I won't go into all the details of my life over the last three years because there are A LOT! haha.. but we can get re-acquianted starting with where I'm at today...
So much has happened in the last couple weeks and I feel like I haven’t had the time to allow it to catch up with me, I’ve only been moving with momentum. Inside my skin there is a confusing combination of sturdy walls of peace and turbulent waves of anxiety. The waves relentlessly crash upon the walls in efforts to knock them down, but sturdy they remain.
recently..after I found out about some questionable activities that were going on at my place of residence I really felt like God was asking me to GET OUT of there. It was a really hard thing for me to do. I was friends with my roommate who is not a believer and over the last 7 months of living together she had mentioned numerous times that if it was God in me that made me obviously different from others then she wanted to know who this God person was. It seemed God was using me to be a bit of a beacon in her life, unbeknown to me. That was a huge encouragement, and a huge responsibility. It acted as a form of accountability for me in the way I chose to live my life. It also was heavy in the sense that I had to maintain this pedestal standard she had placed me on. I am not pedestal material! None of us are. The only reason we are any different is because of the grace of God, and the value he puts on our lives. It is nothing we can measure up to on our own strength. The only good she saw in me was because of what Jesus was doing in and through me. I only hope that she knew how to make that distinction. So after finding out some things that were going on at my place, I stood right in the vortex of a moral dilemma. Torn between my fear of ruining the witness I had established within this friendship, and what I felt was obedience to leave. To know that God knows best and to still choose disobedience is really rather unintelligent and not worth the risk.
So i prayed. I prayed for days that if moving out was the right thing to do that God would allow it to go smoothly. so, when I told my roomie that i was thinking of moving out (based on the circumstances) of course i expected her to be very receptive and understanding. this actually was not the result. Things got pretty angry and uncomfortable at my house. this was really painful for me. So i started to doubt that i was making the right choice. Then Thursday night a very good, very amazing friend called me to see how I was doing. Through sporadic tears I filled her in on what was going on at home..and within half an hour she was at my house and within two hours she had all of my stuff moved out of my place and into hers. I guess God's definition of "smooth" is quite a bit different than mine...
So now here I am out on an open range, fully exposed and raw, a perfect target of attack. Much like Bambi’s mother. Only my hunters are mostly of the hungry spiritual variety, not the hungry human kind.. and I'm not going to die :)
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Saturday, September 15, 2007
OVERDUE!
So I suppose it has been QUITE awhile since I’ve updated my blog. SO SORRY FAITHFUL READERS! Well this has BY FAR been the craziest, busiest, most stressful month of my Chinese life so far. I’ll take it back to the beginning. OK so, when I first started working for my boss, Jenny, I worked CRAZY over time hours for her. People thought I was crazy, but I wanted to help her out. So in exchange I asked her for my normal contract hours (22) for the month of August while my friend was up visiting.
My best friend, Ashlee came up to visit for three weeks. AMAZING, I know! It was so great of her to come here. We had such a wonderful time. There were some complications involved when she first came. The plan was for me to go to Beijing, pick her up and we spend the weekend together in Beijing. So I hopped an overnight bus to Beijing, so excited to see her AND to see Beijing. A few hours into the ride I get a phone call. It’s ashlee, nearly in tears because she missed her plane. “FRICK!” I thought.
Haha.. it’s funny now. But there was weeks of build up for this visit and it was truly disappointing. So I convinced myself that it just HAD to work out. I was going to Beijing, my hotel was already booked. It wasn’t going to be a waste of a trip. So she did eventually make it to china. A day late. So I had to spend the weekend in Beijing alone. And it was great! I had such a good time. I went to Tianamen Square, I went to the Summer palace, and I met so many people! I met some people at Tianamen and we went to a tea festival. It was so cool! And I had never spent the night in a hotel alone before so it was a cool experience. It was nice to have some time alone. I haven’t really been alone since I got to china. So anyway Jenny agreed to let me have my normal hours. Then when I came back from Beijing she had me working 7 hours overtime! So I brought the subject to her and asked her about it, asking her why I still had more hours than the other teachers when she had agreed to the contract hours. She denied it and said that I never asked her for the contract hours. It was a mess. So that didn’t end very well. But she did change the schedule back to only 2 hours overtime, which I was verbally grateful for. But since