I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done. - Buddha

I recently saw on my Facebook page that my "Notes" showed up again. Some of them were very old and it was interesting to see the thoughts I had deemed important enough to share with the world of Facebook; specifically one post about the things I want to accomplish in my life. I wrote this back in 2009 and I was pleasantly surprised at how many things I have already completed (or semi-completed) from this list in the 4.5 years since I wrote it. I thought I would share this list and just check off or comment on certain things that I am proud of for accomplishing.


Things I Want To Accomplish In My Life (January 8, 2009)

- Travel EVERYWHERE (honestly, too many places I want to go to put them all on this list)
** Though I have not traveled everywhere, I have added and checked off quite a few places on my list. America too many times to count, Mexico 2005 and 2011, Italy and Austria 2006 (which I plan to revisit as my stay was too short!), many places in China 2012/13, Vietnam 2013, and I'll be on my way to Thailand shortly with my lovely sister!

- Learn to play guitar - working on this!
* Ok, not working on this currently, but still a dream of mine. Maybe I will take the time to actually do this one day!

- Take dance lessons
** While here in China I learned how to waltz, but I would still like to take a dance class of some sort when I'm back in Canada

- Write a book
* Still a dream of mine.. I would love to write a novel and/or children's books. I have some ideas, but may be a while yet until I have the time and courage to sit down and write something. At least I'm writing with this blog, right?

- Get a tattoo
** Currently have 3 small tattoos and plans for at least 2 more... And I thought I would only get one!

- Laugh more often
** I think I've done a good job of this! My students all tell me I'm so humourous and like a comedian :)

- Finish school with relatively good marks
** Honours baby!

- Go to teacher’s college in Australia?
** Australia would have been cool, but I plan to just travel there now. I'll be starting at UOIT in August and couldn't be happier :)

- Get in better shape—start running again
** I did start running again and I was doing some Jillian Michaels videos too for a bit there. I have no doubt I'll keep this up back in Aurora.

- Climb the entire CN Tower
* Any takers to do this with? Still haven't done it.

- Snowboard at Whistler/Blackcomb, Tremblant, Banff, and other places all over Canada, as well as abroad (and not just the US)
* Since Trevor is moving to Edmonton so soon, I have no doubt I will be making a trek over to Banff sometime in the near future. Wooo!

- Cook a turkey dinner / real meal all on my own
* I'll work on this..

- Donate blood
* Haven't been able to do this because I keep getting tattoos and piercings and you can't donate if you've done this 6 months before. Maybe when I move home before I get a new tat?

- Knit a sweater/hat
* I make no promises on this one.. I'm very good at starting this and not finishing haha

- Road trip somewhere far away
* Again, with Trevor moving to Alberta this seems like the perfect chance to check this off..

- Eat healthier
* Haha I'll try, but I'm going to be stuffing my face with all the delicious things I have missed since moving to China.

- Paint my room
** Done! Although I can't take the credit for this, I thank my Uncle Larry for all the hard work in completing my beautiful red room :)

- Get a job working with kids - teacher hopefully
** Also done! I successfully became a teacher for 8 months to 1300+ students and I see a bright future ahead of working with kids!

- Save money
* Didn't really do this... traveling is a good way to not save money, but earn experience instead :)

- Plant a garden
* When I have my own house this will be a little easier

- Bungee jump or sky dive
* Should have done this in Macau off the Macau Tower, but I have no doubt I will do this someday.. Maybe for my 25th birthday!

- Buy a car
** Well I didn't buy one, but I again have my Uncle Larry to thank for the little green monster last summer.. and I'll be getting one shortly for the commute to Oshawa for school.

- Learn a new language (sign language?)
* I've learned bits and pieces of Chinese, Spanish, French, and Japanese, but I would love to be relatively fluent in something other than just English (or at least able to hold a better conversation than now). Sign language and Spanish are my top choices currently.

- Ride a motorcycle
** I've been a passenger on a motorcycle and rode a moto/scooter on my own. Success!

- Start a family
* Not planning to check this off any time soon, but one day!

- Bake a cake from scratch
* I will do this in the summer. Promise.

- Own a cottage
* Again, one day when I'm older I hope!

