Week 10 of 19

It's Sunday, October 28, the beginning of week 10 of 19 total weeks I will be in China.  It's half over already!  I've been here two months, which doesn't sound that long, but two more months until I get to eat chocolate and pizza again seems pretty long.  I have thoroughly enjoyed most of the food I've eaten here.  Now I'm running into the dilemma of eating too many carbs and too little protein.  I know that once I return home I'll miss a lot of the food here, and I may never get the chance to eat the authentic stuff again.  Whenever I get feelings of homesickness for my family or friends, I need only to walk outside to regain an appreciation for where I am.  Even after two months sometimes I will be walking down a crowded street and suddenly stop and think, "wow, I'm really in China."  It's still surprising sometimes, like I've been dreaming this whole time.  I never imagined I would be here.  It's a humbling and amazing feeling to be surrounded by things you could never imagine in your wildest dreams.  It's like a different world, and it makes me happy just to know it's here, living and thriving just a few thousand miles away from home.

This is such a short experience in my life, but it has already convinced me of the beauty and variety of people, and it's convinced me that diversity and new experiences are the most important things in life.  I've been understanding the following line from the book Into the Wild: "The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

Planning lessons each week is stressful because there are so many factors to consider, but the time I spend with my students is amazing.  They never cease to surprise me and they make me smile and laugh every day. They are extremely social, often holding hands and linking arms in the halls (always with their friends of the same gender).  I was told that the students aren't allowed to have "boyfriends" and "girlfriends" in school.  I suspect that they do, but keep it secret from the teachers.  They are in middle school and high school after all.  But there is definitely a lot of love between friends, and they are very supportive of one another.  Though they are never afraid to laugh at each other during class, but it's always out of love.

Some new observations...

Yesterday I walked down the street and saw two toddler boys pull down their pants and pee into a sewer together and then run back to their mom who was working at their family store.  I've seen this act before but it was still slightly surprising at first.  It was a normal act for them, as toddlers are expected to do their business in the street when they're not in a building with a bathroom.  They seemed very proud of themselves and obviously not embarrassed at all.  It made me smile.

My students are can be shy when they are asked to raise their hands and answer questions in English, but they aren't shy after class!  I played games with some of my 7th grade students last week and we had to sing a song when we lost a game.  They were not embarrassed to sing in front of their peers, which was so cute.  They were so happy and energetic, it was contagious.  Though the students spend most of their waking hours in school and will gladly complain about how much work they have, they are usually in very good spirits.

Parents are constantly teaching their children.  It's common for a parent to encourage their small child to say hello to me in English when we're near each other on the subway.  I've also heard them practicing numbers, letters, and colors in English.  The picture below of two little girls was one of the cutest scenes I've witnessed yet.  I was waiting to meet someone at a bus stop and one girl was waiting with her grandparents.  The next girl walked up with her parents and the adults encouraged the two tiny strangers to shake hands and introduce themselves.  They immediately became friends and started playing games together and posing for pictures for us.