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!