I wasn't planning on updating this until after Thailand, but since I have a little bit of free time, I figured I'd share my thoughts for this week. Nanchang is EMPTY! I didn't think that it could get any worse than when I returned from Nanjing. But I was definitely wrong. It might seem a bit more empty because I am the only one left here and the rest of my teammates are in Thailand. The last group left yesterday along with Danielle. I really loved having a good friend from home here so that she could really see what my life is like here. But having someone from home made me realize how much I miss people back home. I love my life out here, my teammates, my students, the friendships that I've formed, but it all just gets harder when you realize that you can't go back to your other home for another 5 months. When I'm here with my teammates and with my students, I don't think much about home. I just do life here. My new home. But when someone from your old home comes into your new home, it reminds you of how much you miss that old place. I'm not sure how much of this actually makes sense, but I'm just trying to get out what I'm feeling right now.
Like I said before, Nanchang is empty. Yesterday I spent the day completely alone after the guys left. It was really good though. I was able to focus on lessons and work and get ready for the semester that is before me. I also had some good time with the Big Guy. It's refreshing to just be alone sometimes. But I didn't think that it was healthy for me to do that two days in a row. So I woke up this morning and headed out to the one place that I know that would be open still. Dio coffee. I love this place. It is unlike any coffee shop back at home. Think of a really nice hotel, with a piano, with about 20 people working in uniform, and absolutely no people, and that is Dio, but it's not a hotel, it just looks like the inside of one. It is a bit tai gui le (expensive), but it's become my once a week habit. Although this week, I've been here 3 times. Right now, I'm sitting here with my latte, waiting to call some people from back home, writing and watching some ladies dance with fans outside. I must say that it's a pretty nice set up for me. It's probably much better than me sitting alone in my apartment for another day. I do wish that I brought my camera to capture the fan dancing outside, but it's not really an unusual occurence so one day I'll catch them.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Empty Nanchang
So... It's been a week now since I've started this and I've been busy working to upload as many pictures as I can so that you can all see what I've been doing with my time here in Nanchang. This week has been pretty crazy though. I'm still getting over my sickness and I have basically had an asthma attack every night for the last 4 nights while trying to recover from coughing. But besides the random sickness, things have been going pretty well. Last week, I had a few friends from Changchun down for a visit. It was great to catch up with them and talk about our very different experiences while being in China. I love hearing about their students and listening to their stories from the freezing cold North. I could not even imagine living in a place that is 30 below and where your snot freezes when you walk outside. Not my idea of good weather, so I'm not going to complain anymore about Nanchang weather. On Friday morning, they left for Bangkok and we will all meet up again in a week or so in Chaing Mai, Thailand.
But this has been a week of entertaining friends because on Friday evening, my good friend Danielle flew into Nanchang to stay with me for a week. She spent her last month in India working and will be returning back to the States this Friday. It is really nice to have a familiar face from home here and be able to hang out without the use of Skype or a computer. It still freaks me out that she is sitting beside me right now, but I am so grateful to have a friend here. I have formed a family here, but it's always great to see people from home even though I am so far from there. I keep telling her that it's crazy when she is sitting in my apartment because I'm used to seeing her through my computer.
We have been having a pretty good time so far though. Although there is not much to do in Nanchang because it is not a very modern city, I have tried to show her as much of the city as I can. She was also able to participate in the culture a bit by making dumplings with us and our Foreign Affairs Officer for Spring Festival/Chinese New Year. Now me saying it in this way makes you think that it was that, just making dumplings. However this was not the case. When we were told that we would be preparing some dumplings in order to celebrate the holiday, we thought just that, a group of us would help a few school officials make dumplings. But when the group showed up, there were no school officials, but about 25 reporters and cameras and people filling up the apartment. I have never worn a traditional Chinese dress before, but we were handed a dress, but Chinese are tiny little people and I didn't fit in my outfit. But I tried. We ended up having to perform a song for the reporters and make dumplings for the cameras. It was a very interesting day that I'm glad that Danielle got to exerience. I'm not sure how much people believe the random things that happen in China, but now I have a witness to the craziness. I think that I need to just coin the phrase, "Did that seriously just happen?" This basically sums up my time in China. We have an idea of what should happen and the next thing we know, we are in front of a group of reporters singing a song in Chinese wearing traditional Chinese clothing that doesn't fit.
