My Second Residence

That's right, twice a week I have a personal driver cruise me through the Chinese countryside to take me to a newly finished, second apartment far away from the hustle and bustle of my normal campus life.  It, however, is nowhere near as glamorous as it might sound.  Shortly before the school year began, we were informed that some of the foreign teachers would likely be teaching at another campus as well.  Apparently, our university had too many new freshmen enroll and an agreement was reached with another campus (TL) to both house them and provide classroom space.  Since the campus is about an hour away from ours* and since it's easier to transport a small number of teachers rather than the many, many students, five of us foreign teachers were enlisted to teach at that campus for a couple of days each week.

Three of us go at a time, on a rotating basis.  We're all, with the exception of one, scheduled there for two days each.  Although it gives us the opportunity to build relationships with a greater number of students, having our time, energy, and lesson plans divided between two campuses can somewhat hinder the quality of those relationships.  They are long, tiring days.  We leave at about 7 am, teach for 4-6 hours throughout the day, and get home somewhere close to 8 pm.  Since TL is such a small town, there are not any places around campus where we can spend time when we're not in class.  So, the school has provided another room for us there.

On the first TL day, I was the teacher who stayed behind and the group didn't get home until about 9:30 pm because the road was flooded out.  I had picked up dinner, so they came in and crashed.  Literally.

This is the room I have at TL:

Singles do have a top sheet here, but no fitted sheet. Heh.

The balcony just outside the room, which leads to the plumbed facilities.

Doors to said plumbed facilities.

I thought you might appreciate the lovely view from the balcony before the not as lovely view of the facilities.

The shower.

The toilet.  It is actually "flushed" with the cut garden hose tubing that is attached to the faucet.

The campus itself is new and still under construction.  This lends itself to an interesting teaching experience.  The technology in the classroom is top of the line, but the noise of spontaneous jackhammers (or workers cranking up the Mariah Carey) can be somewhat distracting.

 It's a lovely campus to drive up to:

This is the building where I have most of my classes, one of which is on the right side (2nd floor) where there is not yet a pane for one of the windows.  Luckily the rooms have mics so I don't have to yell too much over the construction!

 Side view of the building.

Yes, I believe they are mixing concrete in the middle of the shiny, new hallway.

 Scaffolding in the main atrium.

 I don't think that's quite the permanent roof for the structure...

 Even though the building's 7 or 8 stories tall, I would not recommend using that elevator just yet.

Each classroom has a great computer/projector/sound system.

 The classrooms are so shiny.

I hate to jump to conclusions, but I think it might be safe to say that OSHA does not have a TL branch.

*We were originally informed that the campus was about 30 minutes away.  However, when the single lane, unfiinished country road is washed out, it tends to take a bit longer.