that day I went from being the on top favourite teacher to the black sheep. She made up nasty stories about me to the other teachers, and pitted them in competition against me. whenever she had an ounce of a problem with me she went to the other teachers and to my other friends. She blatantly undermined me in front of students and their parents. I DID NOT come all this way to china, and work this hard to be treated with such little respect. My reputation that I worked hard to build over the last 4 months was slashed to ribbons in a week. So I talked with jenny over dinner telling her that she needed to start acting like a mature professional or I’m leaving. She said she would. But things only got worse. She told the other teachers she didn’t believe I was really leaving and that it was an empty threat and that she “owned” me. So I promptly gave her my notice and started looking for another job. I’ll come back to this later. I’ll talk about Ashlee’s visit first J
We went to shanghai for a few days and had SO much fun! We went to all these illegal fake brand name stores. And we found this Ice bar. It was so cool! (pun possibly intended J) it was this bar made entirely of ice. The menu was ice, the cups were ice, the seats were ice. There were ice sculptures.. it was all ice. They give you these Eskimo coats and gloves when you go in. you’re aonly allowed to be in the bar for 45 minutes and then you have to go out for a while and warm up. I figured because we are from Canada we could handle it. NO WAY! We stayed in there long enough to have one drink and we were outta there! They weren’t lying about the cold. Then the next weekend we went to Beijing! It was great! We went to the forbidden city the first day. It was really interesting. I wish I knew more Chinese history. (I took a bunch of pictures for you Grandpa!) and the next day we went on a tour with 7 other people to the Ming Tombs and the GREAT WALL! It was raining all day, but it seemed to add something special. Something more mysterious. I really enjoyed the tombs. The things they told us were so interesting! But the great wall was fantastic! ( I took a bunch of pictures there too!) we had such a great time up there. We had to take this roller coaster trolley thing up the side of a mountain to bypass the busy part so we could actually get to the wall. It’s a very busy place. They had bears outside the wall in a habitat that you could throw cucumbers to. I was a little disappointed that they weren’t panda bears. I’ll see those before I leave, I promise! So that was Beijing. Beautiful and interesting.
When we got back to Weihai we visited the beach in the evening. I guess this summer was the summer for all the jellyfish to come out. There was a jellyfish MASSACRE! People were in the water pulling these HUGE, MONTROUS jellyfish out of the water and killing them, taking the parts that they needed for dinner and leaving the rest on the beach. The beach was COVERED with jellyfish bodies. It was neat. I geuss a couple foreigners died this summer on that beach from poisonous jellyfish stings. I avoided the water after that.
So that’s a summary of Ashlee’s visit. And this is the best part: A week after she got home she called me and said she had decided she loved china so much that she;s quitting her job, selling her car and MOVING HERE to live with me!!!!!! how great is that?! I’m so excited. So she’ll be here in approximately…17 days. Not even counting haha.
So as to the job thing. On Wednesday I moved to a city called Shenzhen. It’s VERY close to hong kong. In some areas you can see hong kong. It’s very hot and tropical here. They call it the California, or the Florida of china. It some places it still looks like china, but mostly like Florida filled with Chinese people. I’m in the care of a recruitment agency and they got me an interview with a kindergarten school on Monday. I REALLY don’t want to teach kindergarten but I guess the middle schools are full. And it’s only for 6 months. AND here’s something kinda interesting.. haha… I have an interview with a modeling agency. So silly! It would be fun though. I’ll keep you posted on that.
Well so here I am, in Shenzhen, sitting in a starbucks, I just finished eating my whole wheat carrot muffin and my espresso frappaccino. And sitting almost directly across from me is a guy with very pungent breath speaking fervently to a woman across from him with breath as equally bad smelling….. and looking at a view of tall buildings and palm trees. As I was falling asleep last night in my very cramped, very damp hotel room I felt like one of those people who move to LA to become famous. They are alone with no money, no job, no acquaintances. All they have is passion, and that seems to keep them going. I don’t plan on becoming famous here but I do fit the rest of that criteria.
My best friend, Ashlee came up to visit for three weeks. AMAZING, I know! It was so great of her to come here. We had such a wonderful time. There were some complications involved when she first came. The plan was for me to go to Beijing, pick her up and we spend the weekend together in Beijing. So I hopped an overnight bus to Beijing, so excited to see her AND to see Beijing. A few hours into the ride I get a phone call. It’s ashlee, nearly in tears because she missed her plane. “FRICK!” I thought.
