View from my room
This is the "inside of the school" even though there isn't any roof
Same place, better view. This is from my apartment looking out.
My bed, provided by the school. This city is known for their textiles, so I think all of this was made locally- meaning the sheets and bed spread.
View from my desk
The flight over was long, but thankfully uneventful. We had tv screens right in front of us, so we could pick whatever movie we wanted to watch, which was a huge blessing on a 15 hour flight to Shanghai. I sat in the middle seat next to Brady, who is also from UW-EC, and then I also sat next to a really nice girl named Marta. She had already taught English in China for two years, and is now going to grad school in China. Her program is all in Chinese and she taught herself. Wow.
The past week has been nuts. Once we got to Shanghai we met Jack, who Brady and I have been communicating with all along, and went to dinner. I STINK at using chopsticks. the people around me were laughing with me. Just kidding, they were probably laughing at me. I was laughing too. That night, Jack told Brady and I that we were no longer going to Xiamen, but now we were going to go to Hangzhou, a high school. So that was a shocker. I am in a small city for China, so like a few million haha. It is a boarding school of 3,000 so that is interesting. We live on campus on the 6th floor, which I like to refer to as the penthouse suite. I have my own room, which I love! Since being here there have been a lot of new experiences. The people here are really nice. There is one Russian couple here, otherwise, everyone else is Asian. Because this is a smaller city, the english here isn't too good, so I am very thankful that Brady is here so I can have a normal conversation without trying to describe what different words mean.
Since there are literally no young white people here, Brady and I get inquisitive looks wherever we go. They aren't very subtle either. It is kind of funny, but sometimes you just want to go places without everyone knowing that you have no idea what is going on.
There are a few people here my age, and they speak decent english, but not really enough to have a deep friendship. My apartment-mate is Janice. She is nice and from the Philippines. Her english is great! She teaches kindergarden. She is probably one of the funnier people I have met. Her brother is Brady's roommate. He teaches Math.
I went to a karaoke birthday party for one of my students and it was really funny. I sang a bit so watch out, I am becoming a new woman. hahaha they only like love songs over here, so it is pretty funny. Karaoke parties seems pretty big over here, so maybe this will be a normal thing? They seem to enjoy the classics, like backstreet boys, and for some reason they love lady gaga.
I found out I can't come home in January, and I was bummed about that, but what can you do.
So I am a teacher, which I didn't think would ever really happen. It is difficult trying to figure out what kind of teacher you want to be, how to have the students understand you, and make sure that you are getting through to them. They are really fun to work with though. Funny enough, I was sitting in my office and I was thinking to myself how this is the easiest job I have had in a while, relatively speaking. Youthworks was way more stressful, 18 credits and being an RA was way more stressful too. So it is nice to have a job that is not quite as hectic. It will still be challenging, but for some reason, it just doesn't seem as all around stressful, more just 9-5. It probably is because those other jobs permeated my whole life, where as this is over when it is done for the day. I like it.
The food here is so different. We have been taken out to a few nice meals, and they love their salt! I tried the stinkiest food I have ever encountered in my life because Brady said that we would try anything, and I legitimately thought I was going to barf. Without a doubt the nastiest food I have ever eaten in my life. I love all the veggies though! My boss made us some dumplings one day, and I loved them. Dumplings, rice, and veggies are the things that I like here.
Last night was probably my favorite night here. After teaching, Brady and I went to the fresh food market in town. They have so many different fruits and veggies. As well as lots of fish that are still alive. There was one fish that was cut in half but still flopping. That is what I call fresh. It was really stinky but fun to see. I bought an apple-pear type fruit and it was delicious. Side note: you can't eat veggies raw or you will get really sick. Anyways, from there we went to Walmart, to check out bikes. I found one I loved, but decided not to get it and to check more stores out. We will see if I got back and get it. Then we decided to walk to the lake in town, it was warm so we were sweating, but it was so worth it when we got there. There were people everywhere. They were dancing, playing games, going on boat rides, everything. Next time we go we might do a boat ride, it looks so fun! The water is a little smelly, so that stinks. Everything in china is a little smelly though. After that, we tried to make our way back but we were starving so we decided to stop at a food vendor. Surprisingly delicious. We picked out some veggies that they grilled and put some spices on. It was fantastic. After that we came back, I showered, and went to bed.
Today I taught already, and now I am trying to do laundry with a machine all in Chinese. Pray for me haha.
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