So me and some teachers were eating dinner the other day and I took a moment to notice my surroundings. We were sitting out front at a little table. Next to us, the man who owned the small restaurant was murdering chickens. He would pull one out of the cage, snap its neck and hack away. Not many places I know in ottawa where you'd be able to actually watch your food be killed after you order it. It would likely put people off of eating. After he finished killing and boiling the feathers off he threw it down on the dirty ground and left to serve a table. Out ran a little puppy who started biting at it until the woman cooking out front noticed and went bonkers. She pulled out the metal utensil she was using to cook with and proceeded to burn the puppy with it. This has got to be the only place in the world you can eat a meal, watch chickens get slaughtered and puppies get branded all at the same time. And the funny thing is I barely took notice of it.
This is the reason I haven't been really keeping up with my blogs lately. All the things that at first would blow my mind or shock me have just become the norm now. This year has been one of constant new experiences and tests of what I deemed right or wrong, sane or insane, clean or dirty. From dog heads on christmas morning, to the absolute chaos of chinese new year. The old ladies pushing me on busses and the children defecating in the streets, I still look back on everything I have seen and experienced this year and also see how much I've grown.
It is really hard to explain just what it is like living in a country like China. It really is a different experience than living anywhere else. As someone from the West, every single aspect of daily life is affected. And I mean everything. Important things like going to a hospital if your sick. Imagine going to a hospital and trying to get diagnosed through sign language and then them trying to heal every ailment with some sort of tea. Which doesn't help because you are sick 35% of the time you are here. Buying groceries or supplies is difficult. I once had to walk for 2 hours to find a store that sold a fork. Sliced bread, butter, milk and cheese, most of the staples of our diets back home, are expensive and hard to find luxuries. Busses are terrifying feats of athleticism that require strong legs and a good grip. Taxi's are an exercise in patience as well as minor heart attacks as your car swerves in and out of traffic and pedestrians. People in the street will bump into you, push you, stare at you, point at you, scream into their cell phones, hock spit in every direction and then nearly kill you with their scooters. Oh ya and add the fact that 0.77% of Mainland Chinese are fluent english speakers and good luck reading any menu, newspaper, instructions, medicine or warning sign. When the day is done and you just want to relax you can sit back, breathe in the smoky air, enjoy the peaceful grey, sunless sky and listen to the sound of constant construction and honking. After that hey, jump on the web, you deserve it! Shortly after you will find out that almost every site you know is blocked and the internet goes down a few hours every day. And once your completely out of touch with the world outside, the power might go out in your neighbourhood for hours and you'll be left huddling in the dark, being constantly attacked by mosquitos.
Doesn't this all sound so wonderful? I hope that rant puts things into perspective a bit.
The funny thing is, after all that, I don't hate it here. I love/hate it. In fact, i'm coming back for another year. Have I gone crazy? Most likely. But I signed the contract last week and will be returning for another 10 months at the end of August. Besides all that there really is a lot of good things about being here. As well as a lot of cultural things that I really respect and learn from the Chinese. Believe it or not. But over the year the best thing about being here has always been my students. They are the coolest little dudes ever and I would feel horrible bailing on them, only to have some weirdo teaching them next year. It's like I have 185 children now. I want to see them graduate out of grade 6. They are so happy to see me everyday and when they are not driving me nuts, I really do enjoy teaching them. This is mostly what is bringing me back next year to this crazy place.
I had a dream last night about home. I was sitting outside in the yard, looking at a blue sky and green grass, cooking a steak on the barbeque and drinking a nice cold Keiths. What an amazing and simple joy that I used to take for granted. I am a week away from coming home now and you have no idea how excited I am. It is almost surreal. I really can't wait to get on that plane and know that the next day i'll be back home seeing everyone. It's really wild to think about actually. Especially after spending the year in this place. I'm going to have a sort of reverse culture shock. I won't know what to do with myself. Tim hortons every day? I'm on the home stretch now, I just have to teach maybe 2 more classes and then do the oral portion of their final exams. Then i'll pack up all my things and say goodbye to all the teachers here. Alot of them are leaving and I really will miss them. They were another one of the only things keeping me sane this year. It's weird to think that next year I will be the hardened China veteran having to show the next batch of new teachers the ropes.
See you all soon,
Corey
For those of you who don't know yet, I will be spending the next year in Wuhan City, China. I will be teaching English to children in a public school and living in Wuchang (a district of Wuhan.) Because China has so kindly blocked facebook, youtube, myspace, wikipedia entries, google, twitter and many other sites, This will be one of the only ways I will be able to keep in touch and update all my family and friends of my adventures. Enjoy!
