China - They call it the Middle Kingdom

I slept all the way from LAX to Shanghai. Then I woke up to get off the plane and get on another one. Then I slept all the way from Shanghai to Beijing. I'm not sure how I was able to do this but it made the trip pretty easy to handle. I think it was a subconscious coping mechanism to deal with all the anxiety and thoughts of "What the heck am I doing..."

From Beijing to Qinhuangdao...

After spending the night (like 6 hours!) in a great hotel (though not as nice as the Lakeside Hotel in Hanoi), we headed by bus to Qinhuangdao, a port city due east of Beijing, and home to Yanshan University - the site of our 2 week training. Once again, as in Cali, ELI continued to impress me with its organization. We were well taken care of. The training was good and introduced me to a lesson plan for the first time. However... there was probably no way to prepare me for the actual university experience I'm deep into right now. Adjusting to teaching high-level students has been difficult but even being creative enough to come up with games or other interest-holding & English-teaching activities has taxed me very much. But, I continue to adjust.

Oh yeah, and we saw the Temple of Heaven... a throw-back to a monotheistic time in China's past. Very intriguing. And did I mention climbing the Great Wall?
This was also a time I experienced lots of fatigue and developed some dark circles under my eyes. A light stomach ailment hit me after a week of real Chinese food... not sure if it was a bug or just trouble adjusting.