Nothing much new
Hello everyone! Today is February 22nd. Can you believe we are almost 3 months into 2017?
Nothing much has been going on over here. We've been working, hanging out with friends, trying new foods, etc. I guess, you can say it's like a normal life. Work, eat, sleep and some social interaction :)
One fun fact, we've been taking Chinese lessons. Mandarin is hard! Maybe I should emphasize, if you want to say the tones correctly, it's hard. It is fun learning a new language. We know a few sayings in Spanish and now a few in Chinese.
We went to a "commodity market" in Changzhou. It's a huge place. Seriously, 4 floors. Reminded us of a flea market but with new stuff. Shoes, clothing, stationary, home goods like lamps and mops and bedding. Kris bought a new pair of shoes. We did bargain the lady down. Big feet though is the problem. They weren't her first choice of shoes, but finding a 40/41 women China size is hard.
There is one Teacher leaving the school. He's trying to break his contract. It'll be interesting to hear what finally happens with that. There have been 3 new teachers to join since us. Teaching is hard work. You do need to be the "dancing monkey" for the little kids. And the older kids, you need to plan Grammer lessons like if conditional or attributive clause. Wow! Did we learn all this in school?
10 months left on our contract here in China. People have already started to ask us if we are staying. All I can say for sure is we can't wait to return home on vacation! Juicy burgers, fried foods, Taco Bell, Moes!!! Oh all the delicious fattening Western food we are missing. Yes, we've found some delicious food here in China. But, our palates haven't adjusted yet. What I'm told will happen is by the time we go home we won't have the taste for all those foods anymore. Maybe that's a good thing. We've lost weight here already, a good 5 pounds each.
Nothing much has been going on over here. We've been working, hanging out with friends, trying new foods, etc. I guess, you can say it's like a normal life. Work, eat, sleep and some social interaction :)
One fun fact, we've been taking Chinese lessons. Mandarin is hard! Maybe I should emphasize, if you want to say the tones correctly, it's hard. It is fun learning a new language. We know a few sayings in Spanish and now a few in Chinese.
We went to a "commodity market" in Changzhou. It's a huge place. Seriously, 4 floors. Reminded us of a flea market but with new stuff. Shoes, clothing, stationary, home goods like lamps and mops and bedding. Kris bought a new pair of shoes. We did bargain the lady down. Big feet though is the problem. They weren't her first choice of shoes, but finding a 40/41 women China size is hard.
There is one Teacher leaving the school. He's trying to break his contract. It'll be interesting to hear what finally happens with that. There have been 3 new teachers to join since us. Teaching is hard work. You do need to be the "dancing monkey" for the little kids. And the older kids, you need to plan Grammer lessons like if conditional or attributive clause. Wow! Did we learn all this in school?
10 months left on our contract here in China. People have already started to ask us if we are staying. All I can say for sure is we can't wait to return home on vacation! Juicy burgers, fried foods, Taco Bell, Moes!!! Oh all the delicious fattening Western food we are missing. Yes, we've found some delicious food here in China. But, our palates haven't adjusted yet. What I'm told will happen is by the time we go home we won't have the taste for all those foods anymore. Maybe that's a good thing. We've lost weight here already, a good 5 pounds each.
Sounds so exciting,enjoy reading blog. Hopefully palette will not want the fat filled western food. Love u Aunt Paula
ReplyDeleteWe eat a lot of egg fried rice and dumplings! There's a meat sandwich (english pronunciation- row jaw mow) that is awesome but harder to find. We haven't eaten anything too crazy yet!
DeleteI'm glad to hear you have made some friends there! What do you do with your friends in your spare time?
ReplyDeleteMost of the social gatherings around here with other expats is typically at pubs and bars. Though we did just go to a coworkers place last weekend and place a board game.
DeleteMostly in our spare time we enjoy going to the gym and just finding places nearby that we haven't visited yet.