Stick asked me if I wanted to go back to China at the end of the summer. I don’t know, I don’t feel an amazing love of Yantai. China is like Wonkaland, and while I’m still curious about China, the Chinese and just how taxi physics works, I don’t love China or feel like it’s my second home.
But I miss the constant adventures in China. I like being a bai ren celeb. I like being an expat. I really like working 20 – 30 hours a week. I like teaching middle-schoolers, playing ESL games, testing out my brilliant lesson plans and seeing how the kids react.
I hate trying to speak Chinese. My vocab sucks, and it’s easier to work on it here, where I get classroom feedback, instead of giggle giggle giggle. Then again, I put a lot of time into my awful Chinese and I don’t want to trash that.
I hate 90% of Chinese food. It sounds kind of stupid that that’s a major point, but it’s just as stupid to set myself up for another year of culinary disaster. Although I do miss cool noodles and hawthorne leather… and I could bring some foods I like and get some care packages shipped in…
