Advertisement
Published: August 11th 2009
Temple
The Buddhist Temple was surrounded by vegetation so it was hard to really get back and capture the entire structure without being obscured.Ni Hao friendly people,
I'm still alive and kicking in the PRC. Sorry about the lack of an update as of late. I had a really busy week of school and then I managed to get sick with some nasty little bug that really put me out of commission. Happy to report that I am feeling a LOT better and should be in tip top shape in no time. If I had to guess I'd say it was caused by strange hybrid mix of heat, stinky tofu, and 1000 year old eggs. I will probably never know... BUT 1000 year old eggs are REAL, and I did eat them, you shouldn't. Ha Actually they are pretty harmless but they do look like the name implies. The past couple weeks have been filled with teaching, Buddhist temple visiting, teaching, preparing for superstardom, being sick, and teaching.
Teaching has sorta kicked my butt lately. A good portion of my day is eaten just planning for lessons I will teach later. Although I have fallen in love with some of my classes. I had one class of teenagers that I really had a lot of fun teaching. The students all spoke decent
The resort
beeee ooootiful! english which gave me the opportunity to really connect with them. Everyone has a distinct personality and its awesome to see them grow and open themselves up during the course. They seemed to really enjoy me as a teacher too (they brought me candy treats!). Sounds corny but it was truely very rewarding and I will miss them.
One nice day I decided to have class outside in the park. The kids LOVED it, I'm pretty sure they have never gone outside for a class before. I also like to bring them candy treats, when I have the opportunity, and of course STICKERS. I got a new batch of stickers from America (Thank you mom!). I even got some Scratch N Sniff! You can't imagine how much they love them, I think I'm already out of the strawberry. I never go to class without a full assortment of stickers. The word is too that I have more stickers on the way (Thanks Aunt Chris!!). Teaching is a lot of fun, you can find ways to be creative and do new things everyday.. IF YOU WANT. I think I'd go crazy if I had to invent completely new activities everyday.
resort
another picture of everyone swimming and having fun Buddhist Temple Day! I visited a Buddhist temple and it was truely breathtaking. The temple was positioned high in a mountain jungle with a lake to its back while overlooking a waterfall.. I can't make that up. The experience was both peaceful and surreal. The mountain fog combined with the rich smell of burning incense created a dreamlike atmosphere. I was in awe. The scene did not require a forced pause of feigned appreciated. The place simply grabbed you and sucked you in. No paltry description or pictures can do it justice. It is a sight you need to see for yourself.
The trip to the temple was part of a larger trip planned by TPR (my school) to get the staff out for some BBQ and relaxation. We went to a beautiful resort for some swimming and food. The pool area was located in a valley between some mountains outside of the cities. The place looks like an exotic getway (I guess it is). We all swam and ate delicious food late into the night. Buckets o Fun!
Although being the tropics and being in the jungle insects are the size of dinner plates. They can
Dragons
Dragons are outside many of the banks.. to protect the treasure inside I guess huh be really pretty freaky. I took pictures of some spiders the size of my hand (see pictures). I also had one spider go down that back of my shirt. I knew right away something had fallen down my shirt but it was so large my brain never even thought to think it could possibly be a spider. I assumed it was a huge chunk of bark that had fallen off a tree or something.. NOPE. Looking back Im really glad I didn't know what had happened untill after I got the "bark" out of my shirt.
Lastly while I was at the resort I took pictures with maybe 200 Chinese people. I don't know where they were coming from, but it must be an area of China that never sees foreigners. They were all very nice and I gave my best victory sign (peace sign) for all of them. Times like this I feel very foreign but super cool. The school has taken a lot of pictures of me too, at parties and stuff, and I'm starting to spot pictures of me on little displays for TPR around the school. I know current teachers who are on billboards for
Chinese
A Chinese charater written on a boulder. I think it means something like good luck or fate brought us together. TPR on the expressway and stuff. I'm hoping they are really just grooming me to be the new face of TPR. I think it would be really cool to see my ugly mug plastered 50 feet in the air staring over the city. Can't wait!!
Well thats all for now folks. Again thanks for all the comments and support. Feels good hearing from people back home, especially when you arn't feeling that good yourself! Take care, untill next time - Zai Jian!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0286s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ben
non-member comment
Looks like a lot of fun at the resort and the temple was beautiful. I liked the "bark" story Ben