Thursday 8th March

Happy International Women’s Day!

It is hard for me to sum up exactly how I’ve been feeling this week as it has been such an emotional roller coaster. I am torn between feeling like I have made a huge mistake coming back to China, feeling so homesick that I am in tears and just wanting to jump on the next plane home as I feel like I just can’t stand the thought of being here until July and just not enjoying my new role as much as I thought I would. Then there are times when I feel like I can do this and I enjoy the company of my friends that I have made here and enjoy my new job role. I go from these two extremes at least once a day and add into the mix a few personal issues and I am a mess at the moment. I think that the only thing keeping me here is the knowledge that I would have to pay back the money for my flights and Visa to the school, and the support from the amazing friends that I have made here. Only 18 weeks to go!

With regards to my job role, I haven’t really got into it properly yet and got into a routine so until that happens I haven’t made up my mind about how I feel about it yet. What I do know is that the kids are great to work with and I am enjoying that aspect very much.

It’s weird the things that you forget from an experience though, I had forgotten how hard it is to get things fixed, 2 weeks ago I reported that the door handle to my apartment was loose and was told that it would get fixed. Last night it fell off in my hand as two of my friends were leaving my apartment after coming round for dinner. It’s a good job they were only on the stairs and could come back and let me out otherwise I would have been locked in (again!). I am still waiting for that to be fixed. Another thing that I had forgotten is that my upstairs neighbour practices the violin for two hours every evening and it is still the same song as it was last year!

There has been an unfortunate turn of events with regards to TTC and the two interns that the school have been waiting for. TTC are not sending anyone else so the school is two interns short! This is horrible news for grade 1 who really need the help, but quite good news for me as it means that I don’t have to share the two bedroom apartment i’m in!