My residence in this place has definitely put a kink in my new school year's resolution to keep a more regular blog. Every few days something crazy, weird or just "China" happens and I feel like I should share it with any readers or at least note it down for my future entertainment. Then I realize that all I can do is share it with my laptop until I can borrow someone's proxy and post. Result? No generation of a single written word since that last note from KL. I have notes about the oral presentations I just graded (they will turn into a post at some point), quotes from essays, anecdotes from Malaysia that I keep trying to remind myself of and that gave rise to Megan's and my catchphrase from that trip "Oh, well! At least it's a good story!" as well as the usual plethora of random meetings, weird and occasionally offensive student comments, new ELC developments and pre-EF gems.
Today though, as I sit in Jenica's apartment, shamelessly using her proxy to distract myself from the pile of essays I have yet to grade and babysitting her kitten who just got relieved of his ability to procreate, I just want to ramble. I'm not sure if these thoughts will be coherent or cohesive in any way, but I feel the need and desire to "share". It's been a stressful, busy and frustrating semester in a lot of ways and I've been adapting to certain new unignorable facts.
Fact #1- I am still in Shantou, China, despite the fact and repeated claim that "I am leaving at the end of this year" (said in 2007, 2008 and most recently 2009). The plan was to come here for a year, live somewhere else in China for the 2007-2008 school year and become quite competent in China, then return to 'the real world' and settle down somewhere, presumably with the reason I came here in the first place. Now, it's late 2009 and I am still here (as an astonished former student remarked a week ago) and by the time I leave (I'm saying it again, and this time hurt me if I go back on my word "I am leaving at the end of this year") I will have spent more time in this transitional place than I did at college. I am a "senior at STU" and determined to change directions as of July 2010. If it's good enough for the likes of Lok, Tracy, Jasmine and all, it's more than good enough for me.
Fact #2- I am now unattached and vascillate between being happy about it and living with thousands of "what-ifs". I won't expand on that state of affairs here, but suffice it to say that I have re-evaluated some things since August and have made some changes in my outlook and performance in life. It feels strange writing anything about this situation at all, but it's part of my reality and I figure anyone who cares to read my blog probably knows all about it already!
Fact #3- I have no diea which direction to go in after I leave Shantou. This is a by-product of Facts #1 and 2 and intensified by the feeling that I have gotten almost all I can out of my experience here. I could get a Master's in TESOL, Applied Linguistics or something similar and remain here/ return here, but I'm not sure that I would develop much more as a person and a teacher than I have already. Without singing my own praises, I think I can fairly say that I've come from an incompetent, nervous, shaking and shivering mass in front of the classroom and someone who thought her colleagues were so far out of her league to a confident equal to at least a few of the other members of the ELC faculty who has at least 1 out of 3 lessons that impart some form of knowledge and fewer than 1 out of 6 that totally bomb. If nothing else, my students will be well-versed in the uses of "it sucks!" and "awesome". I've been trying to vary my experiences here and to that end have become a coordinator, whose opinion is sometimes solicited, and leadership occasionally followed. I have been acting as advisor and counselor to various people around here (most notably one new teacher who seems to be having some troubel adjusting) and feel like this is finally "my place". Of course, that means I feel the need to leave it and so something different. Maybe if it wasn't for the fact that you have to make new friends every year, that doing anything other than planning/ grading or hanging out in someone else's apartment requires a 40 minute bus ride and that the discovery of the library has so far been the highligh of my year, I'd seriously consider staying here more or less permanently. But things being as they are, with 80F weather in November, no easy way to see family or non-current STU friends and no real Christmas spirit, I think I'll take my uprooting and resettling with a pinch of excitement and a healthy dose of relief. I just hope wherever I land it gets cold in the winter! Current interests include Paris, London, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Boston, New York, Washington DC, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Anyone have any leads there? I think I'll leave exoticism for my next fit of wanderlust!
Fact#4- I'm barely excited about visiting new places in Asia anymore. I'd go back to Koh Tao or take someone to Angkor (with just the one sunrise excursion probably) but I am not so intrigued by some of my other options. Is that bad? I really should be out there this winter discovering Indonesia or the Philippines, or even another part of India, but I keep having this image of myself bundled up wandering around the snow somewhere and that makes me want to skip the rest of Asia and go home, or at least somewhere familiar for Spring Festival. Decisions decisions. Maybe another sign that I need to move on.
