JISHOU, HUNAN — I’ve finished my second week teaching here, and I can still say I am pretty happy with it all.
According to the experts, I am in the honeymoon phase of my expatriation. Everything is still so new to me that ennui and regret have not yet set in. I’m like a kid in the candy shop.
True, I will be teaching four more classes shortly, so my life of leisure will soon be curtailed by a busier schedule. True, if there were another “foreign expert” here, our teaching loads would be divided. But things happen. True, I am the only waiguoren (外国人 — foreigner) crazy enough to delve this far into China, so I have more work as a consequence.
If the students were troublesome, I would be singing a different tune. As it is, however, the students are generally quite willing to work and cooperate with my crazy American teaching methods. I am assuming the frosh will be as cooperative, if a bit more hesitant.
So, yeah, I’m still in the wide-eyed innocent mode. I am finding it hard to believe that just two weeks ago I was still in Louisville, sleeping on my son’s couch, awaiting my flight out of Kentuckiana. During break times, I look out the windows of my classroom at the buildings and buildings-yet-to-be, set against the hills in the distance, in wonderment. Dude, I’m in China!
Dude, where’s my car?
