Introductions

Hi Jennifer and welcome to the Saloon.  Always great to have another lady walk through the door.  Kinda keeps the guys in line, at least for awhile.  Congrats on the positive job situation.

I LOVE your avatar.

Kinda keeps the guys in line, at least for awhile. 

Just what Ruth needs, a line up of guys     

Welcome Damballah, it's always good to have another female join our ranks.  Do you mind sharing the meaning of your name?

Thank you Ruth.  

Damballah is a Haitian god, brought over from Africa, and like most of their gods, linked with Christianity to make them more acceptable to the missionaries, while retaining their cultural roots.

I like it because of some of the links to other mythologies - the Australian Rainbow Serpent, which also seems to have some links with the Chinese dragon mythology.  I also like it because damballah is immortal, and I feel that whenever I take on something new, I take on a new life, so ...

Being a newbie myself, I suppose I can't really welcome others, but I would like to, especially the ladies.  I've been travelling and used my phone to look at the forum, so it has been too hard to write, but I did notice that there were not a lot of posts from women.  Is this because there are not many women on the forum?  The more the merrier!

I used to post more often. I'm just very, very busy this particular semester.  Several of our ladies have newborn babies to care for, so I imagine they are quite busy too.

Day Dreamer

Just what Ruth needs, a line up of guys

only if they are Chippendales.

Jennifer, you and some others are not far at all from getting access to the Contract Zone, Private Messages, etc. Just keep on talkin' to us!

Jennifer, you and some others are not far at all from getting access to the Contract Zone, Private Messages, etc. Just keep on talkin' to us!

This post is to inform the readers of the board of the honesty of my intention in posting something which enriches the community's discourse in this post. This sentence would like to point out that the previous sentence really meant what it said and was not a shallow attempt at covering up an obviously self-serving increase in post-count. This sentence retracts the mention of the self-serving increase in post-count lest it seem obvious that this post is, in fact, exactly that. This sentence speculates on the futility of continuing this post since post count goes up by number of posts and not word count within the post itself--however, a monosyllabic reply to Raoul's post such as "Ha!" might have seemed gratuitous and superfluous, hence this sentence. And this one. This one, too. Sorry. I'll. Stop. It. Now. This sentence is to let the reader now the author of this post has now accomplished his purpose and will begin a new paragraph.

New paragraph.

Another one.

Stop.

Ha! Post-padding novice!

Indeed, old bean.  This one has a lot to learn.

Hi all,

My name is Nathan, 26 years old currently living near Oxford but looking for work in China for the coming academic year. I recently decided to do a CELTA course after spending five years post-uni doing jobs of varying promise without ever really feeling excited about where any might lead. So here I am a number of weeks and a whole lot of research down the line and despite all the horror stories I am still resolved to do make the jump  .

Glad to be here in what seems like a little haven from the name-calling and general pettiness of the internet.

Welcome, mate. I'm doing my CELTA two weeks from now. Good luck!

Hi, NATO!!  Welcome to our Happy Hunting Grounds Madhouse Refuge from Reality Saloon

Thank you for the welcome!

And Invictus I hope you have a fun course, good luck as well.

Howdy! I'm Emily and I'm moving to China in late July teaching English. Still ain't found a job yet but have been offered lots..just none that I fancy. I already work in special needs in a mainstream school in the UK and I'm looking forward to getting the hell out of the UK school system. Bring on China! And the sunburn! (I have fair skin)

Hello, Rainbow.  Glad ta meetcha!

This is AWESOME! So many new people.  Welcome, welcome, welcome.

NATO, good attitude.  Jump in the deep end, but do your research first.

Emily, learn to carry an umbrella with UV protection built-in.  You'll fit right in with all the Chinese lasses trying to keep their skin from darkening.  On the uni campus where I work there are as many umbrellas in use on a sunny day as on the rainy ones.

Looking forward to hearing your first thoughts and experiences of China once you arrive.  I love those stories.