Getting Out of the Bubble

There seems to be a paradox within routine monotony. It is simultaneously comforting and disturbing, which makes for an odd contrast. Another lovely Suzhou garden, the Lion Grove Garden We have definitely reached a stage in our journey where a routine exists, and it's nice. Its nice to feel like I know what's going on, its nice to be able to go out and know I can get by. It's nice to know I can order food and (more or less) understand what someone is saying to me when it really matters. It's nice to know what to expect from any one class when I walk into a classroom, and it's nice to know that on the weekend we have a little group of friends to spend a nice evening with. But that's it. It's just nice , and that's where the itch of disturbance sets in. Something of the adventure and wonder of coming to China has worn off and the nice comforting routine has become uncomfortable. I came to China to be taken out of my little London bubble and

If Wednesday is 'hump day' because it's the middle of the week and from there it's all downhill to the weekend, then this week is the hump week of my time in Suzhou. We are now exactly half way through our internship and it feels strange; simultaneously it feels like we've done so much, and done so little. Undoubtedly it is a downhill stroll from this point rather than the uphill struggle that some days and weeks have been, and now feels like a good time to reflect on the journey so far. There have certainly been struggles, adjusting to teaching was a big and gradual change, which is still going on, and I'm sure there are still some difficult days ahead but at the moment I'm enjoying life and feeling very content. I have no regrets about my decision to come to China; and even though not everything has gone how I thought it would, I have no regrets from anything that I've done or experienced here. At least not yet. The thing that strikes me most whe

One of the amazing things about being placed in Suzhou is how ridiculously close we are to one of China's biggest and most metropolitan cities, Shanghai. Thanks to China's high speed rail network, we can be in Shanghai in 25 minutes for the same price as a cup of Starbucks coffee in England. This is a complete luxury and something I plan to take advantage of over my time here, starting with our first Shanghai adventure last weekend. A T-shirt at the sprawling fakes market. "Obamao" because aren't they just a match made in heaven? Last weekend was the Chinese Qīngmíng Jìe, or Tomb Sweeping festival. This is the festival where Chinese people honour their dead relatives and make journeys across China to maintain the family tombs and leave offerings of food, tea, wine and chopsticks.  They also burn 'ghost money' and paper replicas of other material possessions, so that the dead lack nothing in the afterlife. After all what dead person doesn't

The last week has been a week of change for us in Suzhou. It's strange how in a few days everything can change and how fluidly we can adapt. Some changes are easier to adapt to though, and with some changes adaptation is met with concrete resistance. Losing Jonas back to Denmark has been one of these cases; we can adapt and we are adapting it's just that we don't particularly want to. But even though he's gone back home and our little gang of three has become a twosome, I am comforted by the knowledge that this won't be the last time I see Jonas. I know that I will see him again, in better circumstances, and that this isn't so much a goodbye, but a pause. There are some people in life who you just get on with from the off, people who time doesn't really matter with. Whether it's a month, 6 months or years, when you see them again it's almost as if no time has passed at all. These are the friendships that are worth making an effort with and the kind