Blogs from Jiangxi, China, Asia - page 12

Hello All: It has been a while since my last entry. I have been meaning to post an update but always fail to do so. Anywho.. I have 2 weeks left before the end of the semester and I literally cannot wait. Since I started a few weeks later than all the teachers I am now left being the only teacher still teaching. The halls in my appartment in the morning are quiet as everyone has the luxury of sleeping in, while I fume my bitter self to class this morning. Even the school is serene because it appears I am literally the only teacher still teaching and my students are the only ones awake and around. This morning I was a bit annoyed but ended up feeling bad because my students still have incredible enthusiam. ... read more

for christmas, the management for our apt/condo building decided to decorate the lobby. i came home the other day to be greeted by bunches of pastel colored balloons- very easter-appropriate- all over the front entrance. loose balloons on the floor, balloon bouquets taped to the walls, and balloons strung up in arches to decorate doorways. somehow, i just am not in a holiday mood... i don't mean this in a negative way, really... it just doesn't feel like christmas. this is also despite wal-mart playing one song on repeat, a chinese girl with a heavy accent singing "jingle bells", in a fake cutesy voice. it was maddening to the point where i had to leave- after about the tenth time hearing the song, it felt like it was being sledgehammered into my brain. this afternoon we ... read more

yesterday wei had the day off so we went to hong cheng market in search of appliances to finish setting up the apartment. we got a rice cooker for 70 RMB (this was after a long debate- do we buy the pretty pearlescent pink one or the larger, more practical midea model? wei threatened that if i didn't hurry and make a decision, he would buy the crappiest one we saw). but aesthetics won and we came home with the pink one, as well as a pink mop, a couple random scarves, and a five-tiered shelf for my makeup/perfume/other girly stuff. all in all, a nice day for walking around and shopping- i'd say it was about 60 degrees out. we dropped all the stuff off and then finally! went to geoby where i got my ... read more

The weather here is reminiscent of a typical Seattle winter- cold and wet, alternating with periods of really cold and dry. Still, the days are not as short as those of Washington State in this time of year. I spend my time teaching, reading, practicing Chinese, writing, wandering aimlessly, eating food, and socializing with foreign and local friends. There was a feast hosted by the Foreign Languages Department on Thursday. All-you-can-eat Western food. I especially enjoyed the salad bar and buttered bread. Packed away five plates. Yesterday I was honored with an invitation to dinner at the apartment of Liu Yao, my Chinese teacher and co-worker. It was wonderful to have some home-cooked Chinese food and practice some phrases with his mother. They are from Heilongjiang Province, bordering Russia and North Korea. Probably plenty cold up ... read more

Hope all is well in your present world. I have recently gotten back into the habit of checking up on world affairs and I must say my optimism is once again depleting. However, I'm still in CHINA! so all the unfortunate mishaps befalling our world around us is the only reminder I need to actually count my blessings, and with that said, I'll continue my seemingly pretentious but unassuming role as a travel blogger. The last two weeks have been fairly busy. But only busy because I'm getting into another one of my old habits of procrastination. I gave my students mid-term exams 2 weeks ago. When I originally made up the test, I was a little oblivious with what exactly I was getting myself into. I designed a 25 question test and in addition an ... read more