As some of you have pointed out to me, it's been a bit since I wrote on here. You are very very correct. It has been quite a while, but all of those that thought I had given up on yet another blog- jokes on you! I'm back.
Quick recap- The semester ended early in January.
I went to Yunnan (the southwestern province of China). There, I did quite a bit of hiking- Tiger Leaping Gorge- highly highly recommended. It was cold and there was snow on, but it was beautiful! I got sunburned the very first day I was there because my delicate skin is now very much used to the clouds.
After Yunnan, I went to Thailand. It was warm and sunny and beautiful, and I was surrounded by warm, sunny, and beautiful people. It was wonderful. I rode elephants, petted tigers, and was refreshed and renewed in ways that I didn't even know I needed. I got Thai massages. (They hurt. A lot. I am not a massage girl. The Chinese massages hurt- they make me want to cry. And Thai massages also make me want to cry. I'm over trying to like them.) All of the people that I work with were in Thailand, and I have only known these people for 6 months, and to be fair, I haven't even been around them for the past 4 of those months, but I adore them. They are the greatest. If you ever get a chance to meet them- you should.
After Thailand, my mom and my best friend came to China to visit me! It was fabulous. I was exhausted, but we went to Beijing- saw the Great Wall, Tienamen, the Forbidden City, all that jazz. Then we went to Xi'an- saw the Terra-cotta Warriors, the city wall, drum and bell towers, and celebrated Chinese New Year there (mostly by watching people shoot fireworks off in the middle of the sidewalk and light enormous strings of firecrackers on fire in public areas. I have never seen so many open flames along a city street before.)
Then we came back to Chongqing. I was overjoyed to be home after a month of living out a suitcase. We did laundry and grocery shopped and they got to see all the fun things that Chongqing has to offer! Mostly they got to see where I live and work, and that is really what they came for (I imagine).
Some statistics from my Winter Holiday:
countries visited: 2 (including China)
planes ridden on: 7
hotels stayed at: 8
sketchy cab rides: 2
tigers petted: 7
cups of coffee consumed: countless
pictures taken: 400ish
pictures taken while my family was here: 0 <- I'm the worst
book stores visited: 1
Over all it was a splendid holiday. Over all, I was exhausted and a bit excited for school to begin.
Look at that blue sky! When the sun comes out, so do the students!!
And begun it has.
School is back in session in full force. We are approaching the end of week 3 here.
Three of my classes I have had the students before which is really really lovely- I already know them, so we don't have to live in the awkward world of getting to know all their names and them pushing the line to see how strict I am (although some of my boys are really dancing along that line- jokes- they're not behaving well at all- we will have a talk soon).
The other two classes are new to me, but they seem to be the sweetest humans on the planet, just from my initial observations. We are getting to know each other and so far, they are doing well (to be fair, we have only spent 4 hours together total, but I would say it's a fair assessment).
Really and truly, my students are wonderful. They are sweet (for the most part). They laugh at me when I sing to myself in class. They wave at me on the street (most of the time). They're the reason I'm here, and I couldn't love them more if I tried.
I'm missing my students from last semester that I don't have this semester already. I ran into two of them at the grocery the other day. They were so excited to tell me about their exercises that they just did- they have decided to start running. Sometimes when I see students in public, they will do the polite wave then walk away from me as fast as possible (especially if they are with their boyfriend or girlfriend), but these two saw me and came right over to regale to me the horrors and triumphs of their first night of running. I was just the happiest person on the planet.
Anyway- I'm back. The semester is underway. Get pumped for more adventures.
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