Falling in "love" with China

People often message me and say "Mel, it looks from your blog that you are having so much fun, enjoying your time in China, that is fantastic!" (maybe not exact words, but close!) I must say, I feel like a bit of a fraud.
"So much fun" is not how I would describe my time in China. I have decided thus far (almost five months in) that I have no strong feelings towards Jinhua. I don't hate it, and I don't love it. It just is. There are many things that are good about this place, but some of the most important things to me are the outdoors and a variety of friendships.  There are very few opportunities to walk out your back door and climb a mountain. Banff spoiled me in that way I guess. Meeting people as I have said before is terribly hard, and loneliness creeps in very easily.
If I did not have such a ridiculous debt to pay, I'm not sure that I would be in China. That is truly my main reason for being here (other than teaching experience obviously), and what keeps me motivated to stay here.
As I was on the bus today I was thinking about why people might fall in "love" with China. I was wondering if I would ever get that feeling about being here. I have decided not to travel on my month off in order to come home in a bit better of a financial situation - I'm starting to think that might have been the wrong decision. Apparently when you leave for an extended period of time you get motivated to come back and finish up the school year. I'm going to have to find a way to stay motivated without leaving.
Back to falling in "love" with China. Sitting on the bus, I started thinking about some of the things I see here that would be uncommon in Canada and that might make someone fall in "love" with China.

Situation #1 - The party scene in Jinhua

We were out the other night and I was taking in the scenery. The bar had hard alcohol sitting right there in plain reach all along the bar. Easy to reach, easy to steal, or chug at will. Know one touched a single bottle of it all night. I have never seen alcohol so readily available, and not one customer reach over to help themselves. The copious amounts of alcohol you can order is seriously disturbing. You order bottles of Rye, and bottles of Vodka, and I watch these tables of people down these in record time. In Canada, we have so many liquor laws, regulations, an actual age that you are allowed to drink at (there is one here as well, although it is not often enforced).  I'm not saying downing copious amounts of alcohol is a good thing, but by the end of the night I had not seen one fight, one disagreement, or crazy rowdiness that couldn't be controlled. You could bring in food from anywhere. You order street food, bring it in eat it, you order cases of beer instead of one at a time, and you are left to party with your friends - know one continuously bugging you asking if you need anything else.

Situation #2 - Generosity
There is a generosity here that I have not seen in Canada. People want to help you. They want you to pick the best fruit at the market, and if they think you have not chose well, they are not afraid to take it from your hand, put it down and choose another one. Eating out at my favourite dumpling place costs 4rmb - about .75cents. I try to leave the extra 1 from my five and he will not have it. He refuses to take any extra. If someone speaks even a little English they will try and help you - to the point that you get pretty frustrated because you just wanted to go in, purchase and leave. I have found that when I thought the sales people were trying to sell me more things for more money, what they were actually doing was trying to tell me about a sale they might have, or which product is a better deal for the money you pay.

Situation #3 - Tolerance
Living with four million people you would think that people would get pretty frustrated with each other. Toronto has something to learn form the driving situation here. I have rarely been in a traffic jam. And, the other night when I mentioned this, obviously we ran into one. What did the cab driver do? He pulled a u-turn on a one way street, drove back down the road and found another way to go. Honking the entire time. People do not get mad. They can't, if people got mad every time someone bumped into them, or a car cut them off they would have an enraged population 24/7. It actually blows my mind how much people just don't notice how many times they bump into you, or others. It just is the way it is. The people here have found a way to live with next to no personal space, and be happy about it.

Situation #4 - The Kids

That is sushi in those bags..Awesome.

This needs no explanation for those of you who have been keeping up with my blog. They are just amazing. For those of you who might not have known, the kids threw me a surprise party on my birthday - included were sushi, cake and homemade presents. They are wonderful, and by the way, are worried about me staying in Jinhua for the month holiday. They are not sure how I will deal with it. That worries me! (You can see below some photo's from my surprise party).


Situation #5 - Foreigners make money 
There is no doubt in Jinhua that I am able to save/pay down debt. And, in Jinhua the cost of living is so very little.  This is not the situation in other cities, but it is in Jinhua, which makes thinking about leaving a very hard choice because there aren't many places where I will be able to live the life I am, and pay down the amount of debt I do each month. This has to be one of the main draws for so many of us foreigners. Maybe the money brings us, and the people keep us here.

Here are some reasons that I am not in "love" with China.

• There is very few days with fresh air/sunshine/stars in the sky
• HEAT. I miss heat so much. The buildings, restaurants, everywhere is SO cold. It is always cold.  The heating is terribly set up - and my heat on high every day doesn't do much to heat my very drafty apartment. As soon as you turn it off, it gets cold again. It reminds me of arena heaters in the change rooms when I was figure skating - they never get warm!
• I cannot go places whenever I want to without planning how to get into town three hours in advance
• Foreigners are far and few between
• I don't speak Chinese (which is the reason for missing foreigners)
• There are very few clear days where going outside seems like a good idea
• I miss having friends who know me
• The chances of finding a relationship are slim to none
• Travel is hard...ish. It takes a lot of planning to get a train ticket and over this Spring Festival it is going to be insane on the trains.
• I live far...ish from an airport, which means I have to take the train and the subway to get to the airport
• We have so very few resources to work with at the school - it is very frustrating
• There are very few teachers here to talk about what lessons you want to plan, what excites you, what motivates you, or what you could be doing better

 Even after writing all of those things, I realize they are mostly all fixable, and pretty silly things to be complaining about. They are every day things, that most people don't even think about. Like taking a bath, or having hot water for more than a 10 minute shower, or drinking water from your tap. Mostly I really miss fresh air, outdoor adventure, and friends who know me, and those things cannot be fixed here.
What is the end result after all of this blogging today? I'm not to sure. I am still okay with living here. I like the food. I like the people I have met. And I love my students. I'm still not in "love" with China, but I've heard that love takes time. So maybe by the end of my ten months I'll have found this "love" of China that people talk about.

I've put some photo's in to sum up some of the things that have been happening over the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Yep, it is what it looks like, Turtle Soup. Sorry, but I had to try it. It is not something I will have again any time soon, kind of chewy and not at all like "chicken" which is what I was told!

One student named Ted made this for me, I think I am a pretty hot anime! 

Surprise party! My students ROCK.

My Birthday cake from the students.

Sherlock, putting the icing on my forehead, he said it is a Chinese tradition - I think it must be a universal tradition. 

Birthday shenanigans at The Red Cactus

Birthday sushi dinner!! YEAH!! (no heat...but we made the best of it!)

Snow for my birthday! We haven't had snow since, and didn't have snow before. LOVE.