Haha.. it’s funny now. But there was weeks of build up for this visit and it was truly disappointing. So I convinced myself that it just HAD to work out. I was going to Beijing, my hotel was already booked. It wasn’t going to be a waste of a trip. So she did eventually make it to china. A day late. So I had to spend the weekend in Beijing alone. And it was great! I had such a good time. I went to Tianamen Square, I went to the Summer palace, and I met so many people! I met some people at Tianamen and we went to a tea festival. It was so cool! And I had never spent the night in a hotel alone before so it was a cool experience. It was nice to have some time alone. I haven’t really been alone since I got to china. So anyway Jenny agreed to let me have my normal hours. Then when I came back from Beijing she had me working 7 hours overtime! So I brought the subject to her and asked her about it, asking her why I still had more hours than the other teachers when she had agreed to the contract hours. She denied it and said that I never asked her for the contract hours. It was a mess. So that didn’t end very well. But she did change the schedule back to only 2 hours overtime, which I was verbally grateful for. But since that day I went from being the on top favourite teacher to the black sheep. She made up nasty stories about me to the other teachers, and pitted them in competition against me. whenever she had an ounce of a problem with me she went to the other teachers and to my other friends. She blatantly undermined me in front of students and their parents. I DID NOT come all this way to china, and work this hard to be treated with such little respect. My reputation that I worked hard to build over the last 4 months was slashed to ribbons in a week. So I talked with jenny over dinner telling her that she needed to start acting like a mature professional or I’m leaving. She said she would. But things only got worse. She told the other teachers she didn’t believe I was really leaving and that it was an empty threat and that she “owned” me. So I promptly gave her my notice and started looking for another job. I’ll come back to this later. I’ll talk about Ashlee’s visit first J
We went to shanghai for a few days and had SO much fun! We went to all these illegal fake brand name stores. And we found this Ice bar. It was so cool! (pun possibly intended J) it was this bar made entirely of ice. The menu was ice, the cups were ice, the seats were ice. There were ice sculptures.. it was all ice. They give you these Eskimo coats and gloves when you go in. you’re aonly allowed to be in the bar for 45 minutes and then you have to go out for a while and warm up. I figured because we are from Canada we could handle it. NO WAY! We stayed in there long enough to have one drink and we were outta there! They weren’t lying about the cold. Then the next weekend we went to Beijing! It was great! We went to the forbidden city the first day. It was really interesting. I wish I knew more Chinese history. (I took a bunch of pictures for you Grandpa!) and the next day we went on a tour with 7 other people to the Ming Tombs and the GREAT WALL! It was raining all day, but it seemed to add something special. Something more mysterious. I really enjoyed the tombs. The things they told us were so interesting! But the great wall was fantastic! ( I took a bunch of pictures there too!) we had such a great time up there. We had to take this roller coaster trolley thing up the side of a mountain to bypass the busy part so we could actually get to the wall. It’s a very busy place. They had bears outside the wall in a habitat that you could throw cucumbers to. I was a little disappointed that they weren’t panda bears. I’ll see those before I leave, I promise! So that was Beijing. Beautiful and interesting.
When we got back to Weihai we visited the beach in the evening. I guess this summer was the summer for all the jellyfish to come out. There was a jellyfish MASSACRE! People were in the water pulling these HUGE, MONTROUS jellyfish out of the water and killing them, taking the parts that they needed for dinner and leaving the rest on the beach. The beach was COVERED with jellyfish bodies. It was neat. I geuss a couple foreigners died this summer on that beach from poisonous jellyfish stings. I avoided the water after that.
So that’s a summary of Ashlee’s visit. And this is the best part: A week after she got home she called me and said she had decided she loved china so much that she;s quitting her job, selling her car and MOVING HERE to live with me!!!!!! how great is that?! I’m so excited. So she’ll be here in approximately…17 days. Not even counting haha.
So as to the job thing. On Wednesday I moved to a city called Shenzhen. It’s VERY close to hong kong. In some areas you can see hong kong. It’s very hot and tropical here. They call it the California, or the Florida of china. It some places it still looks like china, but mostly like Florida filled with Chinese people. I’m in the care of a recruitment agency and they got me an interview with a kindergarten school on Monday. I REALLY don’t want to teach kindergarten but I guess the middle schools are full. And it’s only for 6 months. AND here’s something kinda interesting.. haha… I have an interview with a modeling agency. So silly! It would be fun though. I’ll keep you posted on that.
Well so here I am, in Shenzhen, sitting in a starbucks, I just finished eating my whole wheat carrot muffin and my espresso frappaccino. And sitting almost directly across from me is a guy with very pungent breath speaking fervently to a woman across from him with breath as equally bad smelling….. and looking at a view of tall buildings and palm trees. As I was falling asleep last night in my very cramped, very damp hotel room I felt like one of those people who move to LA to become famous. They are alone with no money, no job, no acquaintances. All they have is passion, and that seems to keep them going. I don’t plan on becoming famous here but I do fit the rest of that criteria.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
update
so agreeably it's been a long time since i last updated thing thang. i've been lazy! i'm sorry! so SHANGHAI! it was so fun! i wish i had more crazy stories from there to tell you, but it was pretty basic tourism. the bus we took there was so cool! it beats a greyhound a thousand times over! only about 30-some people get on the bus and instead of seats they have beds! YEAH! the trip was about 15 hours long so it was NIIICE. however i had a bad bed on the way there and they were bunk bed style so the bed above me was too close so i couldn't sit up at all. after laying down for 15 hours it kinda gives you a teeny headache. and a couple men were late getting on the bus so they had to sleep on the floor.. riiight beside me. so spent most of the way there spooning with a complete stranger. the way back was much better! i got a top bunk! wa hoo!
