We Made It!!!

Hi Everyone!!!

We made is safe and sound! I am so sorry it took us this long to add a new post. When we first got to school the internet was down and then everything was just so busy all week- we haven't had a chance to blog. I apologize!

SO!! The flight here was great... except Thomas and I almost missed our flight from Beijing to Nanjing. We were sprinting across the Beijing airport in order to make the flight on time! It was a bit stressful, but we made it. And then, the school forgot to pick us up. But we took a taxi and made it with ample amount of time to unpack and enjoy the city! Nanjing is beautiful and filled with history. Ian (an American teacher who has taught in Nanjing for a year and speaks a fair amount of Chinese) has been showing us around and getting us aquatinted with the city. Nanjing has 7 million people and we are right in the heart of the city- it's so big! We've done so much with in the last few days. We don't start school until this weekend so we've had time to explore the city and get used to the time change. We've walked to city wall (which was built during the Ming Dynasty) and ate at a restaurant that was 100 years old. But I think the best thing I've had so far (food wise) was from a Muslim restaurant- fried bananas! So good... Thomas and I went to a traditional tea ceremony today and bought a huge thing of our favorite tea- Pu'er. Traffic is crazy in the city- but not as crazy as the kids that just drop their pants and poop on the sidewalk- whenever and wherever! No joke, it's acceptable, and we saw it on our first night here! The city has the most beautiful parks along a bunch of lakes and canals- and all of the streets are lined with trees and native plants. One of our favorite places to eat is a little whole-in-the-wall place that is known around here as "the rice guy." He's got the best fried rice around. They like to eat chicken feet around here too but dog is not common in Nanjing- thankfully!

In terms of teaching, we have one prep. In other words we teach one lesson to about 16 different classes (roughly 300 students). We live on the main campus but travel to a sister campus about 45 minutes away to where we are actually teaching each day. We start teaching next week. We are both excited and nervous but we have plenty of help from other teachers. We are adjusting pretty well and plan on taking Chinese class as well as working with private tutors to help learn the language.

Here are a few fun facts:

They call cell phones "hand machines" and the term for window shopping literally translates to "Riding on a horse I glance at a flower." Kind of cool!

Okay, I think that's enough information for you all! Things are AMAZING here and we are loving every minute. I hope everyone is well in America! We love and miss you all... we'll write again soon!