August - October, 2011

August – October 2011

Hello all,

I finally have a free moment to catch up with all of you.

These last 4 months have been some of the most hectic months I’ve ever been through. Between teaching, lesson plans, organizing things for the new house, cleaning the new house, and wedding preparations; I have had very little time left to myself. This is not necessarily a bad thing either. Let’s start with a quick history from when I first got back here.

So I landed back in April, I got set up with my school and figured out it’s routine just in time to make and grade final exams. Just as I finished handing in the report cards to the school my landlord had asked if I could move out a little bit earlier so his new tenants could move in closer to the beginning of the month. At this stage the new house would be finished within the month at the latest so I agreed to move into Jing’s parents house until the new place was ready. Packing and moving took place between my summer lessons, which wasn’t much time. My summer consisted of 12-hour days 6 days a week and on Sunday only one lesson, but the rest of Sunday was making lesson plans for all those classes. It was pretty busy, but because of it I was able to contribute some money to help with the cost of construction in the new place. Yayy!

This brings us to where I am now. Construction was delayed so I ended up staying at Jing’s parents place longer than anticipated. I didn’t see Jing’s dad too much, but did hang out with his mom a bunch. Our official move in date to the new place was October 3rd. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my time here. Jin has really made a comfortable home for me. I’ve baked bread a few times in my new oven and cookies are next on the list. The steam oven we have is amazing, I’ll have to bring one back to Canada. It’s essentially an oven but instead of heat, it steams the food. It’s quicker and retains more vitamins. I love it.

School has been pretty decent. Busy as usual, but I am back in the groove of it and it’s great to see the kids again. My private lessons are going well. I’ve even been offered a job at a competing school. They said they could offer me a competitive contract, unfortunately though, I’m going to take Chinese lessons at the university next year. Well, not unfortunately for me, it’s unfortunate to the school.

I’ve made a few new friends. Pauline is from Scotland and Naomi is from Canada but lives in Israel. They are fantastic people; a lot of fun.

Thanks to Jin’s mom, my wedding is starting to come together. We will be having a very traditional Chinese wedding. Our candy bags will be going out in the next couple of weeks, unfortunately anyone who doesn’t live in Wenzhou won’t be getting a candy bag. Sorry guys. :-(

Well that concludes my quick; long waited blog. I’ll try to give more details next time.

Zai jian ~ Julia