Dream big :)

I have many things to add to this, but my goals have mostly stayed the same over the years. I know I have changed considerably since writing that, yet I can see that I am consistent in what I want in life and this is kind of uplifting to me. Sometimes I feel lost and only look at what has yet to be done rather than appreciating the accomplishments I have already triumphed in. I haven't been afraid to follow my dreams though - even if it meant chasing them across the world. I'm not always the quickest to achieve my goal, but I know that I work hard and I am persistent and determined to get where I want. My students this week have reminded me what it means to be looking at your future without considering your long, but rewarding past; I can sit back and appreciate what I have done, what I am doing, and what I have yet to do.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. – Lao Tzu

I’m not going to lie, I have been feeling a great deal of mixed emotions lately and I feel like I'm constantly on the edge of crying. I've told some of my students that I'm leaving and they are so concerned and upset with it. One of my favourites from my Monday classes looked like he was a bit teary-eyed and it honestly caught me so off guard. Alethea has been telling me about all the reactions of her students with cards and tears and kind words, but for some reason I feel like my students are a little shyer and I wasn't sure what kind of reaction to expect from them. Alex was the first to know and the look on her face just broke my heart. But I'm so torn because of course I miss my family and friends and my boyfriend and I'm beyond excited to start Teacher's College. When I think of Jays games, drinks at Shoeless, girls nights, Canada Day celebrations and just my soft bed in my bedroom my heart aches to be home. The song "Butterfly Kisses" came on my iPod on the bus and I couldn't help but tear up and miss my family. My friend Laura Dawson sent me an article a while back about how living abroad will play with your feeling of home and you will constantly be missing the other place – I guess a sort of grass is greener kind of yearning for the other place. I've only been living here for 8 months and my ability to speak Chinese (or lack thereof) has definitely limited how close I've gotten to the people here, but I have made it my home. The simplest things are setting me off feeling nostalgic for things I haven't even left yet.

I'm also feeling really nervous for a lot of things.. This year I feel like I’ve been pretty lazy compared to my past lifestyle of full-time university, part-time job and active volunteering. Traveling is a completely different kind of thought process and I'm nervous that I'm not going to be ready to jump back into that life. This might sound stupid, but I'm also nervous about my social skills. I have had to censor myself with topics appropriate for discussion with my students and coworkers so apart from Alethea I have not really talked about anything with real depth in a while. Most of my conversations consist of where I'm from, what I'm doing here, what music/movies/etc do I like and I haven't kept up with a lot of things going on at home... So if I'm a bit rusty, my apologies!

I am letting go of who I am and who I was and I am going to let things fall as they may. Things are fantastic and the fact that I have such amazing things to miss makes me so grateful. A.A. Milne wrote a quote in Winnie the Pooh that I think sums this feeling up nicely: “how lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard”. Now I have countless places full of things that are hard to say goodbye to. In the meantime, I’m keeping my head up for the next week through my last classes and counting down only 10 days until my parents and sister come!

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. – Lao Tzu

This post will focus mainly on my last couple trips traveling around and how incredible it was to just arrive somewhere and then figure out what to do.

Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City was unreal. My hostel was great with clean rooms, cheap breakfast, and really helpful staff, and it was close to a lot of the places that I wanted to go. I was in a mixed room and ended up being the only girl with 8 other boys. It wasn’t that bad though and the people I met were really awesome; Ryan and Jeremy from Edmonton (who will give me some good tips for when I go there to visit Trevor), Micah from the UK, Owen from the Netherlands, and 4 other guys from London but I didn’t end up catching their names. The weather network said it’s rainy season, but it just rained for about an hour every day and then was blue skies and sunshine for the rest of the day.

Day 1

The first day there I rented a moto and rode around the city. I was totally fine, but I would not recommend driving a moto around Ho Chi Minh City if you are not a practiced driver. I have heard a ton of battle stories – almost every person I’ve talked to has had an accident or some sort of horror story. I am a very defensive driver and I don’t tend to drive fast or anything so I had a fantastic day and loved driving around – seriously, what a rush!

Day 2

The next day I did a half day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. We stopped off at an art store on the way where people disabled by the effects of Agent Orange and I had a delicious bun (they love the laughing cow cheese here with meat and vegetables) and mango smoothie. It was a really interesting day seeing where the soldiers were during the war, although it was very ‘touristy’ and our tour guide wanted to rush through things so that wasn’t the greatest. Most of the relics were not original as obviously you can’t have hidden traps and mines leftover, but I still got to climb inside a real tunnel – it was pitch black, really small and extremely dirty, and I can’t imagine how people stayed in there for an extended amount of time. I had the opportunity to shoot a gun for the first time as well and I chose an AK47 – what a thrill! We saw a video there too that was extremely hard to understand, but the main idea I got from it was how terrible Americans are; understandably, there is some serious animosity towards the United States and until recently, Americans were not allowed into Vietnam. After a really hot and dirty time at the tunnels I showered and relaxed in the air conditioning for a little before heading out for a walk and some street food.

