I'm pleased to report my euphoric feelings about life have continued for another week, dare I hope this is a condition that is here to stay? I survived my first round of parent-teacher interviews this weekend,and so far as I can tell I passed my evalution by the Chinese administration. That is to say I haven't been fired yet, so I think I'm safe. :) I had a bit of a busy week. Aside from my regular school duties it was my turn to supervise night study on Wednesday, so I had to go back to school for two hours in the evening to supervise the boarding students while they did homework. Seeing first hand how these kids live, my heart can't help but break for them. They have such a rough existance, and our international students have it so good compared to the regular Chinese students even! I'm considering volunteering to supervise free computer time once a week during night study so the kids can't get a break from the Chinese system, and maybe even have a little fun in their lives. I think the suffocating restrictions the Chinese administration places on these kids is what drives them to be so unmotivated in school. I mean how can kids be expected to be excited about learning when all they ever hear from their parents and teachers is "work harder" and "study more". Just one example of the Chinese mentality towards education; we have banners all over the school and one reads "The three S's of education: Seeing much, Studying much, Suffering much." I mean come on! Suffering much? School should be anything but suffering! But I can see these kids believe that. They are being brain-washed that school should be tough and they should feel dumb, because that's the only motivator to study more. Nothing is ever good enough, no adult is ever satisfied with a kid's performance. It really killed me to see how some of the parents treated their kids during our interviews. I mean, yes most of my students are ADD, and that's not their fault, but I think they need to start taking some responsiblity to focus more in class. But when parents see their kid's report card and they berate the kid right in front of me, I can't bring myself to say anything bad about the kid to the parents. These parents don't need any more fuel to put their kids down. So I'm making it my mission to make these kids feel like they matter and that they are someone, because right now no one is telling them that, let alone that they are loved! Anyways, I'm not sure how much I want to start committing myself to regular obligations though. I've had so many epiphanies about myself since I got here, and I know I need to pace myself. Never again will I allow myself to over-commit like I did back home. I've turned over a new leaf, and I love it! I have time to breathe and I'm realizing how necessary that is to healthy living in every sense! But I've seriously degressed from the recounting of my week...sorry this need to share my insights is a side effect of my epiphanies! I went to a Chinese wedding on Friday evening. That was an interesting experience. It was one of Tony's friends who was getting married. I was surprised to see how low-key and almost insignificant weddings are in China. I guess I should have expected there wouldn't be a ceremony, but that really surprised me, considering what a tradition-heavy culture it is here. But all it was, was a dinner. We were there for two hours, a few people sang while we ate, the couple were toasted a lot, and that was it. Most guests wore jeans and t-shirts. We were dressed up all formal, but only the family was dressed even close to as fancy as us. But we were the only foreigners there, so we stood out anyways! It was kind of strange, because as soon as we walked in the photographers were all over us, and everytime I turned around there was a video camera in my face. But that's the way things are in China. On Sunday, tomorrow, I'm having a dinner party with my Chinese TA and a bunch of her friends. They have such a crappy life in the dorms so she asked if she could cook in my kitchen some time. I figured, hey let's just go all out and make a feast, so tomorrow is going to be pretty much party all day! I'm pumped just seeing how excited the Chinese girls are about this! It's great being so happy about life that you can actually make other people happy without it feeling like work!