nearly november

The time has been flying so fast, it's starting to freak me out a bit.  It feels like I was still on summer vacation just last week!  But with the days occupied with teaching and the weekends full of friends and shopping and dinners and parties, it's only natural that the busy-ness has been distracting me.

It's probably because my weekends keep flipping my sleep schedule, but I'm in another pattern of sleepless nights.  I was up at 7 a.m. local time, now it's 8:30 and I've already had breakfast and am watching St. Elmo's Fire--not my favorite Brat Pack movie, but the only one I can find online for free.  It's the first morning I've been up before 10 a.m. since last Thursday, when I had to get up for 8 a.m. class.  I know, I'm super-lazy, especially within the perspective of all these other teachers I'm meeting who are working their tails off nearly every day (and sometimes night) of the week.  I feel bad talking about my job, let alone complaining about the minor inconveniences like not having many students.  Actually, no one showed up for my Monday afternoon class yesterday, and I had only had 2 students anyway, so now I guess I'm only teaching 3 days a week?  I still have to go in, though, we're not allowed to be absent even if there aren't any students.

It's finally turned a little colder here, and windy, so the cracks in my doors and windows not only let in air but also create eerie music sometimes.  If I could have the current temperatures minus the rain, plus a little more sunshine, it would be my ideal weather.  I'm finally getting to wear my favorite and cutest jackets and pants and other cool-weather gear!

To be honest, I haven't much motivation to write.  I neglect this blog, but with better Facebook access I feel like enough people know enough of what's going on in my life.  I'll try to be better, and to put more photos on Flickr.

when vacation is a bad thing

As unbelievable as it sounds, I am not the biggest fan of the break I have from teaching right now.  We started with our graduate classes last week, taught Monday through Thursday, and now we have a break until this Saturday (not excited about teaching all day during the weekend).  Last Saturday, October 1st, was National Day, when Chinese celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it is one of what is called the "Golden Weeks" when the general population gets an entire week off from work and school.  I haven't left the apartment since I got home early on National Day morning from a fun night out with new friends, and today I only opened my door once to stick my head out and see if anything was out in the hallway--what a life I lead.  Many foreigners try to keep a low profile and stay close to "home" during the Golden Weeks, because the other 1.3 billion people in the country are all traveling at the same time, but I'm going stir-crazy!  (Sorry, I'm currently a little freaked out by the sounds of artillery fire and hopefully other plain fireworks outside...)

If you know me on Facebook, you know that the night of my birthday was probably my favorite so far.  I organized a barbecue for all the teachers in the building, and some teachers invited other guests so we got to actually meet and network with new people!  One guy that came is from Texas originally, and he and his Chinese wife were on a local dating show airing that night so when it started raining we moved into the building to watch his segment, it was awesome.  I started talking with a Brit and his Chinese wife, and when some people started to leave after the show was over they invited me downtown with them.  The guy that had come in with them looked familiar to me, and it turns out that he and I had been friends on Facebook for about a year now--he works at a local hotel, but we had never met in person!  I talked another teacher and her husband into coming with, and we headed into town to continue the night of fun (and actually start some real birthday festivities, since I had been planning and setting up for the barbecue all day).  We started at a local bar popular with expats, then moved to one dance club, then to another.  I hadn't been out dancing in soooo long, probably not since C.R., so that was my favorite part of the night.  Come 5 a.m., I was exhausted and ready to head home, but our little group decided to grab some Mickey D's first.  On the way up the stairs, the Brit slipped (it had been raining for hours at this point) and literally busted his head open.  I can't remember the last time I saw so much blood in person!  We convinced him to head to a hospital, and we all walked there together, but it was like something out of a horror film, I kid you not.  Dried blood on the floor, in drops and smears, and even blood on the beds and in the seats for family and friends in the hallway.  Once we knew that our friend wasn't going to die, it turned into a little more fun, posing for pictures while he was bandaged like Frankenstein.  Since the Brit and his wife live way out of town they didn't want to catch a cab, so the guy who works at the hotel offered his room as a place for all of us to crash; I had been invited to lunch at a friend's girlfriend's mom's house, so I opted to catch a bus home since it was about 7 a.m. at this point.  I wish I had stayed, because I ended up not going to lunch anyway and just sleeping on my couch.

It was so much fun to be out with other people my age, doing what I enjoy doing.  The last time I "went out" out for my birthday, the person I was with tried to leave me by myself downtown, but this year, these people I'd just met were so concerned that I would be able to get home safely and by myself.  It's like, you know that there are nice people in the world, and we all know nice people, but to have these new friends be really nice to me made me feel better about being in this big old country by myself, away from everything I know, on my birthday.  I wish I had met them last year, but I hope we can all make up for lost time and make this year the best so far!