things are so different here and not at all what i expected. i guess i halfway expected rice paddies and those cool hats and temples everywhere and halfway expected some kind of chinese times square with flashing lights. i guess its somewhere in between. the air is fairly clean here and taxis are everywhere and super cheap. there are parks and trees and really out of place buildings. i guess this city has alternately been russian and japanese and chinese territory so some of the buildings look like you're standing in a square in moscow. i'll try to send pictures once i get internet at home. i guess theres no way to really explain what its like here.
i start teaching monday night. i'm teaching 25 hours a week and i'll be planning lessons for 10 different levels of classes. kids and adults.
for the first 3 nights i was in a hotel downtown then yesterday i moved in with erika at this apartment near the water. technically we have an ocean view. if you stand on your toes and look out the skylight in my room you can see a little bit of ocean unless its foggy. we are on the top floor of a 6 story building and only buildings that are 7 or more floors have elevators. so we had to carry all our stuff up. its a tough climb. i'm gonna have a great butt after about a week of this stairmaster shit. since its the top floor the roof is slanted like this ^ so the living room is in the middle and our rooms are on the sides so at the peak in the living room its like 20 ft and in my room it goes down to about 2 at the edge. cozy and weird and the kitchen has a hotplate and a dorm fridge. if i werent trying SO hard to be optimistic i would say it really sucks. but i'll stick with thinking positive!
so far theres not much to see as far as touristy stuff. i guess its crazy everywhere i look! everything is written in chinese characters and its all just weird everywhere. there are squares all over the city like parks and courtyards basically. thats how you tell where you are. and one has a big pirate ship in the middle with christmas lights on the masts and ropes. its sitting in some kind of reflecting pool of water.
and the best thing i've eaten so far was this dumpling soup that came with a bag of pork dumplings, a bag of soup, a bag of chili oil, and some cilantro that you mix together in a bowl. it was awesome! the school ordered it for us. i can't go out to eat by myself unless theres a food or a picture menu to point at. i think i can say chicken and soup, but my pronunciation is terrible so who knows what i'll get.
