第一天,第二年

When my alarm went off bright and early this morning I was excited to begin the day.  I got up extra early so I could run down and buy some food from the farmers outside and still not be rushed for my first day of classes.  I left the apartment at 7:30 in order to follow our instructions to arrive 20 minutes early to class on the first day.  I had to wait a few minutes before someone came to unlock the door, but was still anxiously awaiting my new students for the year.  Last year I was ecstatic to find my English majors in the classroom 30 minutes early with their books open, studying.  I wasn't quite that hopeful for today's class since they are the somewhat spoiled students who will be traveling to England in two years, but I expected to see a few of them within the last five minutes before class started.  At 8:15 I started to wonder if I was in the right building.  At 8:20 a guy came in to tell me that the school had decided my class would not begin until the 3rd week.  I'm so glad they decided to tell me.

So I went back to my apartment, studied some Chinese, and drank some tea until it was time to leave for my 10:00 class.  I showed up to that class twenty minutes early as well, and was confused by the lack of students once again.  There were students exiting, but none entering.  One cute girl came up to me, curtsied, and said, "Welcome to Yichang."  And then she skipped off along her way.  It reminded me again of how much I love my job.  About five minutes before that class begin I was still trying to figure out the newest lack of students when a man came in the room again.  This time it was to tell me that the school had mistakenly put the wrong classroom on my schedule.  I dashed up the stairs in time for class and the fun began.  I had my students introduce themselves and they were given some time to get to know me as well, and I was asked three times if I have a boyfriend.  One student stood up, pointed out the five boys in the class and said, "There are five of us, so I think we all have a chance."

This afternoon Jessica and I ventured downtown to try and buy a wireless router for our apartment so that we wouldn't have to take turns using the internet, and I apparently forgot that nothing is as easy as you think it's going to be.  A few hours worth of extraordinarily confusing directions later we emerged with a new router and absolutely no idea how to set it up.  We spent even more time following the directions repeatedly hoping that eventually they would magically work, all the while knowing that we were doing something wrong, when Jessica's overly-helpful friend Kiki called to see if we were making any progress, and after hearing our dilemma she sent her brother-in-law to our apartment (at 9:30pm) to help us.  We felt so bad for making a complete stranger come to our rescue but there was no talking either of them out of it.  Soon his girlfriend joined him, and they squatted over my computer trying idea after idea.  The next thing I knew another classmate of theirs showed up to lend a hand, and we felt completely helpless.  The students stayed out until they were late for curfew but finally got our internet working at 10:45pm.  I can't imagine the depth of kindness in their hearts to make them spend their entire evening helping strangers set up internet.  The frustrating part is knowing that I won't be able to thank them enough for such selflessness.  I'm so blessed by the Chinese people.

"Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music--the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people.  Forget yourself."
-Henry Miller