TEFL, Hefei, and various foreigners

One fun part of being at a university in Hefei is the close presence of foreigner bars, one of the few places you can walk in and meet other foreigners. Unlike Wuxi, the expat population in Hefei is ridiculously small: only about 2000. In Wuxi, when you see a foreigner on the street, the population is not so small that you say hello to everyone, and that was kind of a nice change in Hefei. Across the street from USTC (the university our TEFL course was hosted at), there was this expat bar we TEFL folks called the “Heineken Bar” because of all the beer flags out front. I went to hang out with a few friends and ended up talking to a few guys in the back near the climbing wall (see why expat bars are so cool?). One of the guys was an American who just moved to Hefei; he was playing pool with a colleague originally from Brazil. Shortly after meeting them, an Australian and Spaniard walked in. It was a pretty sweet mix of cultures in an otherwise very homogeneous society.

Thanks to Tom, my knowledge of British culture seems to be expanding more rapidly than I expected. He was one of the two token Brits in the TEFL class and he lives in Wuxi not too far from me, which is nice. Tom has never been stateside, so it’s entertaining to hear his view on things like American politics and listen to him try to imitate the American accent. I didn’t speak to the other British guy very much, but he moved to China to be with his Chinese wife, who he met in a Chinese fast food restaurant in the UK. He seemed like a pretty funny and neat guy when I saw him participate in some class things.

Well, the TEFL course is finally over. It ended rather anti-climactically with a final exam that lasted for about an hour (we had 1.5 hours to finish it). I’m really going to miss having that many other foreigners around, but I’m very happy to be headed home. Matt and Trotter are always hilarious, and it’s great to meet other folks, but Wuxi is now my hometown and I need some time to really get acquainted with the area. I’m going to miss the decent quality coffee that I could get at a café across the street, but a little less caffeine can only be for the better at this point. 

The climbing wall at the foreigner's bar: 

 They use antlers in all of their decorating (major props if you get this reference):

 "Home Original Chicken," a.k.a. Chinese fast food place with terrible meat and yummy greens:

 This actually says, "Experts building." Apparently we counted as experts:

 How I feel after 9 days of work (this was only the 5th or 6th day of the class):

 Our favorite bakery/cafe in Hefei:

 With the most adorable cakes:

 Our classroom:

 The garden outside the USTC guest house:

 And, of course, someone using a computer as an umbrella:

My Chinese skills are improving a bit since I arrived; I can now perform basic tasks with minimal shyness. I helped the other Wuxi guys buy their train tickets and managed to negotiate with cab drivers so we could get a legal cab ride to the train station. Among the TEFL course people, I was one of the “people who could speak Chinese,” which resulted in periodic requests for help. Several other people spoke Chinese much better than me: Danie, a relatively new intern, and Ray, a Dipont guy in the corporate division, both speak relatively fluent Chinese. Hopefully the practice will translate (no pun intended) into more practice and better functionality in Wuxi. That said, I’m extremely happy that I have taken four years of Chinese. It seemed like I could get what I needed with much more ease than if I spoke nothing.

I have a few pictures this time. Enjoy!