The Daily ... Grind?

Well, I have been teaching for four weeks! It's hard to believe, actually. Time has gone by really quickly! As I'm getting into a bit more of a routine, I thought I'd share with you a Day in the Life of Nikki Carow. What follows is what's average; it doesn't always happen, but it's what I strive for and it's what usually happens.

Monday to Thursday:

• 6:40 - Wake up, strech, stumble to put on my shoes, and clop down seven flights of stairs, yawning and asking myself why I get up this early
• 6:45 - 7:15 - Run. Though it's by no means a gorgeous campus, it's scenic enough to make me have nice places that I like to run. There are lots of willow trees, streams, garden-y paths. It's quite nice. And though it's getting cooler, esp. in the mornings, it's still nice enough by far that I can run out in shorts and a t-shirt and feel pretty comfortable. Don't get too jealous - I hear it won't last for toooo much longer. ; ) It's been really nice to try to make this a habit. It's not fully ingrained in me yet, but I hope that morning exercise can be something that I continue to do for the rest of my life.
• 7:15 - 9:00 - Shower, get ready for class, eat breakfast (usually oatmeal and yogurt or a veggie omlette - my choices are a bit limited, sadly), clean up the apartment, and make sure I have all my ducks in a row for the coming day
• 9:00 - 9:45 - Take the 7-ish minute bike ride to my teaching building, and plop myself in some deserted classroom or in the staff lounge to go over my lesson plan
  
• 9:45 - 9:55 - Go to the classroom and mingle with the students who come in early
• 9:55 - 11:30 - Teach my first class of the day. We will usually do about 5-6 activities per class. We will always do some kind of speaking and grammar activity. Along with that, there will also be a selection of listening, writing, and reading exercises. I try to make it fun and interactive, but sometimes teaching when to use simple past tense and when to use present progressive gets a little dry (especially when I myself hate grammar). However, their tests pretty much will test primarily grammar, so that is how their success is judged.
  
• 11:30 - 3:00 - Bike back to my apartment and make my own lunch. Again, I feel like I don't have too many options, mostly because I don't know how to cook the Chinese food that they sell at the stores. I'll usually have rice and beans with scrambled eggs and veggies, but I've also had soup or congee, couscous and broccoli, veggie burgers, dumplings, leftovers ... I usually end up consuming lots and lots of veggies, in an effort to get them before they go bad. Vegetables rot so ridicuously fast here, so you pretty much have to eat them within a day or two. It's a nice time to just unwind, enjoy my food, catch up on the news on BBC or the Times websites, check my email, or Skype with Matthew if he's still awake. After lunch I usually try to read a little or do a Sudoku. After that I end up falling asleep for about 20 minutes, and then have to run off to class again.
• 3:30 - 5:00 - Teach my second class of the day. Same exact lesson, which is nice because there's no extra planning. It's interesting to see the different energy levels in the different classrooms from day to day, though. I haven't quite noticed any patterns yet. But if they've just woken up from their post-lunch siestas (it's a big thing here), it's pretty hard to get them excited at first.
• 5:00-5:30 - Bike home, change out of my teacher clothes so fast, and get comfy.
  
• 6:00 - 8:00 - Usually people will meet up for dinner in the nearby village around this time. Dinners are often prolonged affairs, because you order dishes communally and eating with chopsticks is just freakin' pokey. But, it's always so nice to not have to worry about cooking anything when I get back: I will pretty much always have a hot meal waiting for me!
  
• 8:00 - 10:00 - Do whatever ... Lesson plan, chat with people back home, watch a movie with my friends ... it varies, and a lot of times I have no idea where these couple hours go!
  
• 10:00 - 10:30 - Get ready for the next day, get ready for bed, wind down, read, relax, whatever. I try to be asleep by 11:00, but depending on when I talk to Matthew or my family that doesn't happen with too much regularity.

Fridays are different because I have my two classes from back to back, from 8:00 - 11:30. I don't like not having my morning routine as much, but it is really nice to have the whole day afterwards. What we do on Friday afternoons tends to vary: Sometimes we'll go grocery shopping, other times we'll just hang out and catch up on stuff like emails or whatever. This last Friday I met up with a guy who we've arranged to tutor each other in English and Chinese, respectively. I can't say I learned much Chinese - I've been pretty much sucking at studying it since I've been here, because I haven't quite had the need to use it! - but it was nice to get to know him, and I hope something valuable will come out of it in the end. Then, Friday evenings are almost always spent on the town. There's a bar downtown where a lot of foreigners hang out, and so we usually start our night off there and then to a Chinese club afterwards. It's alright, but I'd rather just hang out and chill : ) However, it's how people hang out with each other, and so I usually go.

Saturdays and Sundays aren't really constant yet. Usually I will grab the chance to sleep in, run later in the day, do some laundry or cleaning, whatever. Sometimes we'll go shopping. However, we are trying to start a Sunday tradition of heading downtown for Subway, Dairy Queen, and killer massages. We found a really good place thats a bit more pricey, but it's worth the extra $10. That's where I'll be off to shortly, where they'll be a soccer game on a plasma TV to boot.

As you can see, my life here is very simple. Right now, I'll say that it hasn't been this amazing "cross cultural" experience. I feel really comfortable. However, I do hope that as I spend more time with my students (I have everyone signed up for smaller group lunch and conversation over the next month) that I'll gain more insight into China and "real life" here. At the same time, even though my Chinese isn't really improving and my old preconceptions about life in the US are not really being challenged, I'm really enjoying just having TIME to take life easy. The last four years were so go-go-go, it's a nice change of pace. I never feel stressed, and that's awesome! I also finally have the time to start instilling habits that I've wanted to get into for so long, and I'm able to spend time mulling over what I want from life post-China, what sort of things will keep me happy and contributing to society, and the like. So, I think there's still a lot of personal growth happening, and I'm thrilled about that.

Anyway, must run off to my massage now! Ohhhh, life's rough ; )