Typhoon Season!

I have been here almost an entire week now, but it feels so much longer! I have really come to like the town of Ningbo. There is much to do in the city. I had a couple of authentically chinese experiences this last weekend. I went to get a massage with a friend because spa services are incredibly cheap here. It was quite interesting, I came out all black and blue and a little more sore than when I went in. Afterwards we went to a traditional tea ceremony which was VERY cool. I just love the traditional tea set they use. It is very small, delicate, and beautiful. I am hoping to travel some in the next couple weeks. I don't have to start teaching classes until after the Chinese Holiday because all my classes are freshman classes and they start later the year due to freshman orientation. I have family connections in quite a few of the surrounding citites and I hope to be able to make use of them.

If you have seen any international weather news you may see the typhoon that is hitting our city right now. It is coming in tonight and is supposed to directly hit Ningbo tomorrow. We are to stay in our apartments until we have heard otherwise. It should be quite exciting.

I hope everyone is happy well, I will leave you with another short list of more things I have learned and observed the last couple days. Much Love

• Chinese soap operas are HIGHLY entertaining.



• Taxi rides are even scarier than bus rides.



• Beggars are extremely persistent and the ones with a monkey will follow you. Creepy.



• Pizza Hut is a fancy foreign restaurant where you go for a great night out. There is always a line to get a table.



• I have been asked if I am a Mexican.....twice



• Pig's ears look a lot like bacon.



• Food such as turtles, frogs, and jellyfish can be bought live and fresh at your local grocery store.

I have put a few pictures up at http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n174/messyjesse12/China/

I hope the link works!

Finally Here!

Well I have made it! I have been in Ningbo, China now for about 35 hours now and it has been the craziest, most overwhelming, and exciting 35 hours of my life! I have walked around most of the campus which has it's own marketplace. There are quite a few streets lined with street food stands, fruit wagons, clothing stores, Walgreens type-stores, and even hair salons. We went downtown this evening where we had a fancy dinner at a super fancy hotel and met all of our Chinese Friends. It was one of the most uplifting and encouraging moments to be in a room with such beautiful, friendly, and happy strangers who I now call my Brothers and Sisters. The food was quite an experience. Our Chinese friends picked many dishes that are famous from different provinces in China such as Peking Duck from Beijing (delicious), and spicy fish soup from Sichuan ( I ate it and thought it was delicious Casey, be proud)

There is so much I could go on about so I have just decided to make a list of the things I learned and observed from being here thus far:

• Chinese children, while diaperless and do their business on the street, are incredibly adorable!


• Riding a bus in China is rather like riding the wizard's night bus in the third Harry Potter movie..........really.


• People here are almost always smiling and are some of the friendliest people I have ever encountered.


• It is very hard to get fish smell out of your clothes and hair.
• Meat and melon can be found on a stick almost anywhere in the city at any time.
• Asia's largest Starbucks is right here in downtown Ningbo.

I will try to get more pictures up in an album somewhere online and will inform everyone when I do. I hope everyone who is reading this is well and happy. Much love to you all.

Almost Here!

Exactly three weeks from today I will board a plane in San Francisco and arrive the next day in Hong Kong. From there I will board another plane and fly to Ningbo, Zhejiang Province where I will teach english for a year at Ningbo University. I have to keep saying that so I will believe it... overwhelmed does not seem to be an adequate term at this point. It would be an understatement. Never have I looked forward to something so much, yet felt so ill-prepared for it. Though I know that there is something Great at work and all will be well in the end.

I am so excited and anxious to start this new chapter in my life and am glad that I can share it with all of you! I hope to hear from you often!