Day 3

Even though I was so close to a ton of things around the city, I decided to sign up for a day tour because I am fantastic at getting lost and it was so cheap and easy. I do not regret my decision because I had a great tour group! There were only 6 of us and we ended up having 2 tour guides for the day. I met three girls from the Philippines; Bles and her two daughters Kelly and Krystel. Krystel is close to my age and went to school to be a chef and recently completed a year-long internship in New York – so cool! They were so nice and took me under their wing for the day and it was so nice to just laugh and chat with some girls after talking mostly to guys for the last couple days. I also met two guys from Thailand; Tum and Coffee. They were hilarious and I could hear Tum’s laugh all day. Our tour guide was really funny and knowledgeable and it was awesome to have such a small group to learn with. My favourite stop of the day was to the War Museum; it was an immensely moving and powerful monument to the Vietnam War and was definitely a worthwhile visit. A bunch of us went out for roti and walked around the markets and Ryan and Jeremy showed off their bargaining skills buying more ties that they didn’t need haha!

Day 4

Bright and early we headed to the Mekong Delta taking a 2 hour bus there; what an incredibly relaxing day and fantastic way to unwind. I spent the day hanging out with two girls; Amalia from America who has been living and teaching in Korea (Gangnam) and Gillian from Scotland. We took a boat ride along the river and I found a hammock in the back of it that no one was interested in and it was so lovely and peaceful. We had lunch at an island of pork, egg and vegetables and then went to a gorgeous island where they make coconut candies and keep bees. After holding a giant snake, we took a short trip in some smaller boats down the river to see some local folk singers. Overall it was a gorgeous day and the perfect end to my trip.

Yangshuo and Guilin

I actually made it onto the night train this time! I stood and bothered a man until he got mad at me and then he passed me on to a girl who helped me find my little bed. I slept soundly until about 530-6ish and arrived in Guilin at 6:30am, then hopped on a bus to Yangshuo (side note: it was good to know I was on the right track, but having at least 10 people yelling at me to take their bus to Yangshuo that early was a little crazy haha) and arrived there about 8am. Sam came to pick me up on his moto and took me back to Fun Sam’s B&B that he runs with his parents.

Day 1 - Yangshuo 

I rented a bike from Sam and spent the day trekking around and admiring the area. The mountains are unlike anything that I’ve ever seen before and I was content to just ride around and take in everything around me. I ate some different food at the side of the road including fish on a stick, corn, cucumber, and this egg patty type thing, and shared a cute moment with 3 women eating watermelon with them even though we couldn't talk to each other. Then I made my way over to the shopping area on West Street and bought some souvenirs and dresses, and also just walked around the river where it was gorgeous. I was pretty tired after the night train so I had a nap and then went back to West Street to see the market at night. There were a million more people there and the feeling is just completely different than in the daylight. I went to the Kissing Fish Spa there where you put your feet in a tank of fish and they sit there and “kiss” your fish clean—an interesting and very ticklish experience! 

Day 2

I started my day off with a delicious breakfast of toast, eggs and melon made by Sam’s Dad and then headed off with my tour guide, Mo, for a bamboo raft down the Yulong River. This was probably one of my favourite things in Yangshuo and had me smiling and feeling so relaxed. Mo speaks English very well unlike all of the other raft guides that we met that day and I was so grateful for that. He was so funny and told me about his 11-year-old son and dreams to open up a hostel in a more secluded area on the Yulong. He pointed out different mountains and told me about their history and what things they look like (including a bunny, frog, Buddha, and thumb) and wasn’t afraid to question what I said in English so he could learn more. After the tour, my bike was waiting for me at the end so I rode over to the Moon Hill. Sam told me this wasn’t worth it because it’s just a mountain, but I’m so glad that I decided to go here because the view was unbelievable. It took me about 45 mins overall and by the end of it I was hot, sweaty and exhausted so I made my way over to the Gold Water Cave to get out of the ridiculous heat. It was the perfect remedy for my tired body to enjoy a mud bath followed by hot springs. I’ve never seen stalagmites and stalactites before either and it was really cool to meander through the maze of underground tunnels. I opted to take a tuk tuk back to Sam’s and arrived just in time for Sam’s mom to make some dinner for us – dumplings, beef, chicken, pumpkin and some other interesting dishes (chicken feet and I think what might have been pig penis hahaha). I relaxed a little and cleaned up before heading back out for the Liu Sanjie outdoor light show. It was really cool to see them do some cool things on the river with lights, costumes, and folk music and I met some nice girls who want to be foreign teachers of Chinese as a second language. I came back and had beers with Sam and some of the new people around the B&B; Rob, Rob, Chris and Mangolin from the Netherlands. Busy, but amazing day.