we saw a lot of buildings and places. we went to Madame Toussauds wax museum it was great! they had people there like princess diana, michael jackson, david beckham.. they had EVERYONE famous you can think of pretty much. we got some pretty good pictures so if you're ever on facebook check out my albums! we went to the people's square which is a really cool block blocked off from traffic (except this little train that takes you on tours around the block.. it look like a little toy train but can fit a surprising amount of people in it!) and the street in lined with shopping areas, restaurants, bars. it's a great place to go at night! the neon lights are amazing! we went up to the VEERRRYYY top of the oriental pearl tower. it's the third highest tower in the world. the inside was incredible! when you are finished viewing, instead of taking an elevator down you go through a bar/restaurant, and two different museums. one if a museum of old chinese culture and the other is a space museum. random. and there is a roller coaster inside. ji hye is scared of things that like so we didn't go. it's no fun to go alone. it takes about two hours to get through the whole thing but you're never lacking entertainment. shanghai was so nice because there were so many foreigners! now when i'm back in weihai and i see a foreigner i don't feel an irrisistable urge to run up to them and introduce myself. that's a good thing :) we met a lot of people.. it was surprisingly hard though to find foreigners who spoke english! we met a group of asian people from australia. i spoke more chinese than they did it was hilarious! we hung out with them for the rest of the week. i went on the super train! it covers (i forget how many miles, but driving by car it takes about an hour) but this super train cover the same amount of ground in a shocking 8 minutes! it was a little scary but so worth it! i think it's the fastest one in the world. so that's kinda cool. we also went to this place called Xin Tian Di almost every night which is a place that is all renaissance style buildings and it's all blocked off from traffic and it's cobblestone streets strewn with fancy outdoor restaurants and clubs. it was really cool to see. i wish my pictures turned out better they don't do most of the scenery justice at all. what else did we do? we went to the Yu Yuan gardens, which was INCREDIBLE! what kind of architecture do you think of when you think of china? i hope it's those curved topped roofs and dragons and things like that. yeah this whole part of the city is buiding upon building in traditional chinese architecture. so beautiful! and there was market upon market! (ANNND a starbucks!) then when you get into the actualy garden it's beautiful! it's so hard to describe. it was buing during the Quing dynasty i believe and it was so cool to imagine all the emporers and other people walking through that exact garden (although a lot of it had been restored so there were very few ORIGINAL parts). that was a ridiculously hot day though! actually everyday in shanghai was ridiculously hot! you take five steps in any direction and you're completely soaked. it was nuts. we didn't do the river cruise.. after so many days of go-go tourism you just want to relax.. so we'll hit that next time. we did a lot of shopping in some of the famous shopping centers.... A LOT. haha. it was a good time. found some good deals. we went through these tunnels.. the brochure made them seem incredible.. but if you ever get to shanghai.. don't waste your time!! really.. i generally like everything i try.. but these tunnels were LAME! but they were in a great location. they were in a place called The bund which is crazily crowded with people. it's a cement path that winds along the Huangpu river, and has the loading dock for the river cruise. it's a nice place, and it's easy to see why it's craawling with people all the time. i got my eyebrow pierced! haha.. did somethign random.. all that heat plays with your mind. i'm lucky i stopped at the piercing and didn't get a whole sleeve of tattoos! we checked out a Buddha temple. it was really beautiful. it was sad.. there were so many idols. and the size of them! there are bell towers and drum towers. most of this is all included in my pictures. people come into the temple grounds and they buy prayer incence sticks and light on fire on these big coal pitts and then they stand in the middle of the courtyard and bow to all four surrounding walls holding the prayer sticks either in front of them or over their heads. it was interesting. when they're finished praying they lay the sticks on the side of the coal pitt and leave them to burn. like i said.. interesting...but sad.
so that's all i can think of as of now for shanghai. getting back to weihai was NICE! the pace is slower, the air is cooler and there's an OCEAN! the day after we got back we went straight to the beach for the day. we bought our rubber water tubes and floated in the water all day. well we stayed in the water until we swam into a HUGE jellyfish. those things feels DISGUSTING!! i was swimming and felt somethign jelly and screamed louder than i have for a long time and looked and it was a little jellyfish, and then the deeper we got the more i saw everywhere and then all of a sudden this HUGE giant mother jellyfish came out of nowhere! we're lucky we didn't get stung. that thing could have killed. we paddled our tubes as fast as we could outta there.
