I can't believe how fast these two months have gone by! Tomorrow is my last day as an Intern at ISNS! crazy!!!....but also that means it is officially my last day as an INTERN! THANK GOD! This year has gone by soo fast!
I am really sad to be leaving China, but I am also excited to get home. I am going to miss the staff here and my class so much, but it is always nice to know that you are going home. It is weird how close you can become with someone after only knowing them for 2 months! I have made some really great connections here in Shenzhen, and I hope those connections last a lifetime!
I am mainly excited for the fresh ocean air and to run beside the ocean. There is an ocean here, but of course there is nothing like going for a nice long run along the cliffs of Grand Manan! I am not so excited for the cool weather. I have been living in extremely hot and humid weather for 2 months now and enjoying every second of it, so I am hoping that the summer weather hits NB really really soon! I am also excited for some good food! I haven't had a problem with the food here really, but I am missing my dairy! I haven't had a glass of milk for 2 months now, and that is so not like me! and of course, I can not wait for some fried dough, dulse, lobster, etc etc etc! It's always good to know you are coming home to some good home cooked food (thank you mommy) :)
My flight leaves Shenzhen at 3:00pm Friday afternoon, and after a 15 hour flight, I will land in Toronto at 6:00pm Friday night. That is such a weird concept to wrap my head around! I am officially going back in time! My flight is scheduled to land in Fredericton at 1:00am on Friday night and my plan is to jump in my car and drive to Blacks Harbour and sleep in my car until the first boat, although I do not think I will be able to sleep because it will really be afternoon time in China, so we will see what happens!
I am excited to get back and see everyone, especially the nieces! I bought them cute little China dresses and I think they will love them! Although I will be extremely jet lagged, I promise I will be ready to go and up for anything once I get back! I want to make this summer one of the best summers I have ever had, although it will be hard because I will be in school until July 13th (not fair, why do I have to finish my degree even though I have a job for September) haha!
I don't know if I will make another post before I come home, hopefully I will be able to, but I am going to be busy with goodbyes and packing (how am I ever going to pack everything?) so I just wanted to take this time to say thank you to everyone that has followed my blog while I have been in China! It has been truly one of the BEST experiences of my life, and I would recommend China to anyone. I know that my view about what China is really like has majorly changed since I have been here, and it has really opened my eyes, both in a good way and a bad. Someday I will make a post about that, but not right now! I am very thankful for the place that I have grown up. Even though it has its issues, I live in a very healthy environment with fresh clean air, I am free to do what I want when I want, and I know that I am safe. We need to all take a step back and be truly thankful for what we have, because there are MANY people in this world that aren't that lucky!
Lots of love and see you soon!!! :)
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
May?... really?
First off, I can not believe that it is May already! The month of April absolutely flew. I know I say this about all months, and life in general..but I honestly do not know where the month of April went. April Fool's day was here, and now its May 2nd. This actually scares me about how fast life can go. I seems that the older you get the faster it goes. One of my goals for the year 2012 was to start living in the moment, because I am terrible at it. I am a future thinker and am always thinking in the future. To me right now, it is already July. I am slowly changing this about myself, and the realization of how fast the month of April went has really hit me that I need to start living in the moment more often.
On another note, I haven't updated my blog since our field trip to Hong Kong which was two weeks ago. I haven't updated for so long because I have been busy with school (was teaching all subjects) and I was extremely sick last week. I am finally back to feeling like myself and I have energy! I spent most of last week in the washroom or laying on my bed watching movies/tv shows (yes I finished two seasons of Vampire Diaries, a show I swore I would never watch and am now addicted) I am still not sure what I got sick with. At first I thought it was food poisoning because I had all the symptoms of food poisoning, but after I heard about a few kids getting the same sickness and a few people on the staff, I ruled out the food poisoning and realized I had some kind of crazy Chinese flu. All I know is that I have never in my life been that sick.. even though it only lasted 3 days and then came back for a night or so, I had no energy at all last week, barely ate anything, was very dehydrated and had nothing left in my system. NOT FUN!
Thank God for feeling better though because I had a great weekend. In China this weekend was May Holiday, or they also call is Labour Day Holiday. It is a holiday for people to rest, which made sense to me until I saw that all stores were open, taxis were running, thousands of people are still on the streets and life is going on like any other day in China, so I am not really sure where or if people were resting, but either way I got 2 days off from teaching so I wasn't complaining!
