Unlike other posts, this one will be generally unedited and mostly a stream of consciousness. I tend to prefer slightly more polish on my dispatches, but I really just want to get a few thoughts out there (maybe for future revision and rewriting) as I prepare to leave Shenzhen.
As irregular as my posts have been in the past few months, they may be even more sporadic in the coming weeks. I will be leaving Shenzhen on Tuesday. Hopefully, I can couchsurf for a few nights in Hong Kong while I wait for my tourist visa to process--otherwise, I will be finding a cheap room in the Chungking Mansion. After 3-4 days of personal processing and visa processing, I will catch a bus to Yangshuo to begin a 3-week stay with a tai chi school. By the end of June, I will be back in Shenzhen to retrieve a few belongings for a move to the north: Nanjing. July 1-6, I will be hanging-out in Nanjing, meeting some supervisors for my new teaching position, and moving-in for the fall. July 6th, I fly back to Hong Kong to catch my July 7th return-to-the-U.S. flight. 7/7-12: NYC. 7/13-15: Florida. 7/15-23: Denver, CO. 7/24-29: MI and Chicago. 7/30-8/4: Denver. 8/5: Back to Shanghai.
I am thinking a lot about forward motion.
I am leaving a lot more behind, here in Shenzhen, than I had originally anticipated I would when, last November, I anticipated leaving. My time here started off as some of the most difficult months of my life, and I have since come to be happier than I have been in a long time. Much contributed to this switch: family, friends, learning Chinese, meeting new Chinese friends, exploring more of the city, learning to not be so high-achieving in a very restricted professional sphere, romance, Romance, bow ties, taking cooking classes, riding motorbikes, dancing in the street and in subway stations, beating Chinese children in staring contests, watching lots of Pixar movies, Avatar: The Last Airbender, finding reliable Internet, foot massages, Magnum bars, getting a new job that offers awesome opportunity, playing bluegrass, Uighur bread, Bag End, and on and on.
I am genuinely sad to be leaving the connections I have made here; I feel as if I am up-rooting. This year tested my mettle, and I am intricately tied to the aspects of my lifestyle that helped me personally succeed in a foreign and estranging environment and despite isolating circumstances.
I am eager to restart. I am scared to restart. But I am eager. I have some "insider knowledge," now, though I am still far from being an expert at navigating expat life in China. I will arrive in Nanjing, though, having accomplished a goal for the first year: I can hold a daily conversation completely in Mandarin, and I can read most menus. My linguistic goals for this time next year: Nail my tones, have more complex conversations than basic daily interactions, be able to read most of a Harry Potter in Chinese. Some of my cultural goals for this time next year: Visit several other provinces, start calligraphy, continue tai chi training and/or begin another form of wushu, attend a Chinese wedding--I'm going to have to cultiavte some serious guanxi to make this happen.
I will miss a lot about Shenzhen, but I am confident in my decisions to move onward and geographically and professionally upward.
It is a pity that my friends and I only discovered our local pizza and pasta place just a week ago. They even deliver.
I have more realistic insight, though, into my limits in this society. There are many limits. More than I could enumerate in a single post. And I am sure that I have not even slammed into the true glass ceiling of a Westerner's access in a Chinese society.
I do see my limits as a teacher, though. Learning Chinese and realizing how difficult the cross-language pedagogy is has helped me realize how difficult it is for Chinese students to learn English. Here are some of my 5th graders who were better at English (Carly, Mary, and Super Jenny):
I have a pile of fan mail and indelible memories of 3rd graders crying over my departure. Unfortunately, most of the fan mail is illegible because of handwriting, because it is written in poorly scribbled Chinese script, or because it is gibberish.
I plan to visit Shenzhen. And I am excited to see what life outside of the SEZ will be like, what life in a historically rich city will be like, what life outside of an expat community will be like.
Movies, Books, Music, T.V.: The Witches of Eastwick, The Hangover, Fast Five, Some Reads, Adele, "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens, Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin, "Specters of the Future" by Nicholas Jaar, Rome (finished and recommend), Glee (disappointed in the latter half of this season and dropping out), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
And here's a treat: Hilary and I playing "Wizard's Walk" to a slideshow of pictures I inherited from my school:
As irregular as my posts have been in the past few months, they may be even more sporadic in the coming weeks. I will be leaving Shenzhen on Tuesday. Hopefully, I can couchsurf for a few nights in Hong Kong while I wait for my tourist visa to process--otherwise, I will be finding a cheap room in the Chungking Mansion. After 3-4 days of personal processing and visa processing, I will catch a bus to Yangshuo to begin a 3-week stay with a tai chi school. By the end of June, I will be back in Shenzhen to retrieve a few belongings for a move to the north: Nanjing. July 1-6, I will be hanging-out in Nanjing, meeting some supervisors for my new teaching position, and moving-in for the fall. July 6th, I fly back to Hong Kong to catch my July 7th return-to-the-U.S. flight. 7/7-12: NYC. 7/13-15: Florida. 7/15-23: Denver, CO. 7/24-29: MI and Chicago. 7/30-8/4: Denver. 8/5: Back to Shanghai.
 |
| Eye on the ball |
I am thinking a lot about forward motion.
 |
| Watermelon in exchange for mediocre cover songs |
I am genuinely sad to be leaving the connections I have made here; I feel as if I am up-rooting. This year tested my mettle, and I am intricately tied to the aspects of my lifestyle that helped me personally succeed in a foreign and estranging environment and despite isolating circumstances.
 |
| One of my favorite places in the world: Bag End |
 |
| Still working on prepositions like "behind me." |
It is a pity that my friends and I only discovered our local pizza and pasta place just a week ago. They even deliver.
I have more realistic insight, though, into my limits in this society. There are many limits. More than I could enumerate in a single post. And I am sure that I have not even slammed into the true glass ceiling of a Westerner's access in a Chinese society.
I do see my limits as a teacher, though. Learning Chinese and realizing how difficult the cross-language pedagogy is has helped me realize how difficult it is for Chinese students to learn English. Here are some of my 5th graders who were better at English (Carly, Mary, and Super Jenny):
I have a pile of fan mail and indelible memories of 3rd graders crying over my departure. Unfortunately, most of the fan mail is illegible because of handwriting, because it is written in poorly scribbled Chinese script, or because it is gibberish.
I plan to visit Shenzhen. And I am excited to see what life outside of the SEZ will be like, what life in a historically rich city will be like, what life outside of an expat community will be like.
Movies, Books, Music, T.V.: The Witches of Eastwick, The Hangover, Fast Five, Some Reads, Adele, "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens, Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin, "Specters of the Future" by Nicholas Jaar, Rome (finished and recommend), Glee (disappointed in the latter half of this season and dropping out), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
And here's a treat: Hilary and I playing "Wizard's Walk" to a slideshow of pictures I inherited from my school:
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