It’s been over a month
since I last posted, so I will attempt to catch you up on all that has been
going on.
At the beginning of
October, China celebrated National Day and it lasted a week. During that week, I went bungee jumping (from
the tallest bungee jumping place in China!
It was AMAZING!!!), to Hangzhou, and experienced my first 15 hr slow
train ride. The latter was a mistake, one
that I will NOT make again! Haha
I also took my first field
trip during October. We went to a
memorial called Yushan and guess what, it was all in Chinese, so I can’t tell
you too much about it. There were
traditional temples there and it was truly amazing how a group of 20+ 5 year
olds can go from being, well a normal group of 20+ 5 year olds yelling and
running to quiet and reverent. Even at such a young age, they can recognize
that Temples are special places.
As crazy as my schedule is
and as crazy as it makes me, I wouldn’t change it! If it changed, then I wouldn’t be teaching my
4th, 5th, and 6th graders and they have become
my favorite part of the week. This could be due to the fact that my 6th
graders have now made me breakfast on 2 different occasions or that I can have
conversations with them, or maybe, just maybe, I do enjoy teaching older
grades. Who knows! All I know is that they have quickly become my
favorite part of the week!
We visited the University
that is affiliated with our Kindergarten and saw/learned two things that are
worth noting. First, everyone that
attends university also must join the military (like ROTC in the States).
EVERYONE. Second, at the Teacher Universities,
students have to take four specialty courses before they can become teachers:
piano, dance (ballet style), art, and singing! Crazy huh?!?
Needless to say, if the States was like this, I probably would not be a
teacher right now! I would have loved
the singing class, been frustrated by the art class, kicked out of the dance class
(unless it was two-stepping), and maybe learn how to play the piano.
Next comes Halloween. As
an American, I am an expert on all things American, like Halloween. That being
said, Erin, Chris (expat from England), and I got to plan a school wide
Halloween party. Imagine 100+ 4 year
olds doing a group dance, then rotating stations to do Halloween crafts. If you are picturing kids running around
screaming and dancing, then you aren’t too far off. Haha Honestly though, it
wasn’t as crazy as we thought it would be.
And even though Halloween hasn’t been at the top of my favorite holiday
list, it was fun to see how differently it is celebrated here versus at
home. At home, it is more of a big deal
at home than in school (especially public schools) and here, it’s the opposite.
I have been taking Chinese
lessons for the past two months now. First
off, for any of you who don't already know, Chinese is very practical and
straightforward. There's no fluff and it is only spoken in present tense
(hooray for no verb conjugations!!). But Chinese is also very hard. There are 4
different tones that completely change a words meaning. But that same word in
the same tone can mean 10+ different words, depending on the character and
context. For those of you who know me, you know that I didn't like school
growing up (I know, I know! Ironic). I would even go as far as trying to
pretend I was sick (notice how I said “trying”). So this process should be interesting and fun,
hard and frustrating, but the way I see it is I am gaining more empathy for my
students here and at home that are learning English. And I will (hopefully) be able to say that I
can speak Mandarin!
That's what I've been doing, but I figure that if
you made it this far, you deserve to know how my head and heart are as well.
It's been tough being here (which I expected). There are days when I take it in
stride and others where I don't. I've been thinking a lot about next year and
what I want to do. My heart longs for normalcy and to be back in my old life,
but in my head I know that even if I went home today, nothing would be the same.
I know that what I miss are my “people”.
The people who know my heart and I know theirs. The people I have been
doing life with, that I share struggles with, that I share good times with. I know that in order for me to enjoy my time
here, I have to find those people here and let them in. I also need to stop
looking at the future and enjoy my time here and now. For now I take comfort in knowing that I am
where He wants me and that as long as I am striving for Him, the plan
will be made known. I don’t want to look
back at this experience in 5 or 10 years and realize that I let my feelings
ruin what could have been an amazing year.
As always, thanks for
reading, for the thoughts, and all the other stuff!
I will post pictures ASAP!
Peace, Love, and Go Frogs!
(frog is Tiánjī田鸡)
Jodi
