Laurel's Off

Yesterday Amy and I said goodbye to my sister Laurel after two wonderful weeks. There were a few tears shed (admittedly mostly mine) at the airport when we saw her off. While her flight was Friday afternoon, we left Hangzhou on Thursday, affording us the opportunity to see Shanghai's Bund at night (far more impressive at night, as the haze lends an air of mystery to the neon lights). On Friday we walked around the French Concession, a little slice of the Old World in a very modern city. Then it was off to the airport on the magnetic Maglev train, which reached a speed of 430 km/h (approximately 240 mph), a sensation I am sure that is not unlike flying a jet aircraft at treetop level.

While we have certainly enjoyed the sightseeing Laurel's visit gave us, we are far more appreciative of the time spent with her. Our first Christmas away from home could have been a melancholy experience, but Laurel's typical cheer and wide-eyed wonder was just the tonic for any potential holiday homesickness. I don't think I had realized how much I missed her...

Merry Christmas!

We are winding down our first Christmas in China. Although very different, it was a great Christmas. I woke up this morning with a sinus infection, but thanks to the nearby pharmacy, felt pretty well most of the day. We started off with a VERY late breakfast of cinnamon rolls (homemade by Matt and I, no doubt), followed by opening gifts and playing games with some other foreigners. We watched some movies and had a great Christmas dinner.

Thanks to the families for the gifts you sent! And to everyone who sent cards or packages along the Christmas season. We are so grateful, and we love you all!

P.S. - We added a few more pictures to the Beijing online photo album today, so check it out again!

Beijing

Merry Christmas everyone! We got back from Beijing yesterday. Here are a couple of pictures from the trip. To see more, you can visit our online photo album at Shutterfly. We had a great time and got to see everything we wanted to see. We'll add more pictures to the album later.

Parties and Travels...

Our marathon of 13 Christmas parties has come to an end. It's safe to say that neither of us is currently feeling the itch to host any more big parties for a while. But we did have a lot of fun and some good times with the students to talk about Christmas. Click on the picture below for some new pictures and videos from the parties.

Parties 1

We will be heading out tomorrow night on the overnight train to Beijing! We are super excited to see the Great Wall, Summer Palace, and Tiananmen Square. We will be back Christmas Eve morning with lots of pictures to show! Until then...

Laurel's Here!

Laurel arrived on Saturday, and after a couple of days of catching up on sleep, we're all doing great! On Sunday, Matt showed her around the city a bit, and yesterday, I took her out for a Chinese lunch and to get her hair cut (which also involves a great head massage for only $2!). Today, the three of us hiked up Huang Long Shan (Yellow Dragon Mountain) and walked around the tea village. We'll head off the Beijing on Thursday evening. Here are a couple of pictures from today.

Yes... All of these people were actually in our very small apartment at once! We had a great time!

It's been one crazy week! But a good one. Matt's sister will come in tomorrow for a two-week long visit... We are very excited.

It's final exam time for me; Matt still has a few more weeks in the semester. Apparently the vocational campus where I work is attempting to achieve some sort of accreditation this year. So, this means a pain for me. So far, I've submitted a final exam that was too easy, followed by a final exam that was too difficult. I'm not really sure what they want, but at least I have some parameters now!

We've been continuing to host Christmas parties this week and have another one tonight. We also celebrated my friend Joni's birthday this week... We even splurged on some yummy Mexican food for the occasion. Here are some pictures from the week.

Christmas Parties

Five parties down; eight to go. Here's a video of Matt's students acting out "The 12 Days of Christmas" at one of the parties. (Be warned that he and I are leading the song, which may cause damage to your hearing.) :-)



You can also see more pictures and videos by clicking on the picture below to see our "Christmas Parties" Web Album.

Parties 1

Christmas Party Prep

We are hosting the first of 13 Christmas parties tonight. Luckily, we both have the day off to bake and get things all together. We are even making Christmas ornaments for each of our students. Seeing as how we have about 400 students between us, that's a lot of glitter.

Chinese Fire Drill

Okay... not an actual fire drill. But did you ever hear friends talk about Chinese fire drills when you were a kid? You know, when people are sitting in a car at a red light and everyone jumps out of the car in traffic, runs around the car, and changes seats with someone for fun. Well, who would have EVER guessed, that we would legitimately have a Chinese fire drill IN China?

So, on Friday night, Matt and I were going into town to eat dinner with 4 other people. The taxis here only hold 4 people, and they are really difficult to catch on a weekend at dinner time. But lucky as we are, a very strange hatchback taxi pulls up in front of us offering to take all six of us in one taxi. Excellent, we think! So, Matt grabs the front seat, the 3 girls take the back seat, and two guys climb into the storage area behind us. After about a kilometer, the driver asks one of the guys to lean towards the middle. This is strange, but we don't think too much of it till we begin to smell burning rubber and hear a very strange grinding sound. Aha, we think, we Americans are too heavy for this small taxi, and we are weighing the car down so that it is sitting on the tire. Just another reason for the Chinese to think we Americans are all fat. So before long the driver stops in the street and asks us all to get out and switch seats so that two of us girls are in the back. I can't imagine how ridiculous this must have looked to anyone who happened to be walking or driving by. In any case, it didn't fix the problem, but he assured us that if he slowed down, the tire would not blow out.

Amazingly, he was right, and even gave us his phone number and offered to take us anytime we needed it.