Sunday, August 28, 2011

I'm alive!


On the Great Wall with some lovely girls from England that I travelled with.

I am probably now known across the web as the girl who does not update her blog, ever. I have a valid excuse, I promise. Here it is: up until I got an internet card a week ago, blogger, twitter, and facebook were all blocked on my computer. Thanks a lot, vpn that I paid for! And by I, I mean Wilson, who I will pay back with silk panda ties (sorry love, I’m not kidding, it’s sitting in my suitcase) as well as a fobbed-out wardrobe when I return for being a dear and dealing with my wanderlust ways.

Hopefully you’ve all been getting my emails or emailing me in the meanwhile because you miss me so freakin much. Anyway, after a month in Haining teaching primary school/high school and 2 weeks traveling around China (to answer your questions: Hangzhou, Suzhou, Beijing and yes, the Great Wall was mind blowing, but more on that later), I am finally back in Shanghai and here to stay. My plan was originally to be here until October but I’ve recently decided to extend my stay until January because the position I was offered at the university was conditional on me staying until the end of the semester, and I figured, why not? I have a place to stay, a wage I can live off of, and yet-unknown but probably infuriating and shocking experiences with Chinese culture to have in the near future (there are so many stories to tell I don’t even know where to start). Oh, and I’d like to perfect my Mandarin skills, obviously on the forefront of my agenda in China. Now can you see why an extended sojourn in Shanghai won out against my better judgment of going home and being a grown-up?

There’s much to catch you all up on, and I’ll start tomorrow -- after I tell my students about college life in the states, because slideshows about the educated, partying youth of America do not make themselves.

Bartholomew in a classic Chinese watertown setting. He's on a [classic chinese river] boat!