Lucky Cricket

The other day we were saying goodbye to our children and we saw a woman selling crickets outside the school. Here in china crickets are a great pet and are supposed to bring you good luck. Well from that moment on we wanted to get one for the apartment. Unfortunately, by the time we were leaving work the lady selling them had already left. But don't worry! Yesterday, we were walking home from work and Ally saw her and literally ran to her before she crossed the street. Meet our new house pet named Cri-Kee (for now) after the cricket in the Disney movie Mulan.

Learning to Make Dumplings

Yesterday, Ivy, Emma, Shirley, and Anna came over and taught use how to make dumplings and coke chicken. Let me tell you, it was simple and so delicious. We can't wait to make it ourselves again; especially the coke chicken. We all ate every single dumpling we made. No leftovers for us!

Nanluogu Xiang

Saturday night we went to Nanluogu Xiang which is a street filled with shops and places to eat. It is more of a tourist type of area. We went with a bunch of friends from school. We went to many shops but didn't buy anything this trip. There were so many people around that it was hard to walk. It began to ran and they do not like the rain so we had to dash into a small restaurant where we had mushroom soup and curry. We then headed home because it continued the rain. We all had a good time and would like to go back and with the trip we figured out how to use the subway and got passes for a few times.

Beer Garden

On Friday, after work, we went to the beer garden right by the school and our apartment. We went with Lauren, Wendy, Molly, Jen, Ashley, Ivy, and Anna. We got a few drinks and said our goodbyes to Lauren since she was leaving the next day to head back home to the states. We stayed out and hung out for a while and had a great time.

Week One Complete!

Well we all made it. The first week in another country is complete and was successful! After traveling for almost 36 hours and getting maybe 3 hours of sleep we arrived in China. We were all so tired but when we got to China it was 9 in the morning so our day had just begun. We were picked up at the airport and taken right to lunch to meet Dasheng and Liang. After lunch we went to our new apartment which is amazing. The apartment has a full kitchen, dining room, living area, two bathrooms, and four bedrooms.

                                                Our view from the living room

                                                     Living Room

                                                                  Ally and My Room

                                                                           Kitchen

                                                           Extra Room/Exercising Room

The Apartment in the bedrooms didn't come with much storage space and the bathroom didn't have a toilet paper holder so Ally and I had to get creative. Ally made a toilet paper holder with a plunger and a clothes pin and I made a desk/table using luggage bags that were empty and a piece of wood that was in the apartment. 

Rain is apparently very rare here but everyday since we have been here its rained. Dasheng on the first day told us it was a special day for us because of the rain. However, the first night we lost power in the apartment and the second day we couldn't get our keys copy and the third day we didn't have gas for our stove. The fourth day we lost power again and our key was broken in the door when the guy came to fix the power so they had to break our lock and replace it but we finally got our key copies and everything is now going smoothly. 

The kids are amazing and so adorable. They catch on to the language very quickly. Ally is teaching one of the baby classes. I have a baby class in the morning and then a toddler class in the afternoon. Paulo has the same schedule as me just with other classes and Michelle is teaching the preschool class and the kindergarten class. We are all enjoying it very much. The first week we were literally thrown into it and were pretty lost but Lauren the teacher who we overlapped with for a week was very helpful. We now have the hang of it and we are all prepared for the next week. 

                                                                   Jeffery and me