so for the summer prgram we got two new teachers. both are from england. one teacher's name in johnathan and the other is Essy. actually the other WAS Essy.. she was a bit of a princess and when she found out she couldn't have her own apartment she left so we are short one teacher now and so we have an extra week off. ok with with me :) although i am missing some of my students a bit. we found a replacement teacher who is from america, her name is Jenna.. she's coming tomorrow. i guess she'll be my new roommate for a month. either mine or johnathan's... but i'm pretty sure she would probably rather live with me haha but who knows.
today me and johathan went rock climbing! it was SO nice. we climbed up this big mountain and had such a spectacular view. after that we walked through town and stopped for some street food and i showed him around the night market. it was fun. i love china. you see so many random things in a night. you wouldn't believe this place unless you were here. every minute something unexpected is happening. you're never lacking entertainment in any degree. sorry guys i'm never coming home! haha.. i'm ruined! tomorrow we're going out in the morning to see if we can get out on a fishing boat. can't wait! i've been wanting to try fishing here since before i came!
we saw a lot of buildings and places. we went to Madame Toussauds wax museum it was great! they had people there like princess diana, michael jackson, david beckham.. they had EVERYONE famous you can think of pretty much. we got some pretty good pictures so if you're ever on facebook check out my albums! we went to the people's square which is a really cool block blocked off from traffic (except this little train that takes you on tours around the block.. it look like a little toy train but can fit a surprising amount of people in it!) and the street in lined with shopping areas, restaurants, bars. it's a great place to go at night! the neon lights are amazing! we went up to the VEERRRYYY top of the oriental pearl tower. it's the third highest tower in the world. the inside was incredible! when you are finished viewing, instead of taking an elevator down you go through a bar/restaurant, and two different museums. one if a museum of old chinese culture and the other is a space museum. random. and there is a roller coaster inside. ji hye is scared of things that like so we didn't go. it's no fun to go alone. it takes about two hours to get through the whole thing but you're never lacking entertainment. shanghai was so nice because there were so many foreigners! now when i'm back in weihai and i see a foreigner i don't feel an irrisistable urge to run up to them and introduce myself. that's a good thing :) we met a lot of people.. it was surprisingly hard though to find foreigners who spoke english! we met a group of asian people from australia. i spoke more chinese than they did it was hilarious! we hung out with them for the rest of the week. i went on the super train! it covers (i forget how many miles, but driving by car it takes about an hour) but this super train cover the same amount of ground in a shocking 8 minutes! it was a little scary but so worth it! i think it's the fastest one in the world. so that's kinda cool. we also went to this place called Xin Tian Di almost every night which is a place that is all renaissance style buildings and it's all blocked off from traffic and it's cobblestone streets strewn with fancy outdoor restaurants and clubs. it was really cool to see. i wish my pictures turned out better they don't do most of the scenery justice at all. what else did we do? we went to the Yu Yuan gardens, which was INCREDIBLE! what kind of architecture do you think of when you think of china? i hope it's those curved topped roofs and dragons and things like that. yeah this whole part of the city is buiding upon building in traditional chinese architecture. so beautiful! and there was market upon market! (ANNND a starbucks!) then when you get into the actualy garden it's beautiful! it's so hard to describe. it was buing during the Quing dynasty i believe and it was so cool to imagine all the emporers and other people walking through that exact garden (although a lot of it had been restored so there were very few ORIGINAL parts). that was a ridiculously hot day though! actually everyday in shanghai was ridiculously hot! you take five steps in any direction and you're completely soaked. it was nuts. we didn't do the river cruise.. after so many days of go-go tourism you just want to relax.. so we'll hit that next time. we did a lot of shopping in some of the famous shopping centers.... A LOT. haha. it was a good time. found some good deals. we went through these tunnels.. the brochure made them seem incredible.. but if you ever get to shanghai.. don't waste your time!! really.. i generally like everything i try.. but these tunnels were LAME! but they were in a great location. they were in a place called The bund which is crazily crowded with people. it's a cement path that winds along the Huangpu river, and has the loading dock for the river cruise. it's a nice place, and it's easy to see why it's craawling with people all the time. i got my eyebrow pierced! haha.. did somethign random.. all that heat plays with your mind. i'm lucky i stopped at the piercing and didn't get a whole sleeve of tattoos! we checked out a Buddha temple. it was really beautiful. it was sad.. there were so many idols. and the size of them! there are bell towers and drum towers. most of this is all included in my pictures. people come into the temple grounds and they buy prayer incence sticks and light on fire on these big coal pitts and then they stand in the middle of the courtyard and bow to all four surrounding walls holding the prayer sticks either in front of them or over their heads. it was interesting. when they're finished praying they lay the sticks on the side of the coal pitt and leave them to burn. like i said.. interesting...but sad.
