It’s been a little while since my last blog post unfortunately. But ultimately I’d like to attribute that to having so much more going on recently. As some of you might have known, when I returned to Xi’an from my summer trip I actually moved to a new home and new school in Xi’an. I’m now teaching at another university in Xi’an called Xi’an International University (西安外事学院), it really isn’t much different from my old school as far as teaching and the students are concerned. I’m teaching freshmen English majors, which are slightly more motivated to learn English. English majors actually chose to learn English, unlike other majors that are only forced to take one year of English classes, and therefore don’t always have much motivation or desire to be there.

The school itself is pretty nice, it’s actually built next to a great park with a beautiful lake that the university purchased and then built a campus next to. There are 10 foreign teachers at this school (5 English, 2 French, 1 Korean, 2 Japanese) which is a big increase from SUST which had a total of 3 English teachers. The living quarters here are also much nicer, they’re actually more like real apartments and feel much more homey. My only complaint is that the couch in my apartment sucks, it’s way too small for more than one person to sit or lay-down on. Due to it’s status as an International University, XAIU actually has quite a few foreign students here to learn Chinese as well. This is to my benefit because I can actually go to the Chinese classes as a student at no charge (which is definitely worth something!). XAIU’s location is also a bit better than SUST because it’s in the southwest of Xi’an where more of the action is, as opposed to the far north which was pretty far away from most things.

This year, October 10th was an extra special day, as many Chinese couples decided to get married on 10/10/10, and hey, why not? You’ll never forget your anniversary! But it was, of course, also my birthday and I turned 25. In fact it was my second birthday celebrated here in Xi’an, and the second one in a row that it was raining. But that’s nothing a home-cooked meal, and a few hours of mahjong can’t fix.

See pictures of my new apartment and XAIU campus here