This past week being back in Shenzhen has been good- filled with lots of the things that have now become part of our normal China life routine-- cooking dinner, watching movies, chatting with students in the evenings who come to our office for help, eating lunch in the cafeteria with our contact teachers. One difference has been the COLD, cold weather! I know, I know, we're from the Pacific Northwest, we should be used to the 40-50 degree weather. Maybe it's a sign we've adjusted to warmer weather, maybe our weight loss also caused any insulation we had to disappear, or maybe it's simply the fact that nowhere has central heating. Nowhere. Our dorm room is a concrete bunker that has been consistently freezing for the past week. We were sure glad we'd already bought coats ... read more

Knowing we wanted as much time in Sanya as possible, we got up early to shower, pack and head out of our hostel by 8:30am. We headed out to the main street, flagged down a taxi easily and 15 kuai later we arrived at the South Bus Station. There were tons of people outside yelling "Sanya? We take to Sanya!" but we decided it'd probably be safest if we took a real bus rather than hopped in someone's gypsy cab for the 3.5 drive down to Sanya. 78 kuai per person gets you a rather cushy seat on a comfortable air conditioned bus, complete with 2 movies (in Chinese, of course). We bought some muffins and water and boarded our 9:20am bus. Apparently it used to be a lot harder to get between Haikou and Sanya, ... read more

Well, we made it. Barely. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:40am, and we live a quick 5 minute bus ride away, so we woke up at 5:20am and aimed to catch a bus no later than 6:40, which we thought would be the first available bus. We to our bus stop at 6:30 and waited and waited and waited.....We were getting nervous, but didn't want to take a taxi yet. We should have. By 7:00 no bus and no taxis were around, so we ran to the main road where finally a taxi cut off three lanes of fast moving traffic and picked us up for a 20RMB ride t the airport. By bus it would have cost around 4RMB. The taxi driver must have figured out we were in a hurry, and blatantly ... read more

Below is the link for our pictures from our first Chinese style vacation we took with the senior 3 teachers from our school. Since Staci and I teach Senior 1 and 2, this was a way to meet other teachers and experience a new part of China. Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/24507962@N07/sets/72157622729115942/ (beware, the set has almost 100 pictures, so manage your time wisely, as they are all beautiful. especially the ones with my little wifey-poo Staci in them)... read more

Wow, it's November 3rd already? Time is flying. We've been in China for three months now. That's probably the longest either of us have gone without seeing familiar faces. I think there might have been one time in college where I didn't see my parents for close to six months, but I still saw friends on a daily basis. Luckily, my parents are coming in just a month...we are so ready to see some familiarity and show people around town, especially now that our mandarin is improving and we know our way around a bit! I'm sick. My first cold since JULY, which is crazy for me. Most of you know my immune system sucks horribly, and I get sick all the time. Well, maybe there's something to this whole Chinese medicine/way of life thing. I'm ... read more