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Published: November 2nd 2011
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Breakfast!
Regardless of being in China, I have to start off my day this way!! Ni Hao! (hello)
It’s been a couple of days since I’ve written, so I’ll catch you up on everything that’s been going on … which is A LOT!
Got our cell phones here and they are so old school – like, remember those old Nokia phones we used to get so pumped about in high school? Well yea, that’s what I have here – I had the option to get a really sweet and high tech phone but, I don’t really care so I got the cheapest I could find – which turned out to be about 30$ Canadian. (seriously these prices kill me!) It’s awesome to have phones here now, so that we can all text each other and call.
We also got to experience a full body massage on Sunday – out. Of . this. World! Back at home I go and get massages a couple of times a month because of my sore back, but I have never EVER had an experience like this – it was a full hour and it was totally amazing. They serve you fruit and Chinese tea as you wait for your masseuse to come into you, and then you
lie on this enormous comfy couch – it was something I could definitely get used to haha – It cost about 68 yuan for the hour, which adds up to roughly 10$. STEAL!
We had dinner with the American girls Sunday night, and finally had the opportunity to eat REAL Chinese takeaway – it was so much better than expected. Eggplant seems to be popular here and there was one dish we got that it was spicy and to die for – a new dish that I’m totally loving is tomato and eggs, it literally just tastes like scrambled eggs in tomatoes. So good. After our dinner the girls walked us down to the Pagoda park near our apartment – it was soo beautiful. Like nothing I had ever seen before – I mean, Ive seen pictures and on tv and what not of these temples but it was breathtaking (literally..) because you had to climb like a thousand steps up this steep steep hill to get to the pagoda, but it was all worth it. The park is awesome too, there is a lake to go paddle boating in, as well as koi fish in it to feed
– and these aren’t the koi fish that we see at home, these are MONSTERS. Like absolutely giant fish! There’s a little bamboo park with a bunch of granite tables and chairs, there’s an exercise park , there’s so much! We are going to plan a picnic when we get take away and go to the pagoda to eat it in the park haha. I can’t wait for that.
On Monday Courtney had her first day of classes and my school told me that I didn’t have to come in, so I had a lazy day. I did some cleaning, some unpacking and went over to the mall (which I’m still learning the name of) to buy some bedding. They supplied me with bedding when I got here but, it just didn’t feel right sleeping in bedding that had been used by who knows how many before me, so my bed is beautiful now! After about 40 minutes of trying to communicate what I wanted, I finally found a decent bed set! Monday night we had dinner at this awesome restaurant with the Toronto boys, where I had shrimp fried rice (yum!) and (wait for it…) watermelon water.. (drooool).
Litearlly like taking a watermelon and putting a straw into it – it was delicious!! After dinner we met up with a couple of other foreign teachers at the BBQ Market, which I will call the Beer Market because there’s about a hundred wooden tables and benches set up and you just drink big pitchers of beer, it was fun – and Chinese beer is pretty delicious!
Tuesday (yesterday) was my first day of teaching. It was pretty overwhelming at first as I was totally unprepared because the school hadn’t given me much info to plan with – so I pretty much just winged it. But it went well! I have about 50 students per class, and as much as I was hoping to know names by the end of my time here, I really doubt I will be able to! 50 kids for 18 classes is A LOT! I played a lot of games and getting them to compete was their favourite. I would play hangman and memory with flashcards on the board. The best part of the class was of course the prize winning teams stickers that they received for doing such a good job – and
to everyone who laughed at my ridiculous amount of Disney stickers back at home that I bought – they are the best thing that I could have ever packed in my suitcase. Such a hit with these children – and it really motivates them to have fun and want to learn the English… I mean, I used to LOVE stickers as a little girl in class, but not to this degree!! They love them. Last night we went out for some authentic Chinese Noodles (so delicious, like everything else I’m tasting here!) and then headed to our first Chinese Lesson. I made the mistake of coming to class totally unprepared – no notebook, no pen, no pencil. Just myself and my belly full of noodles (which was giving me serious drowsiness, gotta love the after meal idis). Anyways, little did I know how complex the Chinese language is. So many tones and ways of pronouncing things, I was totally gobsmacked for the first half hour – but I found myself repeating her properly. Now the only thing to do is to memorize the words!!! I think I may look into buying myself a Chinese dictionary or language guide – it
People's Park
For one hour each week, we come to this park to speak to Chinese people who are learning to speak English - it helps them with their conversational skills and allows us to meet new and interesting people! could really pay off. But I’m excited to start really immersing myself in the language and giving it a go. I hope I do better than I did in my Spanish class last semester at Uni haha… I have much more motivation here I must say. Considering it’s not just an hour class and then back to an English speaking world: you completely live in it here, so it gives me more reason to practice and learn!!
Today I have classes in the morning, a couple hours for lunch break, and then I am back to school for two last classes. I end at about 330 everyday, which is great. And I don’t have too ridiculous of a schedule. I love the fact that we get at least 2 hours of break through the day, its nice to come home and nap off my jet lag (yes I’m still suffering, and we all know how I love my afternoon siestas! *cough, Andria, cough!) Hopefully once I am accustomed to this whole 12 hour difference, I can take advantage of my breaks and do some groceries, or wander to the pagoda (I can’t get enough of that!) to read or
something. Life here is looking up each day!
Anyways, I’m on my lunch break right now writing this – tonight Courtney and I plan to go get manicures (yes, we are taking full advantage of this luxury) and we are going to try and find the take away that we had with the girls the other night.
Wish us luck!!
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shirley hylton
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WOW!!!
When I look at that map I still can't believe you are all the way over there. Thank goodness for Skype ... don't know how we'd manage without. But .... look at it this way love .... you're already there for half a month!!!!! Talk on Monday love you xoxoxoxox