I Noticed

My mind has been on home a lot as you know. And as I come closer and closer to the day that I will actually leave here, I feel my eyes opening up a little more. I grew accustomed to my surrounding and nothing stuck out to me, but now I think--" I might never see these things again!"
So here's a bit of China that struck me the past few days:

On my way home from school one day, the bus had to stop for a cattle crossing. It was a seemingly most-unlikely place for a cattle crossing. We are near the sea almost smack dab in the middle of the city... and out of no where all these cows appear on the highway as their herder dude smacks them allong with a bamboo rod. I can only assume they were headed for the little river that ran through the city. Maybe it's their only source for fresh water for the cows.

On the bus today there was this old woman, mayber in her 70's. But you could just tell that she must have been such a beauty in her day. Her eyes still sparkled, she had a beautiful smile and the cutest smile wrinkles around her eyes, high cheek bones, full lips, defined facial features. I couldn't stop looking at her! She had such a beautiful face! I hope I preserve that well. he he.

When I got off the bus I still have a ways to walk before I reach my appartment, and it's always a chance to see interesting little "crazinesses" that I'm positive I'll never see in the States. Like a little boy going potty on the sidewalk. This is actually so common here, accepted, expected. But this particular little guy was making/ guiding a little river just for fun. Maybe it's a guy thing that I just never got. He was totally just playing. It weirded me out. Later on I saw more of the White Truck police confiscated somemore livelihoods. You better not get caught trying to sell your stuff on the sidewalk or they'll take it all away. And just a bit ago I saw a guy killing a chicken.

Last night I didn't get much sleep. I'm kinda running on empty lately. But there were these weird bugs in my room. They were something like mayflies. I killed as many as I could because I wasn't too thrilled about the 500 of them that were in my room. Hopefully they won't be around every night.

Today was the first time I observed a Chinese teacher's English class. Each new teacher is required to have an open lesson in order to be evaluated. She did very well. I was especially impressed with the way she spoke English 95% of the time. I know some English teachers whose English is really poor. It wasn't as rigid as I imagined a Chinese ran lesson to be. But I'm sure the English classes are more influenced by Western style teaching than other classes might be. They really dig the lecture style most of the time. I took it also as an oportunity to observe pronunciation troubles more closely. If the teacher is making certain pronunciation mistakes, it's gauranteed that the student will learn the same mistakes.

Tomorrow is Dream's Birthday. So I made a print of a photo of her and I, and bought a cute frame to put it in. I'm sure she'll love it.

PEAcE!!