Travelling On...

We left Phuket a couple of days ago and were very sad to do so. It was just so beautiful there. This is the sunset the last night we were there. The next morning, we moved on to Bangkok. It is a typical big city. Very Buddhist, very crowded, very hippy. We enjoyed seeing it, though, and got some good sightseeing and shopping in.

A Nice, Warm Break

We are enjoying Thailand very much! The beaches are the most beautiful either of us have ever seen. We definitely never thought we'd see the Indian Ocean... Then we moved to China. It's a pretty cheap vacation from here, and it is beautiful, although a bit touristy. But we are enjoying the warmth and the low-key days... even Matt is enjoying some time just to lie on the beach and relax. We are also looking forward to meeting up with friends next week!

Heading Out...

Tomorrow morning, we'll be heading south for warmer weather! Unfortunately, it will take us about 48 hours to get there! We begin in the morning with a 24-hour train ride to Xiamen. On Thursday night, we'll catch a plane, then have a layover in Bangkok for about nine hours before finally catching a plane again to Phuket. In all honesty, we don't even care that it is taking 48 hours! We're just really excited for some warm, dry weather.

It's still cold here and has continued to rain and snow. In fact, we've not had a dry day in so long, that we've had laundry hanging on the balcony to dry for a week... Still no luck. Finally, we got the idea to bring the clothes into the heated bedroom. Our entire bedroom is covered in hanging clothes, but how brilliant!

Holiday

The campus here is pretty much deserted, as the students are on their way home to celebrate Chinese New Year. We all have five weeks before school begins again in late February. Though we LOVE our wintry city, we are pretty excited about deserting Hangzhou ourselves.

On Wednesday, we will head down to Thailand for a nice long vacation in some 90 degree weather! We're pretty sure we'll have Internet access wherever we go, so we should be able to keep things updated between swims in the ocean and yummy Thai food dinners!

Trip to Ningbo

I just came back from a two-day visit to a friend of mine who lives in the coastal city of Ningbo. The city has some interesting sites, and played a prominent role in the Opium War, a war that resulted from British outrage at Chinese attempts to halt the importation of opium into the country (probably not what our government has in mind when it talks about fighting the Drug War).

While in Ningbo, I saw Tianyi, the oldest private library in China, ate extensive amounts of Ningbo cuisine (including a kind of mussel with a shell smaller than a dime), and spent time with Bill's family. Bill's cousin had the opportunity to practice his English with me. Our conversation was halted, as he kept leaving the room to refer to his English textbook. With my knowledge of Chinese, I could easily sympathize with his plight. I have a feeling that the visit of the "weiguoren" (foreigner) was discussed at length today in grade three of the local primary school.

Ningbo is a very pleasant city, and Bill and his family were wonderful hosts. I hope to return with Amy when the weather is warmer. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

It's gotten pretty cold here the past week. We even had snow on Sunday night! We're glad for the heat in our bedroom and are spending more and more time in that room reading or watching movies on the computer instead of the living room TV. I'm usually pretty comfortable in the rest of the house; but Matt is a bit more cold-natured than I am. Still, he refuses to give up his love of napping on couches. :-)

China's Cold Remedy

I've had this cold for a week that I just haven't been able to shake. So, finally, being sick of going through a pack of tissues every day, I took my neighbor's advice. She suggested ginger tea. Trust me, this sounds better than it actually is. It is really just a lot of grated ginger in the bottom of a cup of hot water. I was skeptical, but I have to say after a day of drinking the stuff, I'm feeling much better.

Before we receive boxes of cold medicine from everyone, let me say that we have cold medicine, and we we can also buy it here. I tried the medicines, but they weren't helping. So, the next time you get a cold, give it a try... if you can even buy fresh ginger in the states. I don't know that I ever saw it! :-)

A Shortage of Things to Blog About...

With classes being over and most of our students busy studying for the rest of final exams, life is pretty boring around here these days. But, I have been told that people actually read this blog from time to time and enjoy seeing updates, no matter how mundane.

So, today Matt and I headed over to see the sewing lady (as we call her). Matt has lost a bit of weight since moving to China, although we can't quite figure out why I haven't had the same good fortune since we eat the same foods. He's lost enough weight that all of his pants are truly falling off his waist. Our first visit to the sewing lady was last week when we decided it was worth a try to sacrifice one pair of hugely-fitting pants in hopes that she could fix them. When we picked them up last night, we were thrilled that she had done such an excellent job; you can't even tell they have been altered! And for less than $5.

We took a second pair to be altered today. Her sewing stall is on a busy, back street on the way to the veggie market. Not many foreigners get back that way, so we seem to often cause a scene. The best part is that he has to try on the pants for her to mark them. And her dressing room, if you can call it that, is nothing more than a piece of fabric that comes little more than waist-high on Matt. :-) Although we both saw the humor in the situation, he wasn't thrilled at me taking a picture; but what else are wives for?

After lots of procrastinating, I've decided to take down our Christmas decorations. It's not the work that I was dreading... It's just that the Christmas tree makes me happy! Nonetheless, the time has come to return the apartment to its normal self.


Classes are over for me, and Matt will finish in the next couple of weeks. We are deep in the midst of grading final papers and exams. Pretty much everywhere you look in our apartment, you can find stacks of exams and writing notebooks.

Two Years...

Who could have guessed that we'd be spending our two year anniversary living in China, eating at a French restaurant? Yet, that's where we found ourselves yesterday. We were off school, so we spent the day just taking it easy. We feel so blessed and can't wait for year number three.