Shell in China

Well, tomorrow we leave our new home. We have been here since Monday, but have to go back to Chengdu for a few more weeks of training before we can officially move in to stay. I have a bunch of pictures of the apartment, but we didn't bring the cords needed to upload them to the computer, so this post will be pictureless, but I will put them on this weekend once we are back in Chengdu! That means keep checking the blog!

The week has been a good one. Really it has been pretty relaxing. Although we love our host family, it is nice to finally have a place of our own again. Our apartment has three bedrooms. One is an office with a really nice flatscreen computer and internet access and a printer. The office also has several cabinets for storage and a computer desk and regular desk. There is more than enough room for both of us to work on lessons in here and not be in the way of the other. The second bedroom is a spare room that actually has a single bed in it, so for those of you considering coming, we are ready for you! This room also has a desk, but otherwise it is pretty bare. The third bedroom is ours. It has a giant king-sized bed and a huge armoir (sp??) for our clothes. There is an end table on each side of the bed with lamps, which is convinient for reading, when there is power! (I'll get back to that point in a minute!)

Then there is the dining room and kitchen. We have a small fridge/freezer and a propane cooking stove thing. It just sits on the counter and has two burners on it. There is no oven, but that is pretty standards. We also have a rice cooker! Imagine that! :)

Finally, there is the living room which is fully furnished with a couch, loveseat, chair, coffee table, TV and DVD player. Everything is either brand new or in really good condition, so apartment-wise I think we are really lucky. It will be interesting to compare notes with the others on Monday when we all get back together again. I am looking forward to hearing how everyone's site visits went, what their schools and apartments are like and what they think of the whole experience!

We met with our dean again and talked about classes this week. Right now it looks like I will teach about 12 classes a week and Thad will have 10. The difference is that while we will both teach oral English, I will also teach a "western methods" class for teachers. That should be interesting. I wish I had all my middle school books from Walden!

The campus here is really small...it is just a big square. The library is right next to our housing building and that is where we may teach some of our classes. They don't have those assignments made yet. The other building we would teach in is about a 5 mintue walk and that really is about as far as campus goes. There isn't a huge campus like we think of at US colleges. There is a cafeteria on campus for teachers and a couple for students. Otherwise, a few more buildings and then dorms. There are trees here in Chengxian. We are in a very small valley, so the mountains are not far off and they have trees and a lot of farm stuff on them. Campus has trees and grass, but not necessarily grass as we would imagine it on a campus.

We had a pretty easy-going day. I woke up and stumbled into the kitchen this morning only to step in a giant lake! Apparently something under the sink was leaking and there was not just a puddle, but a lake! I spent a good deal of time soaking that up with the two hand towels that I had at my disposal! Then, our power went out again this afternoon. I am hoping that the electicity will become a little more regular. We have been told that this is not normal and I hope they are right! Other than that though, we didn't do a whole lot.

We went to dinner at the neighbor's apartment on the 4th floor. We made jiaozi with them. (They are dumplings.) IT wasn't too bad. It isn't my favorite meal, but it is really popular here, so I am learning to deal with it.

We leave tomorrow to head back to Chengdu for a couple more weeks. When we get back there, I will post pictures of the new apartment and campus for everyone to see.

I know everyone is getting ready to head back to school. I hope you are all excited and looking forward to the new year. I know that this year will have lots of challenges and learning experiences for all of us and while I plan to record mine here, I also can't wait to hear about yours too! Keep in touch!!