Less than two months left

It's May. The last three days have been hot; in the 80s scraping 90, clear skies. It reminds me of when we arrived, not that long ago, but long enough. We were clueless and lost. I couldn't keep food down. Two slurps of noodles and that would be it. And it was hot.

Pretty soon it'll be over, and it'll be time to move on to our next (perhaps better [ok probably better]) city. Now I have a small inkling of what a teacher does, and a very good inkling of what a SHSID foreign teacher does (hmm, I won't go into it).

So, today I meant to write. I wanted to write about things (lessons?) learned, growing up, our changing bodies, etc., etc..., but really do I understand Shanghai or the people who come to Shanghai? Maybe, maybe not. There's a hardened China shell now, a protective layer against the common zaniness of your average day, but actual understanding is still hiding around a corner, asleep and ruffled.

So I meant to write, but instead I just went for a run in the dark. At 9:00pm on a Saturday night, the only other person on the track is a groundskeeper watering the hedges and smoking a cigerette. His eyes followed me around, and I avoided stepping on the length of the hose. It was too dark to see his features, but the glowing end of his cigerette occasionally grew brighter and dimmer. It was odd, and hard to tell if I was sleeping or not. When I finished, I passed him without waving or looking in his direction.

Here is a good point for an inappropriate anecdote. Two weeks ago (before Korea, oh I have to tell you about Seoul and the wonderfullness of it, but I'll save it when for when I post the pictures), I was going over vocabulary on a Monday in my English class. Typical vocab Monday. The kids are bored and still waking up, because I see this class first period. They're too tired to even try to sneak some iPod listening or PSP playing during class. So, they're dead. Then I get to the vocab word "emission." Yes, you see where this headed. One boy looks it up on his electronic dictionary, giggles, and passes it to some other boys in a row.

"Oh, this is very good word Mr. Wong," Shone says. Shone, half Isreali and half Taiwanese, who is the loudest kid by far, spikey hair, skinny jeans.

I ignore him and move on. "Can anyone use this word in a sentence? Anyone?"

Shone's hand shoots up. "Oh, oh. Mr. Wong, I have sentence."

I hesitate, but everyone else is still dead, so I give in. "Ok Shone."

"I cum. C-U-M," he spells out.

I freeze for a bit. "Um..." Finally I say, "That would be a better sentence if you used the word emit."

ok, inappropriate anecdote done.

I'm still trying to figure out when to tell the kids I'm leaving. One knows already, June, but she hasn't told the others yet. I don't know why I'm dragging my feet. These kids are used to their teachers leaving them, but I want to wait a little longer, if just to pretend that I'll be around to see them grow up, and help them when Shanghai and life in general are too much.

Ok, that's enough of dear diary. Next will be Hangzhou or Korea, or maybe I'll move on to a Joyce post I've been meaning to get to.