First few weeks

The first three weeks have flown by but I'll try to catch you up as best I can. The school picked us up at the Kunming airport and drove us back to Mengzi. However, we were involved in a minor car accident on the way back (no one was injured) so we arrived to campus really late and weren't able to see the Rice's. The school gave us each a hotel room (as in a real hotel room complete with two single beds) as housing and sweet Victoria left a card, beautiful flowers and lots of food as a welcome to Mengzi. I guess the school thought we wouldn't notice that we were living in a hotel but we did. After a few days of uncertainty the school came through and moved us to these really nice suites on campus. They are still technically a part of the hotel but are much more apartment like. The kitchen was a bit lacking but with help from the ever resourceful Rices' we have made it work. I'm still trying to hang pictures (we have to use all 3M since it's the hotel's property and we can't use nails) but when it's finished I'll post before/after pictures.


The first week here we were able to visit the local orphanage and make a quick trip to a small friend's village. We helped the family shuck corn and even picked peanuts!


The Rices, Kim and Dave threw me a surprise birthday party (thanks, Victoria!) complete with a homemade cheesecake (thanks, Dave!) with a Butterfingers (brought from America, thanks Kim!) basketball on top. I loved it!! And thanks to Kim's great bicycle themed gift idea I racked up a lot of very useful accessories for my new bike. Water bottle holder, loud horn (can't wait to use that one!), lights, cushy seat, and even a gag gift of clothespins and playing cards to put on the spokes. Ha ha. I'm so excited for my new bike!


The first two weeks of class I only taught one class, British Literature, to junior English majors because the freshmen all had mandatory military training. At least the weather is much cooler here than in Yichang so the poor students weren't too hot in their uniforms. The altitude is higher here so the sun is stronger but there seems to always be a nice breeze and if you stand in the shade it's just perfect in the shade. It's still the rainy season so I have learned to always take my umbrella with me, even if it is gorgeous blue sky and white clouds because a quick rain could come at ANY moment.


The weekend before last Brian, Caleb, Rachel, Dave, Kim and I made a trip to Kunming to do some western food shopping (yea!) and pick up three American friends that came to visit the Rices. Brian was able to drive us in a jeep borrowed from a doctor friend who does work in the area villages. In the future we hope to be get another jeep and do more work in the village. While in Kunming I was also able to meet up with some former Three Gorges University students of mine from Yichang. I've been a little homesick for my Chinese hometown so it was a blesing to see familiar faces, catch up over a delicious (and spicy!) hotpot meal, and even hear/speak a little Yichang dialect again. These students were french majors and will soon leave to work in Africa! I'm so glad that I was able to see them one more time before they go. The university they are studying at, Yunnan University, was really nice! The campus grounds reminded me of an east-coast ivy league school.


Last week we had some major teaching schedule frustrations but I think the school has come through again and it should all work out. We don't know when our classes will be for this coming week so we're sort of "on call" but I'm so grateful that they made the changes that I don't even mind. In the meantime, this means more blogging time since I don't have class! :)