An update at last!

Hello all! I hope that this blog finds everyone well. I have been here in China for about 15 days now. We spent nearly 2 weeks in Guangzhou traveling and sight seeing but now we are finally all off in our own directions, at our schools, teaching.

I will say that these have certainly been an interesting few weeks. I could write on here for days and still not talk about everything that I want to.

For starters, I bet you didn't know that this is the coldest winter that Guangzhou has seen in nearly 50 years! And to top it off, nearly every building in Guangzhou does not have any form of heat.
And the food, I bet you didn't know that boiled chicken feet are some what of a local delicacy. And it is a privelidge and honor to be the one who gets to eat the head of the chicken that is cooked for dinner. It means that you want to be a leader.

When we first arrived here in Guangzhou it was the peak holiday season, everyone was preparing for the Chinese New Year. We were able to spend the day of New Years Eve visiting the flower market. It was beautiful. There were so many wonderful, interesting types of flowers (most of which we learned had a special meaning or representation). We then were invited to spend the eveing with our host and guide, Wenge, her sister in-law, and her niece (whose english name is Mary). We learned that it is a Chinese tradition to make and eat dumplings on New Years Eve. The dumplings are supposed to be lucky and the more you eat the more money and prosperity will come your way in the upcoming year. Another host/guide of ours, SuYuan (english name: Andrew. Plus we also gave him the nickname of "trouble-maker") ate about 40, while I don't think any of us even topped 10. Needless to say, he is going to have a good and prosperous year!

After that we spent our days visiting famous sites in the city and travelling to other nearby cities to see the sites. We ate so many unique foods and saw some really fascinating places and people. And everywhere we went we were turning heads. People had never seen anything like the 4 of us come strolling through town.

While we stayed in Guangzhou we lived in apartments on the campus of Mallory's school, it was a language and arts college. Mallory and I shared a room, and the 2 boys shared a room. They were a bit rough compared to what we are used to. There was 2 (very hard) beds complete with mosquito nets, a bathroom a western style toilet, a hot shower (even though the hot water didnt last long, a kitchen with a refridgerator, a stove (that didnt work), and a microwave. There was also a TV and a washing machine, neither of which worked. It was very cold, a little dirty, and you could tell that someone else lived there and were probably just home for the holiday break. But nonetheless, we got used to it and actually got quite comfortable there in our little apartments. Mallory and I had a nice routine worked out and we had everything in the exact places we needed them. So we adjusted and things were good.

The actual city of Guangzhou is bigger than anything I have ever seen. We lived right down town so there were many place to go that were well within walking distance. But it was most convenient to take the public buses and the metro system. It turns out that the metro system is VERY nice and actually very easy to navigate through. So with our many guides (who varied daily and included: Wenge, Andrew, Han, Mary, Even, Zhu, Sharon, and a few others who we only saw once) we set out into the city everyday. We ate at all sorts of different restaurants, saw many different places, many different people, went to many parks, went to the supermarket (which is a nightmare by the way), and went shopping. We had a lot of fun for those 2 weeks. Everyone who spent time with us was so nice and so helpful. We have certainly made a good many new friends from this already. But after 2 weeks of non-stop traveling and touring we were all exhausted and I think we were all pretty much ready to head to our schools to start our work. It was definitely sad though to think that we would be starting over again, this time by ourselves. But I have it worked out to where I can go into the city most weekends to spend a few days with Mallory and Wenge.

So now, I am here at my School (Kama Internation School) and I have just completed my first day of teaching. I was a bit overwhelmed and very nervous at first, but after the day is over I really did enjoy it. All of my students are great. They are all very bright students, they are just a little shy and are very hesitant to speak out in english. But that is what I am supposed to work on with them while I am here. I teach 7th grade math, 11th grade math, 9th grade english speaking, and 12th grade english speaking. I REALLY enjoy the two older groups. They are must more comfortable and more confident in themselves so they are more eager to speak in english. It is so fun. They have so many questions and just want to spend time talking to me, about anything. The younger groups are good too, but they are just so hesitant to speak. They are still very unsure of their abilities and don't want to embarass themselves. So I think it is going to be a lot of fun, and a great challenge, to open these kids up and get them speaking more. But I really enjoyed teaching all of my classes today. So now I am just busy, busy, busy with lesson plans and preparations. I only had the book for 1 of my 4 classes prior to arriving at the school. And I only recieve one classes materials yesterday, and the 2 english classes I only recieved the materials today. So that was a bit stressful. I kind of got thrown in head first and I had to just go with what I had. But it went well. Also, a few people from the administration here at the school took me out to dinner last night so that was fun. We actually went to a "western" restaurant and had steaks that we got to eat with forks!

But anyway, I think that just about covers things for now. I will try to post again soon, and I hope to upload some pictures. There are some many things that I have seen and done that I want to share!