Sick and the Drink

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Last night a bunch of the old teachers who are mostly all leaving to go back home or various other places in the world besides Dalian got together and all had dinner together before they left. Three of the new teachers were invited so we all joined them. We had an awesome time, went to this little kabob place and ordered a ton of kababs (they're probably a quarter each). The waiters and waitresses bring out little boxes that have fires in them and a little grate on top so that you can sit the kabobs on the fire and cook them yourself. It was really awesome. We all had some Chinese beer too (not too bad stuff) and I got to meet a bunch of people here which was also cool. Then we went to another place where everyone sat outside and it's very chill (called Noah's). Smoked a bunch and drank a little more. It was apparently a place where a lot of the teachers from other schools go so we got to meet others who would be around for a while longer in Dalian. People kept coming in for us to meet, it was really great. Anyways, afterwards I decided to walk home. Once I got home I walked in the door and the light in the other room was on. I had a new roommate. His name is Jaad. He's of Middle Eastern origin but he's from ..... you guessed it, Canada! (I swear everyone around here's from Canada.) Anyways, unfortunately no one had told me he was coming and he was up sick with the flu and having jet lag. So I stayed up and talked to him and got him some stuff to make him feel better. Then I went to bed. Today he is still very sick and has spent the whole day so far in bed. I feel really sorry for him but I very much enjoy taking care of people (makes me feel more at home). This morning I checked up on him and then went to meet Cat and Ernie (the vice president) for breakfast at McDonalds. Then I went back to Jaad and got his passport, Jason (a Chinese person who works at Rockies) took Russell and I to get our visas registered at the police station. Then I went back home to have lunch while Jaad slept. Unfortunately in the afternoon I learned that the teaching process that would be taught in our orientation is the exact same as that of TEFL and that we don't get the opportunity to create our own lesson plans at all (which kind of sucks). Hopefully I will still have a lot of fun here. I also realized that the Chinese classes that we have this week are the absolute beginning. So basically everything that I did in Boston I am repeating here in China for this first week. At least now I have time to focus on other more important things - like my Chinese and making friends here. It seems that culture shock here isn't bad at all, I've hardly felt anything. It's just the language that I'm having the most difficulty with. People are running around me, staring at my computer and speaking a lot of Chinese so I'm going to go now.

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