Two days later

Well, we have been here in Liyang for two days now. What a place! It is going to be so different living here for the next ten months. We are being treated very well and feel very welcome. For our first week the school is paying for our meals at a restaurant across the street. The food is really good. We have been eating many different dishes with chicken, beef, fish, tofu, rice, potatoes, soup, pumpkin vines, and some things that I have no idea what they are. We have been drinking so much green tea! Everywhere we go we are offered at least 3 glasses.

Our apartment is great and it is right on the schools property. There are over 200 teachers here and almost 3000 students. The school is a primary school divided into two parts. The first part is a normal school for kids who don't take English and the other is the bilingual part where Jen and I will be working. There are about 20 English teachers here who are Chinese. As native English speakers, Jen and I are here to help the Chinese teachers teach English. So far Jen and I are the only foreign teachers, but the school is looking to hire one more for this year. Classes start on Friday, so we are both nervous and excited for that.

Yesterday one of the Chinese English teachers took us out for our first shopping experience. Even though we are living in a relatively small Chinese city of 700 thousand the streets are still packed with people. We have yet to come across any other foreigners here in Liyang, but we hear that they are out there somewhere. Needless to say Jen and I really stick out. Only some of the people blatantly stare as we walk by, and there are several people who make eye contact and smile. Sometimes when we are speaking English there are people who walk up and listen in on our conversation. It is really funny. The supermarket that we went into was huge and has everything that Jen and I could ever need. There are many smaller shops though where the prices are better. The picture above is some of the food and drinks we bought at the grocery store. Luckily some of the products have some English words on them!

At 6 in the morning the school yard fills up with people playing basketball, running the track and doing other activities. By 8 they all go inside to escape the heat. We hope to be taking part in the activities soon.

That's about all for now. Later!