china is still good. things here are basically the same as they were last week.
teaching gets a little more difficult everyday, but i am beginning to get the hang of things. the kids are adorable and want your attention so bad. i try to give all of the kids an equal amount of attention, but of course i have my favorites. and my least favorites.
linda is my least favorite at this moment in time. she happens to be in my homeroom class and she is without a doubt the smallest ball of terror known to man (man meaning english teachers in china). she is actually a big ball of terror, but she is the smallest girl in the class so she is the smallest ball of terror. i'm sure there are a few other balls of terror that lurk the hallway of happy abc's kindergarten (ps. i know that is spelled wrong. that is how it is spelled on the school, i'm just glad i haven't had to deal with them yet.
catherine (our native coordinator and best chinese friend) started teaching us chinese today. we sound like the kids we teach. it is not good. chinese is really hard. there is a poster of chinese words and pronunciations on our wall that we went over a dozen times today and i have yet to remember a single one of them. pinyin does nothing for pronunciation. not kidding. for example the letter E makes the "uh" sound. what is that? chinese; that's what. booyah!
i am beginning to miss all of my american luxuries. namely: a toilet i can sit on (i still tend to avoid using the squatter as much as possible). milk from a cow that i can drink and drink and not worry about dying from it (all the milk in china is soy and/or peanut rice. it is beyond terrible). ice cream that tastes like ice cream and not like china (the only ice cream that tastes like ice cream, is from mcdonalds). a soft bed that doesn't creak when i move (bunk beds are no good. and are even worse when the bed is made purely of raw and rough wood). water that i can drink from the tap (china water is not clean. don't drink the water.) . conversations that i can overhear anywhere i go (i'm not an eaves dropper. i just like to listen sometimes.). candy (oh how i miss candy. soft chewy candy. ps. my mouth is watering.). a dryer to cry my clothes in (hanging my clothes up to dry isn't too bad. it's the drying in the china breeze that is bad. by the time my clothes are dry they are more dirty than before i washed them.).
don't get me wrong, i love being here. there are just a few things that i miss from home. if i could have all of the above here in china, i would live here forever. ok, maybe not forever, but for a while. maybe 5 months. but if i'll only be living here for five months, i think i can do without all of those things. and guess what. i will do without.
let me just say that i miss being home.
i wouldn't change a single decision i made about coming here or being here. but i do miss home. and all that is there.
2 comments:
It was so good to talk to you and (kinda) see you on Sunday night. We miss you like crazy and it's just not the same without you. But I know you're having a great time and the memories you'll have will be so worth it. :)
We miss you too! Madilyn loved seeing you do % little monkeys swinging in a tree on Sunday. She was talking about it all night. "I saw Lindsey in China with the alligator" "She is teaching kids" It was fun to talk to you, It was crazy and hard to hear but great to see you. You look great.
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