First Day at School

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I've met a whole bunch of people. Last night I got a cell phone and scooter. They will definitely save me a lot in the way of hassle and inconvenience. It sure was a pain though, like no one really knew what they were doing. It took around an hour to get a sim card, and the Chinese girls kept shoving it into the phone. It was weird and kind of frustrating. I got the most inexpensive scooter with the battery type i needed to charge it at the school, plus a lock too for obvious reasons. Theft here is pretty bad in China, and hardly a problem at the school. Paul and I went to grap some street food last night. It was awesome, a carton full of fried rice for 4 kuai ($.58) and had the leftovers for breakfast.

The cafeteria/canteen was open for lunch for the first time this school year. The food was pretty decent, but the Chinese don't drink water with their meals, so that kind of sucked. It was easily remedied, though, by getting some beverages from a local vendor. The best part was that my water had freakin ICE in it! That's totally unheard of here.

I'm teaching kindergarten and it looks freaking amazing. The classes are Universe Class, Garden Class, Ocean Class, Forest Class, Naptime, Lunch, and a whole lot of play time. I'm really excited. I had orentation today with Zach, a guy from Maine (23), from Christian. I got some necessities (Toilet Paper!), and now am waiting for a phone call about going to get a driver's electric vehicle license. After that a bunch of us are going to Beer Festival!! We're loading up in taxis and it sounds like a lot of fun. Yesterday was Chinese Valentine's Day.

Their calendar is so screwed up. With the lunar calendar, you might have a total of three birthdays in one year! (One being your "English" or Gregorian Calendar B-day). Zach seems like a nice guy. He doesn't know any Chinese and is super tall, but seems like he could be a good pal. At the very least, someone who would want to explore the city or maybe even go to Hangzhou with me at some point. I SOOO want to go back to Hangzhou, even if for a day. It's only a 2 hour bus ride.

This apartment is freaking huge. I expected having to cram into the size of the kitchen and bathroom. Instead, I have a whole bedroom and a huge living room on top of it. Like 2x the size I expected, About half the size of the North Hall Apartment. Huge, right? My bedroom is like 1.5 times bigger than that room, but without a built in closet and mirror. The bed is full-size. The furniture is relatively new and very well taken care of. Plus the some of the outlets in the apartment are US plugs!! I feel extremely fortunate.

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