Can you really be all that independent in a place where you don't speak the language?

The answer is yes.

It is a very bizarre push and pull. It's very liberating to know i have moved across the world all on my own. But at the same time you have to rely so much on the few english speakers there are. And since school in not in session yet, so far i only know about 4. No one off of campus really speaks english at all.

I decided that the best thing to do would be to just jump into things. i didn't have Penny or Vicki with me at all, and i figured that for most of this year i will have to rely on myself so why not just start now.

I woke up early in the morning to the sound of a crazy thunderstorm. I hung about in the room hoping it would die down a bit, but i began to get a bit stir crazy. so i grabbed my trust umbrella and headed out. I walked down towards the market area and decided to try my luck eating. I kind of just chose a resturant randomly. when i walked in there girl working the counter had her head down and was asleep. as was both waiters. the both sat at separate tables with their heads down. the sound my entering woke the one waiter, who quickly woke up the others.
Of course no one spoke english and the menu was all in chinese. so i kind of just pointed to something on the menu and kept my fingers crossed. every restaurant automatically puts tea at your table. it's like getting water back in the states. After that the first thing the offer you, at least in Yantai is beer. I was pretty curious about it so i decided to order a bottle. the bottle was HUGE, but mighty delicious. and so was the meal!! it was some sort of meat that came with sauce to dip it in. yum. not too bad for juts getting lucky. as i began to eat the place began to fill up a bit more and there were defintily people who sat and stared at me while they ate their own meal.

I had realized while getting ready in the morning that i had forgotten to get a couple things yesterday. so i also managed to go to the grocery store all by myself as well. it may sound silly but i was really proud of myself and it felt good. I wanted to walk around at take pictures of the area but the rain kind of kept me from doing that. The campus is ina smaller part of yantai and outside of shopping at the market there's not a whole lot to do. hopefully it won't rain tomorrow so i can sxplore some more.

So I spent a quiet day in my room settling in and e-mailing back and forth with Kelly Wu, who is in charge of who teaches what classes. as of now, it seems as if i am the youngest of the native speaking teachers they have and the only one without expierence. i'm looking forward to meeting the other teachers. It seems like almost all of them have worked here before, and i'm not sure where they are living because i don't think it's in my building. It looks like i will be teaching writing, speaking, or a listening class. i'm much more nervous about teaching then actually living here.

my computer doesn't have speakers so i can't really listen to music yet, which is a bit frustrating. so i juts but the tv on in the background. The television is alot of fun to watch. My favorite channel so far is channel V, which is thier version of an MTV, except it atually plays music videos for most of the time. over here they LOOOOOOVVEE the band keane and beyonce. When i was in walmart with the girls, vicki bopped around singing along to a spice girls song, and asked if i loved it to. Overall though the television ia alot of fun to watch. there are lots of talent shows, at a certain time of day it's like seeing a crazy version of american idol on every channel. I've seen Soft Cell's Tainted love music video twice....straight out of the 80s. i've never even seen that msuic video in the US. My favorite things to watch so far are the game shows and teh shows geared towards 20 sometings and teenagers because theya re both craaazzzy. not being able to understadn what they're saying only makes the shows even more interesting.

I actually had to document one show because It made me laugh soooooo hard. Basically a group of really hip 20- somethings stand in a group holding those big foam noodle things we play with in pools. They have to take slips of paper from a bag, and on them is written a dare. it's all silly stuff like drinking gross things or having someone write on your face in lipstick. Now i know what you're all wondering: What about the foam noodles?!?!?! Well, after they do the dares they all just stand around talking and randomly someone will say something that makes the whole group beat that person with thier noodles. I wish i knew what exactly it was you had to say to get a noodle beating, but they did it about every 10 seconds and most of it was directed to one girl in particular.

Tony I especially thought of you! You would have loved this! i had to take pictures of it for you!