Life Goes On...

I have exactly one and a half weeks of teaching left... and I can't say I'm entirely sad to stop teaching. The student apathy is starting to get to me in a major way, which makes it not a bad time to leave. I will miss the outside of class time though, and all of the friends I have here. The third year students are already beginning to disappear back to their homes for the summer, and Cheryl said she missed me terribly when I just left for the weekend! Current plans are up in the air as to what next year will bring however... perhaps studying Chinese in northern China, or somewhere close to here and my Ningbo folks... or being a Pantene donate-your-hair-to-cancer-patients spokesperson... or becoming enraptured in one of the endless possibilities of fate and circumstance that are yet to reveal themselves...

Petra came last week to see me! She was in Thailand on a semester at sea-esque misadventure, and emailed me to say she was, "close" to China with time on her hands... and I am more than happy to help a good friend use up her extra time... :) I broke her into my life here with 6:30am wushu, entertaining my students (who were excited to meet someone new), chinese cafeteria food, afternoon ping-pong, and evening giggles and rowdy teasing of my students and friends. She even got to guest judge an English speech competition, and go play in the park with my newest English student - I've begun tutoring one of the guys who works at the school (why? because he asked) a few nights a week, and so far, so good, although I'm still a little trepidations about bringing him to my house... the office is a good place for now.

Last weekend, Petra, me, and Mathguy went to Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province! And, for the first time in my life (at least that I can think of), Petra and I were refused service at the hotel we intended to stay at because of our race... or at least our lack of Chinese-ness... those high noses just give it all away... I think it's probably about time that happened to me though. Not that it's ever a good time for discrimination, but still, I'm not terribly hurt...

Walking with Petra at West Lake

After the hotel incident, we connected with Mathguy's aunt, uncle, and their ill-mannered son and went for a wander around West Lake (it's famous around these parts). West Lake is beautiful, huge, and very green... and very filled with people and tourists from all over the place. Mathguy's uncle is someone important in the Chinese military, and kind enough to allow us in on the abuse of privileges accorded to his rank... we got carted around in a government vehicle all day that mathguy explained IS above the law, hence the increased disobedience to traffic laws...

Smoggy Pearl Tower with Petra

After our Hangzhou frolicking we went off to Shanghai to catch the smoggy sites, elbow around in the bustle of the temples-turned-markets, take silly pictures, and deliver Petra to the airport (and hopefully a return flight to Anchorage), after which Mathguy and I missed the last bus back to Ningbo (oops), but never fear! we found a train, and all was good...

In academic news, I've officially dropped my online Global Studies in Education master's program... due to bureaucratic technicalities (uh, I was never enrolled), and a disappointment with the work-ethic of my fellow students. I have emailed all the happy folks at GSE to explain my disappearance, and say goodbye. But my tears of disappointment had not yet welled when I moved on to bigger and better application processes! I just finished applying for the Rotary International World Peace Fellowship - if I can convince Rotary International I'm one of the 60 coolest kids in the world then they'll pay for me to get a master's in Peace Studies at a university not in the US - my two top choices at the moment are in England and Australia, although I hear there might be an option in Thailand soon... so, we'll see how that goes...

Well, I'm over and out to go forth into the rain and play ping-pong with JapaneseGuy and KaiGuy (Japanese guy's friend/old classmate who's been living with him for the last couple months... and who I'm supposed to teach Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" choreography too...).