Woah Christmas time!

Holy cow! I forgot to update this for a while. My apologies. I'm sure you're all very curious about where I've been and what I've been doing. I'll tell you. I've been working. A lot. Work has been crazy. good, but crazy. I've been at school for about 12 hours a day and then I have to do more on the weekends. I love it, but I'm busy.

So that's really it. It's cold here. Right around freezing all the time. Not Shenyang cold, but not warm either.

Lots of big events happening in my life soon!

We get 4 days for Christmas off, so my coworker, Clay and I are going to Hong Kong to meet up with Emma and Roger, the Irish couple that I worked with in Shenyang and who now work in Kuwait.

Then, we get 5 days off for New Years, and Clay and I are going to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta army and Chengdu to see the pandas.

THEN, we get 3 weeks off in February and Clay and I are going to the Philippines. The coolest part of that is that mom and dad are meeting me there for the last week! I'm so excited.

Here's my terrible website picture. http://www.nbjc.net.cn/webhtml/disp_4_40002_8854.shtml

Things are good. All is well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Me and a bull in Down Town Ningbo

Tried to go to the art museum. It was closed.

Ningbo.

Me: Literature and ESL.
Rose: College Counselor who works in Kansas city, but visited.
Robert: Math.
Clay: Chemistry.

Hallobeachelection

So busy! First, we had a three hour Halloween party on Friday. It was fun. The kids organized and ran the entire thing and they did great. Saturday and Sunday we were at the "beach" which was a 3 hour crammed in a van trip, a few hours in an ancient city, a huge sea food meal, more van time, orange picking, more van time, about 30 minutes on a beach, another huge meal, sleeping, van time, huge meal, van time. It was fun. We saw a truck. Not a Ford, Chevy, or Dodge. Oh no. The brand of this truck was Wingle. I'm still laughing about that. Election Day is tomorrow for Dad! Good luck! I love you.

Rawr

I'm a T-Rex.

Clay as Hello Kitty.

Super Sophia as a witch.

Robert as a Math Wizard.

Class 4

Class 4

Class 4
 

Class 4

Class 3

Class 4

Teachers

Ancient City

Ancient City

Beach

 

2 months down.

It has been pointed out that I never posted my mailing address. Here you go. Just make sure you put my name on there too.

 

Chinese:中国浙江宁波镇海区逸夫路镇海蛟川书院（宁波肯特学校） 315200

English: Jiaochuan School(Ningbo Kent School),Yifu Road,Zhenhai District,Ningbo City, Ningbo,China 

Contact: Sophia Zhang 张晓菲  Phone：18658259168

 

October flew by! This weekend it was beautiful, so we went on a hike. It was about an hour and half car ride away. The park is called Five Dragons or something. Legend has it that a beautiful woman ate an enchanted peach and became pregnant with the Dragon King's babies. She was shunned for being pregnant and unwed. Then she had 4 baby dragons. Then they turned into waterfalls or something. I'm a little hazy about the ending. But we went and hiked around 5 waterfalls. They are all for different dragons and mean different things. For example, the white dragon is for longevity. The Red dragon is for money. There was also a black, yellow, and green dragon and for fortune, love, and happiness. Like I said, beautiful.

 

School is good. The kids crack me up, drive me nuts, and are learning quickly. I like.

 

Halloween party this Friday and then the investors are taking us to the ocean this weekend. Heyoo!

 

That's really all the news I have. Happy Election Week to Dad! Love to all.

Hiking

At the beginning

That's Clay, the Chemistry teacher from Oregon. That red character says Dragon.

Sue, the boss from Kansas.

The five dragon gods.

First waterfall.

Our Driver, Sue, Me, and Sophia.

Second waterfall.

Clay caught a dino.

Sue playing with dino.

Sophia getting her first dino chomp.

Third.

I think this was the yellow dragon.

Such a beautiful day.

Representing Ethan.

Five Dragon Alter at the top of the mountain.

This was my idea. Speak, see, hear no evil. I'm so clever, I know.

 

Busy in October!

First, happy birthday month to Sophia! Kisses and pebbles to you, my dear.

