Back in Nanning
I’m back in Nanning now after a few days in Kunming. Kunming is about the same size as Nanning but didn’t seem to have as much personality. The city seemed to shut down earlier in the evening perhaps because the weather there is more moderate and it’s not so hot during the day. I had an interview at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics and it went well. I received an offer to teach there and I would be teaching business classes in English rather than teach English. I think I would really enjoy teaching the business classes. The campus was quite nice and they would provide an apartment for me right on campus. I met a lady from chicago that is there teaching English and she spoke well of the school. She invited me to see her apartment and by western standards it’s quite small and spartan but adequate.
I think my strategy of writing to the schools and telling them that I will be in their city and would like to visit is really paying off rather than just trying to arrange a position via the internet and phone. I now have 3 offers in Nanning and the one in Kunming! I don’t yet know all of the details of the offer from the school in Nanning that I would be most interested in but I will probably choose between that one (Guangxi University in Nanning) and the one in Kunming.
Here are some miscellaneous observations about life here. Hotels – the beds in all the hotels are really hard and every room I’ve had so far has had condoms. In fact, there are condom vending machines in many public places! Paper – seems like they use all the paper for documenting transactions and don’t have enough left over for napkins and toilet paper. Public bathrooms do not provide toilet paper or hand towels. Even restaurants don’t always provide napkins so most people carry a small pack with them to use in bathrooms and restaurants. The bathrooms and plumbing in general is not up to western standards. Many of the bathrooms have the traditional chinese style toilet which is just a hole in the floor in the shape of a toilet seat. So far, I’ve been lucky enough not to have to use one of those for anything that would require sitting or squatting. The hotels I’ve stayed in have western style toilets. I think one way the people here deal with the toilets is by not drinking much so they don’t have to use them often. Plumbing is often leaking and I noticed the other day some kitchen sinks for some apartments that were actually on the outside of the building. The top part of the sink was inside in like a window box and it drained through a hose on the outside.
Enough of the rambling…..tomorrow I’m going to Guilin a scenic tourist area about a 4 hour bus ride from here to the North. I hope to have an interview at a university there and if not, I’ll just enjoy being a tourist.
Tags: Travel
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