a little coffee

Happy Things November 19, 2008

I think I’ll write this entry on the good things about China- because sometimes I need a reminder.

When I went to the hot, stuffy, crazy, crowded hypermarket this afternoon I stumbled across a small Christmas section.  Yes!  Granted, my view is it’s not time for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but seeing the thin, fake trees, and the snowmen and Santa Claus ornaments, my heart made an involuntary “oh.”  Of course I bought them and a Santa hat that says Merry Christmas.

I noticed once outside Dennis that they had strung Christmas lights around one of their twenty entrances. I was reading that Christmas (and Halloween) are becoming more popular here and it seems to be true!  It certainly put a merry spring to my step and I enjoyed the most stress free trip to Dennis yet.

Other things… most classes are, actually, going quite well.  And I finally found a topic that the students seem really enthused about- technology.  Chris and I selected some topics (space, robots, time travel, cloning, energy, health & medicine) and had the class discuss one of them in their small groups.  And then something amazing happened.  Many students, even the shy, reluctant ones, volunteered to share their opinion.  

“I think cloning is good for the health.”

“I don’t like cloning humans because it is…irregular.”

The occasional lull did spring up, but me blabbering on about how cool it would be to time travel peaked their interests and they were back to sharing their opinions.  

“I want to go to the future!”

“Ha!  It will be impossible to time travel!”

So I leave those classes feeling energized and that feeling I get makes me think that’s why I wasn’t scared shitless to come here.

Other things:

I like walking or riding my bicycle everywhere.

The food, whenever we go out to a restaurant is always delicious. Weird. But delicious.

Despite those times of feeling overwhelmed by just everything Chinese, there have been some genuinely helpful, kind people.  (Our tutor, Katherine will teach us how to make dumplings this weekend!)

The Chinglish is just… it’s magic with words!

And things like good pay and plenty of free time that only sweeten the pot.