Internet at last!

Yeah!!! I finally have Internet! All is well here, I'm back to work this week. Last week was the national holiday here, we had an entire week off of work. I met Dad, Georgia, and Jenn in Hong Kong. It was amazing! But I have to admit, it was like taking a vacation from China and going back to the West. There is tons of English around, I ate a lot of Western cuisine, and I haven't seen so many foreigners since I've been here! We did an obscene amount of shopping. I was really surprised, the city was expensive. The food and taxis and hotels were all more expensive than Nanjing, but the bargain shopping was incredibly cheap, the prices were much lower than in Nanjing. I bought great souvenirs, shoes, and two beautiful oil paintings of the HK harbour. Unfortunately, being the special person that I am, I left the two paintings in the hotel when we left for Nanjing. I called when we reached Nanjing, but alas, the paintings were not to be found. Oh well! In Nanjing we did the main sights: Purple Mountain, Confucius temple, Zhonghua Gate, the Yangtze River bridge and few other smaller things. I had a great time and it was nice to see familiar faces again. We went to Qixia Mountain with is a little out of the way for the common Nanjing tourist. I hadn't been before, but was interested in seeing the Thousand Buddha Cliffs. On the mountain is one of the oldest temples in China. Behind the temple,carved into the mountain are exactly 512 Buddhas. Its is called Thousand Buddha cliffs because when it was translated the word "Thousand Buddhas" was used to convey the meaning of "many Buddhas". There are tons of small trails and tea pavilions scattered around the mountain and it is said to be an amazing sight to see when the leaves change color in autumn (which should be any day now).

Things are moving along back at work. Next week I have my first parents day, where they will get to attend my class and watch me perform. It also means I get to do y first student evaluations... he he he. Just kidding, they are all wonderful. I only have 12 in my main class, so I really get to know them well. Much to their dismay I know all their names and call on them now at any time without having to point at them or get their attention. My other classes are less stressful, they are called oral classes. The soul purpose of my presence is just what it sounds like, to get the kids to talk. I'm kind of like a supplement to their regular English class, which is taught by a Chinese teacher. The program that I'm in has unfortunately suffered some tragedies as of late. About a month ago a new teacher was hit while on his scooter. He was taken to the hospital because of sever internal bleeding, his stomach was badly hurt as was his liver. Then, last weekend a teacher who has been here for awhile died. He had been swimming in the hot springs near his city and had a seizure which led to a heart attack I believe. There is a memorial service for hi this Sunday. This isn't to scare anyone, I just wanted to give an update on the latest happenings. As a result of these accidents I did get to experience and hear a little more about China. I visited the one teacher in the hospital and got a first hand glimpse at the facilities. He was in the ICU, it looked pretty modern, everything was very clean. However, the communal rooms for patients were a little more disconcerting, they were packed with people and didn't appear to be clean and disinfected. While I won't be attending, the service this coming weekend is suppose to be in the traditional Chinese fashion for a funeral. I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm sure my roommate will be able to tell me when he returns. So, things have been a little melancholy here. Our company has now pushed to make sure we all have medical insurance, probably a good thing I'm thinking.

And, to add to the sad news, my bicycle was stolen last week! The family I am tutoring had given me a very cute black and orange bike, it was a fold up bike. It was locked, but like most people here, I just locked the wheel so it couldn't be ridden, but obviously someone just picked it up and walked away with it. It was pretty light weight. Also, it happened in my apartment complex; a very big bummer :( I will say that I should have been more responsible. I live on the 4th floor, and it being a fold up bike I should have been taking it upstairs with me; we had been warned of the possibility of new shiny things like bikes and scooters being stolen. So, since it wasn't too expensive Dad and Georgia were very generous and bought me a new one; its sitting in my apartment right now :) I do like ridding it though, its a great way to experience the city and get to know my way around. Plus, the stares are hilarious! I don't think they see too many blond girls riding around.

I almost forgot! We got a bunny!! Nick and I were shopping at Confucius temple and thought, why not? There is a section in the market where one can go to buy animals. It is slightly overwhelming at first, all the animals are kept in extremely small cages. Ours was in a cage where it could barely turn around. The cats are often in cages that we would most likely use for rabbits. Hamsters are piled into small aquarium tanks, as well as the turtles (but not together). Cats and dogs are sometimes put in the same cages. Otherwise the dogs are in what look like baby cradles. Most of the dogs and cats look to young to be from their mothers. I wanted a cat, but we didn't want it to scratch the landlord's furniture and a dog's paws would scratch the new hardwood floors. So, between hamsters, turtles, and rabbits, we went with the bunny. We bought her on the Mid Autumn Moon Festival, a popular holiday here where most people get together with their families to celebrate and eat moon cakes. So we named her Mei Yue, which means Beautiful Moon. I got her a turquoise bunny palace where she can not only turn around but have enough room to move about and stretch out. However, I've become concerned with her voracious appetite, I fear she has emotional issues from her treatment in the market and is now using food to compensate.