2 Months

It has been officially two months now since I left that wonderful square state of Colorado. I am loving life out here in Fuzhou!! I love teaching which makes it just seem like I am on a extra long vacation. The weather is incredibly warm... but as many of you know, that doesn't bother me one bit! I have actually been getting sick because I walk in from the extreme heat to Air Conditioning that is kept very low and I think my body is not very happy with it. Nights are very nice here, warm and usually there is a nice breeze. Although, sometimes it is almost unbearable to sit outside.

A friend of mine lived on the 18th floor

and had an incredible view of Fuzhou. I took this on my iPhone at night, it is a bit blurry though. On the right there is a white pagoda and then the center lights is a building with a giant statue of

Mao in front of it. On a clear day, you can see the mountains that surround Fuzhou on all sides.

One thing that I did not even think of when coming to China was thing that I would be making friends with people and they would eventually leave... In my own little world, I just thought I would be plopped down in China and people would adjust to me then I would leave and it would not be any big issue. I was wrong. I have met some incredible people and a few of them have left in the past couple weeks. It's this constant wave of new people coming and old people going. I am such a softy when it comes to saying goodbye to people. This is a picture of Yoko, Matt, Chelsea, Kirsten and me. This was Matt's last night in Fuzhou. The next picture is of Heidi who just left to do an internship in Vietnam before heading back to England to work on her masters. She is an incredible young woman. I can say that because I am older than the majority of the other teachers here in Fuzhou.

I have only three weeks until I go on a fantastic vacation... holiday... with my roommate Ben.

We are heading to Beijing for four days then off to the Philippines for nine days. I think we might even extend our holiday for a few more days and stay in Xiamen after getting back to mainland China. We will see how sick of each other we are since we do live together as well.

My classes are turning into really fantastic classes! I have had some tough kiddos to work with and I have worked my Ames and Alice Terry magic and turned them into great groups of learners. One in particular had me almost in tears a few times. The class was ending and they were to start on a new book on my third lesson with them. So, new book, new attitude, new direction for the class. I had my students do a version of a social contract. (My AT pandas would be so proud!) The students seem to have more drive for the class and are more willing to participate as a whole now that I have taken it from chaos to controlled chaos.

I also have some kindergarten-first grade age students who are just adorable! I have nicknamed one after a student at AT that I called Hannah Banana. She is just as quiet and sweet as the real Hannah Banana. The class read a story and then did a role play. It is an adaptation of the country and city mouse. There is Sally, Sam and a cat that tries to eat them. The story is broken into parts and this is only one section of the story. They only practiced the story in English maybe 5 times, which for a new story in a foreign language they did fantastic!

Westlake Park

I finally made it into the gigantic park that I live across the street from. I went there on July 4th and then again a few nights ago. I was trying to get a good run in, but there were a TON of people in the park and it was just after 9pm. The Chinese families love to go out dancingandwalking around at night.There were even several pagodas that had karaoke style singing and a one had a full band.

The lake is lit up every night until 10 or 11 on weekends. I took some really interesting pictures of the lights along with some fantastic 80's looking power walking. I just wish I had my purple crinkle socks and sweatbands! But, even without the insane outfit, I didn't mind that everyone was staring at my ridiculous walking... because they stare at me anyway.

I am 'la why'-- a derogatory term for a foreign white person. I have become quite accustomed to hearing that wherever I am. Us foreigners tend to travel in packs and it is quite a sight to see such an eclectic group of people together.

So other news, I will

actually be moving to the other side of the lake with a different teacher, English Ben. He is in one of the photos in my earlier posts. I moved a bunch of my stuff yesterday and the plan was to just take a taxi to the new place.

When I went down out of my apartment with a stuffed suitcase and duffle bag, dripping with sweat, I was stopped by a woman who was yelling at me in Chinese. I obviously still do not speak or understand enough to really communicate, but I think she was telling me I couldn't get a taxi with my bags, and to stand over in a different place. Then some random guy pulled up seeing the commotion and I told him where I was going "may high youen" (when I sound these out, its not the actual pinyin, it's just my rudimentary attempt at chinese phonetics) and then this random stranger popped his trunk and I put my bags in. Yes, I know all of you are screaming at the computer... "Cally you are an idiot!" But I have started to trust my instincts more than the crazy factor. Crazy stuff happens all the time here. Anyway, he dropped me off near my new apartment and I gave him 10 yuan for helping. It would have been the same if I had actually taken a taxi. I am about half moved in right now and slowly finishing up the packing around my old apartment. I think though, I will be taking the bus to finish up the rest of the packing. I don't know how lucky I can get two days in a row with the whole random man in a black car and telling him where I live.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth everyone! There is so much to tell all the time that I struggle to write coherently so here is my attempt at coherence about our fourth of July celebration. We were able to celebrate the 4th yesterday a day early than the rest of America. Haha, but we did it in a great American fashion. I was with a few other Americans (Brian and Sarah from Indiana, Alex who is from New York and the new couple Dan and Lynnae from New Jersey) and I was also with Tom (from the UK) and Jeremy (from Australia). We started by having hamburgers at the Westlake (Xi Hu) hotel. The only other place to really get hamburgers or western food for that matter is McDonald's and for those of you who know of my deep disdain for McDonald's the hotel was a nice treat to have western food. Speaking of the disdain... I haven't had McDonald's yet. Which out here is truly a triumph!

Anyway, after hamburgers, we went to the Westlake Park (I live across from the park and the hotel) to rent boats to go out on the lake. The boats were more like 40 year old golf carts converted into boats. Our boat did not go very fast, I think that I would have been able to swim faster than the boat. It was fun cruising around and trying to beat the intense heat of summer in China on the lake. After crash landing the boat into the dock we went to the amusement park. There is a size-able island in the middle of Westlake which has the amusement park, a temple, a gigantic museum and some swanky private homes. The amusement park should be condemned because of the state of some of the rides, but they proudly display signs that say passed safety checks. The signs of course are engraved metal signs so the date of the check is very uncertain. But, YES lets jump on that metal heap of death! I rode the roller coaster which the safety harness didn't lock until after the ride had started. It was a fun experience of getting whiplash in China.

After the amusement park of death traps we went to the river beach which is more like a dirt road than a beach and played American Football. It was quite fun because the teams were split with two Americans on each side and a mix of British and Australian players too. My team sadly lost, but I scored a touchdown! I was even barefoot and in a dress playing. We had size able crowd watching our attempt at American football. Whatever we (foreigners) do gets a crowd, even if it is just walking down the street. After our game we celebrated the fourth the way that all drunk Americans do... lighting a few hundred blackcats all tied together in a 30 second blaze of glory! There was one little fireworks show down the river, probably other Americans celebrating on a bigger budget than our own. It was a great fourth and I hope that all of yours was just as traditional and adventuresome as mine. Happy Birthday America!