TeamWaWa and their crazy adventures

Hello friends and family! Saturday, April 28, 2018 was Shane’s first annual 25k walk. Overall, it was a fun event. However, Kris has a few complaints. She was placed on a team that not physically fit. Also, the Chinese teachers were kept with their schools, and the foreign teachers were split up and placed anywhere. Not very fair in our opinion. Then you had people posting “suckers” about those not on a winning team. You could say it was much more of a marketing opportunity vs. a team building event. Anyways, here’s some photos from the event. At the very least it was good exercise. #shanechangzhou25k #teambuildinginchina #krisandmatt #livinthedream

Hello friends and family!! Monday evening we had our farewell get together for Caleigh.  She's been at Shane English School in Changzhou, China for 3 years. Wow! Now that's a long time. We arrived in Changzhou on December 29, 2016. Besides, the welfare officer, Caleigh was one of the first people we met. We had Muslims for dinner with her and Pete. Caleigh is around the fifteenth foreign person we have had to say goodbye to in China. Not all of them were at Shane, but most were. She will come back to China, but has a new career in a city about 11 hours away by fast train. Congrats Caleigh! She made it out of ESL teaching and is onto a bright future! Here's some photos of her last days in Changzhou. After 3 years, she had made a lot of friends in Changzhou. I am sure she will do fine wherever and in whatever the future holds! Bye Caleigh! You will be missed by many. #nextsteps #sayinggoodbye #onedaythiswillbeus #seeyouontheflipside #ShaneEnglish #lifeofaneslteache...

Hello friends and family. And any random traveler who stumbles upon our page. There is a Chinese holiday coming. For the foreigners in China, it means our schedules get discombobulated. 清明節 falls in the third lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is usually in the first week of April. It happens to be Thursday, April 5, 2018.  The festival is a historic or ancient one in Chinese history. We heard it is around 2,500 years old. Ching Ming or Tomb Sweeping Day quite accurately describe the holiday. It is the day, and often the only day each year, when many families visit the graves and tombs of their ancestors. During the visit, they tidy the headstones, clean away grass and weeds, light incense and make burnt offerings, often bring offerings. For an ESL teacher, or to be exact for a Shane ESL teacher that means we celebrate the holiday but ‘rework’ those days with classes. With Thursday being the holiday, those classes are moved to Wednesday and Sundays classes are moved t...

Hello friends and family! We hope you had a nice Easter. Easter isn’t a thing in China. Most of them don’t believe in God. Remember their culture and how things are on this side of the world. But, the cool thing about being an ESL teacher....we still get to share in the fun events with them. Sunday definitely made us miss our own families. Some of these kids are awesome and we are thankful they come to our classes. See, aren’t these little ones cute? Happy Easter to you!!