Chapter 3?

So, when I moved here to China, I told my brother that my goal was to write on my website/blog about 2 times a week. Clearly, I haven't been doing so. I sat down like twice to write. BUT, I am realizing how I want to write. 

I want to write the interesting things, the boring things, and random things. I also have come to realize that I can't write about my days on here like it's a journal of exactly everything I do. Honestly, I prefer the air of mystery. But really, I can't write about everything I do. It's not safe and it's not smart. HOWEVER, I will talk about the random things. 

One thing that has been happening in my life right now is being a teacher. I never ever ever thought I would become a teacher. I always said that that's something I refuse to do. I am a K3 and K5 teacher. I also am teaching 5th & 6th grade Heritage. So I will in one day go from teaching 3-5-year-olds to teaching 5th & 6th graders history and all about American history. As the token American, I am very proud of being able to share some of my background to everyone else! I have been working pretty long days and stuff. Like this week, I worked 15 hours straight, went home got 5 hours of sleep, woke up and worked a 12 hour day. 

When I am saying all this, keep in mind that I do not have a degree in teaching. My degree is in Intercultural Studies. I have a minor in ESL so teaching English, but I never thought I would be teaching at this level. But just because I never thought I would be doing this doesn't mean that I'm not excited to see what happens over this next school year.

Another interesting thing is how my transportation works here. I am from a small town where the only real means of getting around to do anything required a car. Here in Guangzhou, I take taxis to work, walk to a bus or the subway to get home, or ride a bike to go to places that I rent off of an app on my phone. I have never walked so many places in my life. Most of my life I only traveled by car. But I am getting the swing of this whole public transportation thing. I legit got home from somewhere on the other side of the city without needing to look at a map to figure out where I needed to go. Little wins.

I am a very accident prone person. I have broken my foot by standing up. I broke my wrist by riding a broken scooter to the trashcan. So yesterday morning, I was biking to school because I was running late to school. I didn't know how to get a taxi or use the app for a taxi because I don't know Chinese. I spent 10 minutes in a panic trying to get a bike off of the app to get to school. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. Thankfully, Andrew was walking out of the building right as I was trying to figure out what to do to get to work on time. He got me a bike on his app and I raced off. The only bad part to this is that I am extremely unfamiliar with the route to get to school on a bike. I made a wrong turn but figured it out. Then, I was going in an underpass for bikes and people and realized I was going way too fast. I hit my brakes. Wrong decision. Because I was going downhill and turning at the same time, I wrecked. It was so scary and happened so quick. Thankfully, Andrew was right behind me. I was slightly trapped under the bike and couldn't figure out how to get up. Some awesome strangers and Andrew helped me get up. However, I had hit my head pretty hard on the solid stone and my knee as well. I also scratched up and bruised my arm too. I was so thankful that I had chosen not to wear the maxi skirt I had planned earlier that morning. If so that would have probably been so much worse. When I stood up, because of the shock, I had tears streaming down my face and couldn't figure out how to stop them. I did know however that I didn't have any really serious injuries. The principal person at the school ended up picking us up from where I wrecked and took us to the school. Because of suffering a concussion about 6 months ago, I knew that my headache couldn't have anything done about it at the hospital and convinced them to not take me to the hospital. My co-workers were amazing. They helped me get cleaned up. One of my new friends, Sophia, graduated from medical school (but still says she isn't a doctor), so I had her briefly double check that I didn't have anything serious done to me. So I spent the rest of the day in the really awesome teacher's office. My supervisor for the kindergarteners told me that she had covered all my classes for the day since I only teach my kindergarteners in the morning. Just to make sure that I didn't let my head get really screwed up, I just tried to rest and get some major lesson planning done. As a homeroom teacher, I would normally spend my entire day in the K5 classroom, so it was really nice to be in the quiet. Even though I really like my students! I'm feeling much better now but just annoyed with the stupidness of my injuries. As with most things, mind over matter. It's the best pain management I have ever had.

One of the best things about moving here to Guangzhou is the people. I have made some awesome friends in the 3 weeks I have been here! One of these is my friend Sophie. We only met less than 2 weeks ago, but it feels like we have been friends for years in a lot of different ways. It's even to the point where we just assume that we are going to be getting dinner together after work and hanging out. So nice. It's been really nice to be able to reconnect with Andrew. We went to Olivet together, but only really became friends in his final semester and the spring of my junior year. I also have some awesome roommates. One of my roommates is from France and the other two are from China! Super super nice people! I could write so much more though...

Other important news in the life of Victoria. I currently have a wardrobe on the floor of my room. There aren't really any built in closets like back in the States. I have tried on 3 different occasions to put it together. The first time, it got too late and we were too tired. The second time we had just gotten started, and I realized I had put the bottom on incorrectly. The third time tonight, we needed another person to help move it to continue putting it together. 

I also painted a mural on the wall of the kindergarten play area. It was really fun and didn't take that much time in actuality. It even looks decent! 

Otherwise, I am settling into the life of an adult. I am so happy when I get to go to bed early. It's almost a source of pride. I also am beginning the life of an expat. My mom's birthday is today, but I'm not even in the same country as her. But HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA! And this is the first of many events that I will not be able to celebrate with my family. But I know that this is where I need to be right now, and that's the important thing.