so that's all i can think of as of now for shanghai. getting back to weihai was NICE! the pace is slower, the air is cooler and there's an OCEAN! the day after we got back we went straight to the beach for the day. we bought our rubber water tubes and floated in the water all day. well we stayed in the water until we swam into a HUGE jellyfish. those things feels DISGUSTING!! i was swimming and felt somethign jelly and screamed louder than i have for a long time and looked and it was a little jellyfish, and then the deeper we got the more i saw everywhere and then all of a sudden this HUGE giant mother jellyfish came out of nowhere! we're lucky we didn't get stung. that thing could have killed. we paddled our tubes as fast as we could outta there.
so for the summer prgram we got two new teachers. both are from england. one teacher's name in johnathan and the other is Essy. actually the other WAS Essy.. she was a bit of a princess and when she found out she couldn't have her own apartment she left so we are short one teacher now and so we have an extra week off. ok with with me :) although i am missing some of my students a bit. we found a replacement teacher who is from america, her name is Jenna.. she's coming tomorrow. i guess she'll be my new roommate for a month. either mine or johnathan's... but i'm pretty sure she would probably rather live with me haha but who knows.
today me and johathan went rock climbing! it was SO nice. we climbed up this big mountain and had such a spectacular view. after that we walked through town and stopped for some street food and i showed him around the night market. it was fun. i love china. you see so many random things in a night. you wouldn't believe this place unless you were here. every minute something unexpected is happening. you're never lacking entertainment in any degree. sorry guys i'm never coming home! haha.. i'm ruined! tomorrow we're going out in the morning to see if we can get out on a fishing boat. can't wait! i've been wanting to try fishing here since before i came!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
hi readers
hey!
ok i know it's been a LOONG time since i've blogged, but for some reason i've had a hard time signing into this thang. it's all fixed now. clearly... so yeah! not a awhole lot is new... sad i know. as of yesterday afternoon i'm officially on holidays!! so exciting! me and Ji Hye are going to Shanghai for two weeks-ish. it's oging to be SO nice to be a tourist and not a teacher, for a short time at least. i'm sure i'll miss the classroom by the end of the break. i had some before-summer-vacation partied with my classes so the last week was so relaxing! today i went to a korean production play at one of the theatrical theaters in this city. it was fun! of course i didn't understand what they were saying, but i think i got the point of the story. mainly because it was a comedic production of romeo and juliet. asian style. it was really interesting. the costumes were so authentic! it looked like i was watching Mulan. i love this culture! and then after we all went out for dinner. tomorrow we might go to the beach. just because we can. haha.. so nice to be in a weekend and able to sleep in! i wish we were leaving a little sooner for Shanghai, but Ji Hye has her final exam at university on tuesday, but right after she's done we're OUTTA HERE!!! i'll have LOTS to say after i get back. we're going to do EVERYTHING! we're staying in a hostel.. creepy.. but i'll get over it. and we're taking a 15 hour bus trip there :) :) :) nothing new to me haha. well thanks for being patient with me, and i'll have a FULL long update in two weeks!!!! bye bye!
ok i know it's been a LOONG time since i've blogged, but for some reason i've had a hard time signing into this thang. it's all fixed now. clearly... so yeah! not a awhole lot is new... sad i know. as of yesterday afternoon i'm officially on holidays!! so exciting! me and Ji Hye are going to Shanghai for two weeks-ish. it's oging to be SO nice to be a tourist and not a teacher, for a short time at least. i'm sure i'll miss the classroom by the end of the break. i had some before-summer-vacation partied with my classes so the last week was so relaxing! today i went to a korean production play at one of the theatrical theaters in this city. it was fun! of course i didn't understand what they were saying, but i think i got the point of the story. mainly because it was a comedic production of romeo and juliet. asian style. it was really interesting. the costumes were so authentic! it looked like i was watching Mulan. i love this culture! and then after we all went out for dinner. tomorrow we might go to the beach. just because we can. haha.. so nice to be in a weekend and able to sleep in! i wish we were leaving a little sooner for Shanghai, but Ji Hye has her final exam at university on tuesday, but right after she's done we're OUTTA HERE!!! i'll have LOTS to say after i get back. we're going to do EVERYTHING! we're staying in a hostel.. creepy.. but i'll get over it. and we're taking a 15 hour bus trip there :) :) :) nothing new to me haha. well thanks for being patient with me, and i'll have a FULL long update in two weeks!!!! bye bye!
