3/6/2016

I had another exciting weekend. On Friday night, Georgia, one of the other interns, stayed the night since her roommate went to Shanghai for the weekend. (It would be nice to have that kind of money to throw around.) On Saturday morning, Amelia and Georgia decided to pick a random subway stop and "have a wander." They invited me along. It's really convenient that the Panli Lu subway station is right outside the East gate of the Mei zhi Guo apartments. Saturday was a really nice spring day, and it was even a bit hot. Perfect weather for an adventure. We picked to go to the Culture and Arts Expo Centre, just to see what it was. We got out of the subway station and found ourselves in a lovely park. We leisurely made our way through the park, enjoying the blossoms on the trees, and got to the Expo Center. It's a large, modern building with a funky design, and I wish I could show you the pictures I took. We wandered around inside. It's basically the place where they do big shows and stuff, although there are other things there, too, like a small art shop filled with expensive, fancy things, and also seriously the nicest bathroom I have been in since coming to China. It felt just like being in a bathroom in America. There were sit-down toilets, and the stalls were stocked with toilet paper, and everything. (Oh, the things that excite me now. If you came to China, you'd understand.) The building sits right on the shore of Jinji Lake, which is really pretty, with the skyline of Suzhou on the other side, even though there was a lot of smog. Instead of going straight home, we decided to stop by Central Park, to see what was there. It looked a lot like the park we had just come from, but with a big fountain, a playground with exercise equipment, and a shady area with lots of palm trees. Not as impressive as the other Central Park, but at least as pretty. Once exited Panli Lu Station, we stopped at a tiny little restaurant on the street by the Mei zhi Guo East gate. It was really good, and although we can't afford to eat out too often, we decided that when we do, that will be our new place. Overall, it was a good day out. That night, Jay, the older guy who's in charge of giving us teaching advice and such, had arranged a dinner meeting for all of us to vent about our first week of teaching. I was the only one who showed up, besides the two teachers who are a married couple from Poland, and they aren't even part of our organization. Everyone else ditched. There had been some drama on WeChat, and some people had been outright rude to Jay. No one wanted to go. I was tempted to ditch, myself, but I thought someone should go. It's good that I did. The organization over the foreign teachers in Hangzhou and Suzhou (not ImmerQi in Beijing) are really bad at communication, and Jay didn't even realize that we were interns instead of fully paid teachers. Also, I think it made him feel better that one person took the time to come. He even paid for me to eat, although I offered to chip in. On the way home from that, I had fun looking at some of the stores and shops along Baodai Road. Today (Sunday) I had been invited to go to Mr. Lu's home near Tai Lake (or Tai Hu), along with a few of the other teachers. He and his wife, who teaches Chinese at our school, and his son, whose English name is Kevin, live in Mei zhi Guo, but they have a really nice home outside of town. I got to meet Kevin's grandmother and see their house. The other teachers who were there were amazed at how big it was. I guess they don't generally have big houses in China. Then, we went to a restaurant and had a really nice meal. One thing about the Chinese: they love their food. (Yet, somehow, they are so skinny!) In Suzhou we eat a lot of fish, as we are really close to Tai Lake. I ate some more of those snails, too. We walked around the lake a bit. It's a really huge lake. "Tai" means "too," as in "too much," so maybe that's why it's called that. Although it was really nice and warm yesterday, it was cold and hazy today. I think the others were a bit disappointed, but personally, I think it was gorgeous. Everything looked so mysterious and magical. Sitting on the lake were some old-fashioned junks, and through the fog, they looked a bit like something out of the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. (They were just for show. They don't actually go anywhere.) I would like to see Tai Lake in the sunlight sometime, but I thought it was perfect today. You're probably tired of reading by now, but I want to let you know, I'm doing fine. My biggest problem (aside from the squat toilets, which I got used to faster than I expected) is that I don't feel like I fit in with the other interns. I love them all individually, but when a group of them comes to our apartment, they all drink beer and swear a lot, and I feel so awkward, that I find things to do elsewhere, and I go around singing hymns to comfort myself. But, things are going well at school. I'm being pretty well spoiled by the Chinese teachers, so there's little to no chance of me starving. I love you all, and I hope all is going well. Good luck with everything! Love, Chelsey*:x lovestruck Inline imageTh Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image Inline image The two in red coats and the one in the dark blue coat are the people I share an office with. Miss Huang is the one with the blue coat. She speaks really good English and is more or less in charge of me. I don't know the other two's names, but the don't speak English. They keep giving me snacks at school, though. The man is Mr. Lu. He used to have my desk until I came, and then we played musical chairs and he moved to another office. He's really nice. He speaks very, very little English, but Kevin is pretty good, at least considering he's at a primary school level. Kevin always comes to my office and practices with me. The girl in the white coat is Yuki. She's a couple years younger than me. Yuki is her English name. I don't remember her Chinese name, but it means "Quiet Cloud." I think it's funny, because she's very friendly and outspoken. The Ferris wheel is just for show. It doesn't actually do anything. The ship in the background is also for show, but it looks cool.