A Post

*Click on the title for a good story. I later heard that the man named Lian Jiansheng was on his way to pick up his crazy meds, which makes a lot of sense.

Again, I'm (we're... Steve just doesn't even try anymore) having trouble deciding what to write about! But here is some stuff for you to read....

1. I have an adult class with two students. One is a middle-aged man with a son in college and a wife in another city. He is new to town and moved here for business. I named him Greg. The other is a youngish woman with a 3 year old son who grew up in Harbin. She named herself Sisi (like Cici, but the Chinese don't like to spell it like that because of some connotation unbeknownst to me). Anyway, this class takes place twice a week but only lasts for 40 minutes each time. Honestly, I don't think they get much out of it, because Greg is always asking Sisi questions in Chinese and she often translates what I just said for him because their conversational English level is quite limited. But, they really seem to enjoy the class and my company for some reason. We've had fun getting to know each other. They took Steve and I out to dinner last week to a place called Mala 100%. It specializes in spicy food and it was delicious! We toasted each other several times and discussed any and every topic under the moon. Yesterday, Greg and Sisi both brought me colorful paper lanterns (for lack of a better word) to make sure that I was properly outfitted for Dragon Boat Festival, which was today. Anyway, they're nice folks and fun to chat with.


2. We're trying to plan some post contract travel in China, so we've been looking at lots of possible destinations. The truth is, if you've seen one big city you've seen them all! Of course, some have more interesting attractions than others, but really Steve and I are more interested in outdoorsy and nature things. SO, we're looking at going south and west and possibly touring Tiger Leaping Gorge. It is said to be remarkably beautiful, so we'd like to see it for ourselves. Google it for more information. There is a guy who runs a guesthouse down there, and from everything we can find online it seems like that guesthouse and that guy are really cool. So, yeah.

3. Blogger.com is blocked in China right now, as is youtube. Luckily, proxies can get you most of what you want to see, but it's always interesting to see what gets blocked. New sites are always getting the axe from China.

4. It's interesting to live in a pre-furnished apartment. You have exactly what you need and little else. This is not really a problem, but we often dirty all of our dishes in a single meal because we have so few! It helps you to get in the habit of washing a bowl or plate as soon as you're done with it so that you don't have to do it when you're ready for breakfast in the morning.

5. Lots of our friends either just got married or are about to... so here's one big CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! for all of the happy couples. Hope you enjoy your first year of marriage as much as Steve and I did!

We love you all and might be seeing you sooner than expected! Miss you!

*Happy Dragon Boat Festival Day*