Excuses, Excuses

(Okay, I have to admit....I wrote this blog a long time ago.  I was unable to post it for a long time, and then once I was able to.....well, I just didn't post it for a long time.  So here it is for those of you who read my random, unpredictable, infrequent blogs.)

I know it’s been far too long since I have written on my blog.  Honestly, I had no idea I would be this bad about keeping you updated with life here.  I do have a number of excuses:

1. Sickness: We get sick here so much more than we ever did in the States.  It’s like being a first year teacher when you catch all the latest bugs, except worse because not only do we face new viruses, we are in a totally different country.  So after four solid years of building up immunity to the diseases children bring into school in the States, we now are starting all over.  Plus the pollution here makes things much worse.  We often battle breathing problems and head aches due to it. 

2. Bad Internet:  A while back our internet just stopped working.  Of course it had to stop when Jason was out of town.  I sought help and was told that my internet probably ran out.  So I went to pay the bill….twice. The first time I thought maybe I didn’t pay enough – I can’t read the receipt! I thought maybe I was in the negative…I don’t know how much RMB I need to pay to last a month. Anyway, that wasn’t it.  Our router was broken.  That was a painful week.  Jason was out of town and I had no internet.  The internet is my only connection to the world.  It’s how I make phone calls home, watch tv, check FB, send emails, etc….  Well I’ve probably paid for enough internet to get us through the school year. 

3. No VPN: I’ve been without a VPN now for two weeks. This is painfully long.  I might as well not have internet.  A VPN allows me to access all the American websites, like FB, blogspot, hulu, Netflix… you name it. It’s actually still out.  I’m writing this blog on Word, hoping that I’ll have access to my blog soon. 

4. Busyness: Life here is much busier than I anticipated.  Now that I’m here, I totally understand why life is busy.  I thought life was busy in the States.  It wasn’t.  Here, our jobs are really the purpose in life here.  Everything is about furthering our purpose in being here.  Yes, we still get to go out and have fun time to time, but the way of life just feels busy.  Even to head to Pizza Hut (which, by the way, is a very classy restaurant here – they serve much more than pizza, things like mashed potatoes) entails catching a taxi or hopping on the bus. Traffic here is intense, so it takes a long time to get anywhere.  A trip out to the mall becomes a day trip.

Jason has a pretty heavy class load.  He is teaching some heavy-duty high school classes.  He teaches an AP class.  He teaches MUN and he led a group of the students by himself to Singapore for a conference. He put in so many hours getting ready for that trip.  It’s not like in the States where you can just hire a tour company to handle all the details for you.  No. He handled it all.  He booked the flights, the hotel, the transportation…All of it.  I’m very amazed.  He could be a travel agent.  I think I would have dropped under that pressure, but he soared.  As far as my busyness….well, I love the two English classes I’m teaching.  I don’t feel like the load is heavy, but just right.  It’s Yearbook class that bogs me down.  It, too, is not like in the States.  I was a part of a Yearbook class in my middle school years, high school years, college years, and teaching years in the States, and the Yearbook was always organized by a third party company like Jostens or Walstead.  Now that I’m without it, I realize how amazing these companies are!  They do so much of the organizing – the ladder, the spreads, the pictures, etc…. all neatly organized on an online site.  Here, it’s all up to me.  I am that third party company.  There is no company to hold us accountable to deadlines.  No company to organize the photos. No company to organize the ladder.  I do it all.  It’s just a totally different type of yearbook.  I think I’m getting the hang of it, but it is certainly time consuming.  Working with high school students as apposed to middle school students in yearbook is also quite different.  Okay, on to the next excuse…

5. Tiredness: When I’m not busy, I just crash.  (Well even when I am busy, I often crash.) It’s 3:20 in the afternoon right now, and I feel like I could go to bed for the night.  I think with the sickness and busyness, my body just gets tired quicker.  So in those moments when I have time, I think about blogging, and then I quickly give up the idea for something better like…mindless tv watching.  (Of course, without reliable internet, that’s getting more difficult.)  I was in a very good routine of going to the gym after school and working out, but a number of things caused me to fall out of this rhythm.  I definitely feel like I have it more together when I am able to work out consistently.  New Year’s resolution: get back my workout routine! 

6. Travel: I don’t think this is really that valid of an excuse, but while I’m listing excuses for not blogging, I might as well include this.  I went to Thailand for a half week over the Thanksgiving break.  This was the same time that Jason was in Singapore.  It was glorious.  I really enjoyed the sun, although, I hardly got enough of it.  I was there for a teaching conference. Thus I was inside most of the time in teacher meetings.  The sessions were good.  The food was great.  The hotel was nice.  But the best part was being able to go out at night to the night market and going to get cheap massages.  I love Thai hand crafted items- jewelry, décor, clothing, etc.  It’s all very beautiful.  If I lived in Thailand, I would have no problem decorating my home.  Here, it is not so easy.  The night market here is rather amusing to go to, but they don’t have the same handcrafted items.  They sell socks, pirated movies, underwear, shoes, hand warmers, lint trimmers, iphone cases, among many other oddities. The night market in Thailand had beautiful jewelry, wood carved candle holders, frames, and jewelry boxes.  It had beautiful dresses and skirts. Lovely art and lanterns.  I could only bring back so much.  On our last night in Thailand, my friend Bekah and I ventured to a larger night market.  It was overwhelmingly marvelous! There were so many beautiful artifacts for such great prices. We had so much fun walking around and buying souvenirs for friends and family members.  The market was probably a mile long. That last night was definitely the best night in Thailand. We finished our night by getting foot massages.  While we were getting massages, a rainy thunderstorm started.  We were able to watch from our cozy chairs (sitting indoors) as our other foreigner friends were running back to the hotel, sopping wet from the downpour.  The power went out, which made for a relaxing evening of massage by candlelight, listening to the thunder roar.  It was quite memorable.  So, I certainly wasn’t thinking about blogging while in Thailand.

I actually think about blogging quite often.  I usually have energy and inspiration to blog when I am nowhere near a computer.  So, I blog in my head with the intent of heading back home and writing it all down.  If only I could upload directly from my brain, you would have a lot of amusing experiences of mine to read about.

Well, how is that for blogging excuses?  If only you knew how much I thought about all of you.  I am not very faithful at social media.  I try to stay connected, but I am not one to post all my thoughts on FB.  I just never have been.  I’m sure some of you have found out more about my life through the posts of my friends here.  You can always bug me for more information.  Sometimes I just need the extra push.

I’m sharing a picture of something that amused me.  I decided to stop and get some veggies the other day.  Veggies in Walmart are of horrible quality.  They are often moldy.  So, I stopped by a little store that I know has good vegetables.  This store also sells meat.  This was hanging outside of the store.  It took me a second to figure out what it was.  Do you know what it is?