Blogs from Nanchang, Jiangxi, China, Asia - page 2

Random fireworks several times per week, playing under evening streetlights, dance lessons at school, 6 male English teachers who dote nonstop, hoards to people asking for photos in the town square, delicious street food, celebrity status, a cafeteria with 3 floors of new and exciting food, and constant activity. These are some of the things Ava loves about China. Although several of my friends were concerned about a child’s life here, I have to say it has been an excellent choice so far. She is in love with the city lights and crazy crowds. I think she even gets a kick out of the garbage piles we see when we hit up a back street. We often go shopping on a back street that connects two college campuses. Sometimes, I will stop to look at something ... read more

“Mom, look at the cute bunnies.” “Those are rabbits and people eat them for dinner.” “People eat cute rabbits?” “Yep.” “Oh.” Ava kept walking. We had seen snakes, chickens, ducks, bags of jumping frogs, turtles, and even clams that spit water at us. It seems like Shanghai Street had just about every live food we had expected to see and never buy. There were also stalls with cuts of meat that were unrefrigerated. Women were fanning the meat to keep the flies away. There was also booth after booth of fresh fruits and vegetables. Some of them were unknown to us, but most of them were familiar. There were stalls with spices, most of them hot, but some of the smells were familiar. It’s close to the Autumn Festival, so there were moon pies for sale ... read more

It’s 12:30 a.m. I’m awake because hunger has taken over. It’s definitely time for some dinner. This has been the schedule for the last few days. We wake up around 6 a.m. and go back to bed around 4 or 5 p.m. Then we sleep until 12 or 1 a.m., get up for a couple of hours, and go back to bed. I’m hoping it’s jet lag and that it will pass. By 5 p.m. yesterday, Lauryn and Ava looked like zombies; pale with bloodshot eyes and vacant stares. Zac and I power through to boost team morale. He has really been the team leader more than me, but sometimes he forgets that the rest of the team are a bunch of girls who need to stop frequently for food, water, and bathroom breaks. Still, I ... read more

I’m not quite sure why I’m still keeping up with this now that I update so frequently on FB, but I feel like I’ve committed to seeing this through to the end. I felt for sure April would drag by. After all, I didn’t have any big holidays to look forward to, no big plans to go anywhere and nothing to go and see. But here I am at the beginning of May planning my return ticket, my return plans and overall planning my last two months here. There’s definitely mixed emotions. I can still feel the dual feelings of wanting to stay another year (where else can I find a job that pays my rent?) and wanting to be somewhere familiar (everyone just stop looking at me!). I feel encouraged that my students don’t want ... read more

Spending China's biggest holiday alone feels quite miserable, honestly. The only tiny perk is that I get to eat "weird" things that are so "normal" to me. Nanchang food is not really "normal" to me, and I'm often craving the Korean and American cuisine that I'm so used to. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of American food either, but suddenly very normal things like butter and cheese are nowhere to be found, and making "normal" food is quite a challenge even with the McCormick's spice stash I brought from Chicago. Like mashed potatoes with butter. Or vegetable soup. My favorite thing to make would be chicken corn soup, Amish-style. But today I thought I'd try chili. Hearty chili on a cold day... a simple pleasure of life. I'm even willing to settle for ... read more