Fact#5- (loosely connected to #3) I think I do want to go back to school sometime soonish. The discovery of the foreign language section of the new STU library sent me into geek-happiness, especially the collection of psych 101 and abnormal psych texts (they have the 101 book I used at Harvard Cont. Ed.) and the random smattering of Greek tragedies, both in English and Greek. Where did those come from?! Not sure what I'd go back for though. Psych? Classics? Teaching? Counseling? Law? Med? It's not like all these hours of introspection have given me any direction whatsoever. I just know that I remember liking learning and that when I sit there with terribly grammatically incorrect essays facing Euripides' Alcestis in the original, all I want to do is find a Liddell and Scott and get to work and that when a conversation comes up where I actually feel like I have interesting things to say (and it's unrelated to the best way to get through grading and planning without feeling your will to live floating away) I feel almost smart (or really dumb when the conversation goes over my head) and wish I could speak with more authority on intellectual things. I've even forgotten which one was the id and which one the ego... oh, my brain, where have you gone?
Fact#6- Students do not feel comfortable when office hours (and possibly other events) are held in a teacher's home. Knowledge I could have used approximately 3 years ago when I moved this weekly ritual from a classroom to my apartment, or at the start of the semester when I'm pretty sure the words "If you do not feel comfortable coming to see me in my house, please let me know and I can hold office hours somewhere else" left my mouth. Students!
Fact #7- Kittens lose their teeth and it's completely normal. (just in case you wanted to know!)
That is all for now. I should get at least 1 essay graded before Jenica returns and finds out I wasted an hour and a half! Oh well, she just walked in... Productivity (and library), here I come!
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Friday, November 6, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Creatures
Not too much has happened since grading finished that is not related to animals in one way or another (other than my ever-worsening addiction to Bones).
Firstly, on Thursday, I went with J to meet and maybe take home a ball of white fur. We had heard of 2 kittens at the home of the father of the boyfriend of a friend that were up for adoption. The idea was that J would take one home and I would or wouldn't fall in love with the other and have something to wreck my house and keep me company once again. I've been telling myself I should get a pet since it might keep me on some sort of eating/ sleeping/ being a reasonable human schedule (feed the cat= feed self, go to bed earlier as cat will wake me up at 4am regardless of what time my head actually hit the pillow). In theory it seems like a good idea, but I'm having enough trouble getting motivated to take care of myself, that having something else to care for might not have been ideal. It turns out that that was a good thing.
When we got to the apartment, the kitties were nowhere to be found, though after a while the mother was found and picked up, something which she kicked and screamed her way through until I was forced to just let her climb onto the roof. After a much longer while, the little female kitten was found and placed into the crate we had brought... she was NOT happy! There was miaowing, hissing, clawing, twisting and when she realized that no amount of running into the door of the crate would free her, she settled into the corner, made herself as small as possible and vibrated with fear and indignation. The boy remained hidden the whole time we were there.
Kitty 1 stayed where she was for the ride back to STU and for most of the afternoon even with food and water placed within easy reach. Clearly, she wasn't going to forgive the evil humans any time soon! As I hung out with J a good part of the afternoon we threw around names for the quivering ball of fur. When I left to go make banana bread later, she still had no name and we still hadn't seen head, tail or even tip of ear move.
One delicious banana bread made later, E and myself introduced D to Twilight, though our sarcastic peanut gallery-ness may have ruined the movie for him (if the acting, makeup and story didn't). I'm still practicing my "always in pain" face in case they come to Shantou to cast a future movie...
Yesterday morning came with the delivery of Boy Cat at J's house. Apparently he really missed his sister and cried until she was found hiding under the couch. Last night, I got to hear these cries for myself when I went over there to visit- it was heartbreaking! The girl (now named Fizz) ran under the couch as soon as the humans entered her territory, but her brother didn't see her, hidden under the curtain as he was. When the curtain was pulled back he freaked out and tried to claw his way up the wall towards the unfortunately slightly open window and onto the balcony and succeeded in reaching the ledge after several failed attempts, determined little furball! J then spent about 20 minutes trying to lure him back inside and away from the ledge of the balcony and potential death 2 floors below (boy cat appears to have bad eyesight and lack a few brain cells... poor dumb kitty!). My diagnosis of his cries: fear of being abandoned. Poor thing miaowed the whole time, but sounded almost desperate when J wasn't in sight. When he finally came in, we breathed a sigh of relief and promptly closed all windows to avoid a repeat performance! Eventually (after feeling more lost and miaowing even louder- J legitimately feared he'd damage his vocal chords) he finally was reunited with Fizz under the couch while we watched Harry Potter try to survive his way through the unaptly named "Triwizard Tournament".
I'm sure eventually Fizz and Boy Cat will learn that J is friendly and wants to help them, but when I left, they'd shifted their safehouse to a spot under J's bed behind a suitcase- they may not have liked the movie!
This all makes me want a cat and also be glad that we didn't separate them! I can't imagine how loud and unhappy Boy Cat would have been if he'd been adopted alone. I always suspected that kittens would be more fun in pairs, but this proves it beyond doubt: kitties are much like heads!
