We're Moved In!

Sooooo, we're not dead, we just got internet yesterday and since blogs and facebook are illegal in China, I couldn't get onto one from an internet cafe'. We're finally moved in and settling down. We moved into this "cozy" duplex (no one lives up top yet) on Sunday, and we got internet yesterday. We didn't care how small it was, we just wanted something cheap. There IS an interesting problem with it, which you will see if you watch the video. We're living in a Beijing Hutong, which is something like...I don't know...we live off an alley, it almost looks like a sketchy place, but China is apparently a lot safer than Baltimore, so it's fine. There's this little boy who lives next to us who says hi every time he sees us then is so happy and proud of himself when we say hi back.

I don't have too many funny stories, I haven't been speaking a lot of Chinese because I just don't remember too much. I have frustrating stories about people telling me to check out my stuff on the first floor of the 3 story "hypermarket" even though all my stuff came from the third floor, but there were funny things like Dan trying to order a kilometer of meat instead of a kilogram, and me finding "bowl-loosening tea" in a store. There were other things I wanted to take pictures of, like a sign in an elevator saying "frolicking, jump not allowed" or signs on an escalator saying to watch your hair instead of your head, but Dan said people would be upset with me for taking pictures in a supermarket and the one in the elevator just didn't work out.

I "started" my job last Friday. I haven't actually signed a contract yet, nor have I taught a class. They're waiting to see everyone teach before they're signing contracts with people to make sure the students and the school don't have problems with them, so I'm just waiting for an opportunity to teach a class, sitting in on some while I'm waiting to get an idea of what I should be doing, so keeping that in your prayers would be awesome. The school I got set up with is actually an International School, one where people who work at embassies send their children and stuff. It's one of the best in China and people say that once you teach English there you could at least teach anywhere else in China if not other places. Too bad I don't want to teach English after this, but it should make a good reference.
Half of the teachers are from England, which is cool and we all get along really well. My new goal while I'm here is not to learn Chinese, but to come back with a British accent.
There were other funny stories with that, like a teacher from the UK learning that you should always capitalize the letter I when it stands alone in the middle of a sentence (after a student told him that he was wrong) and I can't remember other ones, but they will be there later.

Sorry I write so much, but yeah, I like blogs. I'm going to put another video of the Old Summer Palace, which I meant to post earlier, except I never posted anything.





We went to the Old Summer Palace on Saturday which was lots of fun. It's kind of like a park with lots of lakes that also has the remains of buildings, which helps you imagine what the place used to look like. We also went to Beida University, and they have a lake and an island on their campus, which is totally not fair. There were also little kids getting their picture taken there, which made me a little sad cause it's probably a lot of parents dream that their kids go there and it probably puts lots of pressure on their kids.