Spring is coming!

Spring is rolling into Harbin, though it's taking it sweet time. On Monday we had some really heavy wet snow and today it was warm enough that I had to leave my coat unzipped as I went to Chinese class this morning. I thought I was in China? It seems like the weather is just the same now as it is back home. It's kind of nice, though, that little bit of 'normal'.

I'm glad winter is on the way out. I've never experienced such cold temperatures for such a long period of time in my life. I'm not cut out for dealing with such extremely cold weather. I will not be sticking around for another year to confirm my theory. My plan as of right now is to return home in December. I'm looking forward to seeing all my family and friends before I jet off again on another adventure to another country on my must visit list. 

My Chinese classes are getting progressively more difficult. My biggest hand up is that I can't really read the Chinese hanzi. The characters don't make a lot of sense in my mind and I've found it very difficult to memorize them all. It doesn't help that some of the characters are only different by a single line. It's difficult to distinguish between characters sometimes. I'm planning on taking a little break after I finish the book I'm on to take some time to study the hanzi on my own. If I don't I'll fall behind and I'd rather take a break to work on my own than pay for a class I'm not ready to take. That sounds like the responsible path to take, right?

Teaching has gotten, at the same time, easier and harder. It's easier in that I know what I'm doing a little more. I've got a few months experience under my belt now so I have games and ideas sitting ready to be used at a moments notice. What's getting harder is now that some of the students are more settled with me, they have decided to try and push to find out how far I'll let them go. Some of them are discovering quickly that it's not far. It's really hard to teach over kids who are shouting across the room, sometimes in Chinese (although, I am finding out that I am able to understand them a little bit. Go me!)

Well, I guess that's all for now! See you soon!

It's a New Year

I'm sorry it's been a while since my last update. The week of New Year was a little crazy. There was a really long night out with some of the Chinese teachers and some really cold temperatures and some pretty awesome ice sculptures.

On the 29th of December, I was fortunate enough to be given a ticket to the Harbin Ice and Snow world festival. If you know me, you know that I do not like the cold at all. But I went to the festival anyway. It was pretty amazing.

This is the view from the top of the ice castle.

On New Year's eve, some of the Chinese staff took me out for dinner and we had hot pot, which is really fun and I wish we had something like it back home.

This is a hot pot meal. The dish in the center boils and you add meat and veggies and all kinds of other stuff to cook. 

After We finished our meal, we went to KTV, (that's a karaoke place where you have a private room) and it was a total blast. We were there for about 6 hours or so. It was a very long night but so much fun. And not a single drop of alcohol was to be had.

And finally, the newest thing to add to my experience here in China is the fact that I am now taking Chinese language speaking classes. It's very exciting to be learning a new language in a way where I will actually be able to use it and practice in my everyday life. Right now I only have 5 classes under my belt, so I'm still not very good, but I will get better as time goes on. I'm taking the class with two of the Foreign teachers here. It's a great opportunity, not that I think I'll become fluent any time soon, but just knowing enough to make my life easier will be realy helpful.

Well, that's just about all the news I have for now. See you next time!