Hello again!
It's really weird to be using my blog again in the USA- the format is much more sophisticated. Blogger is blocked in China so I had to get to my blog through a VPN, and the blogging functions were very limited. Even putting up pictures was sometimes a challenge. So this is great, except I don't know how to use it now haha.
Well, I stopped blogging after I came back from China because this was my China blog...and I wasn't in China anymore :)
I've decided to start using the blog again as a daily diary in Chinese. It's not going to be groundbreaking stuff- I just want to use it to improve my Chinese grammar and character recognition. I truly want to become fluent, which takes a bit more effort when you're not surrounded by the language everyday. I don't really have a reason for becoming fluent except that I really like the language a lot, and the idea of being fluent in it is very appealing to me. I see my study of Chinese as an extension of my time in China, so I can still use my China blog for it. I'm also too lazy to create a new blog :)
I doubt it will be of must interest to anyone, but you can always put the text into google translate if you want. Also, if you are a Chinese-speaking person who happens to come across this blog, I wouldn't mind some corrections.
I miss pretty much everything about China and hope to go back one day for an extended amount of time (this time WITH zach!), even if it's only to travel. There are still so many places I want to go there. I would also love to have a reunion with some of my students way on down the road but that's going to be tough. I think some of the Chinese teachers that I was friends with there could make it happen though.
Here is a picture of me bringing China home to my house in the form of a hot pot dinner. Yes, I went native while I was there :) Honestly, coming back home was a pretty big adjustment for me, even though I was only there for a year. Some of the other teachers in Dalian have been there for sooo long, I can't imagine how they could ever really come back. There's just nothing here that can really compare to what it feels like living in China. But I can at least try to keep that spirit alive with my hot pot and the language....
Good bye English blog!