Anyway, I think it’s interesting that I lived in Costa Rica for 5 months as a foreign exchange student, rather than on a program with other Americans, without ever experiencing severe culture shock or EVER getting homesick and now, even though I have the security blanket of only being abroad for 5 weeks and being on a program with other Americans, I’m feeling a little homesick and sometimes overwhelmed. I attribute this to three things: 1) I am coming off of a lot of hard work student teaching to a slower pace, 2) I am missing my students and cooperating teacher in the US a LOT, and 3) I don’t speak the language and it’s not like I can even wing it when I read a menu or a label on something because I can’t read Chinese characters. The first four days I was feeling a little melancholy but I think I’m moving forward now. After all, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I want to make the most of it! And I’m lucky that I get to see my students and CT in North Carolina when I get back!!
I have a few random things to mention in this post and then from here on out they’ll be more thematic!
So, when I arrived at the airport last Sunday I got to exchange my American money for Chinese money and it’s SO COOL! The currency here is called Yuan (or RMB, shorthand for renminbi) and each American dollar is worth approximately 6 Yuan. So if a sign says something costs 30 Yuan, that means the product is worth about $5.
I’m going to post pictures of food soon (I’m waiting for more info about schools here so I can post it all together) but it’s really good! I usually don’t like “Chinese” food in the US but the “Chinese” food we eat in the States tends to be Americanized. It’s not as fatty or salty here. For breakfast (at least here at the school) there are little buns with meat and onions inside – delicious!, some kind of soup, Chinese donut-like pastries, and shredded potatoes (kind of like hash browns) For lunch and dinner people eat a large portion of rice, some kind of meat or fish stir-fried with vegetables, maybe some soup, and a green vegetable (I think I’m seeing a lot of leeks). The food is really good but I’m still kind of a picky eater (not in a bratty way but I’m just a little cautious) and I’m still losing weight like crazy! I lost 12 pounds during the 10 weeks I was student teaching in the US and the pants I wore yesterday were suddenly like 2 sizes too small so at this rate, there’s no telling what I’ll look like when I come home! (And I’ll start going to the gym this week too!).
Hopefully the internet will cooperate and I'll be able to put up my next post in a few minutes...