Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Summer Plans

Summer is here... we have a month or less left of school. We can't seem to get a "for sure" date from anyone. What we DO know is that we will be teaching a summer English school here at Yongxing. It will be from June 10-25th... no days off. BUT, the good thing is that we will have no morning classes... just afternoon stuff for a couple hours a day. It'll make us a wee bit o'money, and let us get to know some more kids. Why not, eh? Apparently there will also be 4 canadians and an american coming to teach with us. So... the 6 of us already here, plus 5... 11 foreign teachers! Unheard of here. :)

We're learning more about it this afternoon. Beyond that, who knows. We are both procrastinators... we want to see Beijing at some point this summer. We'd also like to go out west, into the more undeveloped, deserty-ness of China. There are lots of trains that go out that way. We'll see... we want to find out when we can go, how much money we'll have, etc. We can also get into most countries around us (Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, the Phillipines, etc) without a visa if we are there 15 days or less... so maybe we'll add another country or two to our "where we've been" map. One thing I do know is that we'll be online much less frequently.

It's been a good week. Not much goin' on... our internet at home is on the fritz. We got to talk to the Matthew's parents on Skype yesterday. That was fabulous! It was great to see familiar faces on the webcam and get to talk to them. Love you guys! I hope more of our family can get some webcams and chat with us!

Anyway, I never thought I'd say this... but there's nothing interesting to report. We're alive, we're a little cooler (the weather's been cooler and rainier this week) and dragging a bit. I think it's just the hot summer blahs. Nothing like a fantastic watermelon to cure that! We bought one yesterday for 5 rmb... can't beat that!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Summer in Zhejiang Province

It's hot. Very hot. Some days it's not so bad, but others are miserable. Luckily, we have great air conditioning in our little apartment/cubbie. At school, though, everything is open. Windows, halls, etc. There are a/c units in the classrooms, but they don't seem to use them... too much power maybe? Sometimes they use the ceiling fans. Mostly, we just sweat through it. The poor students come in pouring sweat, and heaving from gym class outside. How can you expect them to TRULY absorb the intricacies of trick-or-treat and jack-o-lanterns when they are so hot?
Most of my family knows that I do NOT do well in the heat. Actually, I'm doing much better than I thought! Sure, it's hot... but I'm not really having the terrible headaches I had back home. My headaches are mostly gone. Honestly, I think staring at a computer screen 8-10 hours a day was my biggest issue. So the heat doesn't HURT...it's just HOT!
People here deal with the heat in a few different ways. One is naps. The school schedule changed once summer started, and now we have a 2 hour gap for lunch/naps at the hottest part of the day. If we stay in the office to do work, you will see teachers with their heads on their desks, or laying down on a reclining deck chair. People in the canteen sleep at the tables. Also, men hike up their shirts. When you walk down the street, it's common to see men with their shirts bunched up around their armpits, and their bellies showing. Girls just wear short, flowy dresses or shorts. I haven't actually seen any naked babies yet... it seems like even in this heat, they like to bundle!

Enough of that...

I've had a few people ask for a "care package list". So, here it is... the "I wants" And "I needs"....

-deodorant (you can't find it here!)
-cheesy skeezy tabloid weekly magazines for Amy(oh, how I miss my weekly dose of gossip)
-National Geographic for Matthew
-Self Magazine, Shape Magazine, People Magazine...
-mac n' cheese (you can NEVER have enough!)
-dryer sheets (most people don't have dryers... so no dryer sheets here. We have CLING!)
-gum (we've got a small hoard thanks to my uncle, but it'll only last so long! Chinese gum loses flavor really fast)
-letters from home... these are the best!
-DVDs
-Spam (ooooooohhh I miss spam)
-pictures of home... people... we wanna see your faces!
-Women's shoes size 9.5... CANNOT FIND here. Dressy sandals. They are all teeny here!!!

That's all I can think of for now. The address is in a past post... and we know it works. We've gotten a letter and postcard already!

Anyway, have a fabulous weekend. We plan on staying out of the heat, watching some horror movies borrowed from the neighbors, and just relaxing. As all the little ones here say,

"BYE BYE!"