On and On

Wowsa. I have not updated this in forever. Soooo, long story short:
We went to a Shanghai Opera, hung out with people at markets, watched someone almost fall off their scooter, went to Lowaitan (and ate FOUR entrees of Mexican food; we were very excited), Emily started cross stitching, I read a lot of books, we watched some TV (Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother mostly), made friends with the security guards by running past them and whistling like a train trying to catch some girls who left a purse in the taxi we had grabbed, played some guitar (started working on scales), joined a technomad group (fun!), danced around the apartment, visited some temples (one of which was 1,700 years old!), read a lot of funny junk online, debated maybe doing more traveling when we are done here (almost surely vetoed in honor of the bunny, but still under discussion), taught classes (I taught 5, Em’s taught 2), are planning on going to get some bikes, shopped and 5 million and 1 “cute” stores with Em’s, worked on lesson plans, tried to join QQ (mostly failed at that one...), danced around, and ate cookies and Dove bars.

I’m not sure what we will do today, but there sure is a bunch here waiting for us! I will try to be on here more, keeping things updated and fleshing out the whole gap I just leapt in a single non-stop sentence, but I won’t make any promises! Lots of love!
JJ

Lots to Do

So I have had a few crazy busy days. Emily and I have spent a couple of nice days with her sister and had some delicious meals. We had hot pot, which is absolutely amazing and is nice and hot (as the name implies). Emily and I also went with Abby to Pizza Hut! It is a “classy” date restaurant here in China with all sorts of really funky foods on the menu that they think might be American-ish like spaghetti noodles with mushrooms and bean sauce. Ick. The pizza was pretty good, though the staff was scandalized that we didn’t want any traditional pizza toppings like whole unpeeled shrimp and hot dogs. I got a sweet watch and Emily FINALLY found some yarn. Today we went adventuring after a hearty meal of cabbage and pork, cucumbers in spicy sauce, fried potatoes with dipping sauce, fried peanuts, shredded pork and celery, and mi fan. We walked pretty far and got lots of funny stares. Emily found some cool stores with nifty stuff she liked and I was the backpack pack mule. Next week we may venture out to Tianyi all on our own and possibly go on an expedition with one of Abby’s friends, Jane. Jane is very nice and lives in Abby’s building. We have met many cool people through Abby. Yesterday was super fun. We took a cab all the way to NIT and met up with a pen pal of mine whose English name is Luke. He is in a cool band called Pumpkin. We met up with him and hung out in Pumpkin’s practice space. Most of the band showed up and we got to jam and hang out with them for a while. Then they took us into town to a little guitar shop that they go to. It seems like a really insular and small (but very nice) music community here. The shop owner is good friends with them and he gave me a great deal on an acoustic guitar that was in the shop. It is a weird brand called Tanglewood from the UK. It is in pretty rough shape (the bridge had come off and is pretty sloppily reglued back on); it sounded better than all but one of the other acoustics there, and the one that sounded better was 1400 yuan, while this one was only 1000. It translates into roughly $150 (more than I would have paid in the US, but not so bad for a decent sounding guitar here in China). After that we went above the shop and jammed for just a bit in the rehearsal space the owner had set up. It was really fun. Then we went out and ate with Abby and had a sing a long at her apartment. A few days ago we went and talked with Maggie’s class. It was really surreal. They wanted photos with us and asked us to sing a Christmas song (we sang Jingle Bells). We agreed to sing to them on the condition that they sing us a traditional Chinese song. They agreed and promptly nominated one girl in the class to be the singer. She sang Celine Dion. I didn’t think it was Chinese, but didn’t argue with them. Tomorrow we go to Cixi to visit the campus and meet some students. We don’t really know what we will officially be doing, but we ahve to catch the bus at 6:50 and won’t get back until 5:30ish that afternoon. I plan on bringing the ipod and kindle :)
So far I only know of classes on Monday and Tuesday, as they still haven’t figured out the schedule for either Emily and I. We feel a little like frauds since we are just hanging out, the lesson plans that we have already written are long done, and it feels like we don’t really have much of a job to do. I am in no way complaining about the work not being bad, but I am ready to start doing the job I came here for so I can see what everyday life is really going to look like once classes start. I am eager to see what the year holds!

Parade

Today is a day of celebration! Emily got her computer up and running with the help of a very nice IT guy and we are back to being a two computer household. It makes me very happy and Emily wont stop dancing around the house. We are relieved to get her computer up and running so she will be less fractious but also it is good to have it as a backup. My computer has had some troubling issues the past few days with overheating and just shutting down. I'm not sure what's going on but I hope it will last the year. It will definitely get more rest with just one person using it now! I'm off to have a cuppa coffee and then maybe Em's and I will have an early dinner. We figured out how to order all on our own (without any helpful semi-english speaking person to translate) from our favorite restaurant. We are going to try a different one tonight so we can have more practice. It looks like we read the schedule wrong and wont be teaching for yet another week so I should have plenty of time to have awesome lesson plans all laid out. I also heard from my Chinese friend Luke and I may have someone to play music with soon. So it is exciting all around. I added lots of pictures to my facebook so everyone can check them out there.

