Happiness is...

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It’s been a few days of darkness on my end, so I figure it’s about time for a little bit of an update.

To be completely honest, I’ve been horrendously busy being bored. See, DE presented Maeghan and me with a choice last week: To dive immediately into a teaching schedule, or to take a role as a kind of marketing puppet for a while. I selected the latter in hopes of investigating as many avenues as possible while in this world of self-exploration. I’m really, really glad that I chose the route that I did in some ways, and am not so glad in others. To the positive end, I’ve gotten to know the staff and the building WAY better than Maeghan has yet had a chance to do. She is often stuck in her classroom with planning to do and so on, so people don’t feel that they know her quite as well as they do me. Also, I’m getting to see more of the business end than Maeghan will ever see as I am a mildly integral part of the business operations team at this point due to the role I play. To the negative end, when there aren’t sales demonstrations going on, I’m kind of a tumbleweed; wandering the halls, bobbing in and out of people’s classrooms, and generally hoping to find just one peaceful hour at a computer so that I can plan for the two classes that ARE my responsibility beyond the marketing stuff.

For what it’s worth, the wandering has led me to my next new calling: teaching the whole of the DE staff to swim. Ah yes, is this ever a familiar calling. You see, our “boss” (he’s the Senior Foreign Teacher standing in as the Learning Director until our actual director returns from vacation) caught wind that I have a little experience in the water and has made it his goal to have me teach him to do the front crawl. He’s been putting on all kinds of marvelous airs about wanting to run triathlons and the like… well, he’s making such a show of the fact that I’ve agreed to teach him that I’ve now been approached by 3 others asking if I’ll help them as well. I’m starting to consider agreeing -- for a minimal charge. I’m… only… kind of kidding. Well, regardless of any venture capital that may come out of this endeavor, at the very least I’ve found a swimming buddy who – tomorrow at “half eleven” (damn British… haha) – is going to introduce me to the pool that I may very well be frequenting for the rest of this year. I’m STOKED about that prospect. There’s every possibility that the apartment complex I will someday move into might have a pool, but it may or may not suffice as a regular lap pool. This one is an Olympic training center. Oooooohhh! I think it will suffice… though I will not prejudge too soon.

Which reminds me: Maeghan and I have booked a date with a realtor. This means we are one step closer to NOT living out of a suitcase… I do pretty well with the whole traveler’s existence in half-stinking, half-wrinkly clothing out of a bag. Europe taught me that the shower is a remarkable resource when it comes to one’s laundry needs. The shower, I learned, is a fabulous tool for laundering necessaries as well as for steaming out wrinkles when familiar appliances are just not accessible. I mean, really – what did your washing machine do for you today? Did it wash behind your ears? relax your sore muscles? Mmhmm… that’s what I thought. Buuuut yeah. I’m ready to be out of suitcase mode.

Mm – on another note entirely! So, I had a birthday this past weekend. It was a fabulously good time! Several of us went out for a very light night on the town on Friday, followed by a Saturday filled with bowling and good food! Honestly, were I Stateside, that’s probably how I would have opted to spend my day. Things are a little slower and calmer on this side of 25, so a day spent NOT hung over was just the ticket! I was presented with Birthday Cake Oreos as a cake (these people… they are beautiful… beautiful people just for that fact alone), and I spent the evening watching a movie and chatting with folks at home. Nice day! But yeah, it was just a little taste that things can still be kind of normal over here, even when they really aren’t normal.

I really am settling in here very well. I still get nervous and uncomfortable every once in a while – especially when it comes to ordering food (anyone familiar with my lunch room anxiety has my permission to start nodding here…). But, the rest of it is just urban life… something I’m super familiar and comfortable with. I’m fine riding the bus to and from work, despite constant reminders that taxis are an option. I have no problem walking about in crowded areas or across crowded streets. I’m quite skilled, in general, at navigating… especially here where the street signs gloriously tell you which direction the road GOES rather than their relation to the city center. Not to mention, Hangzhou is a really awesome city in general. There are so many parks mixed in with tons of shopping centers and, of course, the beautiful lake… it’s really hard to not feel pretty good about being here. Add to that the fact that I’ve done a very good job of warming up to my staff, and that I’m am officially paired with a local “Learning Partner” that I absolutely adore… so I’m good to go. (My LP, Sara, by the way, is an absolute saving grace… she’s very excited to be in a classroom setting, is mostly laid back, but is rather assertive when it comes time to get things done. In fact, I’ve found myself being dragged around the building or even around town – as in today’s case when she took me out to get a Hangzhou SIM card for my phone - by my elbow like a child when I’m not focusing on the task at hand. Luckily, she is equally as assertive with the service people: if she even slightly detects the stink of me getting ripped off by someone, she FLIPS OUT at them… and everything sounds angrier in Mandarin, so it’s all I can do to not chime in with occasional sound effects and theme music when she gets going. But, yes, I truly enjoy Sara and all of her help. As she’s already reminded me several times, it’s not entirely what she meant, but I am still determined to hold her to her quote: “Jessi, you are my FT . Your happiness is my responsibility!” Ok, Sara… Ok.)

Until next time - Thanks again for your notes and words of kindness over my birthday this past weekend!

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