A few weeks ago I was panicking about what to do next year. One night, instead of the usual post-eating happiness from dinner, I couldn't relax or sit still. I was feeling stressed because I didn't know if I wanted to stay another year at MUST (with Alex, Molly, and Brooke gone) or if I wanted to move my life to Taipei and start teaching there. So I left the apartment and headed vaguely in the direction of the then-called Crown Hotel.
I was striding purposefully down the street because even if I didn't have a purpose, walking like I did made me feel better. Concentrating on this march, I ran into a friend who had just finished his class at the University of Macau. We chatted and confirmed plans to meet for dinner and KTV that weekend. The occasion was to watch his friend Sandree, who was challenged to drink 20 large bottles of Tsingtao Beer that night (this 100 pound girl got through about 2, which was as much as she should probably ever have...).
Feeling less crazy immediately, I took a left and set out to climb up Taipa Pequena to the pagoda where the night view of Macau is beautiful. It was deserted of course and I sat there thinking and spacing out, watching the lights of the Lisboa and seeing the cars cross the briges linking Taipa to Macau.
I started to think about my experience as a teacher at MUST this year. In first few weeks, the idea of filling 2 hours worth of classtime was daunting, but by the end I was constantly running out of time for my activities. I thought about the time I was introducing polite vs. impolite vocabulary and I asked groups of 4 to make a dialogue contrasting the 2 concepts. 30 minutes later, I found myself half-heartedly trying to quiet the class who were all yelling "Fight! Fight! Fight!" because 2 boys were brawling over the love of a girl named Rose. Grasp of impolite? Check. Did other staff members come peering into my doorway disapprovingly? Also check. But things were working out excellently in my opinion - the students were excited and enjoying themselves all while speaking English.
Things weren't always this fun though - some activities completely fell flat. Like when I tried to explain the idea of a pick-up line. In my Monday class we almost had a discussion, but in my Thursday class I received nothing but blank stares... Awkward silences are pretty bad with just 2 people, but when you have it with 32 people, the discomfort sort of multiplies exponentially. Good thing Grinnellians do just fine with awkwardness. My mind ran through all the moments of frustration - "You really need me to translate lai bai sam for you? It means Wednesday!"
An hour had passed before I decided to climb back down and reward myself with an apple green tea boba drink from Drink Tea. Meandering down the street and saw another friend who was waiting for his spicy chicken wing to finish barbequeing from the meat-on-a-stick snack vendor. I remembered how months ago, we were here with Molly in the middle of the night, waiting for our chicken wings too.
Josh had been telling stories about the gigantic snails that live in the traffic circle roundabouts and how the crunched under his feet no matter how he tried to tiptoe around them. Tired of waiting for the chicken wings, the audacious Miss Molly crossed the street and laid herself down on the grass in the roundabout. No snails in sight, but there were several brightly lit snowmen and snowladies in earmuffs and top hats and coochie-faced smiles, to celebrate Macau's snowless winter season. We sat there laughing on the poky grass, happily eating our meat-on-a-stick surrounded by the glow of snow figurines.
I offered Josh a sip of my delicious apple green tea and we commiserated about life and the future in front of this late night meat stand. We said goodbye and I walked back to my apartment feeling good about my decision.
Now the year is over, everything has turned out a lot better than I expected. None of those fears that Doug had us draw during Orientation actually became reality. Despite my youthful appearance, none of the students banded together to overthrow my authority as teacher. None of my co-workers were mean or spiteful. And the number of times I embarrased myself either in the classroom or on the streets of Macau stated at a tolerably low level. For my first full-time job out of college, teaching at MUST was a great way to spend the year.
THANK YOU!
The wondefull-ness of this year is largely due to the presence of fantastic friends: Alex, Brooke, and Molly. For all those nights where we looked at each other and said, "That's right, this is how we roll at M.U.S.T." Thanks to all the other Fullbright ETAs in Hong Kong and Macau who would come out and play with us.
My co-workers John, Peter, and Ines for their great advice and support and for making office hours much more tolerable than it could have been. For Belinda and Jonas & Daniel and Iny for braving that cultural gap and helping us whenever we needed it, for whatever we needed. For the aunties in their yellow shirts who always helped me rescue my USB from whatever random classroom I left it in and for not laughing at how often this actually happened.
And for Doug of course, who always had our back even from thousands of miles away.
