What were you grateful for this week? *The intimacy of family. 

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?Lack of communication with schedules til the end of the school year.

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week.I didn’t request any time off and spent extra time with the kids. 

Tell us about your week!Unsurprisingly, this week started with me being moved to genuine tears on the bus by Paul McCartney’s sweet and simple words from The End of Abbey Road:“And in the end,The love you takeIs equal to the love you make”The words have become poignantly applicable to my life. Past romantic relationships that have faded away, family relationships straining and growing through time and change, new relationships with my host kids and the emotional toll my responsibilities can sometimes take… Through all of this, much is given and much is taken. And though it is hard, I try to give more than I feel I’m capable of on my own, in the hopes that it is returned somehow. Well, slowly but surely, it indeed comes back. And I’ve felt it.After a conversation with my host Mom, I decided to spend as much time as possible with the kids this week. Thursday and Friday were full of robot battles, chess games, dog-walking, and homework, before our host Dad finally came home from his business trip in Guangdong. His presence really has an impact on the energy within their home. It’s wonderful to see a father figure with such a positive impact on his family’s life and well being. On Saturday [my host family’s son] and I did some investigation around the house and found batteries for a new programmable mouse toy he got. When we got bored of that, we ran around the house shooting guns and stabbing things with a Guan Yu style long spear. We went to his piano lesson in the afternoon, and I was surprised to see his piano teacher had a package of Kopiko and Cebu mango candies. She had just returned from a week stay in the Philippines and was raving about it. It turns out she visited a lot of the same places I did on my Cebu/Bohol trip back in July. Also, fun fact, we are the same age and share the same birthday. So that’s cool. In the evening, while [my host family’s son] was in his programming class, I met up with Rachel (the one I met at the zoo) and we had a talk about Chinese culture, college culture, religious culture, and other assorted topics. It was great to hear her perspective on things, and left a lot for me to ponder on.On Sunday we played for several hours in the morning, and I got pummeled by [my host family’s other son] in a game of chess. I also made sure to let him know appropriate sportsman-like etiquette when you’re obviously better at something than someone, and to replace a certain expletive he’d been using with “fork” instead. 

I got to play on a cheap electric guitar at his lesson for a bit. I also had untrimmed fingernails which didn’t help with the situation, but it was better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. And I got to play some Floyd. At dinner time, we made some salmon sushi and listened to a little bit of Black Pink. Host mom also bought a big blue cake for Father’s Day. As I was eating some crab and a small fish dish, the host Dad remarked “You don’t have foods like this in America, and yet you eat them all here. I love you.” I stand by my tactic of eating my way to people’s hearts; It truly works, and must be relied on when your language is meh. On Monday I spent the entire day with [my host family’s son] at home, and we watched Nacho Libre that night. He was very amused, and I was more amused to see him amused than I was just watching the movie. Also, I guess I should mention we’ve been watching the world cup when we can almost every night. It’s been fun. Tonight we saw Portugal beat Morocco 1-0. I ate some bread with fresh honeycomb and it reminded me of The Fellowship of the Ring when they go to Tom Bombadil’s home. In the book, of course. Anyways.Tuesday we had another lovely hike with the parent group. I talked a lot with a very nice French-Swiss man that had recently moved there as well. He had some fascinating opinions about culture and politics, and we also had a brief conversation about drugs that I realized I knew way too much about. I also spoke to an Italian woman about how the only thing I know in Italian is “Bonjourno, Princepesa!” because of La Vita Bella (Life is Beautiful) which she was happy I knew and talked about how much she loves the lead actor. We saw some beautiful architecture and had lunch at a Western restaurant. I think I need to travel the entire world now. That is all.