Further life and times of *liltayinchina*

…and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is a different thing. Okay, first things first: my developed English skills have all but disappeared. Basic language function is still available to me, but beyond that, I find I’m often verbally challenged. (Suddenly, I’m figuring it out…maybe this recent language failing is the culprit in the lack of blog entries of late…that and the lack of Internet…which I’ll get to in a short while…)

Okay, so everyone has noticed, and some hostilely-so (thank you very much!), that there has a been a dearth of entries. Well, I have no excuse. Actually, I have seventeen, but none of them are legitimate or worth your time if you are reading this. So I’ll continue. I’m sorry. I will try and find words again, but they seem to have dried up during this ever-so-dry winter here in Wuhan. Spring is coming, or might already be here, so maybe some moisture will loosen the words that I know to be there…somewhere…

Secondly, let me apologize for all of the ellipsis usage. Again, no excuses.

So what is really different, you ask? Well, I feel confident as a teacher, and that’s extremely different. And let me qualify this for all of you REAL teachers who might be reading this: I feel confident as a teacher of English to 1st and 2nd graders under employers who do not feel that I need to drastically improve, as long as I make beautiful teaching aides, show up to class enthusiastic and try my hardest. And this, I can certainly do.

There’s a lot more to say about school, but since the Internet is down and I can’t even post this, I’ll make it short and keep trying until I go to bed. And if it gets up, well, then I’ll have more incentive to fill you in. Or something.

The Internet. When I first moved here, I thought I’d maybe be able to contact the outside world once or twice a month. Instead, I became comfortably used to logging on at all hours and posting my thoughts ad-nauseum. Well, of late, the Internet has been shady at its best and doesn’t appear to going back to the golden days of yore. If I do lose my previous Internet freedom, I can guarantee less posts and even less communication than you already receive from me. I don’t have Internet at school and don’t plan on discovering one of the four Internet cafes in Wuhan, I’ll tell you that for sure! So let’s all cross our fingers that the wires play nice and that all goes back to “normal”.

My favorite restaurant. It’s gone. It’s so gone that some people were cleaning it from ceiling to floor today when I passed by on my way to school. And I know that the previous owners wouldn’t dare to defile the grease stains and oil-tar and dust-feathered crevices and furniture and empty beer bottles waiting to be picked up in the nooks so, like I said, it must be dead-dead. I’ve done a bit of “detective” work and here are two of my most recent findings: there was a giant leg of meat (animal unknown) with a giant metal hook in the flank, strewn in the garbage-dotted grass between the main street and the cobbled alley where the restaurant resides. The meat didn’t look rotten (though how would I know what dried, rotten meat looks like??) and yet someone had determined it useless. Now, a restaurant going out of business might throw out an extra hunk of dried meat if it weren’t coming back and if it couldn’t take all of the dried meat made in preparation for next winter. My other clue was a small piece of paper that was taped to the roll-down door of the restaurant, which had a few simple characters and a telephone number. It looked an awful lot like a moving notice and maybe the number was there for potential renters. Anyway, whatever the excuse, the restaurant has been closed for six weeks and doesn’t look to be coming back.

And now for a positive change (or two, actually): all of the foreign teachers are playing nice since the vacation and I got into the China Studies program at the UW!!! Yes, the former seems a little dull in comparison to, “My life is FINALLY sorted out!!!”, but in fact, the former is really important to my overall wellbeing for the next three months (only THREE!?!?). It seems that we’ve all grown up a bit and are too tired to be at odds anymore. This is a very pleasant turn of events. Although I don’t plan on hanging out with my fellow foreigners any more than before, I do enjoy the pleasant attitudes in passing.

And yes, I got into the UW program…again. This time, of course, I’m accepting and I’m very excited to be returning to Seattle, my friends, and my other life. This time in China, while short, has also been long and has helped me realize many, many things. I’ve also been introduced to a culture I’m fascinated with and can’t wait to continue studying and absorbing.

Alright, that’s enough for now, I suppose. I’m a little rough. I can’t believe how much I was doing this before. What happened, I’ll never know. Or maybe I will. BLAH-DI-BLOO-BLAH. I better start reading the dictionary or something to help ease back into Western functionality…or not. Ha, ha!

(Am I really ending on this note? I suppose so….Another good reason to start writing again…durn ellipses!!!)