Scents

This week has been a whirlwind. I can't believe how quicly time has gone by. I have almost been here 2 months.. only 8 left. I have just completed mid-term exams and am getting geared up for the harder part of teaching. The way I do class is.. the first half is a little easy.. me evaluating English levels.. working on the 3 most common mistakes. Starting to get them to think outside the box a little. The second half is focused more on Culture and thinking and Life lessons.. while improving your confidence in your English speaking ability.

I love the 2nd half a lot. This week we will watch Remember the Titans. They love this movie and it really gets to show them a lot of American Culture.. and we are going to play a game of football on Saturday.. November 1st. I think this is a perfect day for football..

This week the smells in China were intensified a bit. I don't know why or how, but every smell was a lot more clear. There are a few good smells.. I have a jasmine plant, which is one of my favorite smells and teas in the World. I bought some candles and they smell fantastic.. which is hard to find here. Then there are the street smells. The public squatty potty is not my favorite smell. In fact I had my first experience of getting sick from smelling something so ghastly. It was horrible. There are the smells of the street food.. not all terrible, but there is chow dofu (fried tofu/stinky tofu). This is one of the worst smells I have ever smelled.

I love smells because I think that it is a major memory jogger. I smell things periodically and it completely takes me back to a certain place/day/time. I can remember what the smell is and where I was when that smell was most prominant in my life. I can sometimes remember a certain event and what we were wearing. Everytime I smell strawberry fanta I remember this time in Africa when we were on a long trip and stopped at a little hut/store and all got strawberry fantas. I was wearing my little plaid dress.. dark blue one.

China has very distinct smells that I will probably never smell again. If I do then yes.. I will have memories flooding back to me about my life here and all the walks I took down the ally ways. I love smells, but when they are as strong as this week it's a little more difficult to stomach. The last bad smell is the exhaust of a bus/truck/buggy.. it's everywhere here, and it's harming my lungs and breathing drastically. not as drastically as the second hand smoke though.. it's the worst part. I guess it comes with the territory of living in the most populated/polluted country ever.

It's still amazing though.