Monday, June 25, 2007
hey it's been a few days since i blogged! a couple random things have happened. neither were particularly great. first... this weekend i suddenly got reallly sick. it was something like the flu, but i was in so much pain i couldn't sleep. and i had to work at 9 the next morning! so after dragging myself through that day of work (pretty much every class was major free time! haha.. lucky kids!) i went to my first chinese "hospital." it was more like a hostel! it had two rooms.. one where the two doctors sat and ate watermelon, and another that had three beds in it. they layed me on a bed and hooked me up to an IV and drained three bottles of mysterious chinese medicine into me. it seriously works like magic! i went in there feeling like i might die and walked out three hours later feeling like i had never been sick! i love china!
today me and Ji Hye were planning on getting up early to take a bus to Yentai.. a nearby city.. just to satisfy our anxiousness for some time off to travel. buuuuuut getting up at 6 just wasn't happening. we opted for a local japanese restaurant and the amusement park. i rode the viking! she made me do it alone though! she was too scared. it's this big ship that swings really high in both directions... we have them at home. i sat in the middle like a chicken.... next time i'll brave a backseat. and tonight... me and Ji Hye had our first pervert attack on the way home from shopping tonight. it was nothing serious.. but i just can't help but wonder what could have happened is Ji Hye wasn't with me. hopefully that's the only thing of that nature that happens while i'm here. tomorrow the first thing i'm doing is getting a keychain pepperspray haha. i'm ok. just a little shaken up. well i should try to get some sleep. have a good day everyone!!! :)
today me and Ji Hye were planning on getting up early to take a bus to Yentai.. a nearby city.. just to satisfy our anxiousness for some time off to travel. buuuuuut getting up at 6 just wasn't happening. we opted for a local japanese restaurant and the amusement park. i rode the viking! she made me do it alone though! she was too scared. it's this big ship that swings really high in both directions... we have them at home. i sat in the middle like a chicken.... next time i'll brave a backseat. and tonight... me and Ji Hye had our first pervert attack on the way home from shopping tonight. it was nothing serious.. but i just can't help but wonder what could have happened is Ji Hye wasn't with me. hopefully that's the only thing of that nature that happens while i'm here. tomorrow the first thing i'm doing is getting a keychain pepperspray haha. i'm ok. just a little shaken up. well i should try to get some sleep. have a good day everyone!!! :)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
GOODBYE TEENAGER-HOOD!
hey!
so my birthday was SO fun! it was the best one i've had in a couple years i think! my students had a huge surprise party for me when i got to school. there was a cake, and chicken, and lots of candles, and they wrote WE LOVE YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY! all over the whiteboard. it was so sweet. it of course escalated into an all-out cake fight! initiated by.. me. oops! haha. it was so fun. and then after work i went home and Ji Hye and our friend Mariah were there because we were planning on going out to our favourite club that night. and they had surprise presents for me! it was so sweet! and then we went to the club (it's called 2046... easy to remember.. and pronounce!) and last week me and Ji Hye had made friends with some of the bartenders there, and when we got to 2046 they had a surprise party waiting for me tehre too! they bought this HIGE embarrassing display of flowers, and a cake (which also turned into another minor cake fight) and they got the DJ to say happy birthday to me, and sing an english birthday song! it was so sweet. it really was a great time. i can't believe i'm 20! bring it on! haha. i think these are going to be the best years of my life so far. young. single. travelling. i'm excited!
so i have some EXCELLENT news for all of you who witnessed my really devestating grad performance. yesterday me and Ji Hye and Jerry went to karaoke in the middle of the day, and i saw THAT Celine Dion song.... so i figured today is the day i put that song in it's place! and i did! i nailed it! haha.. so if i died tomorrow i could rest in total peace! well i have some teaching to do pretty soon.. but have a fantastic day!
so my birthday was SO fun! it was the best one i've had in a couple years i think! my students had a huge surprise party for me when i got to school. there was a cake, and chicken, and lots of candles, and they wrote WE LOVE YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY! all over the whiteboard. it was so sweet. it of course escalated into an all-out cake fight! initiated by.. me. oops! haha. it was so fun. and then after work i went home and Ji Hye and our friend Mariah were there because we were planning on going out to our favourite club that night. and they had surprise presents for me! it was so sweet! and then we went to the club (it's called 2046... easy to remember.. and pronounce!) and last week me and Ji Hye had made friends with some of the bartenders there, and when we got to 2046 they had a surprise party waiting for me tehre too! they bought this HIGE embarrassing display of flowers, and a cake (which also turned into another minor cake fight) and they got the DJ to say happy birthday to me, and sing an english birthday song! it was so sweet. it really was a great time. i can't believe i'm 20! bring it on! haha. i think these are going to be the best years of my life so far. young. single. travelling. i'm excited!
