It's fair to say that I have had pretty different experience in China than to my fellow volunteers. I am the only person who is placed on their own, with no partner. Now though, I could not be more happy with the way my whole trip has turned out, even more so than doing it alone. It has given me a sense of independence and I'm really proud to say that I have done this without the support system of having a partner here. However, if you know me well, then you will know that I love company and talking with people so when I first arrived here in China, I found the solitude of being on my own very hard to deal with. Although with the best efforts of the volunteer's nearest to me (about an hours journey as a whole) I still struggled to not feel very alone here at my placement. Then, after a random meeting with some students, I finally got hold of the mobile number for another foreign person teaching just near me in Yuxi.
This was about 2 months into my placement so I was MORE than happy to contact them. That is how I met Ellen and its pretty hard to think that I have only known her for a few months because she has literally been so great to have around. After out first meeting all that time ago, I'm pretty sure we meet up at least 3 or 4 times a week. But with the introduction to one foreigner comes more! Ellen then introduced me to a bunch of great people all out here teaching and living alone. It was really nice to have people who were also living alone doing this as it was kind of the first time I got to talk to people who really understood just how hard it is.
It's fair to say I am the baby of my foreign friends, with the average age of them being about 26, I feel so young at just 18. But I'm so glad for how much older they are, I was always going to mature from this experience but having older friends has really opened up my eyes as to what is really important in life and what won't be by the time I'm their age!
Ellen does not get too pleased when I constantly remind her how she is 24 and I'm just starting out in life at 18...jealousy perhaps! But seriously, I feel like I have my own family here now, which makes leaving this place even more traumatic than its turning out to be. If you had asked me 6 months ago if I would be looking forward to going home at this point I would have screamed yes! but now, I just feel so happy with life, so content that I don't want this to end. I would be more than open to staying here for another year and taking up a permanent teaching job but alas University is calling me!
On the bright side I'm going for a big farewell meal with the family on Tuesday as we all seem to be going our separate ways in July. I'm definitely going to miss Ellen the most, she has been like a big sister and a best friend all in one... can't wait to come back you visit next year!
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