Two posts in two days!
Now I’m making progress.

It’s yet another dreary type of day here. Last week it was all sunshine and cerulean skies peppered with white, fluffy clouds. As soon as Thursday afternoon crept up on us, so did the rainclouds. Most days since then (it’s Monday afternoon here) have been plagued with gray skies, sprinkles, and showers. Naturally, this is the kind of weather that is conducive to staying indoors and getting things done…right?

Alas, it is not always so for me. Somehow, I find the endless thick clouds distracting and melancholy. Therefore, instead of staying in and actually making progress, I’m staring at book covers and pondering the existence of the word “towards”. (That dilemma is solved, thanks to my trusty friend www.dictionary.com- Usage Note: Some critics have tried to discern a semantic distinction between toward and towards, but the difference is entirely dialectal. Toward is more common in American English; towards is the predominant form in British English.)

There are things to be planned and finished. There are things to be sent, taken care of, and applied for. I am certainly well aware of these things. They eat at my inner stomach lining like soft, black leeches with sharp teeth. I know I need to take care of them, but I just can’t seem to get myself to move. Perhaps this is what it feels like to be a sloth in a tree. (I was always terrified those creatures as a child…photos in science books made them look mean and dirty)

The cracks in my bedroom floor tiles are getting worse. You know, I’m not sure I’ve mentioned them before. Sometime last term, a tile developed a crack. Then it began to spread. When I came back from the holiday, the tiles had begun to move up as though some force was putting pressure on them from below. It’s really quite strange. Mary (co-teacher/friend/waiban-foreign affairs assistant) was over here today to take a look at it, so I’m expecting that it’ll get fixed sometime in the near future. It’s certainly not life-threatening, so I’m not terribly bothered about it, to be honest. Mostly I just think it’ll get worse and it’ll be more work for the school if I just let it go. For now, I just avoid those two tiles (which are unfortunately directly behind the chair I’m sitting in at the moment.

Here’s a sign of how behind I’ve gotten with my emails. My dear friend Cynthia sent me a link to download some music ages ago (I honestly don’t know the exact date) and I didn’t bother to download them until last week and I didn’t even get a chance to listen to the album until today.
I’ve certainly been missing out. It’s an album by Alela Diane called “The Pirate’s Gospel” and it’s absolutely fantastic. Highly recommended. Perhaps a bit behind the times, but recommended nonetheless.
Now playing: Alela Diane - The Pirate’s Gospel
via FoxyTunes

I just got word that a fellow Amity teacher was “was injured in an unfortunate encounter with a dog” recently. He’s now in the hospital being treated and he got the lovely rabies injections. Ugh! Scary thought. I suppose I ought to be more careful than I am currently when it comes to animals.

I think I’ll end this post with a photo from my trip in Sumatra as a tribute to sunnier days.

When I feel stressed out, sometimes I suppose that my mind tries to find something else to distract me.

For example, for the past couple of weeks…maybe the past few, I’m losing track of time these days…. I have been stressed out about a variety of decisions that needed to be made. (I’ll explain some of this soon when I can say more for sure)
This explains why I haven’t been posting here at all. It’s not due to a lack of significant events or extraordinarily dull days (something either amusing or frustrating happens here on a daily basis, to be honest. I’m certainly not short of material); it’s just because I have been too distracted to even think straight.

That’s where the problem started.
My tooth began to hurt.
When I ate something sweet, it seemed to hurt. I kept thinking about cavities. The more I thought about it, the more it hurt. Therefore, it seemed logical to me: I must have a cavity- maybe three or four! The pain increased. I Googled tooth cavities and examined my teeth in the mirror. I was absolutely certain that I saw one and then another two possible cavities further back in my mouth.
If you know me at all, you know that I am absolutely terrified of needles. I couldn’t really tell you why, I just know that the sight of one, even on television, makes me sick to my stomach, weak in my knees, and more than just a little shaky. It’s embarrassing. Truly embarrassing.
(Does anyone else out there have crazy fears like that, or is it just me?)

Well, I’ve had one filling my whole life and I hated it. I really hated it. The needle in my gums was by far the worst part. I had no idea they were going to do that. So, needless to say, the idea of needles and a filling in China worried me. I could just leave it until I get home, but what if it got worse?

