news!

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Well, I’ve been bad about updating this. My things have settled into a lovely routine. My life still revolves around my classes, and my free time is incredibly limited, but I don’t consider that to be a bad thing. I’m more or less ridiculously happy, except for when I’m sick (which is far too often. The air here does nasty things to my throat and lungs.).

For a long time I was trying to make the decision to either stay in Wuhan, or seek out a healthier Chinese city. Today I finally made up my mind to stay, and talked to my boss about it. I’ll be able to keep the same kids next year, and do the same thing I’m doing now, and I’ll get a raise of 500 yuan a month. My place here seems much less transitory than it did only a few days ago, and I find myself thinking about settling in and making my apartment feel more like “home”, as I was at the start of my contract. The commitment to helping my kids gain good study habits is stronger as well, considering I’m going to be spending another year working with them.

I don’t think I’m going to be coming back to the States this summer, unfortunately. I can book a round-trip flight to Germany for half the price that it would cost to fly to the states and back, and use the extra money to fund a my stay there. I miss home, but I’ve been desperately in love with Germany for such a long time, and I can’t imagine a better chance to go. I’ve also found a training center in Wuhan that offers affordable one on one classes in a variety of foreign languages, which will make my linguistic goals more possible. I’m still mainly concentrating on Chinese, but I feel like the study of language is what will make my travel now and in the future valuable, rather than just fun and frivolous.

That’s all for now! I’ll try to take proper care of this blog in the future, and update more than once in three months.

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Comments

[Liz Gile]

Sad not seeing you
So happy for you in the choices you've made. How exciting to have these opportunities.. I do have to say that your family will miss you alot this summer so you will have to keep up with your blog as it is our way of feeling connected. We are trying to encourage your mom to take a trip to see you. She really deserves it. Mom I hope your listening.........

[jonahwho]

none
i'll never notice the air probloms if u don't mention it here, I've been someother places close to the ocean. they r much better. Wuhan's my homwtown, so sad to see the city goes like this. and Sorry for what the city's done to you