What I love about China

Last week I booked a flight to Canada for June 5th, returning to China on July 15th. Six glorious weeks! The decision came about for numerous reasons, including the need for a new passport and China visa. Normally, when you work full-time as a teacher in China, the school you work for provides a visa for you, or at least pays for it. It's actually illegal for a Chinese school to hire foreign teachers without providing a working 'Z' visa, but many schools avoid this. The kindergarten I'm working for has yet to agree to pay for my visa, even though I've been there almost two months. Since I need to leave China on June 8th due to my visa expiry, and because I found a dirt cheap return flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver for only $780, and because my mom is having surgery in June (nothing serious) and I want to be there with her, and because I was planning to visit Canada in August anyways, I decided to make the wise choice of going to Canada sooner rather than later. And boy am I excited!!

Honestly, I'm more than ready for a break from China and a breath of fresh Canadian air. As much as I love China, it also has its challenges. It really is a great place to live for many reasons, but there are frustrations, as anyone living in a foreign country will experience. Knowing that I'm leaving, however, has given me a new perspective. It's picked up my spirits and given me a fresh look on things. For starters, I'm seeing my job in a more positive light, (which was much needed), regardless of whether they offer to pay for my visa or not! At this point I don't even know if I'll have a job to come home to, (because like everything else I've asked about I've received no answer), but it wouldn't surprise me if I did, because my classes are going better overall and the kids have warmed up to me and I'm getting more and more little kid hugs all the time! Little kid hugs are the best.

So what do I love about China? I love the daily scenes, like the groups of people doing Tai Chi on the corner when I go to work in the morning, or the guy selling fruit from his bike trailer in the afternoon. I love seeing guys sitting on cardboard on the sidewalk playing cards for money. I love that I am always seeing new and surprising things, like the pet shop on wheels that I saw last weekend, with fish tanks and birds in cages. And I love that I get to meet new people from all over the world, who come to China to quench their thirst for adventure, to experience something new and exciting, to escape the mundanity of their western lives, or quite simply to find work. It really is a different world here, but in many ways it's the same; people go to work every day, they drop their kids off at school every morning, go to the mall to window shop, go out for dinner with friends or family, go fishing down by the river... but the overall feeling is just different because of the cultural differences. Grandparents piggy back their grand kids to school or escort their 12-year old grand kids while carrying their school bag because it's "too heavy." Moms take their kids to school on electric motorcycles wearing a helmet but not providing their children with one. When they go out for dinner they eat in large groups around big round tables with lazy susans in the middle, with more dishes than they could possibly finish and it's a feast! When they go fishing they take home a bucket of small fish and eat them all.

In less than two weeks I will be boarding a plane to Canada. I am super duper excited to see my family and friends, to be in a place where I can talk to strangers and swim in the clean blue sea, where I can drink water from the tap, and where I can blend in to society and be anonymous. It's gong to be very interesting to see how it feels being back in my homeland. One thing's for sure, I'll miss Peter a whole lot, but I have a sneaky feeling I'll be missing China, too.

Gardener's cart.

Pet shop on wheels.

Fish tanks and birds!

Waiting at the central bus station.

Passerby checking out the bird that's been put out for some fresh air.

Tai Chi in the morning, outside my school.

Selling knickers and dish clothes on the side of the road.... because she can.

Fruit shop on wheels, very popular here.

p.s. I forgot to mention the food.... real Chinese food is delicious! Peter and I always end up becoming regulars at one or two places. At a local 'Dong Bei' (Northeast China) restaurant we've become addicted to three dishes: toothpick lamb, potato pancakes, smashed cucumber in soy and garlic, and sweet & sour pork. We eat there two or three times a week these days because it's easy, healthy, convenient and inexpensive. For less than $20 CAD we can eat all four dishes. Yummy!!