I've decided to STAY. Whew! Actually, I've been thinking about it for a while now. I just wanted to see if any one felt very strongly that I should come home. But so far, every one is very supportive and encouraging about my staying here. So it's a good confirmation of what I've already been thinking. The only reason I could think of for coming home was to see family and friends. Besides that, I really felt I had no purpose for returning. I think if I would go home just to have those comforts and closeness of loved ones, I would be missing out on something greater. Like peace, contentedness, purpose, obedience, growth, adventure, and so on. So I've filled out a renewal application, but nothing is official yet. So if anything does happen that I need to come home, I am not committed til I sign a second contract. That probably won't happen for at least a couple months.
I finally got my working visa. Yeah, this entire time I've been working with just a tourist visa which is not entirely legal, and now I'm letting the whole world know! But it is not at all uncommon here. I will have to get a new visa if I stay as well. Maybe when I'm home I'll tell you the other not-so-legal things I've had to do to survive here. Yikes!
Friday after my lessons, I was getting so restless sitting in my apartment. I really needed some air. So I psyched myself up to go out by myself. (I hate going out by myself. When I'm out alone, the stares are SO penetrating it's the kind of feeling one might have in those dreams where you're naked, you know? I don't feel like this when I'm with someone. It's why I spend so much time in my apartment.) So anyway, I know I have to get over this feeling. So I went out at the best time... the lunch hour, when every one is having siesta. (Every one takes afternoon naps here). I went to the restarant and had lunch by myself, then I walked to the sea side park with my sketchbook. It was the most beautiful day ever! Perfect. The flowers were in full bloom, and the air smelled like Marigolds. I found a nice little spot on a bench near the water, and made a sketch of the scenery. It was SO peaceful and the breaze was so nice. It was great to be out in the open air. But unfortunately time went by fast, and the people traffic was increasing like the creepy men, the beggars asking for money, and every one who sees me has to say "hello0, helloo!" It's cute for like the first week, but now it's kind of annoying, especially when I just want a minute to myself in the open air. So I made my way back home to hide out in my apartment once again.
Last Saturday I made a new friend. Lilla is the English tutor for one of my students (Sasa). Sasa wanted me to meet her, so we went out for the day along with Lilla's son and his friend. Since I live in the Xiashan district, Lilla wanted to show me around the Chikan district. Lilla is super sweet, and her English is pretty good. We went shopping near the place where they're building a WalMart, and I bought a jacket (yeah, it's starting to get suprisingly cold here!) We went to a beautiful park, and talkd, jump roped, ate chocolate, and I tried to do a little Tai Chi. We went to McDonalds... they are so funny--always take me to eat KFC or McDs as if they must think I live off this stuff, when in fact I probably have eaten more often here then in the states! Whatever! Then Lilla wanted to show me her work place. She's very proud of it. I tried to seem impressed in order to not offend her, but it was just an ordinary office building.
Sunday was nice. I finally went and bought a frying pan. I was getting a little tired of cooking everything in a wok. So to break it in, I bought a really nice looking fish. I've never really fried fish before, but I was really hungry for some good fish. So I fried it up in my new pan with some ginger, salt, and fresh squeezed lemon. Dang! It was stinking good, along with some cherry tomatoes with fresh basil. Good eatin'.Sunday night was our first Chinese lesson. Brenda and I asked XiongTao to help us out. She's a physics teacher here, but her English is excellent. Brenda was getting a little frustrated and overwhelmed so left early, but I stayed on and worked on some useful phrases and using the tones. It's tough! But I think if I really put my mind to it, I could speak this language.
Last night I hung out with Lilla again. She took me to a little shop to meet her friends and for facials. It was my first time on a motor bike! There are motorbikes everywhere that are used like taxi. I've always been afraid to ride one, cuz it looks so unsafe. But Lilla called a couple guys over and she tells me to hop on a bike. What's more is I was wearing a skirt! So I'm sitting side-saddle on a motorbike, holding on to this driver for dear life with only one hand! The other was grasping my purse so it wouldn't go flying off. I was wearing floppy shoes, too, so I had to hold my feet up so they wouldn't fall off. Crazy! I can't believe I'm still alive. Ok... enough drama. People do this ALL the time. I still prefer a real taxi.
So I met Lilla's friends Coral and Linger. They barely spoke English... Only a little more then I speak Chinese. So it was kinda awkward. Lilla gave us all facials with a special product that she swears by. I'm feeling a little strange becuase these women are all like in their 40's, not that I can't be friends with them, but I just didn't know what to say. I'm used to being a big dork with my students and talking about stupid stuff like "what's your favorite color." And their English was too poor to have a real conversation. Afterwards we went out for evening tea. This means another meal after supper, aparently, since they ordered all kinds of things. One of which was pig stomache. I tried as politely as I could to refuse it. I could barely look at the stuff without getting queezy, and I've seen a lot of weird things already! How could they eat this???? I don't know. I stuck to the green vegetables.
So even after this strange night, I got another invitation to have dinner at Coral's house on Wednesday. They want to cook for me. Ok, cool. I like food. And now that they know I don't eat strange pigparts, maybe it will be ok. Evening tea lasted til midnight! These ladies know how to party I guess! I was startin' to turn off at aroun 10pm! That's when I usually hit the hay. I kept thinking about my 7:45am class the next morning.... class 24 (the bad one)! I wasn't prepared for them, I didn't realize how late we'd be out. Stress! Good thing I took a 3 hour nap earlier in the day. I was up pretty late preparing. The lesson went pretty good. But I did have to confiscate some playing cards that a boy began to deal out to his buddies during class! Sheesh.
More adventures later!
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