Living in China is a freaking trip.
My senses are flooded with new, awesome, sometimes awful, smells, tastes, sounds, sights and feelings…..
Some days are good….really good.
Some days are bad…..really bad.
Things here in China are the same and yet different. When they are different, they are REALLY different, like seeing a tub full of ‘ready-to-eat’ dried scorpions or a container full of dried snakes…complete with heads, ready for the frying pan, at your local market. The open markets here would send the FDA scurrying for their rulebooks in a New York heartbeat.
However, above all, I’m a teacher and the children are both my focus and what keeps me together during the toughest days here.
The kids always have a smile, a wave, a comment.
“Hallo Mr. Jeeem! How ah you?”
If it wasn’t for the children, I’m not so sure I’d be able to keep my sanity while living here.
There are days when I wonder what the fuck I was thinking, moving to China.
There are days when I feel connected and all the universe is one with me. (God help us)
There is no way I can explain this experience in one posting, but over the next few months, I’ll attempt to put China into perspective.
Currently, my perspective is….no one person can describe a country such as this. I’ve read book after book after book, prior to coming here. Books written by teachers, such as myself, living life in China…
None of them hit the nail on the head for me.
You need to experience China yourself; China cannot be, by any stretch of the imagination, encapsulated by one person.
Moreover…..no Annie….I have NOT eaten a Durian yet. However, they are present in the market and a person can smell them from five feet away!
My God, they stink!
Asia…..I love you!
-Jeeem-
EMAIL POST FROM JIM VIA MEG
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