I'm in my second year with Ameson. Once I finished in Kunshan I was told initially I was going to be transferred to the program at Nantong High school, but we ran into some difficulties. It seems that at the end of the school year, Kunshan Senior High school, who Ameson had a contract with, terminated the lease on our apartment without telling the company or us. It was a crisis especially since Mrs. Casey was 5 months pregnant with Lexi at the time. Both of us (Me and the company) had to jump through our respective backsides to find someplace for us to stay and to secure our household goods. Finally the company decided we could store our stuff in the room in the teachers dorm reserved for Ameson's Chinese teachers for the summer and later once we secured housing at my new assignment we could contract movers to move our stuff.
Nantong wanted me to do a demo class, but because of the housing crisis I was unable to get free to do so. The wife decided we would spend the summer up in in our house in her home city of Yanji where family could help us out. It was there that I learned I would be going to No. 10 Middle school in Suzhou, Jiangsu.
Frankly I couldn't be happier. I'm one of five foreign teachers. we all teach varied subjects. I teach history and human geography, another teaches calculas and stastistics, another teaches literature, one teaches physics and the other teaches writing. The principal and head teacher are absolute gems. When I needed time off for Lexi's birth without even asking, the principal told me to take the entire week because something like that was to important not to be there. My desk is in the same office as the principal and head teacher and I am their go to guy when they need advice on proper English wording, American etiquette and to also improve their English. For a while I was teaching 11 classes a week (5 human geography, 3 US History and Culture and 3 TOEFL Speaking), but when the students of another chinese teacher, who was teaching SAT writing, was finished and the students were taking their SAT's, they gave her my TOEFL classes and I dropped to 8 classes. When I am not teaching, I'm not required to be in the office unless I want to be. So when Mrs.Casey and Lexi do arrive, I'll be spending my free time being a daddy. I learned that after the winter break I'll be picking up 2 more classes in a new program called "Homeroom." None of us know exactly what it entails, but I hope to find out soon. I also get to write my own tests in all my classes and I get to have some fun with the questions.
This time housing is not problem because the first week the head teacher and I looked at lots apartments till I finally settled on 2 BR on the 19th floor of a brand new highrise (which is a story in itself). I'm the first person to live there so all the appliances were just out the box and it included a brand new LCD TV. Time and time again the ladies in the office tell me they appreciate the fact I'm so polite and so helpful around the office. There has been a few instances I've had to cover a few classes because of oher teachers being sick, but I figured that since they were willing to cover me for that week I was gone, it's not that much to complain about.