This past week Shobana and I have been transitioning into our new life here in Hunan. We are just about ready for classes to start on Monday. It felt good to finally settle in for the year, especially after almost 40 hours of travel by train from our training site in western China to our small town in Hunan.
Our apartment is comfortable and now complete with A/C, internet, rice cooker and a few “friends”. Within days of our first cockroach sighting, we armed ourselves with several varieties of roach repellent. The effectiveness is questionable, but we’ve learned to wait a couple seconds after turning on any lights to allow time for our roommates to hide. Out of sight, out of mind.
The school where we live and teach is about a 15 minute walk from Xintang Town. Xintang is small, but it has enough- restaurants, supermarket, veggie/meat market, printing shop, school supplies stores. Everyone in town recognizes us as the new foreign English teachers at the school. Today was the big move-in day for all the students and we ran into many of them in town. A couple girls helped us buy rice and cooking oil. I’m learning our relationships with the students will transcend the classroom walls. The students will not only be my job for the next year, they will be my social life as well.
Hunan food is famous for being spicy and damn good, and everything I’ve had lives up to that reputation. 90+ degree weather and spicy food has me sweating all day long, but it is so, so worth it. After a big spicy meal in town, you can cool off on the ride back to school on the local taxis, i.e. motorbikes. The motorbikes are everywhere in town, and you can just wave one down, hop on the back and go to where you need to go. Perhaps one day the motorbikes will feel routine, right now they are just awesome.
If you exit the school grounds through the back gate, you immediately enter the rural countryside. A small path takes you through rice paddies, past small village homes, over rolling hills, as far as my energy level can handle. Definitely the most stunning running course I’ve encountered. I usually pass people working in the paddies or sitting in front of their homes; we always exchange greetings. Running friends- this course alone is reason enough to come visit!
More to come on teaching. I’ll post some pictures of the town and running path too.
Our apartment is comfortable and now complete with A/C, internet, rice cooker and a few “friends”. Within days of our first cockroach sighting, we armed ourselves with several varieties of roach repellent. The effectiveness is questionable, but we’ve learned to wait a couple seconds after turning on any lights to allow time for our roommates to hide. Out of sight, out of mind.
The school where we live and teach is about a 15 minute walk from Xintang Town. Xintang is small, but it has enough- restaurants, supermarket, veggie/meat market, printing shop, school supplies stores. Everyone in town recognizes us as the new foreign English teachers at the school. Today was the big move-in day for all the students and we ran into many of them in town. A couple girls helped us buy rice and cooking oil. I’m learning our relationships with the students will transcend the classroom walls. The students will not only be my job for the next year, they will be my social life as well.
Hunan food is famous for being spicy and damn good, and everything I’ve had lives up to that reputation. 90+ degree weather and spicy food has me sweating all day long, but it is so, so worth it. After a big spicy meal in town, you can cool off on the ride back to school on the local taxis, i.e. motorbikes. The motorbikes are everywhere in town, and you can just wave one down, hop on the back and go to where you need to go. Perhaps one day the motorbikes will feel routine, right now they are just awesome.
If you exit the school grounds through the back gate, you immediately enter the rural countryside. A small path takes you through rice paddies, past small village homes, over rolling hills, as far as my energy level can handle. Definitely the most stunning running course I’ve encountered. I usually pass people working in the paddies or sitting in front of their homes; we always exchange greetings. Running friends- this course alone is reason enough to come visit!
More to come on teaching. I’ll post some pictures of the town and running path too.
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