Xinyu

It took me a couple days to get over my cold but I felt pretty good today so I went over to see the new campus where I'll be teaching. Right now, I'm living in the apartments at the old campus but I will be moving to the new one once they finish the apartments there, which should be within a couple months.

This is the apartment building where I'm living right now.


Everyone who lives here teaches at Xinyu University. I've met four or five of the other teachers so far. They're all in their 20's and all very nice. I've been talking quite a bit to a guy named Xiao Yong who lives across the hall and teaches instructional technology at Xinyu. I told him the other day that I want to practice writing Chinese characters and he's offered to let me join him since it's a hobby of his.

This is my apartment, which is too nice. It has a living room.


A bedroom.


And a bathroom. The bathroom is pretty basic. All the Chinese teachers only have one room, a bathroom, and in some cases a roommate.

This is the street just outside the gate to the apartment complex.


This seems to be a pretty typical street in Xinyu. Not too crowded, a few cars, some buses, lots of people on mopeds and scooters, and you can cross the street wherever and whenever you want.

The big shopping district downtown is much more busy, but the rest of the city feels relaxed.


Now, school. The first building you see when you come in through the main gate is the main classroom building.


But I won't be teaching in that building. I'll be teaching in, I think, Liberal Arts Complex C and D.


Every classroom I saw on campus was identical. Some of them, like this one, had pianos in them. I don't know why they were in there but maybe they'll come in handy.


And here's a student dormitory.


Either twelve or seventeen thousand students attend Xinyu University. I can't remember exactly which one it was that Craig told me.

The buildings and the campus are huge. There's still a lot of construction going on including the library. For now, the library's books are housed in the main classroom building. But the campus is like the city. Lots of construction and lots of open space.

I will have my first two classes this Friday, each one for an hour and forty minutes. On Wednesday, I'm going to meet with Doreen, the head of either the foreign studies department or maybe head of the English department, and then get a finalized lesson plan prepared for Friday.