so i have some EXCELLENT news for all of you who witnessed my really devestating grad performance. yesterday me and Ji Hye and Jerry went to karaoke in the middle of the day, and i saw THAT Celine Dion song.... so i figured today is the day i put that song in it's place! and i did! i nailed it! haha.. so if i died tomorrow i could rest in total peace! well i have some teaching to do pretty soon.. but have a fantastic day!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
hey!
so i know it's been a few days.. but it's been a BUSY week! i'm getting tired! haha... but even being tired is NO excuse for an EMBARRASSING mistake i made in the classroom the other day! so.. i took Karen's advice about playing review X's and O's (great idea by the way!) and i thought i would throw in a question that would leave them stumped because they were doing so well. so i asked... "what is the capitol of Canada?" they were quiet for awhile and then a girl shouted "Toronto!" i was like "Wow! that's incredible! you get a huge O for that! i'm impressed!" then this 11 year old boy in the class stood up and said "that's not the capital of Canada! Ottawa is!" so me being the stubborn person that i can...sometimes... be, i tried to argue my point (more trying to save my face than wanting to be right!) haha.. but he was right. we all had a relaly good laugh about it after. so sorry canada! i suck! haha.
ok.. so tonight i tried THE ULTIMATE in food. .. after work Jenny took me and her family out for dinner to this beautiful restaurant in a popular hotel here. so we were eating our sushi.. it was good.. then the Fu Yuen (waitress) brought in these plates and suddenly everyone looked at me. i was like.. huh? then i looked at the plate, and there was a heaping pile of writhing squid tentacles. i can only imagine how my face looked but everyone just started laughing. this is a korean delicacy i guess... and as previously mentioned it's rude to not try EVERYTHING. so... i picked up my chopstick and chased down a crawling tentacle. i accidentally dropped it on my plate and it was twirling around and suctioning itself to my plate. haha.. it was hard to convince it to come off of there! it was like a leech! but eventually my chopsticks got the best of it, and i help it up to look at it. it's suction cups were flaring furiously, and it was wiggling around like a worm. it was so unsettling, but again everyone was waiting for me to put it in my mouth. so put it in my mouth i did. i chewed it as fast as i coul dbefore it could wiggle around in there. then Ji Hye took one and was letting it crawl in and out of her mouth.. haha.. it was disgusting! so now.. having tried that... i think i can handle anything! even the sea cucumber would be nothing in comparison! haha. well anyway.. that's all that's new here right now. if anyone comes to visit they are definately going to be initiated with those things... mwahahahahaha...
so i know it's been a few days.. but it's been a BUSY week! i'm getting tired! haha... but even being tired is NO excuse for an EMBARRASSING mistake i made in the classroom the other day! so.. i took Karen's advice about playing review X's and O's (great idea by the way!) and i thought i would throw in a question that would leave them stumped because they were doing so well. so i asked... "what is the capitol of Canada?" they were quiet for awhile and then a girl shouted "Toronto!" i was like "Wow! that's incredible! you get a huge O for that! i'm impressed!" then this 11 year old boy in the class stood up and said "that's not the capital of Canada! Ottawa is!" so me being the stubborn person that i can...sometimes... be, i tried to argue my point (more trying to save my face than wanting to be right!) haha.. but he was right. we all had a relaly good laugh about it after. so sorry canada! i suck! haha.
ok.. so tonight i tried THE ULTIMATE in food. .. after work Jenny took me and her family out for dinner to this beautiful restaurant in a popular hotel here. so we were eating our sushi.. it was good.. then the Fu Yuen (waitress) brought in these plates and suddenly everyone looked at me. i was like.. huh? then i looked at the plate, and there was a heaping pile of writhing squid tentacles. i can only imagine how my face looked but everyone just started laughing. this is a korean delicacy i guess... and as previously mentioned it's rude to not try EVERYTHING. so... i picked up my chopstick and chased down a crawling tentacle. i accidentally dropped it on my plate and it was twirling around and suctioning itself to my plate. haha.. it was hard to convince it to come off of there! it was like a leech! but eventually my chopsticks got the best of it, and i help it up to look at it. it's suction cups were flaring furiously, and it was wiggling around like a worm. it was so unsettling, but again everyone was waiting for me to put it in my mouth. so put it in my mouth i did. i chewed it as fast as i coul dbefore it could wiggle around in there. then Ji Hye took one and was letting it crawl in and out of her mouth.. haha.. it was disgusting! so now.. having tried that... i think i can handle anything! even the sea cucumber would be nothing in comparison! haha. well anyway.. that's all that's new here right now. if anyone comes to visit they are definately going to be initiated with those things... mwahahahahaha...
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