I keep meaning to post, honest...

...and then I get sidetracked by everything else going on around here. I've got about 45 minutes until the banshees get here--that would be the two seven-year-old boys I "tutor" every Sunday afternoon. They could honestly care less about learning English, because they're kids and it's the weekend, so for two hours I mostly talk English at them and they repeat whatever I say and horse around. Last week was bad, I was so close to telling Catherine (who set me up with them) that I couldn't do it anymore after one of them literally ran away from me. I just need this extra money a little too bad, especially until I buy my plane ticket home next week. My winter vacation was going to be right at three weeks, but the prices are outrageous, so if I shave off a few days I save hundreds of dollars.

When I was downtown earlier, I saw a man with three chained monkeys on a street corner; I don't know if they were supposed to be doing tricks or what, he didn't really seem to have control of them. I've seen some sad-looking animals since I got here, but that was by far the worst.

On Friday before my class, one of my sweet sophomores offered me a snack. She does this everyday, and so far they've all been really good, like cookies and jello and stuff. This time, though, they were fish bones. Seriously, roasted fish bones topped with sesame seeds, spine and ribs and all. And it tasted like that bad fish smell, and it was barely 10 in the morning, so I politely nibbled before throwing it away and desperately rubbing my fingers on some curtains to get rid of the smell.

Yesterday, I got to hang out with my friends pretty much all day for our Halloween Movie Marathon. Amy is a year-and-a-half older than me, and Jason and Julianne are a bit older than her, so we all hang out together since everyone else is in their forties and up. Julianne cooked lunch and dinner, and I ate way too much candy and drank way way way too much Coke. I've been really good about limiting my soda intake here, so it was okay to splurge, but today I walked all the way home from downtown to make up for it. It's always fun to hang out with the other young people, and Jason and Julianne have nearly a decade of teaching in South Korea between them, so they have more stories and insights into the field of ESL. After listening to them, I know that I am for sure never teaching in Korea, it sounds awful.

I can't believe November is tomorrow! Where have the last few months gone? I'm having so much fun and still learning and seeing new things everyday, I'm really thankful to be here. I should probably sign off and start the banshee-proofing of my apartment...

today was a good day

The relative good and bad of days means more when you're abroad. A good day is really good, because not only was it generally good, you conquered the foreign culture, fit in, and felt at home. A bad day is really bad, because the foreign culture scores all the points for making you feel stupid and lonely and lost and confused, and everyone you want to cry to is half a day away, and they honestly don't quite understand anyway (unless they've lived abroad). So the fact that today was a good day is important.

As of this week, it's official: I love teaching. It's exciting, and there's always something new happening, and it's challenging, too. I love choreography, but it's been awhile since I got the 'thrill' that I have gotten this week from teaching a good lesson. I feed off the students' energy, and they always surprise me. Today, I was explaining something to one student during break, and all of a sudden I see a flash! Another student had taken a picture of me! I told him that he should let me know next time before, so I can look ready, then they told me to pose for a better picture. It was funny, and by second break after two three-hour-long classes, I needed to laugh. My afternoon class today is tough because it's only 8 students (after 31 this morning), and all boys. By Thursday night, I'm always ready to see my undergraduates on Friday morning. They are easily my favorites, probably because I've been working with them for seven weeks now and we know each other. They're also English majors, so automatically closer to my heart, and they are really smart and good at English. I should be writing their lesson plan right now instead of doing this...

But I felt it was important to talk about good days and bad days, because all those miles really start to add up, on both sides of the ocean. I've had more good days lately, probably because it actually feels like fall here right now, and that is my ultimate favorite season. It even smells like fall, and when the sun peeks through it looks like fall, and that makes me happy.

this makes it kinda like home

Blogspot is literally the only thing that could pull me off of Facebook right now. It's only been 2 months (to the day) since I got here, but the rest of the world just seems to move so much faster. So many people have gotten engaged and married and had babies since I left, it's insane! Now I'm starting to wonder if I was happier in my bubble without illegal internet...

I really have no idea where to begin. I mean, this is China, and everything is bigger. And we thought Texas was a "go big or go home" kind of place? Pshaw. Apart from missing my friends and my family, life here is fantastic. I don't lack for hardly anything, and nothing major for sure, I can live without grape jelly and an oven. Since friends and family are the big one, though, I'm already kind of dreading the holidays, and I cried at every Christmas episode of "House" and "Grey's Anatomy" (I bought every season of both, for cheap--gotta love it here); don't get me started on Thanksgiving, I teach all day! I am going to invest in a crockpot, though, which will feel homier. Oh, and I miss the sky because days where you can actually see it here are few and far between. It's usually rainy and always gray.

I miss this exact time last year, when life was perfect, you remember? I was living with two dear friends, getting paid to work at the theater and be in a show with more friends, and I had no other commitments. I miss the late nights, the random road trips, the coffee, the breakfasts on show mornings, and probably the last time in my life when I had no responsibilities. That was fantastic. I can't believe it's been a whole year, and how different things are now.

I am honestly not complaining though, because as far as career choices and first jobs go, I've got it pretty good. Last week was the kick start for the semester, so I went from teaching 2 hours a week to 17, which is still not much (especially considering that 15 of those are the same lesson 5 times), and I picked up a side job tutoring once a week and am helping with an English corner for the graduate students. My lesson today went over really well, as a teacher it's hard to describe the giddiness you feel when the students are really working and having fun with an activity. I like seeing that my students have these distinct personalities, because particularly at a military university we see more uniformity than anything. And they're so smart! They ask questions that make me think, and they know about so much outside of their own worlds, it's fantastic.

I really should be getting in bed now, I'm 13 hours ahead of everyone at home so it's about 1 a.m. here and I don't want to develop a bad habit of sleeping in like I had for the first month or so. Now that I can access my blog again, I promise to be more consistent, and actually blog about interesting things here in China. Zai jian!