Kate finally suggested that I talk to our friend/co-teacher/new waiban’s assistant, Mary (not her real name, that’s just her English name) and ask her to take me to get my teeth simply looked at. Kate is so smart sometimes.
So Mary and I headed out to the dentist. About four or five yuan later, I was sitting in a dentist’s chair and a Chinese woman was poking around my teeth and explaining things to Mary. I, frustratingly, could not understand a word and also couldn’t ask for a translation when I had a metal stick-thing in my mouth. Somewhere at the end of her comments, I heard “mei you” which I took as a good sign. (It means “don’t have”)

Turns out….absolutely nothing wrong with my teeth.
In fact, they clean teeth there, but they recommended that I not even bother with that because my teeth don’t even need cleaned (not what I’d hear from a dentist in the States, I’m sure). She just said there are some spots in the back that could develop into cavities if I’m not careful, but to be honest, I’ve heard that for years. (I guess these things don’t get better)

Funny enough, my toothaches seem to have disappeared since then. Odd, eh?

I guess that just goes to show how ridiculous I can be when I’m under stress.

More later.
This time I really promise.
(If any of you believe me anymore!)

—————-
Now playing: AIR - Alone In Kyoto
via FoxyTunes

I’m at the airport in Singapore right now!

Sorry that I didn’t post any in Indonesia. The internet connection there was hideous…I had trouble even getting emails sent.
After Sumatra, we had one very full day here in Singapore and now it’s just after 5 am here and I about to board in a couple of minutes.

I’ll try to get a full update on here once I’m back home in Yizhou in a couple of days!

Hello!

I’m in some random city in Malaysia now…we’re waiting for a bus and I needed to find the internet to send a happy birthday text message to my dad.

Anyway, this has been great so far.
Malaysia is fantastic and tropical and full of various people and an incredible variety of food. I love it! I haven’t had this many food options since I was back home. Absolutely amazing.

We were in Kuala Lumpur for a while where we visited mosques, the sky bridge at the big towers, and did some general wandering around.

Last night we went to a little town where there were, to our surprise, wild monkeys! Just running around! I’ve never seen wild monkeys before.
Although Kyle did just find this terrifying article- check it out.
Then we went on a boat ride at night and saw thousands and thousands of fireflies. Absolutely gorgeous.

Now we’re hopefully on our way to some little island where we can relax by a beach…as long as we can find a hotel with rooms. We’ll see how this works out.

It’s embarassing to have written a post promising more posts and then I completely disappeared for ages afterwards.
I’m quite sorry.

Here’s a quick update…

The term ended…a flurry of spoken exams, written exams, marking, turning grades in (after rewriting them countless frustrating times- I’m terrible at copying numbers by hand), and traveling.

First, Kyle, Kate, and I met up with Andrew and Lucretia (two other Amity teachers from the U.S.- they’re fantastic) in Yangshuo (the famous tourist town outside of Guilin). It was COLD. We spent the vast majority of our time indoors eating and watching DVDs on big screens in restaurants. All in all, it wasn’t a terrible way to spend several days. I had a good time.

Then, we traveling to Guiyang in Guizhou province for my last Amity Winter Conference. It was great to see folks, but somewhat bittersweet knowing that this is the last time I’ll see most of them.
The weather in Guiyang was hideous! Seriously cold and icy.
There was supposed to be a visit to an Amity project- a biogas thing. I was really looking forward to seeing how this works. However- the weather was too bad and most of the roads were closed, so that bit was cancelled and the conference ended early. Most folks were flying out, but they got stuck at the airport for days! Well, they ended up in hotels at night. Kyle and I thought we made a good choice by getting train tickets. Boy…were we wrong.
It’s a long story- but the train station was mass chaos! Trains hadn’t gone for days. People were sleeping in the station. It was definitely below freezing inside and out. Our train was meant to leave for Guangzhou at 10.35 am…. we were lucky we got to leave at all! We were told that our train would leave the next morning (after hours of ‘it’s cancelled….maybe….we don’t know’) but then Kyle randomly showed a train security person our tickets at 1 am. She then rushed us onto a train that left two minutes later! We nearly missed it! Insane!

The train was definitely at least freezing-literally-the whole time we were on it…all 31 hours! Oh my goodness. It was not fun.
When we arrived at the station we came upon the largest crowd I’ve seen in my life! Over 100,000 people waiting and LOTS of police surrounding the building. Wow. If you look at any news article about the crazy weather in China, it’ll probably show a photo of that station.

