Hey everyone! Whew, one week down, and it was a long and crazy one. This was my first week of teaching and while it was rough at first, I'm getting better and more confident. The little students are so adorable, it helps make up for any rough days that I have.
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| Nasty pond with nasty trash outside my apartment. |
So here are some things I've learned about my city Zhongshan: first of all, it's loud and dirty. Some places are pretty clean, like the main shopping areas, but other places have piles of trash everywhere. I know that around my apartment building, there are areas that are covered in trash. As for it being loud, people don't really follow much traffic rules and just honk when they want others to get out of their way. And with cars, a lot of people have super-nice cars like BMWs and Lexus and Porsche. There are also these super old rickshaws and so many people have motor scooters. It's an interesting combination of vehicles.
As far as food goes, it's very different from what I'm used to but my body seems to be adjusting to it fairly well. I haven't gotten sick yet, but we'll see in another week, ha ha. It's true that they eat rice with practically every meal. The breakfast we have usually consists of rice porridge or noodles, which is actually pretty good. Lunch and dinner is usually rice with some time of meat and cooked cabbage, with soup. We also had to get used to picking the bones out of meat, especially the fish. The most surprising thing that I've had that was really good was this snack called cow ears. Yes, they dry cow ears into these chips. I tried them and they're really good. Another thing I like about China's food is their bread. It's really different because it's really soft and often spongy, but it's quite good. There's this bakery we found that sells a lot of different types of bread that are amazing!
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| Barbecue! |
I think my favorite thing I did this week was going to a barbecue. Saturday night we were invited by some of the teachers and the moms of students to a barbecue, and it was so cool. We separated into groups around these fire pits with a grill over them and we cooked our own meat and veggies over them. It was a lot of fun and we ate so much food! There were the usual meats like chicken, pork, and beef, and then there were some interesting things like squid, these kind of sprouts that looked like mushrooms, and these odd cheese-filled balls that were really delicious when cooked. It was fun to talk with some of the teachers and learn Chinese words for different foods. We also had a group of little kids there and it was a blast playing with them and teaching them songs. Definitely my favorite thing so far.
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| Me eating a squid leg. It actually wasn't bad. |
I've decided that being in China gives you a bit of an ego boost and it's also very humbling. It's an ego boost because everyone is fascinated with you because you're the only white person around. People keep staring at you and asking for pictures and what not. And when you say hello, they get the biggest smiles on their faces. You seriously feel like a celebrity. But it's also humbling because you're in a country where you can't understand anything and something as simple as ordering food can turn into a hassle because you and the cashier can't communicate. So yeah, it's interesting. But so far I'm enjoying myself even though teaching is still nerve-wracking for me. Sometimes I sit back and think, "can I really do four months of this?" and then I think, "when those four months are over, will I want to go back?" It's too soon to tell but I'm just living day by day and trying to get used to this new world I put myself in. It's totally crazy and scary, but it's insanely fun at the same time, and that's just how I like it! Until later, folks!
