Rough Day

This has been the most difficult day since I arrived in China.  After a throbbing headache last night and restless sleep, I found out from my parents that our family dog, Sadie, passed away today.  We got Sadie when I was in second grade and has been the most wonderful dog I could ask for.  We've seen it coming for a long time but it doesn't making it easier.  I feel like I've lost a member of my family. 

If I was back in the states, I would have easily taken a day off to get my emotions together, but here I have no such luxury.  I still had to get out of bed, lesson prep, and go through the motions of teaching even if I wasn't completely into it.  Sometimes teaching becomes more of a performance than anything else.  It was my first official day of teaching so I brought as much enthusiasm into it as possible.  I am teaching over at the Zijin campus which is the middle school.  The kids were all so excited about a real English teacher which made my lesson really fun.  We read a book about Montana which made me really homesick.  

I feel really guilty not being home with my family right now.  I've never been more than a day trip away from them.  I can only imagine how hard it is on my Mom and Dad.  Thank goodness for Skype and my IPhone so we could be as close as possible even though we are 6,000 miles away. 

Frances and I were in charge of evening activity for the third grade tonight.  It is just 45 minutes of doing something fun with the whole grade.  We taught the whole grade "My Home's in Montana" and it was just wonderful.  

Because of my headache I didn't write yesterday, but it was full of new experiences (and new foods).  It was our official welcoming ceremony at the school and all the students assembled to present Rhea, Frances, and myself with lovely silk scarves.  We then had a banquet with the English teachers and Principal Mindy at a nearby hotel.  It was an amazing dining experience with so many dishes all put on a rotating circle at the center of the table.  As the circle rotates, people just grab what they like.  The foods included beef, noodles, a large omelet dish, shrimp and so many others topped off with fresh sugar cane.  I was so full. 

The evening meal was a more intimate dinner with Principal Mindy and her daughter, Mindy's friend and her daughter, Rhea, Frances, and myself.  We went to the most beautiful banquet room at a local hotel and once again had dishes on the rotating circle.  The food was more exotic with goose foot in gravy, snails, duck, crab with thick noodles, fruit, cucumber with caviar, creamed peas with bacon, beef cubes, and other I can't even remember.  We drank the most amazing orange juice.  

Before going back for the night we stopped at the night market to test our bartering skills.  I bough a small square silk in my favorite color of tiffany blue for 4 dollars (I talked her down from 5).  There was so much to look at but with my headache I called it an early night and returned to school.