Most of the metro stations near the train station were closed off, but we walked to one further out and made it to our hostel. We were looking forward to nice warm showers….I got in and - no hot water! I decided to tough it out and shower anyway. It turned out that for some reason the city shut off hot water or something. Really confusing. Basically, there was no hot water for our entire time there. And it was cold.

The night before our flight out, my sister and my parents called to tell me that my grandmother died. Apparently she had gotten sick and she didn’t pull through. It’s still quite a shock to me. It’s hard since I’m here and I can’t get home. Kyle and I looked into flights and it would cost me quite a bit over 1,000 just to fly into Chicago. Please keep my family in your prayers.

This afternoon Kyle and I arrived in Singapore. It’s really nice here. Raining and hot, but so far I like it. We had originally intended to go see ‘La Triviata’- I’ve been wanting to see it for years- I’m a big Verdi fan. However, I was a bit of a mess this afternoon and we got a later start than intended, so we missed it. Oh well. There are other things to do. It’s a big city!
They speak English! And it’s clean! No spitting!
We had toast with peanut butter for dinner/lunch.

Oh. My internet time is almost up.

I will do my best to write more soon.

I’ll be here, Malaysia, and Sumatra.
Adventures.

After some very peculiar problems, I’m now able to post on my blog again (thanks to Derek).

I feel as though I have a lot to catch up on.

Basically, right now I’ve just started giving exams. Grade 2 started last night and I’m still having lessons with grade 1 and my British Lit class, but they’ll have exams next week.

Let me tell you…2 hours of sitting still in a cold classroom after dark is not fun. What was I thinking? I honestly couldn’t feel my fingers last night once I finished.

Anyway, all of this will be finished about a week from now, so I’m looking forward to that. Huzzah! The goal is to have testing marking (Lit written exams) finished before my birthday next Saturday. We’ll see if I can manage that.

I’m cccccccold.

The mornings and nights here are extra chilly.
Truly told me last week that this winter is going to be colder than last winter.
Oh no!

I’m on a search for more layers and thermal underwear.
However, I don’t think I’m going to have much luck at all in those departments.

I’m in for a long, cold, winter.
Especially when I travel to Tibet in January/February.
I hope I survive.

Thanksgiving has come and gone…

I spent lots of time shopping, cooking, and baking on Thursday.
Thankfully, people came early enough that everyone could lend a hand when it came to putting it all together.

We had wine, juice, chicken (we bought it already cooked), cornbread, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, honey glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, dried cranberries, stuffing, bread, salad, cookies, brownies, pumpkin bars, apple crumble, and my biggest accomplishment- pumpkin pie. It was my first ever attempt at pie crust or any kind of pie. I don’t have any real measuring tools, so I just had to guess at amounts, and I also have a tiny toaster oven- not really the ideal size for pies! I’m not going to lie- it turned out pretty well, I think.

So Thanksgiving was great. There were 8 people over here and we ate lots and talked even more. I had a fantastic time.

Today, our regional conference began. The meetings and such are all starting tomorrow, but everyone arrived, had dinner, and then went out to Liu San Jie Square this evening.

The Square has changed a lot since last year, as has all of Yizhou, but I think I’ll save that for a later post. They still have bumper cars though, so that’s a load of fun. I’m terrible at driving those things!! I’m glad that Kyle was willing to drive. It was a good time.

Anyway, so we went out for tea, coffee, and juice afterwards and it was a good time. However, Kate and I were really enjoying ourselves and she hadn’t even finished her drink when everyone decided it was time to go, so we headed out. Unfortunately, I really really really enjoy having lots of people to talk to- but since we’re hosting the conference, we stay at home and they all stay in a hotel. I have to say that I’m really quite depressed that they all get to hang out in the hotel and talk while I came back here alone, like most other nights. I’m now used to having this apartment to myself, but for the most part, I don’t enjoy that. I like being with other people a lot. I’m on a strange line between extrovert and introvert…I don’t like being the center of attention at all, I like to avoid that, but I feel happy being involved with a group of people and I have discovered in the past year that I actually get incredibly offended and sad (no matter how hard I try to control these emotions!) when I feel as though people are having a good time while I’m alone and not enjoying being by myself. It is, I know, something that I need to adjust to, and for the most part I have. I just feel like a blog on the internet is somewhere that I can vent these frustrations. I don’t know why I think that, but whatever.

