Friday, July 23, 2010

Things I Wish I'd Brought/Advice

So, as I am finishing up my year here in Guiyang, I've been thinking
about things I wish I'd brought. Perhaps I can help future English
teachers headed to China.

-Games: Scattergories, Taboo, Apples to Apples, Cranium. I made my own
versions/printed online versions of most of these games and more, but
I think it would have been nice to have brought some of the cards with
me, if not lugging entire board games. These games are really useful
in older classes.
-Play (American) Money: Once again, you can print some out. But I
could have easily brought some plastic money from home. For older
students, our book teaches American money. For the little kids, it's
fun for playing store.
-Make-up: for some reason I brought a year's worth of deodorant but
not my favorite make-up and my mom had to mail some to me.

Things I'm glad I brought:
-A year's worth of my favorite deodorant: you can get it here but not
our brands.
-A US map, some Arizona postcards
-Western medicine: you can get some of it here, but it's a lot of
Chinese herbal medicine. It's convenient to have it around when you
need it.

People have been asking me if I'm looking forward to heading back to
States, and what I've missed. Here's what I'm looking forward to most:
-Eating Mexican food
-Going outside and not being pointed at/stared at/talked to/talked about
-Not living where I work (the convenience has been overtaken by annoyance)
-The simplicity of not having a language barrier

Of course, I'm sure it won't take long for me to miss a lot about
living in China and teaching.

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