Made it to China!

We just got internet yesterday, so I haven't been able to update my blog until now.  I will try to give you a quick overview of our first 10 days of living in China.  It has been a crazy, but awesome time so far!  It is still very surreal and hasn’t fully hit me yet.  We have been so busy trying to get all settled in.  Let the overview begin!

After landing in Wuhan on September 7, our waiban (foreign boss) Henry picked us up at the airport and drove us to Huangshi, which took a little over an hour.  We came to the apartment and dropped off our bags, then went to have lunch.  This was our first official Chinese meal with Diana and Henry (waibans) and it was real authentic.  It included pigs feet, goose eggs, goose, some kind of tofu, etc. There was one vegetable we liked called Shanghi Ching and the rice.  Haha it was definitely an experience, but we survived!  We then headed to see the school we would be teaching at.

We got our class schedules at the school, which is fewer classes than we both expected.  We each teach 9 classes a week, which equals 6 hours a week.  We are freaking out about all of our free time!  We are going to join a gym on Monday so we have something to do in our spare time. Neither of us have class on Mondays which will be great for traveling.  Wednesdays I teach 5 classes so that’s a really busy day.  Most days I only have one or two classes!  Awesome! J

Huangshi is so not a town, it is a huge city!!!!!!!!!!!  It reminds me a lot of NYC.  There are shops everywhere and we leave about a block from the center of downtown.  There is a shoe district, so I can’t wait to buy some awesome shoes.  There are at least 25 stores on just one street if not more.  Clothes stores are everywhere, grocery stores, etc.  That was probably the most shocking thing at first because it is not a small town by any means, which is what we were expecting.

The food has probably been the hardest part to adapt to.  It is very different than American Chinese food and since our waibans haven’t had many Americans they don’t understand the type of foods we like.  Our team has taken us out a few times and we have liked their choices for Chinese food much better.  We also found Skippy peanut butter with swirls of chocolate in it!  Lifesaver!  Seriously, we have eaten it with crackers, bananas, or by the spoonful every day!

Our apartment is not the best, but better than I anticipated.  It needs some TLC, but is livable for now until we can decorate it more and make it home.  The living room is nice and big.  Our bedrooms are really nice too; however the bed mattresses are like wood.  They are so hard!!!  Our waibans  bought our comforters before we got here, so they are very Chinese with bright colors.  Mine is hot pink with blue squares! Hehe

We really are celebrities here.  You get stared at everywhere!  We had the workers take pictures of us at the breakfast place we went to the other day.  It is kind of funny, but very weird.  People tell us we are beautiful all the time, which is nice.  Although most people think we are from Russia and are sisters.  They also think we are too young to be teachers and that we are international students!   It is a very weird combination between celebrity status and freak of nature.  Some of the people make the most horrible faces when they look at you!  Most of the time it is funny, but sometimes it can get frustrating.

Overall, it has been a great experience so far. Teaching has been really fun!  The students are so intrigued by us and have some of the funniest questions.  They love Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga.   They are very into relationships here as well, so I get the boyfriend question a lot. They also ask questions such as, “Why did I come to China?”  which has been a great gateway to share a little about Him.  None of my students have heard of Xianity at all.  Please continue to pry that seeds will be planted here and His light will shine in the darkness!

I will try to update more frequently now that I have internet.  Pictures to come soon as well!  I am hoping to do a before and after style post of our apartment.  Please keep in touch and e-mail me about your life!