---

Getting nervous….

It’s suddenly dawning on me that within a couple of weeks I will be in charge of teaching several hundred adorable little children how to speak my native tongue. I’ve been in China for nearly four days now and it still doesn’t quite seem real. I haven’t gotten sick yet, which is surprising considering I’ve already heard some toilet horror stories from my fellow teachers. Then again, I wash my hands a hundred times a day and brush my teeth with bottled water, so that may have something to do with it. I started feeling a little overwhelmed by everything including the never-ending ‘get to know you’ session with the other teachers, so I ditched everyone this afternoon for some ‘me’ time. I did my homework first (yuck!) then went for a long (totally in a safe area) walk through a park and down to the ocean to see a statue that I believe is called The Fisherwoman. I stopped once in the park to take a picture of some unusual flowers. I knelt down and then was almost unable to get back up. In just the short time it took me to snap the photo about half a dozen small children, between the ages of 5 and 10, had surrounded me. They all said “hello!” and seemed very interested in the picture I had just taken. My first thought should probably have been “Oh, how cute!”, but instead it was more along the lines of “Is my purse still secure?” followed closely by “What’s that smell?” In hindsight, I wish I had taken a picture of them, because they were cute, but my number one fear here is getting robbed so I moved away from them fairly quickly. After returning to the hotel the heat had once again stolen away whatever appetite I may have had so I ate half a steamed bun that I had in my room and channel surfed before sitting down to work on this blog.

Not much else is going on. Learning Chinese is, as expected, really hard. We even have to learn how to write and read. I wonder if those abstract shapes will ever turn into words for me. I was very proud of myself today at the grocery store. I said ‘I want this one’ in Mandarin and pointed to the sushi I wanted for lunch and then asked for two pairs of chopsticks. I felt so accomplished. :)

---