Day 3

Woke up to a wonderful noodle breakfast compliments of Sam's mom again and decided to go back to West Street for one final souvenir stop. Then I took an express bus back to Guilin, which was one of the most unpleasant experiences as the window had bugs constantly crawling out of it. I had a couple hours to spare before my train so I went to see Elephant Trunk Hill. To be honest, it was just so-so and I wasn’t that impressed with the park it’s in. I love elephants so it was cute to see a park dedicated to them, but the price was not worth the experience in my opinion. I was exhausted after walking around for a good 2 hours and fell asleep pretty quickly on my night train. However, in my sleepy stupor I managed to misplace my camera and I’m pretty sure I left it on the train. Thus, no pictures to show for my breathtaking trip, but as they say here "the rice is cooked" and it is too late to do anything about this now. At least it happened at the end of my travels, and I am in a good place to buy things for an extremely low price!

Maybe it makes me a bad traveler, but I think I’m ready for my arrival back in Canada soon and I’m glad I have some more solid plans ahead of me. The traveling has been unbelievable and I’m going to deeply miss Asia once I’m back on the other side of the world.

When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky. - Buddha

Things here are really good lately. Knowing that I only have about 2 months left has made me appreciate so much more of what I have here and at home. Even the mundane everyday things—I am so grateful that I have had the chance to get used to the everyday things here and turn them into something somewhat normal to me. Of course there are surprises every once in a while (like seeing a huge spider, maybe the biggest I’ve ever seen and having to ask the man upstairs to come and kill it for us), but for the most part, I have become comfortable here and made it my home.

I had the chance to go to Guilin last weekend and unfortunately I missed my train because of my inability to speak Chinese (even though I arrived an hour early). It was an older train station without English and I should have been making more of an effort to show the attendants that I need help. I hate asking for help, but being here has made me realize that it’s ok to let others help me, especially when I really need it.

My teaching has improved so much since being here and I understand so much more even after just 6 months experience teaching. Every day I feel a little bit closer to my students and find different ways to motivate them to speak English. So many of them were shy at the beginning, but they have found their voices as we laugh and become more comfortable with each other. I have made it clear that it’s ok to make mistakes and it’s not ok to make fun of others mistakes. With different topics, games and activities, more students are coming out of their shells and are improving a lot. I have had a couple difficult classes and I find the classroom management at this school is often on two extremes—either the teachers ignore them and let them sleep or skip class (and tell me to ignore them), or the teachers are so strict that the students fear them but have no respect for them. One class in particular is really testing my patience and my ability to teach, but I actually appreciate them for this. About half of my students in this class do not speak English, but they do enjoy speaking to each other. It means that I constantly have to stop and tell them to quiet down and often I am taking cell phones or tablets away from many of them. They are keeping my on my toes though because I am working hard right now to develop a way to get through to them that this behaviour is not acceptable. I will not be yelling above them, I do not appreciate one boy constantly telling me to speak Chinese, and I will not be playing games or giving them prizes if they can’t show me respect. I wanted to implement some sort of system where every time I need to stop, they get a letter or a point and once they get to a certain amount, they lose something; problem is, I don’t have anything to take away. I have already taken away listening to music or playing games a couple times, but they don’t really seem to care about that. Any suggestions would be helpful! For now, I have talked with their head teacher so we'll see if they improve next week. It actually makes me so much more excited to go to UOIT though and learn more about techniques like this to make me a better teacher.

We went to Guangzhou on Saturday to hang out with our friend, Laura, who’s been living in Dongguan. We hadn’t seen her in a really long time and we finally got to meet her boyfriend, Joe, after almost a year! It was fantastic to shop, talk, and just wander around. We ended up at a pub called The Happy Monk and stayed for a few drinks before heading back to Chenzhou that night.

