our bikes

new school pictures

1) library
2)lower commons
3)music room
4)walk way
5)auditorium

new school

phew..have we been busy. Last week we had to pack up all of our stuff in our old school building to be moved to the new building. It took two full days to pack up all the classrooms and offices. Friday and Saturday( Christmas Eve) the movers came to move all the boxes from the old school to the new one. This took a VERY long time. The new building is about a 45- 60 min. drive from the old building. Eight trucks were used with 4-5 workers per truck. We helped out on Friday just directing the workers to the rooms and watching our stuff to make sure none of it was stolen. We had put our new room numbers on the boxes so the workers would know where they went in the building. We compare the movers here to ants, because they can carry very heavy things on their backs. For instance, a book shelf that would take two-three "American" men to move would only take one Chinese mover. He just throws it on his back and walks totally bent over and carries it to wherever it needs to go.
This week we have been cleaning and setting up the new school. It is beautiful. There is still a lot of work being done. Some floors still need laid, the air cons aren't in yet ( air cons are the heater/airconditioner units), the library is still being put together, etc. etc. Because the air cons aren't in yet, the rooms are very cold. Everyone keeps their big winter coats on all day, and many of us also keep our hats and scarfs on. The building is a mess with dirt and dust everywhere. The end of next week will be spent cleaning the school from top to bottom. Students come back on the 9th. I will try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow.
I have been riding my scooter out to school and back each day. It is about an hours ride each way. Nate has been riding his bike, but has decided to get a scooter also because it is a long ride on a bike. It is cold being on the scooter, so I wear lots of winter gear and wrap a blanket around my legs. We bought scooter helmets the other day. They have a leather lining which also helps keep me warm. I prefer riding my scooter for an hour than being on a bus for nearly that long, as the bus takes almost the same amount of time to get there. It will be a really nice ride once it warms up a little. We will be moving closer to the school sometime before the summer.

We had a nice Christmas, but it didn't really feel like Christmas, because it was right in the middle of all this school stuff. We played some games with some friends and had some cookies. We didn't buy each other gifts because of our recent television purchase.

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas!!!

School Lunch

I thought you might enjoy seeing a few pictures of our school lunch time. There are a lot of Korean's who attend our school. They normally bring a collection of dishes and then share each other's food. It is hard to explain, so I thought I would post a picture of it. Most of the kids eat either Chinese food or Korean food although some of the Americans will bring sandwhiches. Lunch time is always so much fun.

Family Christmas Picture

Christmas Play

Here are a few pictures from the lower school Christmas play. They did such a good job. We all had a lot of fun. We did Patch the Pirate's "Harold the King".

New TV

This is our new flat screen television. We really love it. It is our Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary present :) We have been having people over everyday to watch movies with us.

more pictures

Here are some more pictures of our new building.

new school

These are some pictures of our new school being built. I thought you would enjoy seeing how things are done in China. We should be moving into the new building during Christmas break.

the winter wind has come

the cold has finally hit. i still don't understand how it can be so cold and not snow. at school we wear jackets and scarves to stay warm...even the students do. we have kongtiao ( air-cons) in our rooms, but the hall ways and bathrooms are still very cold. My room is a little too big for my kongtiao, so it takes most of the day until the room warms up. At home, we have some heat in the living room and our bedroom, but when I go into our study to play the piano or work on the computer, I put my coat on. All the buildings are not insulated, so as soon as you turn the kongtiao off, the room immediately gets cold again. At least the winter is a little shorter here than in most places.

Last night we had a Thanksgiving meal with some of our friends. It was so good. We had turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, mashed potatoes, hot cidar, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. I am still full from eating all that goodness.

We were thinking about traveling over Thanksgiving break, but we decided to buy a flat panel television instead. We will probably buy it this weekend. It will be our early Christmas present.

I will post some pictures of our Thanksgiving meal soon.

