Dawn's Blog

For anyone who didn't already know this, I am leaving this weekend to go home for a few weeks over Chinese New Year. I'm pumped. Hopefully I'll see some snow this winter.

Anyway, on an unrelated topic, here's some of the stuff I've been doing the past week.

Teaching Chinese children. Usually I teach college-aged and older students, but we're doing a special Winter Camp for kids. They're really cute. Maybe a little bit completely out of control, but they're cute. 

Teaching Chinese children to rap and beat box (or trying to). The rapping was part of the phonics lesson I was supposed to teach. The beat boxing was just something I added to spice things up. It turned out to be an utter failure. But I'm still glad I tried it.

Exploring on the subway. They built a new subway line that ends about ten miles from our village, so my friend Shi and I decided to go exploring on it one day. We got on the subway, picked a stop that had a name we liked, and got off the subway there. Our first try was a dud. Nothing but construction. So we got back on the subway. We picked out a random person and decided we would just get off wherever he did, or after 4 stops, whichever came first. This time we had success. We ended up at the "Pearl Market" (a giant tourist shopping center with hundreds of stalls that all sell the same things, the sales clerks try to convince you everything is "real leather", and where bargaining skills are crucial), bought a few gifts to take home, and even ran into some friends.

Playing volleyball. Yes, I know it is January. Yes, we play outside. Volleyball is not normally a popular sport in China, but it is here. Almost every day, sometimes more than once a day, regardless of the temperature, you can find people playing volleyball in the back yard.  Its almost an obsession. This is one of my favorite things about living here. I even find myself making clothing choices based on how conducive they are to playing volleyball. For example, I never leave home without at least two pairs of gloves: a big pair to wear while I'm riding my bike, and a smaller pair for playing volleyball.


Getting ready to come home! I haven't actually packed yet. But I did get some snacks to eat on the plane, and I wrapped everyone's Christmas gifts.

The last few weeks here have been quite a roller coaster for me. Lots of really good stuff has happened, but a lot of pretty bad things have, too. For example, Lydia and I have a new roommate. That's a good thing. She's a lovely young lady from England and we are very glad to have her. But we now have problems (well, maybe just one) that we didn't have before. As I was getting ready to write this blog, I flipped a light switch, and, for the second time this week, our circuit breaker flipped and our power went out. Apparently our electricity can't handle having all three of our heaters on at one time.


Anyway, I'll try to give you a summary of what's been going on. I always prefer to get the bad news first, so then I can look forward to the good news. If, however, you prefer the good news first, skip down to the GOOD NEWS section.

BAD NEWS

1. Stress. My job title has recently been switched from just "Teacher" to "Teacher" and "Part-Time Activities Director." As in, planning and executing fun/educational activities for the students. This is normally not a huge deal, and I love thinking of fun things that we can do with the students. However, the Winter Intensive Program (or WIP, as we like to call it) that we are doing is just that - intensive. Our schedules have been changing on almost a daily basis, causing us to redo our lesson plans and causing me to be responsible for even more activites.

 2. My wallet got stolen.  Yup. Today. I went with some of the students to the outdoor market this morning, and somewhere between the trinkets and the cabbages my wallet got snatched out of my backpack. The good news about this was that my passport was not in my wallet, nor were my credit cards, and I had less than $50 in cash in it. The worst part was that it was a new wallet that Julie sent me for Christmas and I loved it. And my drivers' license was in it. And my Chinese bank card. Instead of using my day to get ready for the rest of the week, I spent an hour and a half waiting in line at the bank to cancel my bank card and get a new one, hoping that the thieves were not out spending my money while I was standing in line, cold and hungry.

GOOD NEWS

1. I have a new flatmate. Her name is Arwen. She's from London. She's an intern at the foster home, and she's been here for a couple months already.  She's going to Malaysia over break and when she returns, her old roommates will be gone, so she wanted to move in with us to be with some people she knows. I hope to start using words like "loo" and "flat".

2. I went ice skating. I love ice skating. I only fell twice.

3.  I'm coming home in two weeks.

4. Tonight I watched Legally Blond while eating chocolates and strawberries with my roommates.

5. I bought strawberries at the market today before my wallet was stolen. I feel very good now about the purchases I have made in the last few days. If I had not spent that money, it would have just been stolen and be gone anyway. Riches are so fleeting.

6. I hope to have a summer break. The school has changed their schedule, and has offered the teachers the option of ending our contract at the end of June instead of the end of July. I plan to do this and then take a couple weeks to travel down to south China to Guilin and maybe some other places. After that, I will go home and spend some time with my family. I am extremely excited about this.

I've been having a lot of 'firsts' the past few months, and you would think that it is because I'm in China; but mostly, its not.  I've been to Ikea for the first time, saw The Nutcracker for the first time, saw Fiddler on the Roof for the first time.

Yesterday I went snowboarding for the first time.  When we got to the ski resort (I'm not sure if you could call it a 'resort', but that's the only word I could come up with) I still wasn't sure if I wanted to stick with my usual skiing or try snowboarding. So my friend Corrie and I came up with a plan; I would get skis, she would get a snowboard, and then we could trade halfway through the day.

Skiing was great. I only fell once. And that was about 30 seconds after I put my skis on for the first time, when I was on my way to the first tow rope. Awesome.

And then I tried snowboarding. People always look so cool when they snowboard. I was hoping that by the end of the day I'd be doing some jumps, maybe even some flips. I decided that I could be the female version of Shaun White.

That didn't happen. I fell. A lot. A funny thing happens when both of your feet are attached to a board; when you fall, the only thing to catch yourself with is your butt or your knees. Needless to say, I did not look cool. I probably looked tired, and wet. I get stared at enough here because I'm, well, not Chinese; falling all over the bunny hill definitely did not help that situation. I did get a little better, and I managed to make it down the bunny hill without falling (my new goal for the day) one time.

Today I woke up a little sore. And after staying up  past midnight (Happy New Year!) last night I was still tired. Which was fine, because I had absolutely no obligations for the day. So I was lying in bed being thankful for my warm bed and the fact that I could stay in it for as long as I wanted, when I got Jack Johnson's song Banana Pancakes stuck in my head, and then a craving for pancakes. I was a little disappointed when I remembered that I'm in China and they don't really have pancakes here, but I could settle for a good bowl of Apple Rings and milk.

Miracles do happen. About ten minutes after I finally dragged myself out of bed, a friend called to invite me over for a pancake lunch. Yup, true story. They had bought a box of mix and wanted to share. I told them I'd bring some bananas.

 All in all, a great New Years holiday. I hope yours was just as good. Xin nian kuaile! (Happy New Year!)