Second, happy October to the rest of you! It's been busy so far and I'm exhausted after 10 days! We had the 1st-7th off for National Day. It was China's 65th birthday. I haven't researched what that actually means yet, so don't ask. Luckily Karen planned on getting married on the 4th, so I was able to be there. I left here on Wednesday morning and got to Cheney on Wednesday night. I did some shopping and general screwing around in an English speaking country on Thursday, then on Friday we drove up to Syracuse, getting there just in time for the Rehearsal. We did that and the dinner and then I had to go to sleep. Woke up real early Saturday for make up and hair, then had the wedding, pictures, and the reception. We did a winery tour on Sunday, and I left at 6:30am Monday. Got back to Ningbo at 11:30 Tuesday night, and had work at Wednesday. Work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and tomorrow (Saturday), and then there is a 5k on Sunday that I'm considering.

That same weekend/day, Robin and Elise got married. I hated missing a family wedding. It was a really hard choice, and it still makes me sad. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

Things at work are good. I still like it a lot. It's real hard, but its good for me I think. Although some days I have this feeling of "what the hell am I doing trying to be a teacher?!" I've been thinking about trying to be a tour guide or a park ranger or something. But the thought of working for tips terrifies me.

Umm, that's really all my news. Dad's election is coming up. GO DAD! Mom hasn't killed him yet. GO MOM!

Here are a few pictures from the wedding. I wore heels.

Heels. Ouch.

Karen did a big deal with a dress reveal. This is just her bathrobe.

This is us on Sunday morning, after we had drank all the alcohol in Syracuse.

That's me. Ready to go.

Make up and hair.

Hair. There were 87 bobby pins.

My awesome date who spent the night chest bumping IU alumni.

 

Noodles

I eat noodles everyday. Here's how they make them. Usually, I get them with tomato and egg on top, but sometimes I get some veggies and beef.

Hey Dad...

Happy happy (almost) birthday to you, Dad! 54 on Wednesday! Lots of love.

So, I survived my first week of teaching. I'm really excited about this year. The kids are way more advanced than I was expecting and I'm doing real teaching! We have 72 students, split into 4 classes. They are split just alphabetically, not by skill level because the Chinese staff didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. So that's great. I teach Literature to all of them and ESL to one class. The classes are 40 minutes long and we have smartboards! The kids are getting their ipads this week and all of their text books are on there. However, the Literature book is way too hard, so I won't be using it much, at least at the beginning of the semester.

Teachers. There are 5 of us white people. I teacher Lit and ESL. Sue is the boss lady from the American school in Kansas City. She is 60 years old and has been great so far. She teaches two ESL classes. Then there is the Math teacher, Robert. He is 62 and from the west coast. This is his first time in China. The Chemistry teacher, Clayton is 30 and from the west coast. He spent some time in Japan as a teacher and he has 2 Master's Degrees. And then there is the History teacher who also does a class of ESL, Kevin. He's 30 and from New York. He and Sue were in China together last year at a different campus and when he moved to this one, Kevin brought his Chinese girlfriend with him. So she's here too. Her name is Nicole and her English is very good. In addition, our 'handler' is named Sophia. She is my age (27), Chinese with great English, and her job is take care of us. Then there are some Chinese teachers and administrators that I don't know that well yet, but all of the ones I have met have surprisingly good English and seem very nice.

Everyone is nice. I'm excited for this year and can't wait to see what happens.

A few pictures. We had this Monday off for the Mid-Autumn Festival. That's a day when you look at the moon, eat moon cakes, and share poetry. We spent the day having the students show us around Ningbo. It's a pretty neat city, very Chinese, but still pretty cool. Other than that I watched a lot of Jurassic Park, played some Frisbee, and explored the area that is walking distance from here. Back to work tomorrow.

The Bund. There are three rivers. This is one.

On the Bund are a lot of bars and restaurants. We saw a few foreigners.

For those of you who I didn't show this to yet, I got a new tattoo.

A model of Ningbo. The lit up section is where our school is. Way in the back there.

Ningbo.

4 students who were in charge of me.

Lunch with the students.

Teachers and students in Ningbo.

Dinos in Ningbo.

Sophia with the T-rex.

Box of Moon Cakes.

Inside the box.

Mooncake. They are filled with meat, beans, pumpkin, cheese, egg, or anything really.