laughing traveler

This weekend I have had my feet washed, my back massages, my feet and legs massaged, my hair washed and scalp massage. A girl could get used to this! I met up with a few friends who had done the project last year and we ate a baked spaghetti dinner, not the same in China but they sure tried. We walked around to find a tailor to order some tailor made clothes since my clothes are falling off of me I have lost so much weight the last 2 months here. Everything is fresh here, even the fried noodles are light and not greasy. Plus they don’t sell all the salty snack foods that I crave so I just don’t snack . And I sweat buckets just walking down the street or up 5 flights of stairs to my apartment. But anyway we decided to waste some time since everything is closed for the holiday. We find this hole in the wall place advertising food washes and take a crowded elevator up to another world! This wooden smelly elevator dropped us off in this huge hardwood floored, chandeliered, matching furni...

I am finally settling into the teaching routine. I teach 15 classes a week; 10 classes of 7th graders every week and 10 classes of 8th graders every other week. Each class has 50-60 students so I literally have over a thousand students! After this realization and the first class I quickly decided there is no way I am going to be able to take pictures of each students and memorize their names. So far I have taught 5 classes and only one was awful! And luckily that is an 8th grade class that I only have to see every other week. I walked into the class and this boy in the back row stands up and says, “oh foreign teacher, so beautiful!” in English. So I said, “Thank you.” And the class went crazy! I guess he didn’t think I would hear him or that I wouldn’t understand his English, I don’t know. I thought that thank you was the correct response. But the rest of the class was constant chatter and my angry teacher look apparently needs work. So maybe I introduced myself as Ms. Christy from W...

So 2 days after my internet got hooked up in my apartment it stopped working again. So once again I am at the mercy of friends to relay my group messages. I feel very lucky to have American friends here. It is incredible how much better it feels to laugh with people going through the same thing after a CHINA RAGE day like my last blog. I must tell the story much better in person. Bc on paper everyone said it made them cry which was no my intent! Hanging out with American friends also helps you meet people. I had been in my apartment for 2 weeks and was almost convinced the rest of the rooms were abandoned. I never saw anyone in the hallways or with the doors open, understandable it’s hot as crap! Yet when 3 blondes are laughing all night long my neighbors came to introduce themselves. He was smoking a cigarette, which are seriously less than a $1 a pack here no wonder everyone smokes, outside my room and hear us. Then he went and got his roommate, who woke up my other neighbor who wor...