One week down.

I have decided it is past time for another post. I am on the last day of my four day weekend. I get a four day weekend every other weekend because our school has a special schedule. Basically we push through ten days straight with a break on Sabbath, then we get some time off. The campus is supper empty on these breaks. I spent the first couple of days of my time off on campus. By day three I was more than ready to get off campus. Its funny how the something as simple as getting a taxi can be extremely difficult when the only two words you know in chinese are "hello" and "thank you." I ended up translating some of the key words into chinese, taking screenshots of the words, and uploading them to my iphone to show people. This technique is enough to get by but I am ready to start picking up the language so I don't feel helpless.

I spent Sabbath and Sunday with Lisa over in Kunshan, which is where she lives. To get to Kunshan, I had to ask the guards at my school to call a taxi, then I had to take a train, then I walked. Once again, this is a lot harder than it sounds when you don't know any of the necessary words. Even just getting from where I bought my ticket to where I was supposed to wait for my train was hard. I've found that people here are very helpful. I would show my ticket to someone and they would point in the direction that I needed to go. I'm getting used to being stared at. In America we are used to seeing people with different cultural backgrounds. Here, when I go to the grocery store, I catch someone looking at me, then they smile and whisper to their friend who also turns around to take a look at me. I just smile through. Tommorrow, Monday, I head for Shenzhen for my TEFL training. This will be a nice change of pace and I'll get to experience a new part of China. Well, Its off to geography lesson planning for me.