CHINA!

Hello Everyone!  It has been so long since I have blogged on here, more specifically since 2009.  I am currently in China teaching overseas at Sanxian Bilingual Middle School in Guangdong Province.  It is in southern China and the city where I am, Sanxiang City, is considered a village compared to other cities but it is a modest sized city itself.  The air is polluted of course and everything is old and dirty.  However they have very beautiful parks here.  Where I am, everything is cheap and I can live on 3000 yuan a month here which is 429.59 US dollars.  Of course my rent is free, electric is free, cable is free (all in Chinese), and I eat free at the school canteen.

I first arrived in China in Beijing.  Of course I had serious Jet Lag and did not explore much and I was only there for two days.  My handler, Linda (her English name) greeted me at the gate and said Ni Hao!  All I could do was mumble and smile and try not to fall out from sleeping.  Here is my first look of Beijing:

It was raining and the hair was heavy with dirt and smog but strangely I didn't feel very excited.  I guess because I spent 18 hours next to this guy who had not taken a shower in days and was trying to teach me Chinese most of the time.  After Linda picked me up and took me to a "hotel" room, I asked here where the bathroom was because I didn't see one in my room.  This is what she showed me:

I was like, "No Way! That is not happening!"  I almost told her I was leaving.  I asked her how was I supposed to use that.  "Squat, like this see?" was the answer.  At that point I was headed to the door, ready to call my mom to send money to me to come home.  Did I say I was already aggravated?  Linda must have seen the way I was edging towards the door because she said, "Don't worry!  You will have a western style toilet at your apartment at the school."  I was silently thanking Jesus for that and asking him to help me bear this for 2 more days.  I bore it and in two day I was on my way to Sanxian on a bullet train that took me 8 hours to get there.  Chinese people her are always in a hurry and they are very pushy especially when getting on and off transportation.  Many times times I thought I would die.

I hope you like my beginning journey of China.  I will update every few days of things that have happened since then and show you pictures of my school.

Love you all.