A Quick Little Update!

Hey everyone! I’ve added a few pictures of Jordan and me before we saw Avatar in 3D IMAX in Hong Kong for Jordan's birthday, me with one of the Chinese-English teachers that I work with, Jacklyn, before a New Year program for the staff, and Jordan with some of his students before Christmas.

Jordan and I have been done with school for this semester for about a week now. Since Jordan teaches general studies, he had to give an actual paper exam, whereas since I’m only oral English I just had mini-conversations with my kiddos. Jordan and I have been grading his 300+ tests- and the best part is that the teachers don’t even want to give the students their actual test back, they just want the grades…what a waste of paper!! Oh China!

We’re about to start vacationing this Friday January 22nd. We’ll be heading to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and then to Thailand (Bangkok and Koh Tao island). While in Koh Tao, we’ll be getting scuba certified and can’t wait to dive in one of the top 10 dive spots!! We’re really excited!! Our friends Emily and Murray will be joining us as well. Can’t wait- just trying to get everything packed! When we get back from this trip, we’ll be around Shenzhen for a bit before heading to Guangzhou to teach at an English camp. I will be posting pictures when we return the first week of February!

*Oh and we’ve booked our tickets to come home! We’ll leave Hong Kong June 17th and arrive in Atlanta June 17th at 7 pm! Wahoo!* =)

Lots of love! –Tyler and Jordan

If he can finish the race, so can you!

Well it's official...Jordan's famous in China!!! =) He made the newspaper for running in a 10K race back in December. There were about 9 people from our group (including myself) that ran and Jordan made the paper!!!

I've circled the comment under his picture because it says:"If he can finish the race, so can you!" We've been laughing ever since we got it!!! Thought you'd enjoy a great laugh!!! *Jordan, being his humorous self, was being dramatic-imagine that! =) for the picture...we were all yelling for him when he arrived at the finish line!!! haha!!!!

Things to know about the race:
-We ran the 10K portion of the race.
-It was a charity run "Run for Love"
-It was called a "mountain marathon", but we didn't expect it to only be on a mountain.
-Only about 1K of the race was paved, the rest was gravel (aka huge rocks!!)
-For about 2K of the run the mountain was lined on both sides with beehives from local mountain villagers
-There were 11 foreigners total that ran...Over 500 Asians...slightly outnumbered.
-While running down the mountain, a girl that Jordan was running beside, slipped and fell into one of the bee "boxes", causing a swarm of bees and one stung Jordan on the back of his head.

While the race was my terrible idea, we had a good time doing it and felt accomplished when we finished. We survived and have a great story to tell!!! Enjoy the picture!!!

Love,
Tyler & Jordan

Deck the harrs with boughs of horry, fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!

Jordan and I cannot believe how fast time is flying by! This year’s holidays of course were a little different than what we’re used to, but we enjoyed our time together. Obviously since Christmas isn’t a huge deal here, we were only given Christmas day off from school. On Christmas Eve, the Shenzhen Education Bureau hosted a dinner for all of the foreign teachers and put us up in a hotel for the night. Jordan and I had a good time being around our friends and of course staying in a hotel with a bigger, better, and hotter shower! =) Or at least that was a big plus for me!!!! It was definitely a Chinese- Christmas: for dinner we had the usual rice, fish, veggies, and meat dishes and after dinner the bureau wanted us to perform songs/skits for them on stage…oh what fun it is to live in China! On Christmas Day we went to a legit mall where I bought a couple of gifts for myself and then headed into the cheap, crazy shopping district where I actually found 2 pairs of cheap boots that fit my big feet! Our afternoon shopping was cut kind of short because one of Jordan’s classes invited us to a Christmas party that their class had put together. So of course we went, but not before opening our gifts from Santa! =) The Christmas party was cute and the kids did a great job performing for us. The day after Christmas, Jordan and I headed into Hong Kong because we had some money to burn!! =) The first thing we did when we arrived, was headed straight to the closest Outback Steakhouse and devoured some delicious, edible, “we know where this food came from” food!!! We had a few things that we needed to get during our spree: new tennis shoes, some cologne for Jordan (Jordan bought some perfume at a shop at our local mall for me), board games, and some new jeans. We got everything on our list and had a great time shopping at Toys R Us!!! I’m such a sucker for board games! We bought Clue and Risk which are both bilingual with Chinese and English which will always remind us of our first Christmas together in China!

For New Years, the whole school was given the day off. We went back into Hong Kong with our friends Emily and Murray. Emily’s dad got us a hotel room at the Holiday Inn on Kowloon. Again, we went back to Outback for dinner. We couldn’t help it. It’s just so good!!! =) After dinner we went back to the hotel and got ready then headed out to the crowded streets to finish this great year and begin another!!! We didn’t stay out late after midnight- the streets were crammed, windy and a bit cool, but we were ready to enjoy our nice accommodations. On New Years Day we woke up late, watched some football on ESPN- the guys were in heaven- and then walked around Hong Kong for a bit and grabbed some lunch at Shakey’s Pizza then headed back to the mainland. When we got back, Jordan and I really wanted to watch some football and we found a sports bar owned by some Expats and they were showing some re-runs of bowl games on Saturday the 2nd. They actually showed the Florida State vs. West Virginia game. Jordan was very content (and sad) to get to watch Bobbie Bowden’s last game. I think the hardest part for him was not checking the scores before going to watch the game. Our weekend of New Years ended well. Bobbie got his last win, we enjoyed New Years in a different country, we had wonderful Western food, & we enjoyed time with friends. We hope each one of you had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you many blessings for 2010!!!

With love,
Tyler & Jordan