Mariah Carey??

Ya know how we Americans often think that Chinese people all look the same? Well, 1) I'm definitely finding this to be false and 2) I think they think the same thing about Americans. Tony, our Chinese IECS guy, told me earlier this week that I look like Mariah Carey. He tried to convince my team of the resemblance, and they half-heartedly agreed for his sake. I just laughed.
There are so many unexpected things that have happened so far in China...Mariah only being one of them. Today for lunch with some school officials, I ate duck neck and and I "fished" around for a piece of fish meat right underneath its little fin. Even more unexpectedly, I somewhat enjoyed both!
Earlier this week we to K-TV (a popular karaoke place) with students and had so much fun with them singing and dancing around. Americans do karaoke to make fools of themselves and show everyone how bad our voices really are, and Chinese people do karaoke to show how incredible their voices really are. It's fun to listen to them sing their hearts out! We look forward to K-TVing again.
I was previously under the impression that China had no good coffee to offer, but we have found this wonderful little place called the Honey Pool that serves great coffee and amazing cheesecake. Any hopes of me eating healthier in China are now out the window! :)
Oh, funny story...at dinner the other night, Tim asked Tony how to say the name of this new little potato dish we were eating. Tony thought for a second and said "I forgot" in his Chinese accent. I looked back to Tim and saw sincere concentration on his face as he repeated "I-fah-got, I-fah-got," thinking that he was learning the Chinese name for the dish. I gently informed him that Tony really had just forgotten the name, and we all laughed pretty hard at Tim's blunder.
Well, I'm through my first week of teaching, and I'm already on a break. We have this week off due to National Day in China. On Friday we're going to Beijing to meet up with the other IECS people, so it should be a lot of fun.
As for now, I'm gonna go get me some dinner to replace the duck neck from earlier today...

Out with the old. In with the new.

When I was packing to leave, I kept saying that I felt like I had not enough of anything and too much of everything. Now that I've settled in a little bit, I think I packed just the right amount for this new place - my home. The definiton of home has changed for me a little bit in the last few months. Some would say that home is where your rump rests...and I'm beginning to see that this is true! My old view of home is having a stove and a sink in the kitchen. My new view doesn't have these things; it has a water cooler for sanitary drinking purposes and a microwave. My old home has a bathroom with a shower head enclosed in a tub of some sort. My new home has a shower head that sprays directly on my toilet...no tub. It also has a new rule: thou must not flush toilet paper. My teammates Ryan and Jon tested the validity of this rule for all of us by choosing not to abide by it. Unfortunately, the rule is there for a reason, because they returned to a very flooded room earlier this week. Now we know!

I'm sure all of you are aware of my previous mode of transportation...the classic blue, wood-paneled mini-van. I need to inform you, much to your dismay, that its days have come to an end. However, I have a new mode of transportation now! You might call it an upgrade...I bought it from this place:


Amelia and I bought used bikes today to get around campus a little easier. It will allow us to get to class faster and also to get to places like the market in Baoding, because it's huge. We paid 90 yuan for our bikes, which comes out to around $13. The guy in the red shirt helped us find the place and bargain the price. I will say that every mode of transportation in China scares me to death. So think of me as I ride around on my new purple bike. :) Oh, and about the market...I've never experienced more people or more things to buy in one place before. Everyone on my team had carts loaded up to the brim, which isn't customary in China due to the fact that the market doesn't provide bags for you. So whatever you buy, you carry somehow. This was a wake-up call once we got to the check-out line. We had to have a taxi take us back to the university.


So, out with the old and in with the new. I've learned a lot about what this really means this past year in terms of getting rid of the old self and putting on the new creation that I am. I'm so excited to continue to learn about this in this new place. More stories of new things are yet to come...