The next day, I went to Suxian Mountain with one of my students, Scarlett. She has been asking me to go for almost a month now, but the weather always seems to be against us. It was sprinkling a little, but it meant that less people were there so it ended up being a good day. When she said we could climb the mountain I thought it would be more relaxed and just a little path going up. Nope. It was a steep set of stairs going up and Scarlett decided that we had to go at break-neck speed in case it started raining harder. Alright, maybe not actually that fast, but I was dying after like 10 minutes of solid stairs and she made fun of me a little for having to take so many breaks. It was definitely worth it though and I was all smiles when I finally made it to the top! It was great to get out to some fresh air and see some more of the natural beauty that surrounds Chenzhou. From way up there we could see the city on one side and the mountains and rural areas on the other side. It was absolutely breathtaking and I 100% am going to go again and as many times as I can before I go home.

At the top of Suxian Mountain

We have another vacation coming up from June 5-12 and we're meeting up with Laura again to head to Zhongjiajie (where the inspiration for the floating mountains from Avatar came from). I may head to Guilin before or possibly to Vietnam depending on timing! I think this was (and is) the best time to travel and I am figuring out who I am and who I want to be. I really could laugh at how everything has worked out just the way it was supposed to and has been perfect for me.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. – Lao Tzu

Reality is wonderful and I am not resisting change here. In fact, I am pushing forward in it all. I’ve started running about 3 times a week, Alethea and I have gone to a different restaurant every day, and I wrote a list of more things around Chenzhou I want to see. The weather has been rainy and is supposed to continue for another 2 weeks or more though so that puts a damper on my plans (see what I did there.. damper.. rain.. ahaha). But this past week or two has been great! We went to Xi’an last week as we had a holiday Monday-Wednesday. Then this past weekend I went on some outings and had coffee with a new friend!

I’ll tell you a little more about Xi’an. We thought we would have the weekend off before the Mon-Wed because usually they make up for the missed days the weekend after a holiday, but surprise-surprise we were wrong (when will we ever figure out holidays? Haha). I managed to rearrange my Sunday afternoon classes to Saturday and Sunday morning so I could leave a little earlier. I headed out that night to Changsha to fly to Xi’an and planned to meet Alethea and her sisters there after she picked them up at the airport in Guangzhou. Unfortunately, the girls missed their flight by like 20 minutes so would have to meet me in Xi’an the next day. I was glad they were safe and taken care of though, and that they were happily together. I met a girl, Sara from Wales, who was also traveling to Xi’an and was hoping for a travel buddy until she met up with her friends so we had a good chat and exchanged numbers for potential future traveling together. Once I arrived in Xi’an, I attempted to find my hostel and all was fine until the instructions suddenly turned into senseless gibberish and had me walking around aimlessly looking for something that looked like their description. It was late and I was grumpy and hot. Finally, after 3 phone calls, several wrong turns and about an hour of walking (when it should have been 20 minutes), I got to the hostel. It’s off in a dingy little alleyway and I was told it’s hard to find even for Chinese natives, but it actually was pretty nice inside so I was happy in the end.

The next day it was pouring rain, but I headed out relatively early to check out the city. I went to the city wall and rented a bike to ride around for a little. It was a little bit of a bumpy ride, but pretty cool nonetheless, and it came complete with a free pink poncho—score! I wanted to go to the markets close by after, but of course turned the wrong way (my directional skills have not improved much since travelling). I decided to take a tuk tuk and the driver drove me around asking people for directions (see I’m not the only one who sucks at directions) and then after about 15 minutes of that, I just told him to go back to where we started. He had said 10, but decided since we left and then came back it would be 20. I was so mad and yelled at him and wouldn’t give him more than 15. Got more than he deserved. Feeling angry, I turned around and walked down the street to try to find the nearest metro stop only to see that the market was across the street and down a little, tucked away behind some trees. Wonderful. It was cute though and totally worth it. Alethea, Sarah and Charissa arrived and I came to meet them to show them the way to the hostel, then we all headed out to the Drum Tower and Muslim Quarters. The Drum Tower is beautiful at night and is all lit up to look like it’s glowing. A lot of the architecture looks similar from city to city, but this made it different and I loved that. The Muslim quarters are located right behind the Drum Tower (can’t get lost lol) and were sooo cool! There were markets all around and tons of delicious food—there were places all over and we were surrounded by different sounds and smells. We ate beef sandwiches (Alethea’s guide book raved about the lamb ones but they didn’t have any that we saw), meat on a stick, and different fruits and it was all pretty awesome.