In other news, we have discovered a new inhabitant of the reservoir. We were joking about the existence of Rezzie, a friendly monster, but yesterday when E and I had reached and were resting on our favourite rock, I looked down to see something come out of a crack and aim towards the surface. It was like a thick plant with a bulb at the end. Then it disappeared back the way it came. A few minutes later, we both saw it and I was sure that it was actually a snake- coming out for air, fish or our lives, I couldn't be sure. E tried to lure it out of its hole by throwing little bits of twig into the water (logic of this is unknown by all parties involved) and while that didn't work, it did peak out later, long enough for us to agree that it was indeed serpentine in nature and to make us a little warier about getting back in. Let's just say that we wasted no time in aiming for the steps and way out once we carefully got back in. I think I'm glad I didn't know what was below me in there, but all the same, I may use the pool instead for a while! Shudder!
Firstly, on Thursday, I went with J to meet and maybe take home a ball of white fur. We had heard of 2 kittens at the home of the father of the boyfriend of a friend that were up for adoption. The idea was that J would take one home and I would or wouldn't fall in love with the other and have something to wreck my house and keep me company once again. I've been telling myself I should get a pet since it might keep me on some sort of eating/ sleeping/ being a reasonable human schedule (feed the cat= feed self, go to bed earlier as cat will wake me up at 4am regardless of what time my head actually hit the pillow). In theory it seems like a good idea, but I'm having enough trouble getting motivated to take care of myself, that having something else to care for might not have been ideal. It turns out that that was a good thing.
When we got to the apartment, the kitties were nowhere to be found, though after a while the mother was found and picked up, something which she kicked and screamed her way through until I was forced to just let her climb onto the roof. After a much longer while, the little female kitten was found and placed into the crate we had brought... she was NOT happy! There was miaowing, hissing, clawing, twisting and when she realized that no amount of running into the door of the crate would free her, she settled into the corner, made herself as small as possible and vibrated with fear and indignation. The boy remained hidden the whole time we were there.
Kitty 1 stayed where she was for the ride back to STU and for most of the afternoon even with food and water placed within easy reach. Clearly, she wasn't going to forgive the evil humans any time soon! As I hung out with J a good part of the afternoon we threw around names for the quivering ball of fur. When I left to go make banana bread later, she still had no name and we still hadn't seen head, tail or even tip of ear move.
One delicious banana bread made later, E and myself introduced D to Twilight, though our sarcastic peanut gallery-ness may have ruined the movie for him (if the acting, makeup and story didn't). I'm still practicing my "always in pain" face in case they come to Shantou to cast a future movie...
Yesterday morning came with the delivery of Boy Cat at J's house. Apparently he really missed his sister and cried until she was found hiding under the couch. Last night, I got to hear these cries for myself when I went over there to visit- it was heartbreaking! The girl (now named Fizz) ran under the couch as soon as the humans entered her territory, but her brother didn't see her, hidden under the curtain as he was. When the curtain was pulled back he freaked out and tried to claw his way up the wall towards the unfortunately slightly open window and onto the balcony and succeeded in reaching the ledge after several failed attempts, determined little furball! J then spent about 20 minutes trying to lure him back inside and away from the ledge of the balcony and potential death 2 floors below (boy cat appears to have bad eyesight and lack a few brain cells... poor dumb kitty!). My diagnosis of his cries: fear of being abandoned. Poor thing miaowed the whole time, but sounded almost desperate when J wasn't in sight. When he finally came in, we breathed a sigh of relief and promptly closed all windows to avoid a repeat performance! Eventually (after feeling more lost and miaowing even louder- J legitimately feared he'd damage his vocal chords) he finally was reunited with Fizz under the couch while we watched Harry Potter try to survive his way through the unaptly named "Triwizard Tournament".
I'm sure eventually Fizz and Boy Cat will learn that J is friendly and wants to help them, but when I left, they'd shifted their safehouse to a spot under J's bed behind a suitcase- they may not have liked the movie!
This all makes me want a cat and also be glad that we didn't separate them! I can't imagine how loud and unhappy Boy Cat would have been if he'd been adopted alone. I always suspected that kittens would be more fun in pairs, but this proves it beyond doubt: kitties are much like heads!
In other news, we have discovered a new inhabitant of the reservoir. We were joking about the existence of Rezzie, a friendly monster, but yesterday when E and I had reached and were resting on our favourite rock, I looked down to see something come out of a crack and aim towards the surface. It was like a thick plant with a bulb at the end. Then it disappeared back the way it came. A few minutes later, we both saw it and I was sure that it was actually a snake- coming out for air, fish or our lives, I couldn't be sure. E tried to lure it out of its hole by throwing little bits of twig into the water (logic of this is unknown by all parties involved) and while that didn't work, it did peak out later, long enough for us to agree that it was indeed serpentine in nature and to make us a little warier about getting back in. Let's just say that we wasted no time in aiming for the steps and way out once we carefully got back in. I think I'm glad I didn't know what was below me in there, but all the same, I may use the pool instead for a while! Shudder!
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