I finally posted all of my pictures up until this point. I hope that you all enjoy them. I will add pictures from the month of January and from Thailand when I get back. I leave for Chaing Mai on Sunday after Danielle leaves and I will be at a conference there until Feburary 5th. Then back to teaching on the 9th.
But this has been a week of entertaining friends because on Friday evening, my good friend Danielle flew into Nanchang to stay with me for a week. She spent her last month in India working and will be returning back to the States this Friday. It is really nice to have a familiar face from home here and be able to hang out without the use of Skype or a computer. It still freaks me out that she is sitting beside me right now, but I am so grateful to have a friend here. I have formed a family here, but it's always great to see people from home even though I am so far from there. I keep telling her that it's crazy when she is sitting in my apartment because I'm used to seeing her through my computer.
We have been having a pretty good time so far though. Although there is not much to do in Nanchang because it is not a very modern city, I have tried to show her as much of the city as I can. She was also able to participate in the culture a bit by making dumplings with us and our Foreign Affairs Officer for Spring Festival/Chinese New Year. Now me saying it in this way makes you think that it was that, just making dumplings. However this was not the case. When we were told that we would be preparing some dumplings in order to celebrate the holiday, we thought just that, a group of us would help a few school officials make dumplings. But when the group showed up, there were no school officials, but about 25 reporters and cameras and people filling up the apartment. I have never worn a traditional Chinese dress before, but we were handed a dress, but Chinese are tiny little people and I didn't fit in my outfit. But I tried. We ended up having to perform a song for the reporters and make dumplings for the cameras. It was a very interesting day that I'm glad that Danielle got to exerience. I'm not sure how much people believe the random things that happen in China, but now I have a witness to the craziness. I think that I need to just coin the phrase, "Did that seriously just happen?" This basically sums up my time in China. We have an idea of what should happen and the next thing we know, we are in front of a group of reporters singing a song in Chinese wearing traditional Chinese clothing that doesn't fit.
I finally posted all of my pictures up until this point. I hope that you all enjoy them. I will add pictures from the month of January and from Thailand when I get back. I leave for Chaing Mai on Sunday after Danielle leaves and I will be at a conference there until Feburary 5th. Then back to teaching on the 9th.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Well well well... seeing as how this is my first blog EVER! I guess I should explain the reasons in which I decided to start a blog. I have been living in Nanchang now for about 4 months working as an English teacher at Blue Sky University. The first few months flew by so fast that I was unable to start and even think about starting a blog. However now that it's almost Spring Festival and I have some time off before teaching again, I figured why not start a blog and finish out the year with a place to remember my adventures here. So this is my reason for writing. It has been a crazy semester so far. I sort of wish that I would have been able to have begun this before I left, but I can't dwell on that and need to look to my future adventures here (in China it's always an adventure).
So where to begin. I am currently unable to leave my apartment, once again, due to sickness. Normally in the States, I rarely get sick, but something in China allows me to get sick at least once a month in random ways. I have already been confined to my apartment due to an incident involving acupuncture in which I was unable to walk for a few days. I also have been to a Chinese hospital because of an unfortunate incident involving a hot water bottle, a plug, an electrical spark, and my finger. (What a way to spend New Years Eve!) And this is just another random ailment to add, however it's only a cold so I guess it's not as bad.
