Fun Times

It's been quite the adventurous few days. I have ventured out on my own quite a bit, including walking home from work (about 1.5 miles) and going out for food. Yesterday Chelsie and I went with our co-worker Alex and his wife Stacey to IKEA (yeah, they have IKEA in China!!!) to get mattress pads for our beds because they are rock-solid. They cost a pretty penny, but I think they will be well worth it, since there is no way I would be able to sleep in that bed without one. Right now I'm not so much enjoying living out of my suitcases and sleeping on the couch, but I AM grateful to be with friends and get to hang out with Jill for a while before she leaves for the states! Yesterday Chelsie and I went to get a medical exam, which included getting blood taken, a chest x-ray, eye and ear check, an EKG, weight check, and an ultra-sound. It was funny because I'm sure so many foreigners come through that place, they had it down pat. As Chelsie put it, it kind of felt like being in a lab experiment.
Some fun news about China: children who are not yet potty-trained pee and poo on the street; yogurt is delicious and creamy, the sky is normally very gray and smoggy, but after it rains you can actually see the blue sky for a little while; most people are very friendly and will say hello after staring at the Westerner for a minute; jaywalking is perfectly normal and acceptable - the driving is pretty crazy though so you have to be on your toes all the time.
Have you ever wanted to speak Chinese? We will learn together. I learned a lot today, but my favorites are:
*yes (correct): dui
*no (incorrect): bu
*I don't want: bu yao

These lions are everywhere. The male one always has his paw on a ball...

And the female always has her paw on a baby lion - all about the yin and yang

This is bird cage in our front courtyard

Fat noodle. So yummers.

China - Getting Acquainted

Well, here I am in China and so far I'm really enjoying myself! My flight was interesting....there was a baby who cried literally the WHOLE time, unless his dad walked around with him. I popped a Tylenol PM and slept for a few hours and arrived in China around 6 in the morning. Luyin and JILL picked me up and took me back to Jill's place where I met Anna who quickly became my China tourguide :) I felt pretty sad and homesick for a couple hours, but soon Anna and I met Jill and Chelsie (my roommate) and Alex and Nana (co-workers) for dumplings - YUM!!! Then Anna took me to Carrefour (pronounced car-four) which is like the Chinese version of Walmart, on steroids! There are so many things that I'm excited to try! The next day (Thursday) was my first day of training, where I pretty much just observed. I gotta admit there are a lot of songs and curriculum to learn, but I think/hope I will pick it all up pretty fast and I'm super excited to start my own classes!
The weather is pretty nice, a little humid but not bad. I hear it gets really hot in the summer though, so I'm not excited about that. I went to my first rugby practice last night and it was so great to be around a bunch of other foreigners who also speak English!
Now on to the food! I've really enjoyed everything I've eaten, which has included Chinese yogurt (least adventurous), dumplings, kung pao chicken, spicy meatball thing, eggplant, beef noodle (DELICIOUS), egg pancake doughy fried thing with bacon and yummy sauce thing for breakfast, milk candy, hah fruit frozen bar, and an ice cream bar. I haven't been super adventurous yet, but I haven't said no to anything yet either! I will be making a trip to food street sometime, and that will get interesting! I've been kind of a dummy and forgot my camera every time I've gone out, so I'll have to add more pictures later!
Chinese word that I learned: haochir (pronounced how chur) means delicious

Chinese yogurt, Strawberry and Noni fruit



My Chinese shampoo/conditioner! They smell yummy :)



Mango juice, Milk candy, and ice cream bar!



On the horizon

This is my first blog post, and I'm feeling very excited and a little dorky to be starting my very own blog. Anyhoozle, tomorrow is Monday and that means I'm leaving for China at 9:30pm and saying "see you later" to everything and everyone I hold dear here in the states. I'm very excited, growing more nervous by the hour, and overwhelmed because I feel like I still have so much to do before I will be ready to go! I'm getting into China Wednesday morning at 5:20, which will be sometime early Tuesday afternoon for my state-side friends. More to come soon!