Every day so far, I have done something new and for the first time. I find myself pushing my comfort zone by the new adventures that are out there for me to take advantage of every day. For example, going into town, taking a train to Hangzhou, meeting new people, taking a cab, taking a bus, going to the market, going out for lunch, ordering food, purchasing food, riding a bike, riding an e-bike, eating street meat, and I hadn't really thought about all of the things I have learned so far.
These are the things I have learned:
Food
- eating street meat at 2AM is AWESOME
- eating spicy food in the evening means being near a toilet in the morning
- food in China is great. Tasty. Spicy. Shared. And always a new experience (so far!)
- rice is always available
- ordering food is usually pretty easy, and the best part is, I usually get what I ordered and it is better than I could have hoped for
- KFC = great for a hangover
- so far, eating dumplings is China's best present to me!
- if you haven't noticed, I LOVE THE FOOD.
- The alcohol could use some more, well, alcohol, but I'm down with the seven dollar cases of beer!
Transportation
- riding a bike is always an adventure, and as long as you do not hesitate at an intersection, you most likely will make it through!
- taking the bus is cheap, crowded and allows you to touch people inappropriately without getting in trouble
- if people do not pay to get on the bus, the driver will LOCK the doors, hold us hostage until somebody pays up
- taking the train requires preparation, someone to help you purchase the ticket, always have somebody write down in Chinese where you are going when you get off the train and always have money on your phone incase of an emergency
- always carry your translation book
Public Toilets
- years of peeing in the bush did not prepare me for the squat toilet, you would think, growing up on Manitoulin Island that I would have been able to squat without peeing on my shoes. Nope. Not able to do it. There is a technique, I asked my neighbour. You've gotta squat low. We don't do this in the bush in fear of getting poison ivy on our special parts, here, you just have to worry about getting somebody else's pee on your pants, or worse, something crawling out of that hole you are peeing into, ahhhhh the joys of learning how to pee in a squat toilet (after a month, I am still having trouble getting this one down...) haha, down, get it
- KFC has some of the cleanest toilets, with fresh toilet paper and a place to wash your hands with soap
- taking from the above sentence, most places do not have toilet paper, a place to wash your hands, and are generally pretty smelly
- so far, somehow the Universe has guided me to the best toilets (except the one in the sketchy bar in Hangzhou, ugh, it was the smelliest one of all)
- I actually don't like when there is a Western toilet in an establishment, generally there is pee all around the toilet, on the toilet seat and are much dirtier than the squat toilets. In summary, I am kind of liking the squat toilet idea, and growing used to carrying hand sanitizer and toilet paper in my purse every day
The People
Something that amazes me about the people here is they don't seem to get mad at the things that would drive people crazy back home. In Canada, if you were honking at me, spitting by my feet, and your baby was peeing on the side walk, or taking a poop because they do not wear diapers, that would not be normal, nor would people accept that as okay. Here, living with so many millions of people has shown some sort of tolerance that we could use in Canada. People honk their horns at each other all of the time, although not in anger, just letting you know, I'm coming up behind you, move out of the way! Being in a crowded place means being touched, pushed, grabbed, and not in a mean, or inappropriate way, it is because there are so many people that it would be impossible not to be touching each other. People don't get angry about that here. I get frustrated. I start to feel anger, so, I put on my ipod, listen to some chill music and go on my way.
I am missing the space we have in Canada, but I'm only here for another 9 months, so I've found a way to be okay with the crowdedness of the city. Music helps. People stare, take photo's and wonder what were all about I guess. So, why not indulge? Take my photo! I'm beautiful! ;).
Oh, and of course Teaching...That is what I am doing here right?
- there is very little resources at my fingertips to help with planning
- the students are AWESOME
- I have quite a bit of leeway to teach the curriculum in the best way for the students to learn
- students do not have much use of computers, making it hard to plan those awesome activities I learned in Rob's Ed Tech Class
- there is huge academic pressure for them to succeed
- I love teaching the team building, tribes, setting goals...but that dam curriculum keeps getting in the way
- marking sucks, and I have to find a way to make it easier on myself
- I hate giving bad marks
- ESL is not my favourite course to teach
- I like when the students get excited about doing presentations (if only they could mark them for me as well)
- the students are very set on going to Ontario to go to school, I will somehow convince at least one to head to the West or the East coast!
- I have mostly learned that I have no idea what I am doing, and I am learning every day. I'm not exactly sure what the year doing my Bachelor of Education taught me, but trial and error is what is keeping me going.
- There are little to no resources here for you to look at, guide you or help you in any way make your curriculum. I have the other English teacher for guidance (I'm sure he is ready to throw me off a cliff with my millions of questions...).
This particular blog was inspired by this video, you should watch it, it is inspirational...
"What I've Learned" by Aja Monet
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