because i know you're probably waiting for a new post

love you, mum!

messages to friends

been lacking in time and energy for a while, keeping blogging to a minimum until i have a stride in my step and put some spirit in my spirit.
in a mean time, an update through a message to a friend.

"well, as well as being on a diet mainly of oranges, bananas and cracker nuts, i'm currently a hermit.
but i'm choosing to savour every minute of it - stick it out and what not. mum offered to send some cash this way but i'm accepting no bail-outs. when times are tough, they're tough and shit's just gotta sort itself out.
halfway through the month though so i'm currently marveling at my hidden talent of self-preservation.
 haha.

 i'll check out my finances tomorrow and see if a bus trip that side is in the cards! would be delightful and very necessary buut shall have to consult my bank account. at least i'm saving 3000 rmb in yangshuo by default,right?

anyway, enough about that.
emailed ping about my issues with the school. gotta stick it out here until the new term but it's not so far away. then i'm thinking liuyang or chengdu, huai'an, even.
have heard great things from other buckland slaves. maybe kids would be better in another situation but after teaching here, i can honestly say i have paedophobia. haha.

i think my sense of humour is just a little more "passive" than running around a classroom screaming at the top of my lungs.
and i think i love english too much to teach it.
don't have patience with kids who have no regard for how absolutely bloody intriguing the language is. sick of little brats running around, demanding "games games games" when i'm throwing the most psychedelic and bewildering mind games at them with english !
this is not the least bit fair of me, since it's not their first language and they are just tiny tots, after all. thus, i have reached a conclusion - there was, nor will there ever be a teacher as just plain bad as i am.

i think i can just hide it better with adults. and the classes are more entertaining for me - better topics, more laughter. it's the only conversation i get these days anyway. despite social networking which is just not enough, man.

as for the kid who not once, but twice, said "fuck you" to a teacher? exactly what i'm talking about man.
where is the love? respect ! kids these days...
my student, austin, has taken a liking to the phrase "piece o' shiat". would try to discourage him from saying it, but. i love it too much. his accent combined with it is just. a day-maker.

buut ja, i'm babbling now. haha sorry
think moving to china has aggravated a formerly-dormant case of verbal diarrhea. shit man. anyway, made a decision cause of it - gonna study linguistics when i get home. just stoked on the idea of a new school so that i can finally start doing some living while i'm here, not just anticipating - you know?
keep in touch, dribble ! x"

on spreadin' love and living life

in tonight's epic installment of teacher tessa and the chinglish connoisseurs, we broke away from the prescribed textbook mambo-jumbo and had a lesson based on cultural figures. the topic? influencial, inspirational homies in history. 

after spending the whole day piecing together and cutting down the biographies of some greats, i was about as enthused as eeyore.
walked in assuming that it'd be a lesson packed with tireless teacher-talking; no student input and no stimulating conversation. have never been more wrong and more delighted to be so.
ultimately - ended up teaching the students something, learning something from those crazy cats. most surprisingly though,  almost feels like i taught myself something? doubt i can claim overtime for this but no matter - for the first time in weeks i feel purely inspired.

albert einstein, the beatles, rosa parks, audrey hepburn, honest abe, helen keller, mother teresa, princess diana, amelia earhart, ghandi.

the tales of these incredible people have been tried and told by every teacher, storyteller, mother, father, leader. although only a few examples of some truly courageous characters, i shared their stories with the class who swallowed their tales up in one swift gulp.

handing each student a short summary of one of the above icons, i asked them to read, summarize and tell the class about who they were and what they stood for.

waaaw man. i really mean it - just. geez. yoh. 

initially daunted by the fact that the complicated word structures and intimidating vocabulary might push the class too far; into a more blasé, "who gives a rat's ass?" attitude; ended up being just plain impressed by the students' performance.

incredulous, i listened as these barely second language speakers took these big words, even bigger ideas, and wholeheartedly preached the most basic, most fundamental messages. all on behalf of the greats who all went through tireless struggles for such simple creeds. love, man. love. all you need is love.

ogling over their pictures, we read quotes, biographies, discussed ideals and possibly even came up with the way to acheive world peace - all in completely unintelligible english.
so for the first time in too long - i'm inspired to live in love ! love life ! live love !

so, covered in tonight's lesson (and thus a lesson relearned by a teacher).

-- listed respectively as seen in the list of the groovy homies above -- :

1. "don't letting people make tell what you can't do"

2. "all you need is love"

3. "fight for what is right - don't be scary" (scared)

4. "be beauty inside and outside"

5. "do the good thing, no matter what."

6. "you can do all thing, no matter your trouble."

7. "spread love. like peanut-butter."

8. "be kind without want reward"

9. "you can challenge others even if you are anything."

10. "fight with peace, no violence."

these nearly unreadable phrases are so basic, so present in the human mind, that not even language barriers can prevent us from revelling in their ideals.

and so now i'm just like, sitting here. so thankful for a day of cooling rain and sipping on a pearl river and mellowing out to the beatles with revivified ears and just loving everything, even things i don't want to. 

on my way home i wanted to be an authentic chinese citizen, so i tried out my first very public and extremely gnarly spit.
first and last time.
maybe there are some things one should not love. quite ewwy things.

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REALLY GOING TO MISS MY ADULT CLASS WHEN I'M GONE. COUPLE O' GEMS.