 

Xi'an City Wall

Having a blast riding around in that pink poncho!

In the Muslim Quarters - markets, food, and a mosque

The Drum Tower

Bright and early the next morning, we went to the Terracotta Warriors. It really was amazing to see so much history and learn more about it. There was a lot I didn’t know—like the Emperor was only 13 when he started the process! It was made in an assembly line of about 700, 000 workers in total and started in 246BC. It was intended as a tomb so when he died he would have an army to protect him in the afterlife. Glad we went as early as we did because it was packed when we were coming out, but we managed to find some lamb sandwiches near there and man, were they delicious. After this, we headed over to the Big Goose Pagoda for the afternoon and it was gloriously sunny and beautiful out. Lots of pretty scenery around and I was happy to be able to actually go into the pagoda unlike many of the other temples around. It cost a little more money to go in (of course), but I thought it was worth it to see the city. To head back to the hostel, we squished into a cart laughing and joking the whole way at how ridiculous and excited we were to be out on the roads in what was kind of like an open tuk tuk and tractor mix. Even better was to arrive and realize that our driver was half-blind (but so nice and funny and an awesome driver).. yay to adventure! After dropping some stuff off, we went to the Bell Tower (which is also lit up beautifully like the Drum Tower) and while the girls headed to see the city wall, I walked around a little before heading back to the hostel. We caught our train home on Wednesday and spent 8 hours just reading (I finished Lord of the Rings), sleeping, watching shows, and looking out the window (I like seeing the different neighbourhoods, and you can see some interesting things out there). It was nice to show Sarah and Charissa around our school and neighbourhood, and we got to celebrate Alethea's birthday early (she'll be 25 this Monday!) with a cake and some delicious hot pot!

 

Amazing. They put so much detail into the warriors 

 

Big Goose Pagoda

So excited to drive around in our cart!

Happy birthday Alethea!!

  
This past weekend Alethea took Sarah and Charissa to Changsha on Saturday so they could continue their adventure around China with their next stop in Shanghai. I went out with A-Luo and his family and friends (A-Luo is an English teacher and the only boy in my office, but they say he is one of the girls haha). We went to the Chenzhou Botanical Gardens and even though it was raining, it was really really nice! One of his best friends has a daughter, Sheng Wan, who is 19 and really lively and outgoing. Her English is fantastic and we really hit it off, talking about everything under the sun asking each other various questions about life and what we think about certain things. It was very hot and basically felt like what I would imagine a rainforest feels like, but we still hiked at a pretty good pace. You wouldn’t believe what the girls wear when they go for hikes though—dress, heels, sweaters and tights even though it’s a million degrees and we’re out in a forest! It really was beautiful though and I wish I took more pictures, but the conversation was too good to interrupt and I’ll still have the memories :). We also went to another place for a shorter hike in the forest—less people, a little more run down, but equally as pretty. Then we went out for a delicious dinner. The men were hilarious and made tons of jokes, and Sheng Wan’s mother sang some Chinese opera for me. Sheng Wan and I got along so well we made plans to meet up the next day to go for coffee as she would be going back to school on Monday and wouldn’t be back until the summer. I went back home to meet up with some students, Alethea, and Linda to go to Ironman 3. Alex is always so animated about movies and she was definitely excited about this one. I’m definitely going to miss her popping into my office all the time to show me her newest magazines, discuss Lord of the Rings, or tell me how excited she is about the new season of Sherlock Holmes.

Stunning.

Sheng Wan and I went out for coffee at a cute little place near her house. They have a ton of different varieties of coffee from all over the world and it’s really cozy with couches and books (none in English sadly) and interesting trinkets to look at. We talked and talked and actually met another foreign boy, Derek, and a Chinese girl, Serena, who are working at No. 5 Middle School. Both groups were shocked to see another foreigner out and about in Chenzhou! Derek’s from America and majored in Chinese in university, but lived and worked as a soldier in Israel for a couple years and just got here a couple months ago to teach for a semester. We chatted for a bit, but I had some work to do so I headed home early and we didn’t exchange information so I probably won’t be seeing them again unless I go visit their school or something.