Saturday, Kate and I ventured to Daphen Village which was about a hour long subway ride away. It is a little village with alleys full of paintings. Every colour, every kind, original and printed paintings. It was totally not what I expected though. I got a few paintings for really cheap! I love them!
On Monday, 9 of us girls went to Evergreen Resort, which is a gem in the middle of Shenzhen. It was about 10 minutes away from our hotel, but felt like it was another world away! It was a very neat resort made into the middle of a forest. There were restaurants, pools, tree houses to stay in, butterfly sanctuaries, pottery making stations, and so much more! It was good to get away for the night and stay somewhere! The first day we were there the pool was still closed because pools do not open in Shenzhen until May 1st (even though its already 100 degrees in April). So we decided to get our bikinies on and lay beside the pool that we weren't allowed to swim in. The guard was watching us the whole time, but we all kept pushing the boundaries and eventually we found ourselves sitting in the water (technically we weren't swimming, right?) The guard did seem to mind, but he didn't really say anything, im guessing because we are foreigners. Oh, also, while we laid by the pool in our bikinis many chinese people including women, decided to stand outside the pool and stare at us. We kept saying that it felt like we were in a zoo, so then we started acting like animals. Why not give them a show right? Hhahaha it was hilarious! its not odd to look to your left or right and someone is either staring at you or taking a picture of you. I don't really mind, but when I am laying in a bikini, its a bit different! We went out for some Indian food and then came back to the resort and played a bunch of board games including one of my favourites, Things! I think we might have got to know each other a lot more than we expected through that game! Overall, the Holiday was a great experience and really relaxing!
On another note, I haven't updated my blog since our field trip to Hong Kong which was two weeks ago. I haven't updated for so long because I have been busy with school (was teaching all subjects) and I was extremely sick last week. I am finally back to feeling like myself and I have energy! I spent most of last week in the washroom or laying on my bed watching movies/tv shows (yes I finished two seasons of Vampire Diaries, a show I swore I would never watch and am now addicted) I am still not sure what I got sick with. At first I thought it was food poisoning because I had all the symptoms of food poisoning, but after I heard about a few kids getting the same sickness and a few people on the staff, I ruled out the food poisoning and realized I had some kind of crazy Chinese flu. All I know is that I have never in my life been that sick.. even though it only lasted 3 days and then came back for a night or so, I had no energy at all last week, barely ate anything, was very dehydrated and had nothing left in my system. NOT FUN!
Thank God for feeling better though because I had a great weekend. In China this weekend was May Holiday, or they also call is Labour Day Holiday. It is a holiday for people to rest, which made sense to me until I saw that all stores were open, taxis were running, thousands of people are still on the streets and life is going on like any other day in China, so I am not really sure where or if people were resting, but either way I got 2 days off from teaching so I wasn't complaining!
Saturday, Kate and I ventured to Daphen Village which was about a hour long subway ride away. It is a little village with alleys full of paintings. Every colour, every kind, original and printed paintings. It was totally not what I expected though. I got a few paintings for really cheap! I love them!
On Monday, 9 of us girls went to Evergreen Resort, which is a gem in the middle of Shenzhen. It was about 10 minutes away from our hotel, but felt like it was another world away! It was a very neat resort made into the middle of a forest. There were restaurants, pools, tree houses to stay in, butterfly sanctuaries, pottery making stations, and so much more! It was good to get away for the night and stay somewhere! The first day we were there the pool was still closed because pools do not open in Shenzhen until May 1st (even though its already 100 degrees in April). So we decided to get our bikinies on and lay beside the pool that we weren't allowed to swim in. The guard was watching us the whole time, but we all kept pushing the boundaries and eventually we found ourselves sitting in the water (technically we weren't swimming, right?) The guard did seem to mind, but he didn't really say anything, im guessing because we are foreigners. Oh, also, while we laid by the pool in our bikinis many chinese people including women, decided to stand outside the pool and stare at us. We kept saying that it felt like we were in a zoo, so then we started acting like animals. Why not give them a show right? Hhahaha it was hilarious! its not odd to look to your left or right and someone is either staring at you or taking a picture of you. I don't really mind, but when I am laying in a bikini, its a bit different! We went out for some Indian food and then came back to the resort and played a bunch of board games including one of my favourites, Things! I think we might have got to know each other a lot more than we expected through that game! Overall, the Holiday was a great experience and really relaxing!
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