Waking to the beating of drums and the alarm clock buzzing, I did the morning duties and then met my driver who would take me to the station to board my transportation for destination Bin Zhou.

The transportation in fact was not a bus but a low budget bed hostel on wheels catering for everyone to sleep. The trip made its way along the highway leading to many connecting roads that lead off into far destinations. It was like a map of pathways leading to the main destination of the traveler.

I sat viewing the vast landscape and still seeing ice ponds with people walking on them and even some fishing, I listened to the TV of Chinese pretending that I could speak and understand the overall feeling of the language.

Trying to stay awake for the trip was hard and the sound of people snoring made my mind relax and drift off. I quickly awoke a short time later to the vibration of a man shaking my leg and what I could assume was telling me to go and have a toilet break.
Back on the bus and steering to the next town or city, I noticed the only view I had was that of brown winter land with nothing growing or no real movement visible to the eye. I opened my bag and began to view my English textbooks trying to kill time. After the major twenty minute break of the past town and trying to figure out exactly what I ate, we all huddled back onto the bus resembling a parade of ants trying to quickly build a house before the rain.

Two more movies later I arrived on the outskirts of Bin Zhou with the sky looking much like a storm spreading its black clouds from the center to outer, except it was smog from the factories. Stopping at a station on the edge of the center square, I was met again with the constant eyes appearing at me from every angle, I knew that I was definitely in a town that rarely sees foreigners.

I wanted to really pull out a pen to give autographs to all the onlookers passing by.

As I turned to view the main sculpture in the park I was greeted with a hello and a smile from my headmaster Mr. Du. I smiled back and thought what a striking young man. Continuing to speak in English, Mr.Du had a great passion for English language and taught English for a number of years, he was married to a young woman who also was an English teacher at the same school and both had produced a young child who was taken care of by the grandparents.

Mr. Du was happy to give me a quick tour of the main street even though again I thought ‘I wouldn’t be able to remember’ before entering the school that resembled a scene from the early 50’s high school in America, with a running track and buildings lining the driveway, to me quietly thinking this was to become my new home.

* * * * *

After settling into my new surroundings of the town, which was hard to find in any guidebook and with a population of about seven hundred thousand. I was beginning to think that this town could have a sister town back home in Oz, with its dust flying visibly around, people dodging the mud pools when the rain came to town and not being treated to having KFC or McDonalds on any street.

Over time the students began to really open up and let their true language learning that they knew shine. I was taken back on how much English learning is for them, with many striving to gain the best score in the examination, which in turn allowed the student to attend the university that they may have chosen.

Learning and the cost of learning was no issue and they worshiped having the foreigner as their teacher and friend.
Slowly but surely I ventured out into the areas of Binzhou with fellow teachers to find any hidden treasures, but the only real hidden treasure was that of KTV bars, cheap local food and us laoweis being the attraction.

Everyday became an adventure of life.

The people of this town worked hard and it showed in their dedication to work long hours and to strive forward like a game of tic-tac-toe, finding out who shall win the prize of a better future. I would always wake and look from my back window to notice many workers digging holes, banging away and also resting.

The school was sectioned into two. First there was the main campus of the Middle school that was for seniors and then the second campus for the juniors which, was about a fifteen minute walk away depending on the traffic and the passers stopping to say hello to you. Many of the students live at the school and study from the time the rooster crows to the high beam of street lights glowing brighter as the sky darkens.

A few weeks had past when there was a small incident of this not so new foreign teacher being mugged. Yes, that’s right! The only real damage was a bruise that was more recognizable than the stamp in my passport, but I took it as a knock on the chin and nothing more as the biggest damage was about to arrive.