Sorry about not posting a blog in a while, it's been a busy couple of weeks with school and other things.
So the only interesting news is that for Easter weekend, Vivi and I went to the beach, Dameisha. We stayed at the Sheraton that I absolutely love. It's an incredible hotel right on the beach. They have their own private beach which is very, very important in China. You'll see from some of the pictures how packed the beaches get on the weekends.
Other than our beach trip, not much has happened. I got my raise at school so I'm not making 11,500 RMB per month, which is very nice. I'm also tutoring a 12 year old boy named Bill during my lunch break for 45 minutes Monday through Thursday. Bill's younger brother, Stanley, is one of my students at the kindergarten. It's good tutoring him because he was born in Canada and went from K to 3rd grade before returning to China so his English is great. They just want me to work with him so his English doesn't suffer while being in China.
I'm also teaching an extra class on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school from 5:00 to 5:45 with some kids from my class. It's a great source of extra money and the parents mainly want me to just play with the kids and teach a little English. It's nice because I can teach them English they can use, such as complete sentences and common questions and answers so they can actually begin to communicate.
This month, I'll begin tutoring a girl from my K3 class and possibly have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays after school from 5:00 to 5:45 for students from my K3 class. Let me explain the K3 class thing. I have 1 class I'm in charge of at the kindergarten, called International 1A. International means they get a foreign teacher while the 1 means they're 1 level, the youngest students in the school with an international teacher. Once a day, from 10:40-11:05, I teach in a K3 class. The K means they only get an international teacher for 1 class everyday (cheaper) and the 3 means they're 3rd level, so they're about 5 years old. This is a great class to teach and a nice break from the 2 and 3 year olds. I'll be doing a demonstration class for the interested parents next week and we'll see from there if they're interested.
Oh yea, I also I had to go to Hong Kong last weekend to simply get my passport stamped and leave the mainland. My visa's good for 1 year but only in 3 month stays, this means I need to leave the mainland at least once every 3 months. Normally this won't be a problem because I plan on going to Hong Kong for many reasons this time around (hiking, Disney World, sight-seeing, friends) but because we've been strapped for cash while getting settled, we haven't had the chance. Anyways, I was able to simply walk to the border in less than 20 minutes from my apartment. I left mainland China, walked across a bridge and just 3 minutes later, I was at immigration for Hong Kong. Totally, it took me less than 25 minutes from closing my apartment door to getting my passport stamped by Hong Kong authorities.
Once I was over the border, I had to get on a train and go one stop, turn around and come back. They don't allow to simply go across, turn around and come back. Once you're in Hong Kong, you have to get on a train so I didn't have any other choices. It was interesting to be able to simply walk across the border like that.
The big news that I know my family's waiting to hear about is me meeting Vivi's family. Tuesday night I ate dinner with her grandmother, aunt, uncle and her uncle's mother. This was the most awkward dinner of my life for many reasons. One, they spoke their town's language (Heyuan), not Mandarin. While my Mandarin's not great, I can usually understand the basic ideas of sentences and can actually respond in Mandarin. I sat there quiet for pretty much the whole time, not fun. Second, it was the first time the grandmother, and possibly everyone else at the table, had ever been face to face with anyone who's not Chinese so there was this weird feeling. Third, after the dinner, the women left to the bathroom which left me sitting across from the uncle in complete silence for at least 3 minutes. They weren't too interested in talking about me and Vivi because they've already asked her a million questions, they just socialized.
Besides the meeting, when a boyfriend meets his girlfriend's family in China, he must present the family members with gifts, hembao (money) and of course, pay for the meal. I presented her grandmother with 500 RMB (roughly $70) and the other older woman with 200 RMB (less than $30) because she's an older woman and that's tradition. We also bought gifts for the grandmother and aunt. This is simply tradition that has carried over from the days of dowries. In China, when a girl gets married she is seen as leaving her family and entering the man's family so the man must give compensation for the loss of a daughter.
Saturday we're going to Dongguan to meet her mother, father, a different aunt and uncle for lunch. Vi told me yesterday that we'll be sharing a car with her aunt and grandmother on the way there because it'll be cheaper and faster (it's May Day, a large holiday in China so any and all forms of transportation are crazy). I'm not excited about this for 2 reasons: it's cheaper for them because I'm obligated to pay and this means I'll be quiet for an even longer time tomorrow. It will also be awkward in the car, just like it will be at lunch. Needless to say, as much as I want to meet her family, I'm glad this will not be a normal occurrence, there's no words that can truly describe the feelings of sitting at a table with her family members and have no idea what's going on around me at all.
Oh well, I love Vi and this is important for everyone involved so I'm just going to suck it up and keep a smile on my face and be as polite as possible so hopefully they won't be disappointed with Vi's decision. They won't tell her she's not allowed to be with me but I just don't want Vi to get that feeling.
