First Weekish

Whoops! So I had this all set to post and somehow it got saved instead. Jen sent this to me over a week ago and I'm hoping to get another update soon.

Today was teachers day so we had a really nice dinner with all of the other primary teachers. I was adventurous and tried oyster, craw fish, crab and squid. First time trying any of them and they were all delish!! We went out with five of the other guy teachers (two PE teacher, one math and one geography) who were all really funny. One of the other girls I was with was eating with her chopsticks upside down so the math teacher politely said "no, no, no" then too her chopsticks and flipped them the other way. It totally cracked us up.

So I was using the microwave and I blew he circuit so now we don't have any electricity. Also, our water heater wasn't working for the first week so we were taking cold- wait, very VERY cold showers. It was an adventure but now I really kind of like cold showers, wakes you right up! But it's fixed now so at least we have the option.

We've taught a couple of days now; it's been difficult but enjoyable. There is this kid named Nick who is the cutest kid but the biggest pain in the bum. Wallin is also one you really have to yell at to get him to do what you want. Very frustrating sometimes. But then there are these three girls, Lucy, Sue and Amy, they are so cute and smart and they catch on so fast.

We went to church on Sunday. Getting there was AWFUL! I was a half hour bus ride to get to David's place, the David took us on another bus for an hour and a half. After that we walked at least ten blocks before David called the branch president who sent his driver to pick us up. After at least two hours of travel we finally made it to the house where we had church. It was very small but very spiritual. We all sat around in a dining room and had sacrament, the branch president's daughter sang a song and played the violin and the we had testimony meeting. After that we watched a conference talk for Sunday school in the living room. Afterwards we had an amazing homemade dinner of completely American food! Roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn, carrots, salad and some fantastic rolls. Our group that day was only 11 people but it was so spiritual and the whole time church was going on I had to keep thinking to myself "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry".

Anyways, tomorrow I'm hoping to find a cheap shop to buy DVDs!!

Please shoot Jen an e-mail if you have time. I know she'd love to hear form everyone. Her e-mail is jenesey@rocketmail.com and if you have Skype keep an eye out for her. We're still trying to figure out regular times that we can chat with her.

Flying High

Rodney decided he wanted to go with his Aunt Jen.

So I met up with my group at the SLC airport. We had about one-hour flight to San Francisco. I ended up sitting by these three guys who were buying alcohol and talking about Dungeons and Dragons... Quite hilarious to tell you the truth! Then they started swearing and air-guitaring which are two of my WORST pet peeves. Once we got to San Francisco our flight to China was delayed until the next morning. We had to get a hotel for the night but we did get to go and walk on the coast which was very pleasant. The flight to China was VERY long. It was pretty funny when we started to get closer to China because we flew into some bad turbulence; so bad that people on the plane were screaming! I was laughing the whole time... Turbulence is fun! :-)

We made it safely to the airport though and the car ride to the school was awesome!! They really don't pay attention to traffic laws and people are honking left and right. It was pretty fun.

The people here are very, very nice. We've gotten a couple of odd looks and little kids staring but it's cute and funny. Everything is pretty cheap too. I haven't been to a good market yet though. We got to our apartment and there were tarps on the stairs and it smelled really musty but our rooms were very nice and they'd even installed AC for us. The cafeteria smells like wet dog though so you lose your appetite by the time you get your food. I also haven't had a single cold meal since we got here. Their breakfasts are all hot and it's crazy hot and humid so it's hard to even eat breakfast.

That's all for now, hopefully more soon!