12/18

Ni hao!

I love it here! It's such a great city. We are kind of in the run down area, but that's ok. I like the noise and the lights. I'm not fond of all of the smells, but everything else is great.

I am told that I will find out on Tuesday what I am doing...I cannot remember if I said that before or not. But until then, I am supposed to "Have fun!" So tonight I am going to get a massage. I was curled up in a ball most of the plane ride, and now am very sore because of it...but some others wanted to go to get a massage too, so we are off. Tomorrow after play practice I will be going to a shoemaker with some new friends and we are going to get shoes made. Then at night I believe there are classes I will be helping with. Sunday after the weekly meeting I will go bowling with some friends, then there are some classes I will help teach. And possibly play practice. Then on Monday I am going over to a friend's house to eat. The life of a teacher here is...full of not knowing what's going on, and so finding things to fill in the time. But don't worry--it will be busy teaching very soon. I just don't know what I am doing yet, so I have to fill in the time somehow :) It will not just be fun and games...well...teaching will be fun though! Right now I am working on the relationship building aspect.

I am excited for the team from my school back home to come. It should be fun seeing familiar faces for a couple of days. By then I will be extremely familiar with the place and how everything works here and will impress them with my mad skills ;) Ok, so maybe not, but we'll see.

On the way to the center, there is a vendor that sells zebra print shirts. I laughed. They said that the zebra prints were not out until a couple weeks ago...I said they knew I was coming! (For those who don't know, I have recently been known to wear a zebra print trench coat.) I definatly brought my zebra print, so I will have to sport it sometime. It's currently drying, because there is no dryer...just a washer (which I am thankful for!)

I am finally getting used to this place. Today I went around the town a little. I now know of more than one good grocery store/supermarket. I have yet to find the fresh market they all talk about, though. We went to a western store and I bought some hot chocolate!! It was good. And just so you all know...to buy life cereal, it was 68 dollars...which translates to about 10 US dollars! That's a lot. But it's imported... so yeah. The imported stuff is expensive. But the swiss miss...it was about 30 dollars, so that was a little less than $5...more like $4.50 for a box. I think that should be only a little more than in the states... don't tell me if it's a lot more cause I will probably buy more. The weather just chills you to your bones! It's only 53 F, but it feels much colder because there is no respite. It is exactly as cold inside as it is outside. There is a space heater that works...but only a little bit. I have taken to winter coats everywhere. I am in my winter coat right now and I am very cold.

Well, I have to go study my lines for the play. I get to say them in Chinese! Wow...I have to practice. I only have 2 lines, and one of them is "Of Course!" So the English will not be hard...but the Chinese will be. Luckly it's in Mandarin and not Cantanese, though that is the local language. (We are doing the play in both English and Mandarin). This should help their English skills! (And my chinese skills!)

There is a dinner going on right now, but I am not going to go. They are serving lamb, and I'm not a fan of lamb, so I'm going to go to McDonalds. Haha maybe. Or maybe I'll go to the market and buy something to cook. We'll see what actually happens. I have the city at my fingertips, so I will go. The only thing is that I don't know the language, so that will be a SLIGHT problem for going out to eat. But I can manage. There are leftovers in the fridge too if I fail.

But everyone is heading out, so I think I will too.

Bye!

Alissa