I’m full of energy after spending time with people all day and not ready to sleep at all, so I’m making the brownies that we need for our snack during our meeting tomorrow. Kate and I forgot to bake them earlier today, so I figured I’d just do it now since I can’t sleep at the moment.

Tomorrow morning, I’ve got to get up and prepare some things for breakfast and bake some blueberry muffins.
After this weekend, Thanksgiving and the conference will be over and I’m pretty sure I’ll have used up all of the baking mixes I have here. That’s kind of a disappointment because I can’t get any more in Yizhou.
However, it’s great to be able to share good meals with other people. It makes it even more enjoyable, I think.
I love the combination of good people and good food. You really can’t often go wrong with that.

P.S. In the market today, I saw them grab a dog by the neck with some metal thing and grab a bag- they beat the dogs to death in a bag before preparing them for cooking. I almost cried. I know the dogs are for eating, but I’ve never watched one as it’s about to be killed. Absolutely heartbreaking.
I suppose I feel that way about all animals, but I don’t often see them as they’re about to reach their end- especially in such an utterly brutal way.
I will never forget that.

They do eats dogs in China.

They especially them them down here in Guangxi.

At the market, I often play with the little puppies. The big dogs I leave alone. They look sad and as though they are treated cruelly.

It wasn’t until recently that I discovered that even the little pups are eaten.

Disgusting, but terribly true.
I have gotten used to the meat and whole animal carcasses for sale at the market, but I still am disturbed by the juxtaposition of the live animals sharing close quarters with the dead of their same species.

In a couple of days, I’ve got to cook something that’s kind of like Thanksgiving dinner. Thankfully, Kate is helping out. Who knows how this will turn out? I really don’t know. Well, there will be food and that’s what really matters.
Thanksgiving is all about hanging out with people and eating anyway. Mmmmm… my mouth waters at the thought of a Thanksgiving meal.
Last year, we were at Pizza Hut in Nanning for Thanksgiving. Certainly not traditional in any way. Ugh.

This weekend, Kyle and I had some engagement photos taken by an older woman who lives on the 4th floor of my building. She’s a photographer and she’s pretty good at it. She just got a digital camera the day before taking our photos, so she used digital and regular film. My friend/coteacher, Mary also came along and took some shots with her digital camera. I’ve posted all of the photos here on Flickr.
Also, I have some pretty sweet photos of Kate and I and I am doing something for Kyle’s Christmas gift. (ha ha) But those photos have to be kept hidden for the moment. If you’re interested in seeing them, email me (hunt.megan@gmail.com) and I can email you an invitation to see them on Flickr.

In other news…. wedding planning is going… well, I guess.
I bought my dress. Well, I picked it out and paid the money for it, but my mom had to do the actual ordering at the shop. Once again, if you’re interested in photos, send an email because I can’t post them where Kyle will see them.
We’re also coming up with a list of potential songs for the ceremony (we’re thinking about not going completely traditional there) and also for reception. If you’ve got any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
I also just spent what I consider to be an obscene amount (although it really isn’t) on makeup that I ordered online. I figure that I need some nice stuff since the stuff here is really cheap and horrific and I’ll be needing to have decent makeup for my wedding anyway…might as well get it now. The sad bit is that I realized that even though I just spent a lot, I don’t really have all the makeup I’ll need. It’s like a vicious trick. You can never quite have everything you need without spending loads of money. I do love makeup though. I can’t wait to be back in the States where I’ll be able to try some on and just buy nice makeup without having to wait my entire lifetime for it to arrive! It’s supposed to get here on December 26th. A Christmas present to myself, I guess. I haven’t worn makeup in ages (as is sadly evident in the engagement photos where I happened to be wearing…none! What was I thinking??) So I’ve decided that it’s really necessary to have at least a little bit of nice stuff so that I can put it on and feel good about the way I look.

In other news, the regional conference is this weekend. Since we’re hosting it, all 14 Amity teachers/friends of Amity will be arriving and spending a short time here. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again. Hopefully they’ve all got good stories to tell and interesting teaching suggestions.

That’s all for now!

P.S. I had completely forgotten that ‘My Fair Lady’ is nearly 3 hours long…and I showed it to my British Literature class yesterday. (They’re studying Pygmalion this week) Ugh. Torture. Pure torture.
And then, after it finished at 5.35, I then had to go home, get some things done, then go back to show ‘Back to the Future’ at 7.30 for film club.
I love films, but 5 hours is complete overkill. I was not particularly happy last night.