I spent my last few weeks off of work traveling around China. On January 3rd, I left with three of my teammates and another CTF'er for Xiamen in Fujian province. Laura, Aaron, Jonathan, Andy and I took a cab to the train station and were off for a week on our own. Although it was weird that we were leaving our other teammates who were going off in different directions, it was nice to get out of Nanchang for a while. My trip was INTERESTING to say the least. I loved getting out of the city and seeing new places. If you know me at all then you would know that I love to travel. But this time, for some random reason, I was sick in some form or another, the Entire trip. This includes the second half of our trip which was spent in Nanjing in Jiansu province. The second half of the trip was a bit different though. Laura headed back to Nanchang and Andy left us to meet his team in Guangzhou, so I was left with the boys. Traveling with the guys is a bit different than traveling with the girls. On our team of seven, the boys are always outnumbered in every situation but here, I was on the other side. It wasn't bad in any way, just the odds were against me on this trip. I rather enjoyed it, no drama or complaining, but just A LOT of walking. I usually don't mind walking too much but in 30 degree weather, I'm not going to lie, I'd rather take a taxi. But overall my trip was great. I enjoyed the beautiful sights and warm weather of Nanjing. As well as the amazing ocean! It is so strange to go from seeing the ocean on a semi-daily basis to going over 4 months without it. The city was definitely more modernized than Nanchang, but Nanchang is home and I was happy to come back here. Nanjing was just an entirely different feel than Nanjing. The city is full of history and museums and tourist traps, places that cost way too much money and not worth the sights. It was cold though, but the cold was worth it just for STARBUCKS!!!! Yeah, no bucks in Nanchang or coffee shop type feeling places, so it was good to go out and just relax in a bucks for a few hours. I was tired of Western food by the end though, so I was ready to come back and have some real Chinese dishes again. I'm not going to lie, Nanchang's food is excellent and very inexpensive, which makes it taste even better.
I'm going to try to update this thing as much as I can, which will probably only be once a week or so, and I'm going to try to get all my sweet pictures on here so ya'll can see what I'm up to.
So where to begin. I am currently unable to leave my apartment, once again, due to sickness. Normally in the States, I rarely get sick, but something in China allows me to get sick at least once a month in random ways. I have already been confined to my apartment due to an incident involving acupuncture in which I was unable to walk for a few days. I also have been to a Chinese hospital because of an unfortunate incident involving a hot water bottle, a plug, an electrical spark, and my finger. (What a way to spend New Years Eve!) And this is just another random ailment to add, however it's only a cold so I guess it's not as bad.
I spent my last few weeks off of work traveling around China. On January 3rd, I left with three of my teammates and another CTF'er for Xiamen in Fujian province. Laura, Aaron, Jonathan, Andy and I took a cab to the train station and were off for a week on our own. Although it was weird that we were leaving our other teammates who were going off in different directions, it was nice to get out of Nanchang for a while. My trip was INTERESTING to say the least. I loved getting out of the city and seeing new places. If you know me at all then you would know that I love to travel. But this time, for some random reason, I was sick in some form or another, the Entire trip. This includes the second half of our trip which was spent in Nanjing in Jiansu province. The second half of the trip was a bit different though. Laura headed back to Nanchang and Andy left us to meet his team in Guangzhou, so I was left with the boys. Traveling with the guys is a bit different than traveling with the girls. On our team of seven, the boys are always outnumbered in every situation but here, I was on the other side. It wasn't bad in any way, just the odds were against me on this trip. I rather enjoyed it, no drama or complaining, but just A LOT of walking. I usually don't mind walking too much but in 30 degree weather, I'm not going to lie, I'd rather take a taxi. But overall my trip was great. I enjoyed the beautiful sights and warm weather of Nanjing. As well as the amazing ocean! It is so strange to go from seeing the ocean on a semi-daily basis to going over 4 months without it. The city was definitely more modernized than Nanchang, but Nanchang is home and I was happy to come back here. Nanjing was just an entirely different feel than Nanjing. The city is full of history and museums and tourist traps, places that cost way too much money and not worth the sights. It was cold though, but the cold was worth it just for STARBUCKS!!!! Yeah, no bucks in Nanchang or coffee shop type feeling places, so it was good to go out and just relax in a bucks for a few hours. I was tired of Western food by the end though, so I was ready to come back and have some real Chinese dishes again. I'm not going to lie, Nanchang's food is excellent and very inexpensive, which makes it taste even better.
I'm going to try to update this thing as much as I can, which will probably only be once a week or so, and I'm going to try to get all my sweet pictures on here so ya'll can see what I'm up to.
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