Advertisement
Published: June 14th 2009
The months since the spring holiday have been filled with visits, weekend trips, and surprising changes. My delightful parents came for a three week visit and toured me around Qingdao (home of the 2008 Olympic sailing port) and Dandong (directly on North Korea's shores); I partook in a glamourous photo shoot that lasted 10 hours without food and learned a model's life isn't actually as easy as it looks (photos to be added later this week); and I accepted a position as co-department head for English 10 in September (where I will be heading the boy's campus).
My parents, if anything on their visit, fed me well. We ate every possible type of food available to us (which spanned from Chinese to Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Italian, and "Western"). Qingdao was a cool city with a very European vibe. Dandong was also a neat city with a pretty waterfront. I don't know if I'd go back to either, but the trips were definitely worth it. My parents enjoyed their visit and got well-acquainted with my neighbourhood, the people, and the daily grind. I was impressed with their tourist-sleuthing skills, as they sussed out a lot of places to visit that I
had never heard of. Good job, parents!
The glamour shots: two of my friends and I went to the studio at 8.30 in the morning, unsure of what to expect. We were put into various puffy, cupcake and confectionary-like dresses, had our hair and make-up done, and were sent into the street and beyond for photos. We learned to pose like pros. The worst (and funniest) part of the day was when all three of us were strapped into wedding dresses and taken to the beach. We had to hold hands and smile at the sun when they took those pictures--I can't think of anything more embarrassing, or that makes a better glamour-shot story than that. Everyone and their cell-phone was stopping to photograph us as well. It was fun to be famous, if not a little exhausting--we didn't finish until 7.30 that night.
My view out the window is now smothered with greenery from the distant hills, and blinding sparkles from the sea. The weather has been growing more and more humid by the day, but mornings are still cool and bring thick fog in from the ocean. I've been gearing up to say goodbye to good
friends who won't be returning next year, and preparing handouts for new teachers that will be arriving. It's a strange time of year for the average returning expat teacher, I think. My Belgian friend Sophie and I are planning our three-week trip to Thailand, and I've booked all my domestic flights for my 4-week visit to Canada (for which I am extremely excited!). I'm hoping I don't lose my limited Mandarin in the 2 months I'm gone.
I'll do my best to keep this updated, but of course the going gets tough when life starts to get pretty normal (constant shoving, spitting, and strange daily incidents aside). Happy start to summer!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.128s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0519s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
