8/29/07

Arriving to Guiyang has been relieving. I have been anxious to get to the place I would call home for the next 11 months. My first day has been good. My apartment is…an apartment. It’s mine, a place to call “home,” to be comfortable in, to have food at my finger tips, a place to go to and not have to worry about how to communicate, read, or act. But it will need some adjustments. Like turning my 7 ft x 11 ft entrance/living room into my entrance/bedroom and my 10 ft x 11 ft bedroom into a space capable of hosting people. The kitchen/laundry room…well it has a rice cooker, hot plate, fridge, and some utensils…that will do. The bathroom…the dolphin and penguin shower curtain I got at Walmart (which is underneath the People’s Square overlooked by Mao-a bit ironic if you ask us foreigners) has been a good edition. Oh, but the cleaning, that was a project. The first thing I bought…cleaner. It’s ok if my place is dirty (everything in China is dirty), but I want it to be my dirt. Not mystery dirt. So everything at least got sprayed down. It’s nice to have a place I can call my own.


9/1/07

You know, if you just don’t look at the people staring at you it isn’t THAT bad. It’s only frustrating if you let it be. I never thought I was cool/weird enough to be stared at for the sake, but I guess that is the case. There aren’t many foreigners here in Guiyang, we’re about 1 in 10,000. This being the case, we are quite the spectacle when we go out in public. Not because we are doing anything strange, just because we look different. I sort of want to just start walking on my hands to do something to actually warrant the stares, but I guess I will just have to settle on the fact that I just look different and that is why people stare. I suppose it makes you grateful for diversity in the states. Even if we think we are in a bit of a bubble sometimes we still don’t question the presence of someone who looks different from us. They have the same amount of rights to be there as we do. Not that I am complaining ;-) Culturally it is acceptable and I have only been here for a couple of weeks, who am I to question 3,000 + years of culture?



9/3/07

I guess the “September 3” on my teaching schedule was a misprint. I went to teach my first class this morning and to my surprise class doesn’t start until next week. Wait…actually, let’s have it start Friday. So I have classes Friday…I think. Maybe we won’t start until next week. Maybe I will go in again tomorrow and ask for another confirmation. If I don’t have to teach on Friday that means I may go out to the countryside with some new friends and visit a school that the company they work with helped fund. Visiting the countryside is something I really want to do, so in a way I hope I don’t have class.



Speaking of new friends…I have met some amazing people here. They are people with huge hearts, doing great things. The world is a broken place and these people have set out to try and make it a little better. Strong willed and trusting they love people and show people Fathers love. What an inspiration. Leaves me scratching my head and searching my heart as to what more I can do, as to what more is desired of me.