Sick Days

I stayed home yesterday trying to beat this cold. It was so nice to have the day off. I took vitamin C all day, drank lots of tea, and drank some grapefruit juice. I am feeling a little better today, but still not totally healed. I think the best part of yesterday was having my puppy sit with me all day while I read. She weighs 16 kilograms, but she still loves sitting on my lap.

Cheri brought me gummi worms back from America...what a treat. I sure miss gummi worms. Gummi worms and licorice are two things that we can't find here, even at the import stores. Thanks Cheri!!!!

Weekend

This weekend Nate has been leading a boys retreat for the highschool boys in our school. Normally they go on a camping trip somewhere,but it didn't work out this year so they are staying at our house. I think there are about 10 boys participating. I have been at Jenny's house all weekend while the boys destroy my home. I am glad that we could host it though. I hope that they are having fun. I know that Sophie is just loving having all the people at our house. She is such a people-puppy.
Yesterday Jenny and i went to Chunxi Lu to shop. Chunxi Lu is walking street with lots of clothing stores. Jenny was looking for some shoes for school. We both ended up buying shoes and i bought some clinique face wash. we had a great time, although it was so crowded, far more crowded than any store gets in America even during Christmas shopping. Sometimes yesterday we were walking shoulder to shoulder with people. It is not a good place to go if you are tired or grumpy because you are constantly being bumped into and pushed around by the crowds.
I have been trying to walk more. Last week I walked back and forth from school a few days. It only takes 25 minutes to walk to school. Jenny walked with me a few of those times.

Yearbook Pictures

Here are our staff pictures. The photography class took the pictures...they did a great job.

Pictures

As you can see, Book Character Day was a lot of fun. Almost all of the students dressed up as a book character. Sophie even came for part of the day to be Sherlock Holmes' hound dog.

Book Character Day

Today is book character day at school. Everyone has to dress up as a book character. It is so fun to see what everyone wears. Jenny and I are doing Alice in Wonderland. I am Alice and she is the Queen of Hearts. We got a few of the students to be cards. We had our costumes made at the tailor. they turned out really well. i will post pictures later so you can see our awesome costumes. Nate is Sherlock Holmes. We brought sophie with us tomorrow to be his hound dog. she was a little overwhelmed with all of the people.
Tonight is the school dance. they are always an enjoyable experience. this years dance is "Dancing through the Decades" so there will be music from the 50s till now.

Bikes in China

These are petty cabs. They are kind
of like a taxi.
This lady is on her cell phone

















We thought it would be fun to post a bunch of pictures of bikes in China. All of these pictures we took right outside of our complex. I have more pictures that I will download later. We just thought you would enjoy seeing how many people in our city travel. We have a scooter similar to the one posted above with the two people on it. We also have carried crazy stuff on our bikes including a microwave, a stereo system, sophie, our friends, groceries all tied down on the back, etc.

yum..coffee

i am sitting at my desk at school shivering, drinking coffee, and waiting...what i am waiting for??? Well, today is Parent Teacher Conferences, but since I am an elective teacher, parents don't really need to meet with me; so, I just sit and try to keep busy. Actually it really isn't that bad (other than it is cold). I have some books with me and internet games always come in handy when you have nothing else better to do. :) My new favorite game is the one where you have to get the numbers 1-9 both in the 3x3 boxes and in the rows and columns.
My room is also the multi-purpose room, so any extras go on in my room. Well, the aerobics elective is in my room and yesterday jenny and I were trying to have our language lesson at the same time. It was really funny. It was the highschool boys' day to have aerobics so they were in here jumping around and stinking up the whole place. We were having to speak quite loudly to hear each other over all the noise. Sure can't wait to get to our new school where we will have room to do stuff.

Middle School Trip

our middle school went on a trip last month. i didn't go, but here are some pictures that i thought you might enjoy. The picture of the girls around breakfast are some of our students. The other pictures are people they saw along the way.