Anyone in my family can tell you, I'm not an especially sentimental person...or at least, when I am, it's a bit atypical. Excellent example: I don't really care about holidays. Haven't for many years. A lot of this probably stems from working retail and customer service jobs so long that I've missed most of my adult holidays...but part of it is just not feeling the magic anymore. Not since before I graduated high school.
I'm not bothered by this, it just is.
This is my first year away from my family in quite some time, and certainly my first holiday season where I was across the world. And while I still don't really feel attached to, or miss, the trappings (christmas presents, thanksgiving dinner, and so on) I find I really miss the time together. The laughter, the conversations, all of that. That's been the only real reason it's been hard this past week or two, in terms of homesickness. Knowing how much more time we make for each other than usual, and how I won't get to be part of that.
I still wouldn't change my decision to come here.
Work has been weird lately. Last week, Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday, which meant all the international teachers had their classes cancelled and the day off. This week, New Year's Day is on a Tuesday, and that means the school is closed and all classes are cancelled. Also, I assume because of Christmas or something, Chinese public schools had a full day last Saturday, which meant basically all classes were cancelled that day.
Short version: I've had two unexpected days off in the past week, and will have another tomorrow.
It's all rather odd. It has me a bit off rhythm.
Anyway.
Yesterday I gave an orientation lesson for a class that's moving from one level of our curriculum to the next. It meant going through the book we would be using and making note of all the vocabulary and grammar/structural content the students would learn so that I could write it up on the board during the orientation. It was interesting how this gave me a somewhat broader perspective on the whole level - I felt like I could kinda see how things tied together and where it was all headed. I mentioned to one of the more senior international teachers that this was a neat experience and that we should have all our new teachers do it for every level. She said, "That's a good idea...I just didn't think about it because it was something I did when I got here, all on my own."
So maybe they'll implement that, maybe not. Next week, we're getting a new international teacher, and I'll get to see if any of my feedback on the onboarding process was incorporated.
I'm still trying to find my groove here in general. I dismantled my PC before I left, and brought most of it with me in parts. My new case and power supply should arrive soon, and I bought more RAM to make it run a bit smoother. So I'm expecting my computer will be rebuilt and I'll be off my laptop within the next week or two. I don't think it'll impact my posting here, but it'll doubtless improve my feeling of "living" here, of it being mine. My computer has always been my link to the world, and in some ways my link to myself, and I can imagine that once it's back up I'll realize just how odd I've felt without it.
Or maybe I won't, and I'll be out a few thousand yuan. We shall see!
As always, I end with a few pictures. Today, we have quite a few, as I've been taking somewhat more to share with y'all. The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival, which is often the main thing you'll find when you search for Harbin, is approaching (some things are already finished, I hear). You can see pieces of it around the city (sorry for the bad quality, took this on the bus); these are little pyramid things of ice with lights run through them.
I found this...interesting decoration at IKEA a few weeks back. Not sure anything else needs be said there.
My inner Millennial was happy to see this (if you don't understand the connection, avocado toast is one of those stereotypical millennial foods, and is sometimes cited as the reason we can't afford x or y or z). I also had an interestingly-packaged cola with some delivered food, and this stuff in a soup. My local co-worker informs me that it's "you yo juan," or squid roll. Surprisingly tasty, in a soup spicy enough that it made me dizzy. That was kind of a new experience.
And of course, no post would be complete without the questionable translations. Today, we have two for the price of one!
Zaijian,
-L
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