It's Been A While...

Hello Friends,I didn't realize how long it has been since I have given you all an update. *sorry* I hope that things are well with you all, and are enjoying Autumn. :) I love how pretty it is, but then the inevitable WINTER brrrrrr. It feels like it has been winter here in Kunming the past few weeks. Instead of Spring City it seemed more like Seattle. One blessing though that came was that the school finally installed water heaters in our apartment! If it was overcast at all the water would take about 1/2 an hour to heat up and it might be lukewarm. The weather has warmed up slowly and the sun has been out all day today. :) My Oral Englishstudents have been giving their first big oral project in class so I have been busy grading all of their book reports. Some of them are rather humorous (when they probably aren't supposed to be). My writing has gotten worse from grading so many papers, so forgive my typo's. :) My business class seems to be one step forward two steps backwards with our progression and behavior. Sometimes I really struggle with how to help them since their English is so poor, and my Chinese is even worse. Some of my students 2 weeks ago invited me to climb the Western Hill with them. There were about 13 total that came and it was a lot of fun and completely exhausting. We climbed the "hill" first and then we had lunch in a small village on the hill. After lunch the boys said that they knew how to get to some other mountains called the Dragon's Mouth so then we climbed and climbed and climbed, when I stopped my legs were shaking at the end of the day that is how much we walked and climbed. I seriously don't think I have ever walked so much in my life, and I have done quite a bit of walking. Just as we were walking down the main road to catch the bus it started raining, so it was perfect timing. It was a very beautiful day, and I had a wonderful time getting to know more of my students. This past week my roommates and I started taking a Chinese class from one of our co-workers. We are still learning the 4 tones and sometimes it is really difficult to hear the difference in the tones. I am getting much better at understanding conversations even without knowing the words which is helpful when I am shopping at the market by myself. It is much harder to understand prices, etc.. because they speak a dialect and not Manderin. Normally I just give them some money that seems about the right price and then it is ok. Last night we had a party with some of our co-workers and some friends. We had a scavenger hunt in the village, bobbed for apples and had a lot of fun. This Monday the students in our dept. will have drama's that they will perform. Some students asked me to be in a play they had written, but their friends didn't think it was funny, so they changed it. The play was about 2 foreigners in Bejing during the Olympics. It was really funny actually, and I couldn't get though the play with a straight face. I learned a lot about Chinese culture from the play, and also the Chinese Mascots for the Olympics which are called Friendlies. The names of all the animals when you put them together say Welcome to Bejing (or something along those lines). A group from the States that my boss knows will be coming this week. I am excited about meeting everyone, and hearing some more English. :) Have a wonderful daySE