I know I’ve changed since being here, but I can’t really pinpoint a lot of my changes. Something feels really different lately and I just don’t know what it is; I think it’s good though. I know that when I come home I’m going to notice things more and I know things will feel very different. Part of me feels a bit afraid that things at home will have changed too much and I’ll come back and have a hard time finding my place in it all. It’s been such a relaxed atmosphere here compared to the busy hubbub of home life and I know that it’s going to be tough to get back into the swing of it at UOIT. I’m going to take advice from Lao Tzu though and just let things be how they are; it will all fall into place.

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent. - Buddha

I have been feeling restless lately because I’ve felt a little too idle for my liking. I like a fast pace and I like to keep myself busy with different kinds of projects on the go. I have been reading a lot more lately (I’m finally reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy), but I’m feeling this is not enough. Alethea and I went to Shenzhen and Macau last weekend and it was fantastic! I will tell you more about it below, but I really am feeling like I need to get out and do more or at least try to explore Chenzhou more while I am here too. Today marks our 5 month anniversary of being here, which means we have about 2 ½ - 3 months left of teaching. This is crazy to me and even though I have done so much I am feeling more pressure to get out and do more things before my time here is over. In many ways I have challenged myself in moving to China, and in other ways I feel I could have challenged myself a lot more. I have a checklist of things I want to complete and I’m feeling the time ticking away before I come back to Canada.

As I said, Alethea and I went to Shenzhen and Macau for a few days. The students had exams and since we don’t have to teach for those days we ended up having almost 5 days off. There is not a whole lot of sightseeing to do in Shenzhen, but we did indulge in some of the foods we have been missing from home – cheese, pasta, salt and vinegar chips, and sushi to name a few... yum! The sushi bar we went to for our last dinner was amazing and was the conveyor belt style where you can choose what you want and tally it up at the end. Very cool! We did a bit of shopping around at the markets and I got a bit more of my souvenirs/gifts for family while I was there. I can’t get over how awesome the markets are around China and I’m definitely going to miss that when I go home. It’s such a rush with a million people yelling at you to buy their products and then finally scoring a good deal that you would never find in a shopping mall.

Macau was a really cool place and one of my favourites that I’ve visited here in China. Like Hong Kong, it is technically part of China, but you still need to go through customs and show your passport to get in. It’s basically like the Vegas of China and there are tons of casinos and things to see. Apparently the casinos here actually bring in more revenue than in Vegas (although maybe not surprising having such a large population in China). We also visited some older churches, gardens, Macau Tower, and just walked around soaking in the atmosphere. It was colonized by Portugal a while ago and became a part of China again pretty recently so there is a great deal of Portuguese influence – you can see this all around you in the buildings, sidewalks, and people that are there.

The Venetian - hotel and casino with many shops made to look and feel just like Venice.

Up in Macau Tower.. with my new boots bought at the market!

Walking around Macau. (Left: Senado Square; and right: Ruins of St Paul's)

Hanging out under a giant banyan tree

In going to these places I really can see that I don’t want to just sit on my butt waiting out the time until I go home. It’s expensive to get around sometimes, but I don’t have to go far to do something new. Maybe I will see if I can go dancing more with the teachers. Maybe I will finally get out to Suxian Mountain that everyone around here keeps talking about. Maybe I will actually pick up my running shoes and get out there regardless of how long it has been and how low my motivation is. Either way, I’m not going to continue being idle; I’m going to get out there and diligently try to do something new every day!

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly. - Buddha

I have always considered myself very good at living in the moment – sure, I worry and I plan (I blame this on my mother’s amazing ability to plan and organize so effectively), but I love to keep things in the back of my mind and have fun for now! It’s difficult to not worry about the future when I have so many things to think about, but my oh my, you can’t help but just live in the present here. When you have a vacation coming up, you probably won’t find out until like the week before. Exams? Oh, those are in 2 days. End of school? Heck, we won’t find out until the month before—if we’re lucky. This has been both a benefit and a burden these past (almost) 5 months. I love it here and I love my students so much. I love discovering new things and exploring, and I even love the mundane everyday things because it just means that I see it more as a home here. I love how friendly and happy people are and how simple life seems sometimes. I love how being here has shown me just how much I love Canada and how I want to explore more places at home too.

