Xavier's Gap Year

Day 54 (18th of April, 2016) – Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China Today my only class was in the afternoon, so I was able to sleep in and tutor some students in the mid-morning. One of my students was new, and her enthusiasm made it a particularly rewarding session. I find tutoring a great mental exercise […]

Day 47 (11th of April, 2016) – Shanghai, China This morning we all woke up bright and early to pack for the flight to Shanghai. As with all travel, we couldn’t bear wasting even a few hours not being out and exploring the city. So Aimee, Bianca, Anneke and I all set off to Hong […]

Day 40 (4th of April, 2016) – Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China Today it is the QingMing Festival, which is a public holiday in China. My attempt to greet a shopkeeper this morning with “Happy QingMing Festival!” was met with confusion, and a plea that I not ever say that again. QingMing Festival, after all, is all […]

Day 33 (28th of March, 2016) – 徐州，江苏省，中国 To begin, I must clarify a few things regarding last week’s blog post. Firstly, the “shi shi shi…” poem is completely true. Every word in that poem is pronounced “shi”, and it tells the elaborate story of a hermit poet who hunts lions. Secondly, the comment regarding my […]

Day 26 (21st of March, 2016) – 徐州，江苏省，中国 A full day of class today. In period one I was made to stand up in front of the class and recite a poem. 四是四 十是十 十四是十四 四十是四十 四十四只石狮子是死的 A transliterated version of this poem to help with pronunciation is as follows: si shi si shi shi shi […]

Day 20 (14th of March, 2016) – 徐州，江苏省，中国 I felt an enormous amount of confidence when I turned up to class at 8am this morning to find my teacher waiting to begin. Our writing lesson had been moved to Monday morning from Thursday afternoon just for this week, and I was one of the ten-odd people in […]

Day 13 (7th of March, 2016) – 徐州，江苏省，中国 I only had one class today, and it was an easy one in the afternoon. We learned about the great Mao ZeDong. In typical Chinese fashion, he was given glowing reviews by the teacher. You undoubtedly would have noticed the blue and yellow balloons taped to the wall […]

Day 5 (28th of February, 2016) – 徐州，江苏省，中国 This morning began with 2 hours of tutoring via Skype. I’m maintaining some of my students so that I can at least have some sort of income while I’m over here, and it also serves as my refreshing dose of English for the day. I eat on the […]

Day 0 (23rd of February, 2016) – Sydney, Australia The airport was a less emotional experience for me than I had expected. I felt a wave of independence come over me from the second I stepped through customs. Such a great feeling which I always crave – knowing that I am completely responsible for my […]