I am back in CHINA.
my trip coming back was 10,000 times better than going. I brought my big, poofy scarf and propped it up on Ned's shoulder, and slept soundly through the airline beverage service, the movies and jerking aircraft.
a fellow English teacher came to retrieve us at the Beijing airport. From there, we went to eat delicious dumplings, and as soon as we boarded the train to Tongliao, I climbed up to the top bunk of the sleeper compartment and fell fast asleep. 10 hours to be precise. When we arrived in Tongliao the next morning, I felt fresh and energetic.
In my first week back here are some things I've noticed that seem different:
1. My students look exhausted. Not 1 or 2, but many.
(a Freshman girl in my 7:30am class slept through the first half of class. I woke her up to take the pop-quiz, and asked her why she was so exhausted. She tried to explain herself, but could not find the vocabulary.)
2. The school buildings are dirty.
(chalk dust and wads of tissues line the classroom floors. The bathrooms have a "fragrance" that seems to aroma the entire hallway. I won't even begin to mention what's inside the bathrooms.
3. It's freezing cold now.
(well, because it is.)
4. But our house is warm now.
(they've turned on the hot water radiators. The radiators are not hot, but they are warm, and we don't have a thermostat, or any idea how the warmness gets to our house and when, but we have it, and that's what's important.)
well, everything else is the same: my students love me, the sweet potato lady is still there, the roast chickens still cost 16 rmb.
ah, back home in Tongliao. =)
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