We are becoming less of a novelty now and more a part of their community—this means they don’t necessarily sugar coat things, but tell us how it is. My students tell me what they think and feel more and sometimes I can really see we are making a difference here. They tell me about their likes and dislikes and even though I’m not always allowed to talk about certain things (politics, religion and other topics are off-limits), I can listen and I think some of them just really like to have someone who listens and cares. Of course, not all the students like me or want to speak English, but I’m trying and I know I am so fortunate to be able to meet so many great students and teachers.

The week before last, my topic was Superstitions and I learned a great deal from my students about some of the things people believe in China. It was another eye-opener to just how different we can be, yet how similar at the same time. It was so interesting to hear about the superstitions and I’ll tell you just a few of my favourites. It is bad luck to wear a green hat and this symbolizes that your husband or wife (more often it has been associated with wives) may go commit an adulterous act. I thought this was hilarious with St. Patrick’s Day having just passed and lots of people around the world wearing green hats! As well, a lot of their culture is based around numbers and the words are often very similar and thus tied to each other. For example, the number 4 is pronounced “se” and the word death is pronounced almost the same, but with a different tone; therefore 4=death. 8 is pronounced “ba” and is similar to “fa” which means to make lots of income; therefore 8=money. 2 means foolish, 6 is good luck or happiness, 250 means very foolish and 290 is very bad luck. After learning more about these superstitions I can see just how much their culture is tied with numbers – the words for months and days of the week are associated with which number in order they are, and even the way their numbers are pronounced makes it simple (so much easier for me to learn after I knew 1-10). The stereotype that Chinese people are good at math actually makes so much more sense and though they may not all be good at math, their language is certainly tied strongly with numbers.

We got to go dancing a couple weeks ago as well with some of the teachers and it was so fun!! In Canada when I think “go dancing” I think of either going to the club or learning how to dance with lessons. Here we got to learn how to waltz! It was a big room full of people all dancing ranging from beginner to expert and it’s only 2 yuan to get in (which is like 33 cents). I didn’t know how to waltz or dance very well, but one of the teachers has been going for 2 years and helped me to pick it up as well as a couple other teachers. We got a lot of stares from people for being the only foreign people, but I didn’t care because I was just dancing the night away!

As well, I had a problem with my computer screen and that was an adventure in itself getting it fixed! Somehow the computer screen inverted the colours and after asking multiple people at home, searching the internet, visiting the computer teacher, and trying a vast array of confusing things (man, I’m really not a computer person), it still couldn’t be fixed. We went to a few different places until we got directed to a place they called “Computer city” which is every computer store you can think of with booths in a small mall plaza. They didn’t speak English there, but the guys who worked there were smart and opened up a translation website on their own computer so we could establish what the issue was and how it could get fixed. They said they would have to keep it for the night and then I could find out what to do the next day. Anyway, long story short, there was something wrong with my screen and it would end up costing me 450 rmb to get a new one. This is just under $75! Alethea used to work for Best Buy customer service and she said this was an amazing deal as normally people have to pay for installation, screen, shipping, labour, and all the other fees they slip in there. The teachers even told me that normally it would cost about 1000 around here. Oh and hey, I got to keep the old screen too.. anyone want a faulty Acer netbook screen?

I knew before I came here that I wanted to do something working with kids and that has not changed. In being here I see that I love being a teacher, and I don’t want to toot my own horn here, but I’m actually pretty good at it. I doubt myself far too often and in the past I will admit I’ve faced a lot of my own problems with the “if I don’t try, I can’t fail” attitude. I think this trip has been valuable in showing me that I can do more than I imagined if I set my mind to it. I want to be a teacher—no, I am a teacher and I just need a job in Ontario. I forget sometimes that I am still only 23 and I don’t have to have it all figured out just yet. I still feel strongly that I want to work with children and I’m going to make that happen. I got accepted to teachers college and I’ll be on my way to UOIT this September; one more step in the right direction!

We really don’t know when the school year ends though and we found out that we may be here longer than expected. Alethea was asking about dates of when the school year will end and our company said that it may end after our contract is set to be finished. Apparently in this case we are to finish the school year even if it goes past our contract end date. I love my students and of course I can see that staying until the end of the year is the right thing and I wouldn’t think of doing anything else. However, I had some tentative traveling plans for July and I would like to spend at least a few weeks at home getting accustomed to life back in Canada. Ah, to live in the moment and go with the flow right?

I think there is a balance between appreciating the past, working for the future, and loving the present and though sometimes it feels like I’m walking a tightrope, I’m learning to find my own balance.