School starting soon and the Great Wall
Hi, Hi, Hi,
It’s been ages and I apologise…Well it’s been a great couple of weeks and I’ve really enjoyed settling down in a new place.
A short update from me…(Nat’s post should come through any day now)
My little kitten is doing well – however he is having a few settling in problems, mainly with wetting the bed, hiding behind the couch and chewing on the phone cords back there and drinking from every cup that is ever in his reach. But the good far outweigh the bad. Like last night, when I attached a peg to the fur tip on the end of his tail and he spent about 1/2 and hour chasing his tail – it was sooooooooo adorable. And now he is curled up beside me on the couch purring loudly.
School officially starts on Wednesday – my classroom is set up, which gives me till Wednesday to have my units/lessons and activities ready for the new school year. On Tuesday this week the new kids (first time to the school) are coming for an orientation day. So I will get to meet them first and give them a tour of the school with it’s new building (build over the summer) if can manage to find my way around. You know whats greatest about school…I get a cafeteria style lunch everyday – usually a choice of 3 or so different dishes, a dessert, sometimes a soup and a help yourself salad bar all for only 12 Yuan ($2) very cheap. I’ve never had this style of lunch before so it’s still a novelty, but I’m sure that after 6 months it will have totally worn off.
The Great Wall was amazing – we went today with a school tour. It was fun except for all the walking and the long day that it ended up being. I got some great bargains, my rough rule is to pay about 10% of their asking price. I got some things at the markets near the Great Wall – my best buy was a set of 4 bottles in a gift box that were all painted on the inside (called “The Great Wall and Panda”) on one side of the bottle is a paining of the Wall, and on the other is a painting of some panda bears – 4 different designs of each. The asking price was about 300 Yuan, but after thinking about it, I didn’t want them THAT much so offered 20 as my low price, she said she couldn’t do them that low and I said not to worry then…after a long discussion, more/less, more/less I finally got out with paying only 25 Yuan or about $4. A huge bargain and even all of the Chinese teachers were HUGELY impressed.
Anyway that’s enough from me for now – please keep writing, I really enjoy getting email updates…It doesn’t seem like we are that far from home when we read your emails.
All my love from abroad (doesn’t that sound exotic???).
