This is just a picture of our neighbors door that we thought was funny. Alot of doors in our apartment look like this!

Well me and Ally just got home from our first day of teaching and it was a success! The kids are all Korean and my class is third grade intermediate and they all speak English very well. Today I just did my lessons pretty much from the book but now I'm planning on either making up some stuff or finding other things online because the kids need some tougher lessons. They can also all write and read it so this will make it easier.

My class is extremely talkative and I am always having to ask them to stop talking. They are so funny though because today we were having introductions and they were asking me questions about myself and one little boy raises his hand and is like "Can we start learning now?" We had only been in class like 15 min and I was planning on thirty for introductions! Of course I said yes and just had to make up some games at the end of the day to make up for the time. Then they are like begging me to give them tests tomorrow but I have nothing to test them on yet. Tim (the principal) told us we do not have to give any tests but I guess I will now because they want them so badly. Also when I tell them to do a problem they each started shouting out "FINISHED" when they were done... I had to stop that pretty quick because it got annoying. One boy I have, his name is Sun, he always raises his hand to ask a question then runs up and presses his body against mine and shouts the question. I was like "What the heck just happened" the first time it happened. Most of the kids in my class have English names and one of the other teachers from ACU, Danielle, has a kid in her class named "Red Sonic". I think that is the coolest name I have ever heard and wish I had a kid named something like that.

So many of you have probablly been wondering if Ally and I ever got our bikes. The answer to that is yes. Tim found us some people from the school who would loan us their bikes for the summer. This should probablly have been our first warning that riding a bike in Beijing is not something we should take up if the locals are so willing to give us their bikes. Our second warning should have been everyone's shocked faces when we told them we wanted bikes, followed by the question, "why would you want to do something like that". We ignored these looks because we also get them when we tell people we are walking to school. So today after school we decided we would venture out and ride our bikes home. I have borrowed one from the school's driver, Ching Ming. I believe this bike was made in 1901 and probablly in Africa. It does not steer straight, it does not have brakes, and there is no bell. Also, the cars do not stop for you and the people do not move. Surprisingly enough no one could understand me when I was shouting "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" My next word to learn in Chinese is going to be "move". At one point we were going down a hill and a car was coming at me. I felt my life flash before my eyes and my feet were skidding on the ground as I tried to stop the bike. I feel bad not riding it though because it was a gift to let us borrow it... but I feel more like it was a gift from Satan. I will put up pictures of me and the bike later... I know you will all look forward to that.

This is a picture of me in front of my bulletin board on the first day!