps is a challenge that shapes you into a person willing to deal with just about anything. For that, I think it taught me a lot about going with the flow of life. But with Peace Corps, you are often left to your own devices and forced to create positive situations with very little resources and very little support. It’s the truth of the job.
Honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
With EF, I have more resources and support to teach than I know what to do with. I have far more resources than I ever did as a teacher with the Peace Corps. It’s made my first month with EF just an incredible dream and quite honestly I have been having so much fun.
Working With EF English
EF English in Xi’an is made up of nine schools around the whole city. I work in one of them. Xi’an has a little over 12 million people in the city. A lot of people and a lot of opportunities to teach new kids every month.
So far with EF English, I am teaching groups of kiddos ages 3-6, 6-10, and, and 10-14. It has been so much fun, and EF equips you with full curriculums to follow to make sure the kids are learning. I am teaching some amazing and smart kiddos.
I started teaching my classes about a week after I arrived in Xi’an. A few weeks after that, I started orientation and went through a week of training and onboarding to better understand my job. It was a full week of learning and making friends. During this week, I participated in as much as I could, took down as much information as possible, and shared some of my own situations and opinions on teaching.
A week later, I was approached by the center director of my school and praised for my participation in the onboard training week. As a result, they thought I would be a good fit to host the annual EF Gala happening in January. Every year, the gala has a talent show, dinner, and awards for this past year. It’s also an opportunity for people to get dressed up for the occasion. And I get to dress up in fancy dresses like you would for the Emmy’s. Of course, I am over the moon about this.
The evening also involves me doing speeches in Chinese and English.
I’m freaking out excited about that.
Living in Xi’an
I’ve basically been on a noodle and bubble milk tea binge for the better part of a month now. It’s been wonderful.
My days have been filled with teaching kids, so I haven’t had the chance to see much of Xi’an’s history. But having been here before and seen things like the wall, climbing the very dangerous Hua Shan, and walking circles around Wild Goose Pagoda, I feel like I know my way.
The food is amazing, as always, and I have been fortunate to find some of my favorite dishes already in the area surrounding me and my workplace. I’ve found some new lovable dishes native to Xi’an as well, and a lot of food from Muslim owned and operated restaurants.
I live in a great apartment close to everything! For those who want to visit, there is a Holiday Inn downstairs from me and a Starbucks right next to it. 🙂 I live on a subway line, can get pretty much anywhere in town by taxi for nothing.
To be honest, living in China is home to me. I feel like a different person when I am here. And since being back, I have just merged right back into the culture like I never left.
If You’re Wondering About Pollution
I’m living on the 25th floor of a high rise and have the ability to look out the window each day to see towering high rises alongside me. Since I’ve been here, I have seen mountains in the distance one time. The pollution is pretty awful in the wintertime because the buildings turn their heat on.
There is this thing called the Air Quality Index (AQI). You can download apps for free and most all of them will tell you the same thing. I use AirVisual. As many of you might know, China is famous for having some of the worst pollution in the world.
In Xi’an, the pollution on the index can reach as high as 250. Just to put it on a scale for you, Colorado Springs is around 21 and Seattle is around 30. Anything below 50 on the AQI is considered healthy breathing. Anything over 300 is considered hazardous.
If you’re worried, don’t be. I have breather masks with filters that allow me to breath normal air if I have to go outside. And when it rains here, it sure cleans up the air.
The Great Firewall of China
China has what we fondly refer to as the Great Firewall of China, meaning you can’t access things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and pretty much every online thing that we use in our daily lives.
However, you can access these things with a Virtual Private Network (VPN), and thankfully, I have one. Astrill VPN is the best VPN I’ve ever had living over here, it almost never fails on me when I need it most, and it allows me easily to create blog posts like this regularly.
That’s sort of all for now. But I have much more to report on in the coming months with EF and living in Xi’an.
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