My first post!

Well everyone, you might have noticed that this is a different blog/website than before. For some reason I can not get my other blog to work! At first everything on the page was written in Chinese somehow but we figured that out. Finally I just gave up and created a new one.

Well so far Ally and I have had a great time here. For those of you who don't know, Ally is the other girl who came with me and we are living together in an apartment here. The first night we got here Tim (the principal) and his wife Becky and their Driver, Ching Ming, picked us up at the airport. We were so tired and they took us to our apartment and showed us everything and even had bought us some groceries. The next morning we woke up at 5 just because we couldn't sleep. Ching Ming picked us up at 9:30 to take us to the school. Ching Ming speaks no English so even though we tried to talk to him he just smiled away and laughed and so of course we liked him. We got to the school and Tim showed us around then took us to our first authentic Chinese resturaunt for lunch. It was fantastic! If you ever come to Beijng I'll tell you were to go. That night we went to bed at 7:30.

The next day was our first day of orientation with all the other teachers. If you can believe me and Ally got up the nerve to walk to school that day. It takes about 35 min and about 100 cars almost hit us (this is not an exaggeration). The traffic here is unbelieveable. At one point we got trapped in between two buses and if we had stood one in front of the other we would have gotten hit. We figure the best way is just to find a China man and tail him. They don't care if you touch them. There are 10 teachers in all and so far we have become friends with 2 others (not including the other 2 ACU girls). That day for lunch one of the teachers took us out and then she showed us where to find the good bargains and go shopping and where to get cheap good massages. So of course after that we shopped. Then after walking to school and feeling breave we decided to go crazy and take the bus back like a regular local. That was scarier than walking but now that we overcame our fears we are ready for China. That night Tim had us to his house for dinner and grilled out for us! Then they took us to the park and we just walked around and chatted.

Today was kind of the same. We came to school and planned lessons then realized how overwhelming the first day will be since we basically know nothing about the students. Monday should be fun. Our other teacher friend Jeff came to lunch with us today. We went to a tex mex place that was good. (We have not eaten enough Chinese food as you can see). Then after lunch we came back and planned more. Yuck.

I know this is getting long but a few funny stories you should know:
1) They had someone teach us a few phrases and she seems to think it is important we learn the characters too. She kept stressing that. It will never happen sorry. She also told us never to get in a taxi because we practiced stop the car for about thirty min and never got the tone right once. oh well, we'll just jump out.
2)Yesterday when we shopping all these men kept trying to sell us silk underwear and saying things like "you lady need silk underwear" the funny part was that they looked like boxer briefs and sometimes there was a picture of a man wearing them.
3)For the first two days we showered with freezing cold water because Becky told us she turned the hot water heater on and so we just assumed that since they turn the ac off at night this felt good to them. Don't worry, Tim came over last night and really turned the hot water heater on.
4) The first morning we discovered that our house contains a keyboard, a bongo, two guitars, and a violin. So of course, all of ya'll realizing how musically talented me and Ally are, we formed a band, known as the Ching Ming's here in China. If you are lucky we will post some of the video's later.

Sorry this is so long I'll try to keep my posts more regular so they won't be so long!