From the category archives:

Work

It’s Mid-Autumn!

September 26, 2007

in China, Culture, Expat Life, Food, Holidays, Work

I should’ve known something was up when all the bread disappeared from the supermarket and was replaced by mooncakes.

It’s that time again: Mid-Autumn Festival! This is the day that the Chinese traditionally celebrate the end of the harvest and admire the full moon. It also means that it is time to eat [...]

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“Fly to the Sky!”

September 21, 2007

in Aviation, China, Work

Another gorgeous day today – not a cloud in the sky. The DH and F. (another flight instructor) have been flying non-stop all afternoon. Yesterday, they flew 8 hours straight. Almost all of the students are now on their third or fourth flights and I must admit it makes me feel great to see their [...]

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Flying

September 13, 2007

in Aviation, China, Linyi, Work

I don’t blog very much about work here in China. I’m not sure why, other than the fact that for the most part my work is monotonous and boring. However, we are experiencing interesting times right now – working for the second private flight school in China as it begins its flight operations. I think [...]

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We Are Official!

August 1, 2007

in Aviation, China, Work

This past weekend, the flight school I work for, Jiutian International Flight Academy (JTFA), received certification from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC – China’s FAA). This means that we are officially a flight school and we can begin training. It also means that our airplanes can finally fly.

The hangar where the celebration took [...]

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Good Day

July 11, 2007

in ESL, Work

I will admit that I am probably not the best ESL teacher ever. I’m hardly qualified, having only taken a short course in English teaching. Half the time I am not really sure what I am doing, I just do it. My students, thank goodness, already have a decent grasp over English grammar. What they [...]

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Yay! It’s Friday!

March 9, 2007

in Daily Life, Linyi, Work

As you can imagine, vacationing in a place like Tibet – a place of arid beauty, incredibly blue skies and a sense of being the only human on the planet, something rare for Asia – can lead “home” to feel, well, a bit underwhelming. Combine that with the fact you actually have to do work, [...]

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Academy Progress

February 9, 2007

in Daily Life, Linyi, Work

As I’ve told you before, our academy base is new. When we first arrived, our boss told us the academy would be building a new classroom and office building, and it would take two months to complete.
Well, this is what the building looked like on the 18th of February, about a week into its construction:

(The [...]

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Former Student Reunion

February 6, 2007

in Aviation, Daily Life, Linyi, Work

Today we had a lovely surprise visit from one of our former students. The DH had four students at Panam Aviation Academy and we really liked them all. They were hard working and eager to become pilots. Perhaps our only regret on leaving Panam was that the DH would not be able to complete their [...]

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Aviation Nerdom Official

December 23, 2006

in Aviation, Work

This morning I showed the documentary, One Six Right, to my students and as we watched it, I actually got a little misty watching the planes soar through the clouds. I was so excited that the students were actively engaged in watching it, too, since many of them probably couldn’t understand the English dialogue. The [...]

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Aviation Nerd

December 20, 2006

in Aviation, Work

I’ve been working as a teacher of Aviation English for over a year now. I’ve said before that it was never a field that particularly interested me; I just sort of fell into it.
I am not quite sure how it happened, but I’ve officially become an aviation nerd. It was verified today when I successfully [...]

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