Reflection...an email that I sent out when I first arrived in China 2 years ago!

View from my window in Guangzhou

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HI Everyone,

Well this is my first real email as i only just the internet on last night. I did it myself and was very proud of my technological abilites considering everything is written in chinese caracters, so i just guessed and was right! howz that for intuition!

Its thursday of my first week of teaching in an international school environment. Where do i start, its so different.

The first day i felt like a brand new teacher again, the nerves were killer. Everyone welcomed me to the hilts, showed me around informed me of all the school systems and things that my classes are up to (as their year began in August). And because the year is half way through, i teach for 4 weeks and get
a 2 week holiday and im off to Thailand to spend time with mum and explore!

So anyway my first schock was waiting for the bell to ring, and i asked one of the students, to which he replied we dont have bells here. Woh, i was a bit shocked, the students just move from class to class.

So its very relaxed in terms of not having bells ringing! And then i saw students walking into the artroom at recess and i was like is this a class? and they said no we're studying, at recess, what! So thats just a taste. i will share more as time progresses.

My apartment is lovely, im living on the 20th floor of Dong Feng, in a complex of 8 towers, so you can imagine the enormity of the place..very daunting at first. My neighbour is a young canadian teacher from the school and he's been showing me where to get 2 hour massages for 8 aussie dollars and cheap eats. Oh that get's
me started on the food, oh my god, no not dog! The food is amazing, there is everything you can think of Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Tibetan and even western (of course its way over priced) a meal is only 20-60 yuan about 3-10 dollars and we're talking lavish meal and drinks.

The drivers are hectic, and have seen some real near misses when it comes to pedestrians. I just duck my head and hope the person survived and so far i haven't seen any road kill, but i hear it happens a lot. There are so many cars and people that the road rules seem to have, oh wait there really doesnt seem to be any road rules.

I laugh out loud, because thats all you can do and be greaful for this amazing experience and for being alive.

Anyway. Amber is taking me shopping on the weekend for some new boots and shoes. Sure we'll get some bargains. I simply can't get over how cheap it is to live here.

Hope your all well and loving life.
Keep me posted on whats happening at home.
Lots of Love
Rosie