Oh My Scott!

As requested I have now set up a blog which I will try to maintain weekly about my experiences behind The Iron Fortune Cookie, as it were. To start off with I thought I would tell everyone a little bit about my work.

As you all know, I teach cute little Asian kiddies English and get paid for it. Joy English Schools began in Taiwan and as such has a good amount of funding for a company on the Mainland. The Joy curriculum is open enough to allow for the teachers to build on it and most of the kids are very bright.
A large number of the kids I teach are between 7 and 12 years old. They are at ages where they are still full of wonder and excitement while also still very much respecting adults. So far I have been mostly observing class and teaching parts of lessons as part of my training here, and as such I have had the ability to meet alot of the children without the stress of teaching them at the same time. It can be really exciting to walk into a room and have everyone look up at you with big eyes and yell "Ahhh!" in an excited manner.
LuoYang of the Henan (whu-nan) province is a city with a very small foreigner population and as such many of the children have never seen, let alone met, a foreigner. Once they get over their excitement, and occasionally shyness, they very much enjoy having us teach.
Even while I was observing classes I would still introduce myself and talk with the children for a few minutes. On my second day of training, one of the kiddies came up with a funny phrase. Now somehow all of the kids learn that "Oh my God" is a thing that people say when they are really surprised, though most teachers try to let them know that it is not appropriate. So one of the students heard the 'aw' in Scott and the 'aw' in God and so when I was telling them my name the little boy yelled out "Oh My Scott!"
Needless to say I liked that kid.

Many, many other things here are worthy of mentioning and not in the erudite prose I might use in a more formal context. The sheer reality of China almost calls for plain speech.

Back home people were very concerned about the level of personal liberty I would experience over here and if I would be able to cope with the difference. One of the first surprises that awaited me here was an overwhelming sense of lawlessness that covers every street (literally) and the people who populate them. The Police here will sometimes turn on the lights on their cars simply because they have nothing better to do, the only rule on the road is 'don't hit anything' and no one seems to care what they say or where they are.
As a foreigner here, I am very much protected by local laws. The treaties that China and the United States hold state that I cannot be held overnight for any reason without the consent of the US embassy, and more over there are huge penalties for any local person who commits a crime against me.
The Chinese food back home is nothing like the real thing, though some of the smaller restaurants on Convoy came close. All of the food here is full of flavors, a lot of it is very sweet since sugars are apart of many local dishes. Food here is also very cheap (as is everything else).

I will have more for my next post to the blog, so for now I leave you with your Iron Fortune:

Beware Chinese Women Who Gather In Groups, Mischief Is Sure To Follow.