Ok, so as I am sure it is apparent to you all, I really am not so good at this blog thing. I am sorry, really. There is no excuse. I will tell you that much. In the past few months since I posted here last, life has been quite a whirlwind of culture shock, settling and then enjoying the everyday life here at my site in Gansu, Tianshui. I absolutely LOVE my school and my students. I have learned alot this past semester; about how to be an English teacher in China, how to live in loneliness, how to shop with only a few words, and how wonderful and supportive my friends and family are. I can't express my thankfulness for all the support I have received so far. I have had some beautiful moments here, which continue to surprise and amaze me as they occur. It has also been a very emotional time. I had a few weeks of true culture shock and loneliness, but since then things have begun to get much much better. While my Chinese is still pretty bad, I am beginning to be able to understand people when they talk, even though most of the time, I don't know how to respond in Chinese. I keep telling myself, that this will come in time. (Did you know it takes TIME to learn a new language!?) and I try to use it to motivate myself to study more. Unfortunately, I can always find a million other things to do with my time. I have had the opportunity to travel to Lanzhou, Xi'an, Haerbin and back to Chengdu. I have made some wonderful Chinese friends, including my host sister, my counterpart teacher and my Waiban director. My sitemate is great, and the other volunteers in my city are awesome. We often get together on the weekends and have dinner. I feel really blessed. But please note that this does not mean that things have not been challenging. It has been.
Wow, it is difficult to summarize 5 months in one post. I suppose I need to add blogging to my ever expanding list of New Year's resolutions. I have quit smoking (12 days now), trying to eat better and exercise, not bite my nails....ect. All the same resolutions I do every year. Wish me luck!
I promise I will try to keep this updated. Really. I am also tr5ying to journal. We'll see how it goes :)
Love you all!
