I watched "Must Love Dogs" the other day, and, gosh, they were all speaking English so fast!  Seriously, I think I'm going to go through reverse culture shock when I come home.  Back in Yangshuo, during our visit, we saw many Westerners.  It was sooo weird to see people that WEREN'T Chinese.  I found myself doing double takes.  wow  For once I could actually understand the conversations of the people walking by meol.  So just as my myspace quote says, my younger bro tells me "We are going to have to teach u the vernacular again."  Hahaood 'ol Josh James hope not.

Time is quickly approaching the three month-marker of my adventure here in China.  It seems like I've been here longer though.  In honor of this occasion, I figured I'd steal an idea from a friend's blog and write some PRO's and CON's about my stay here.

PRO

1. The people here are very friendly and sooo generous.  I have gotten so many offers to help me with shopping and various other tasks.  They make sure I'm not taken advantage of during shopping (which I've been able to pick up a lot better in recent times).  The people have REALLY made my stay here worth while.  THEY are what make Da Xian I love my students!  I only wish I could help them more.  However, with 60 students in one class and me having a total of 1100 students to teach a week, one-on-one time with the students is difficult to find.  *sigh*

CON

1. The pollution here is awful.  The first week I was here I had finished a snack and was looking for a place to dispose of my cup.  An elderly lady, whom I have befriended, motioned for me to just toss it in the street.  I looked at her like she was crazy and she motioned again.  I find myself dusting several times a weeknd that still is not enough.  And when blowing my nose'm not even going to go thereol  The streets are not only heavily littered with garbage, but children squat down and go whenever they feel the need, wherever they care to do so.  The air is thick with exhaustea

PRO

2. The food is amazing!  Most of the food is homemade and cooked from scratchhich I think is much better than the processed foods we eat at home.  Some of the best food I have EVER tasted, I ate here in China.  Though, REAL Chinese food is different from American Chinese food.  By different I mean BETTER!  There are fresh fruits and vegetables out in the market everyday, so all I have to do is walk up the road 5 minutes in order to buy what I need.  Learning how to cook is excitingspecially when I can pull a good meal offol

CON

2. Everybody stares at us like we are from another planet.  Some people here, especially the elderly, have never seen foreigners before.  Oh, and their stares are not subtle glanceshey are an all out stop-dead-in-their-tracks-with-their-head-following-your-every-move-as-you-walk-by kind of stare.  There are about 600,000 people in this "small" towno we have quite an audience at times.  When I'm shopping, the shop workers huddle around me asking me questions in Chinese, which I cannot understand.  "Ting bo dong" ("I don't understand") is my most overused and clich?phrase at this point.  Not to mention I don't like being watched when I shoput everyone seems to like watching me.  It doesn't make me want to stay in one place for too long.