Well today is officially the last day of my contract so I am busy packing up my thing ready to return to Australia. The past few weeks seem to have been a load of farewell dinners. First I finished teaching the Young Medical Expert Program and for our final class we all went our to a Western restaurant for lunch. As well as tasting western foods (for many this was a first) we also had a talk from the owner of the restaurant about international cuisines and custo...

How lucky was I to have visitors to my fine, fair city for the Dragon Boat Festival. No work so plenty of time for fun and games as I showed them a glimpse of what Nanjing has to offer. Started off with my dear friend Shaun visiting from Beijing. We first met when we both started working in China together teaching for Buckland International Education Group. We have both moved on to bigger and better positions but have kept in touch and so it was with delight th...

Its that time of year again when the TV cameras are rolling, the national English speaking talent competition is in full swing and they want the perfect "laowai" (foreigner) . And so I stepped up to the plate for the third year in a row as the "distinguished foreign expert" for the CCTV Outlook English Speaking Competition for 2013. They had me judging for four full days this year and it felt like I had run a marathon by the time we finished on the last day. I h...

For the last 2 1/2 years as I have traveled on the school bus between our campus's I have looked out the window and noticed this pavilion and rather large column. Kind of figured it might be a memorial to something but have never found it on my walkabouts or found out what it actually was. Curiosity was getting the better of me.... On my last days off I decided enough was enough and I was going to hunt this place down. After getting out my map of the city and fi...

Just had the May Day holidays which turned into a bit of a fiasco for me. Believing I had to teach I did not plan any travels but of course classes were cancelled but they forgot to tell the foreign teachers!!! All in all we were fairly annoyed as a few of us would have used the time to see more of the country but ended up stuck in Nanjing......a few unhappy campers here Anyway as the weather is warming up I am getting out and about a bit more within the city. ...