Monday, October 17, 2011
Just as I did one month ago, I mark today, the two-month anniversary of my leaving home with sadness and a longing for everything that is familiar to me. How the time has flown, though! It seems as though it was just yesterday that I marked one-month after my departure and the day before that that I marked one-month until my departure. Yet with all of these milestones, culminating in the fact that 1-5 of my journey here is already over, I feel as though the time. day-by-day, is going slow. Things are becoming increasingly frustrating with school, so each day is getting to be just another to be rid of.
Naturally, today has been a wellspring of emotions. I had a lot of strange but oddly pleasant dreams last night about my home, family and friends, making going through today even more difficult. Right now I just want to be with my friends and family and have them tell me that everything is alright.--The embrace of those around you is something to be truly cherished when you're sad and lonely. When I get sad like this, I take comfort in the fact that the first 1/5 of my journey has gone by relatively fast, so the remaining 4/5 may also.
Don't assume that I am completely distraught, though; I'm not sad all of the time. My family here is very nice and accommodating to me. Whenever I am invited out, my family is always willing to let me go out and enjoy time with friends and teachers. Weeknights can get boring when I have no homework and my host-brother has tons, but my host-parents usually try to help me occupy my time. While life is by no means like home, it is starting to be something that I can genuinely call mine...
Signed: A Restless Wanderer,

October 24, 2011
**Disclaimer: Things have gotten much better after I complained about not getting the classes I deserve, but I still think that it is appropriate to share with you what I was thinking at the time:
Ugh!!! I am so aggravated with this Chinese school right now! It doesn't even deserve to be called a school--more of a mindless institution of crumbling buildings with no value. Back home, I get 30 classes a week. Here, even though everyone else gets 40 classes a week, I get 25. Things are made even worse when I miss five to ten classes a week due to teachers not showing up or having to teach a different class. With "school" approaching its third month, I have had enough!
I've even gone as far as contacting the Hosting Coordinator of AFS-China (her contact info is the only one that I have). She was extremely nice and helpful. She contacted my city's AFS branch which in turn contacted my "school." The school, however just gave blatantly idiotic excuses. Among them is that the teachers are too busy planning for the 10th anniversary of the school (big deal!). Others were that it's my responsibility to figure out when my teachers won't be in class and make a new time (aren't they supposed to be the teachers?).
This is not the experience that I signed up for or that others graciously helped fund. I am really considering asking to change schools. If not, I seriously think my mind will turn to mush.
Signed: Frustrated Forever,

Monday, October 31, 2011
I had a really great time with my host-family this weekend. On Saturday, my host-father and I went to the flower market to get some plants for my office. My hopes were that I could get a bonsai, but I couldn't decide which to get. We left with out getting much of anything--just a few ferns and hyacinth bulbs. Due to our indecisiveness, we arrived home for lunch late--everyone else had already eaten and had left the house.
After we ate, one of my host-mother's colleagues wanted to take me to the Taihu Electronic Music Festival that was at a nearby amusement park. The music, along with the obnoxious beer-chugging American DJ was absolutely horrible. Thus, we just walked around the amusement park. It was themed in the style of World of Warcraft, so I didn't find it very interesting. The disappointment was continued even further because we only rode one stomach-churning roller coaster--the only ride that we went on.
Sunday saw the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the school. The performances were really nice aesthetically, but all of the singing and instrument-playing was fake. The school wanted me to lip-sinch and pretend to play the guitar, but I decided that it would be better for me to disappoint everyone by not doing the performance verses lying to myself and others by doing it. My name was still put up on the big screen to announce my performance (they didn't change the board), so I felt rather guilty. In the end, though, I decided that it was for the best.
Once the event was done, my host-family and I went for lunch and then to a coffee/tea house. We spent a few hours there by snacking, sipping and playing card games. I really like spending time together in that atmosphere, so I cherished every moment. We left in order to go to a small farm that one of my host-mother's colleagues owns. They grew a lot of squash, so we gathered enough to fill the back of the trunk of our car. Sweet potatoes and bok choy were also part of our bounty.
...This brings me to the present, as so you are now up-to-date on everything that's going on!

Friday, November 11, 2011 Happy 11-11-11! To celebrate, I went to Shanghai yesterday because I didn't have any classes due to midterm exams.--I absolutely loved the city! Due to the fact that it is so large (about 23 million people), there was definately a cosmopolitan feel to it. Walking down the streets felt like walking down any large American city...The architecture, food, music and feel were all the same. Foreigners were walking around everywhere, including American, British, French, Spanish, Italian,etc...People were from all over!
We didn't go to many places, but the sites we saw were amazing: People's Park, The Bund and Pudong. While I personally think that the new parts of Shanghai are ugly, it was nice to see so much activity, construction or otherwsie, in a single city. The main reason that we didn't go many palaces was because it was rather cloudy out, and we could only stay from 10:30 to 5:30. Nevertheless, I had a lot of good first-time experiences, including riding a high speed train (cutting what would have been over a two hour ride by more than half) and using the subway (a very convenient way to get around such a busy city).
I really wish that I could live there instead of Changzhou.--There's just so much more to do! God choose this place for me though, so I'll try to make the most of it.