It is now a month since being back in Hefei. I have kept myself busy with IELTS work and made a few trips into Shanghai. I am not in the opposite situation to Nanjing where I am quite time rich so it will be great to work in this website more in the coming weeks.

The new job has lead a few surprises with the first one being there is no Wuxi Programme here for the University of New England. I have been grabbed by the Partner School to Wuxi Ocean College here in Hefei - the Hefei World Foriegn Language School's IELTS department and doing speaking lesson with some classes and training some teachers.

So the neigbours in our new apartment block are fine by Chinese standards and not shown the level of nastiness experienced in Nanjing. My wife is certainlly happy to be here and has been out more including KTV with here friends. The little fella seems to appreciate the space of Hefei and enjoys the small kids play area here. The other day in the hair dressers the letter fella showed some interest and fascination with fish as thr phone below shows!

We still have not got to organsing the  spouse visa for Jean and time just seems to get away from us. Anyway now it is nice to have more time to do things and I am sure my wife will find thngs for me to do!

I am now into my final week into the current job in Nanjing. After what has been one of the most challenging years in my life I can bring some closure on this job and move on in my life. Nanjing never worked out the way we wanted. Within weeks I could see it was going to be a tough year with a bike and pram stolen.

Nanjing is a fun city to visit and has some great food but to live here is not so great. I have noted the people here to be quite hard nose and self-focused and this has been the observation of my wife in Nanjing also.

I have made some great friends mostly among the other examiners and 2 work colleagues who I will long remember. However the managers of the program I worked in here turned out to be liers and more often than not did not have my interests at heart which was a stark contrast to the school I was in at Hefei.

Another lesson learned in China avoid Jobs which have office hours as more often than not you sit in an office doing nothing. I would also recommend if you want a job in academic leadership in China be sure to have one where it is a partnership with a western organsition as the Chinese conception of academic management is quite different from a western one. Lets just say it is very hierarchical and non consultative.

I will share more in the summer but I have just landed a new job which will lead to a return to Hefei and will be helping a senior school there establish a new foundation programme for the University of New England in Australia. It is a partnership with a college in Wuxi. There is more flexibility and of course no office hours so it will be nice to have time with my son and this website will be developed more in the coming year.

Bye for now
Alan

It is hard to believe for me it has been a year in Nanjing and nearly a year since I have done much on the website. The new job has proved much busier than first anticapated. I have my photos ready to add to my site but just never got on to the job of uploading them,

I am hoping in the summer to get some time to update the site and get it all there and maybe this blog will be kept up todate. It seem I match the pattern of society of today of being time poor.

Over the course of this past 12 months I have seen a baby develop into a toddler and now a little boy. As language teacher it has been  amazing to see the little fella develop in his language skills and in recent weeks see him distinguish between Chinese and English in his speaking. Being mixed blood the little fella is certainly cute and in monocultural China a source of courisity even in Nanjing and Shanghai where mixed culture children a more common than in Hefei.

I hope good interntions can be followed up and I can up date this site more of