One Month in China!

It's official! We've been here for a full month! I'd say that we are doing pretty well and are living fairly comfortably. We did have a rather stressful, 4-day work week (Open House Evening) but at least that is behind us now and everything was perfectly fine!

The last week has been very eventful. Two Friday's ago we were invited to the Moon Festival Celebration at Harborland. Mr. Lee (yes, the same businessman that owns our school, apartment complex, and half of Beilun) put on a free evening for all of us teachers, etc. Harborland is comparable to Enchanted Forest or Bullwinkle's I guess. When we first got there it was like a scene from a horror film, completely isolated, Chinese music blaring over the intercom system, and the few people that WERE there seemed to emit these disgusted stares. Maybe it was just us... We left soon after we arrived, but not before I went on the roller coaster! If we are lucky, Desi will share his version of the roller coaster event. But if not, just know it was dramatic before the ride even started!

That Saturday, Dean, Yvonne, Desi and I went to the all-you-can-eat Japanese food joint again! Always sooo good. We left the guys afterwards and headed out shopping!:) Yea!! Yvonne and I had quite the experience in several department stores! It was as if we were their own personal dress-up dolls. The girls working zoned in on us the moment we stepped foot in the store and followed us, sometimes stepping on our heels, asking us questions the whole way in Chinese. We would giggle and turn down anything they brought up to us. However, when we were ready to try something on, they brought us whole outfits, complete with jewelry, skirts, belts, even removable sleeves!! They doted on us, poked us, buttoned us, zipped us, until we looked to their liking. At this point, it's necessary to say that shopping here is very different. I don't mean because I can't communicate, but processes are strange. Floors of department stores are broken up into little boutique-like shops. If you buy something at the Adidas section, you must go walking around (sometimes several) corners until you see a cashier who will sell you a receipt. You must take your two receipts back to your shop's area. There, you may gather your items. So, imagine going to about 15 shops. We didn't buy things everywhere, however, we did have to hoof-it to those cashiers about 5 times throughout that day.

(I will force Desi in his next blog to tell you about receipts. We have been dealing with them for a month now and they are no joke and nothing to mess with around these parts.)

The next day, Sunday, we went with Dean and Yvonne to Ningbo. We spent at least an hour in Starbucks (the only place we are able to buy quality, ground coffee) Yvonne and I hit up the department store there while the guys went to Tesco. Again, more department store confusion with dotting little ladies ready to dress us. Afterwards, we convinced Mr. Wei (our nearly personal, nearly famous, Beilun taxi driver) to let us stay an extra hour and we found this amazing little cobblestone neighborhood near the river. Too, we sought out one of two Irish Pubs there and took a break, eating and drinking, more familiar foods and beers.

Monday was a day off! Thank goodness, too! I think we went into work though and prepared for school/Open House a couple nights later.

So this weekend too, has been jam-packed. Friday, our friend and co-worker, Matt, put on a fabulous evening of "Quiz Night" at a local bar called Ocean Pub. Ocean, owner of Ocean Pub had a stellar BBQ pre-Quiz night, and then about 30 people stayed for trivia. (Again, I'm leavin' this one for Desi to elaborate on because he tells the story better than I can. Let's just say, he almost lost his cool with a d-bag coworker!) Matt, however, was a great MC, and used super-creative questions to keep us entertained (50 altogether!)

Today, Sunday, we went back into Ningbo to do some plant shopping and to go to Metro again. We bought some beautiful plants for very cheap and bought some groceries that keep us happy for about $300 U.S! You are probably thinking, "Wow, $300 is a lot to spend!" However, we had a mountain of imported things in our cart and truly, these are the first groceries we've had to pay for yet! We've lived a month or so on about $800 of settling in money/reimbursement money. It's crazy how little we have to spend. Too, we are really lucky that our school about once or twice a month, provides bus rides into Ningbo to go shopping. I keep realizing what a good choice this school was for us. They really take good care of us here. Our other couple friends too have been doing a good job at that as well! I'm thanking our lucky stars everyday...finally, I have some lucky stars!!! :) heheeh.

Other than that, I just keep getting more and more mosquito bites. If you've known me long enough (Mom, Dad, Michelle, Jeanie, Troy, Kristina, Zimmermans) you'd remember what my little legs used to look like with flea bites...? Well now my legs and arms kind of look like that. Too, I keep having those damn jumping spiders in my classroom. If I could get rid of those pests, I'd be incredibly happy!

Remember to check our school's site for updated pictures! They've recently posted a class picture of my kids and me (Where were my lucky stars for that one? They took literally 8 photos and chose that one, horrible one!) and they were just in my room taking all kinds of pictures for Open House. Hope to hear from all of you soon! Miss and love you!

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