FOOOOOOD!

We had an amazing dinner out last night with Abby and one of our Chinese friends named Maggie. She took us to a restaurant that specializes in Northern Chinese cooking which is predominantly spicy. I have NEVER had food that spicy! We had tofu with peppers and bacon in chili oil, beef with peppers and onions in chili oil, frog in the hottest chili oil concoction I have ever tasted, and cauliflower with ham, green onions, and green peppers with chili oil. It was a spicy meal. I wish I had eaten ice cream after! Supposedly I really like Northern Chinese cooking because I like dumplings and I like spicy. Another of our friends named Nina took us out and said I had a "Northern soul." That may be because I ate two plates of dumplings. We also had delicious beef joints that you got to wear gloves to eat. You picked all the meat off and then sucked the marrow out with a straw! Yum!!! We also were brave and rode the bus and a taxi all by ourselves! Now I have to go with Emily to get a bike, but I will add more later.

A Very Fancy Feast

Today has been a very exciting day for Emily and I. We got a great lunch out at a restaurant our friend Maggie took us to, met some nice people at a convenience store, and had a great dinner with our department and the vice pres. of our school. The food was wonderful and so was the company. While the beginning of our trip was fraught with terror and uncertainty at all of the unknowns, the past few days have become quite easy. We have met and discussed most of our classes and Emily and I have written out our lesson plans. The whole thing seems to be coming together. Saturday Emily's sister is coming to Ningbo so we are very excited to have a familiar face around. Emily and I can't wait to see her and our hearts are already with her on the VERY long flight over. I have finally started catching up on my Doctor Who watching and Emily on her Dugger TV. So it is all coming together! Emily is excited because she is going to get some yarn soon. She wanted me to put that in. Also, I am finally getting used to my Kindle. I was not getting along with it, but it is starting to seem like a true friend (though still not as good as a print book).

Teacher Training

Today was very exciting. Emily and I started our teacher training and met some of the other people that we would be teaching with. They all seem very nice and we may have made some cute couple friends. Emily is excited to be around other people who speak English! We also bought the potable water for our apartment on our own for the first time. There is a complicated ticket/delivery system in place, but it is much simpler to just hand the nice water man cash. Then it is all done! Emily is still going to sleep VERY early in the evenings, but she managed to stay up all the way to 9pm today. She was quite sleepily proud of it. Dinner was an exciting affair at the local "hamburger" stand, where they serve chicken sandwiches and chicken nuggets with sides that include: fish on stick, corn on stick, fries on stick, or chicken leg. I think that nothing complements a chicken sandwich "hamburger" more than a chicken leg. It was super exciting because we got "western style" drinks. THEY HAD ICE!!! Mmmmm...ice. Then we bought ice cream and danced a little bit. The teacher training was very informative, and seems to be very well thought out and set up. The only downside is that, as we are the newbies, Emily and I will have to spend one day a week at a different campus. That doesn't sound too bad until you realize that the bus to there leaves at 7am and returns at 5pm. There is only one bus. The ride is over an hour. I teach 6 classes that day! It won't really be all that bad though since for the most part all of our lessons and plans are laid out for us. The head of our department knows her stuff and really made the process interesting and fun (or at least that's how it looks on paper!). It is time for bed now as I have another exciting day in China ahead of me tomorrow!
Love,
JJ

Say What?

While there have been enough interesting english translations here that we don't even notice them anymore, this one caught our eye.  It came on the back of a shower poof we bought yesterday: "Add some shower juice is it is it make foam to be abundant all over to wipe away, smooth and incomparable before taking a shower. Is it carry on keep-fit massage to whole body, let skin gloss extraordinarily of you happy easily to equal to, fine and smooth and rich flexibly, like bud being generally pleasant." I just want to shower with it right away!!! We have been unusually productive (for us) today, getting lots of the house clean and the rest of our stuff unpacked and stowed away.  The house is looking good, and we are all full of funky snacks we bought at the grocery store.  The plan is to head out to the streets tonight and hit up a noodle shop while shopping for a pillow for Em's and a watch for me.  I REALLY need one!  It is weird how I became dependent on my phone for the time, and I never realized how much I checked it.  I'm off to bring in our laundry from the porch, so that's it for now. JJ

Just checking

This is a test to see if blog via email works in case my sites get blocked again. Hope this shows up! JJ