A little bit more...

After living in a hotel for the past month Jordan and I were getting stir crazy. Our hotel lacked Internet (I didn't know that it was even possible not to have Internet in a hotel...haha), and the heat here is hotter than anything I'd ever experienced before, and we were in an area we were still trying to figure out...here’s how the week went:

• I woke up Sunday sick (no voice and I was pretty congested). We went to lunch at Laura’s family restaurant and then to a pharmacy and tried some Chinese remedies- which worked, might I add!

• Monday we decided to go visit our friends Emily and Murray. They live in the Nanshan district of Shenzhen, which is about an hour bus ride from us. Nanshan looks like Florida on a map…We stayed at Emily’s apartment and hung out with them for a couple of days. While we were there, we met up with a large group from our program and went swimming, went to Starbucks, had Tex-Mex, went to a school supply store, and found a restaurant that had Coldplay music playing and ate there!!!! It was a fun couple of days and it got us out of the hotel!

• The coordinator who is in charge of Yantian and another close by district came called us on Thursday saying he was going to be around and wanted to show us some good places around to eat. We took him up on his offer and he also showed us some places like where he gets his hair cut and a great DVD store! Of course I’m not sure if the DVD’s are actually legit, but they’re 6 kuai ($1) So we’ve spent some money on DVDs, but when they’re so cheap it’s hard not to. They even sell 8 in 1 DVD’s for on 15 kuai ($2)!!! I bought an 8 in 1 chick-flick DVD and Jordan’s bought a few but his favorite being all 4 Indiana Jones and 4 Rambo’s!!! We bought a DVD player and the last 2 seasons of Lost to catch me up before the final season begins! With it being so hot and not much to do, we would wake up around 10 am, get ready, go to lunch, and come back to our room and watch movies until it was cool enough to get back outside. Have I mentioned yet how happy Jordan is being in South China? Haha! I mean it really is bad if I’ve sweated through my clothes…but triple or quadruple that amount of sweat for Jordan!! =)

• Friday we got a call that the teachers at our school we’re having a back to school meeting and they wanted us there to introduce us. One of the teachers graciously picked us up so we didn’t look like we’d been swimming during our 10 minute walk from the hotel to school. We got there, they introduced us and told us to give a 2-3 speech about ourselves (on the spot) and then told us that the “Chinese meeting” was about to begin and we were to leave. Basically they didn’t want to translate for us (I mean me =)) Oh China!

• Sunday, my contact teacher Louis called me and told us that our apartment would be ready to move into on Monday August 31st and to be ready after coming to school Monday to get our teaching books. Jordan and I were excited!!! FINALLY out of a hotel!!!!

• Monday- We went got to school around 8:30 am and met with my contact teacher who explained our teaching schedules, received our books to teach from, and met the other foreign teacher at our school, Joe, from Canada. He isn’t with our program and has been teaching at our school for three years now. We left school, went back to the hotel to grab our things with our driver and came back to campus to see our new apartment. It was a lot less of what I originally imagined. It’s kinda like a loft style room and we have a sliding glass door which leads to our kitchen (about twice the size of small coat closet) and washing/multi-purpose area. We have a leather couch, TV, 19.8 liter water cooler/dispenser, fridge, queen size bed, desk and large built in wardrobes. Apartment bathrooms in China are probably the funniest things of all. They’re one room- shower, toilet, and sink- no curtains. Basically while in taking a shower the toilet and sink get wet…hummmm…Oh China! Our house was pretty dirty and it was all a bit overwhelming. I’ve adjusted a lot better since cleaning. I just started tackling the kitchen this week. We have a rice cooker, hot pot, microwave, and a few dishes/pans. The school has offered to get us some more kitchen utensils, so I’m making my wish list tonight. So, it wasn’t what we (or maybe just me) expected, but it’s working for us. Pictures after the kitchen is in better shape! We did get a brand new computer in our room- which isn’t in our contract, but we’re extremely grateful for!!!

• Actual teaching is going pretty well for both of us…basically my kids (especially my 1st graders) don’t speak any English. I do have a Chinese English teacher (or co-teacher) in my class. I actually plan with my 2nd grade co-teachers and that is nice. I pretty much just jump around and smile big and use my hands to communicate orally. All the classrooms have ceiling fans, no AC, and smart/interactive boards. I’m thrilled with the technology here!! Some of our other teacher friends in Shenzhen aren’t so lucky with technology. Jordan is getting used to the whole teaching thing. He’s doing great, although he isn’t as confident in himself yet. Everyone has had nothing but great things to say to him. He was bummed because they have silly books and workbooks that they want him to teach from, whereas he’d rather take another route…but he’s making it. I’m teaching from this basic oral English book and all they’re really stressing is oral English in the younger grades.

• This past weekend, Emily and Murray came over Friday afternoon. We showed them around Yantian, took them to the DVD store, and went to the beach all day Saturday. We all got burned, even with our umbrella that we rented. We had lots of fun showing them our favorite restaurants and hanging out for the weekend.

• Babies/toddlers poop and pee everywhere…it’s really getting on my nerves. A toddler at the beach pooped in this hole right in front of me…I haven’t gotten over it yet and am still paranoid that someone is going to step in the poop! The kids wear these split pants and no diapers…probably better for the environment, but hence all the masks in this silly country!!! I’m starting a diaper company!!! If only I was an entrepreneur…

This officially catches us up for now!!! If you have Skype and want to talk, our screen name is jordan.tyler09 We’re 12 hours ahead and would love to stay in touch!! Keep on praying for us…some days are much easier than others and on the not so great days we find a way to make it to KFC/McDonald’s/ or anything else Western we can find!!!

Lots of love!!!
Jordan and Tyler =)