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Published: September 30th 2009
these are their "happy faces"
their "sad faces" are even cuter, but they couldn't do them without laughing in front of the cameraEven if you are a meat-atarian, you might want to proceed with caution with the pictures at the bottom. I will try anything once. You have been warned!
Aside my traditional Chinese banquet adventure (a special treat from my principal,) I haven't had too much excitement. China continues to be challenging, sometimes I love it and sometimes I hate it. But I did get my work visa, so it looks like I'll be staying. The kids continue being their adorable selves and learning lots everyday. The other teachers are amused by my strange Western habits, like drinking water with lunch (here they say you shouldn't because it will "dilute your stomach acid," but I like to stay hydrated!), and my curly hair (which they don't believe is natural.) I'm happy to have met some wonderful people lately. There is an English speaking church here, through which I've met lots of other foreigners and found a really cool organization for volunteer teaching underprivileged children. I also joined a running club (which is kind of ridiculous, you guys know how much I hate running!) but it's actually a lot of fun! Even if they do make me run insane distances, all the
members are Chinese or Japanese so between their intermediate English and my beginner Chinese we get to have great languages exchanges. I did find a really nice long course pool, but it's really expensive and often very crowded. People seem to not understand the concept of circle swimming - but then again, they don't really stick to the right hand side of the road either when driving, so I can't say I'm that surprised.
Starting tomorrow pretty much all of China has a week long vacation combining the National holiday (Oct. 1st - PRC is turning 60!) and the Mid-Autumn festival (Oct.8). From what I can tell all that really happens on the National holiday is that there are Christmas lights and decorations all over the city, and you don't have to work. I think there is a parade in Beijing too. And for the Mid-Autumn festival you are just supposed to give every single person you know these things called moon cakes, which are really really bad for you because they're basically made with egg yolks and lard and stuffed with a variety of things, from dried fish to jelly. Most of them are pretty gross in my
surprise - another canal picture
This is seriously only the second or third time I've seen blue skies here. Usually the sky is yellowish white, whether it's raining or 100 degrees out. opinion, but hey it's tradition. I tried mailing some home but there are strict FDA regulations - I can't imagine why! 😊 Starbucks here sells coffee flavored moon cakes stuffed with ice cream, gotta love the Star's cultural awareness. Anyways, I'm planning on traveling around as much as I can this week, since we don't get even a single day off again until the end of January. So hopefully I'll have some more exciting stories for next time, although I've heard everywhere will be really really crowded so we'll see how far I make it.
Thanks for all the emails and for keeping in touch, love you guys!
Besos!!
Amy
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Xin
non-member comment
Interesting
Hi Amay, I am Xin, grown up in Suzhou, but has been working in Switzerland for very long. By chance to see your post, you know what... when I see the duck tongue in your plate, i just can't stop laughing ! It looks a denunciation - "I get you ! you son of duck tongue!" Stay longer in China, bet you... either you will love this place or hate it, no somewhere between... Any more "hilarious" chinese food on photos, do make a collection on! Cheers Xin