Recent Happenings

Hello everyone!  I figured it's about time to update and fill you all in on what has been going on.  Since my last post I had a week of vacation time and went to Hangzhou.  It is a city that is about a 2 1/2 hour speed-train ride away from Wuxi.  It was a blast and I loved getting to see the beautiful lake, although since it was during the national holiday there were so many people!!!  It was worth it though and was a very inexpensive trip to take.

Since the break ended I have been back in school for one week and we have been starting our Christmas music.  I'm thankful to finally have all of my music picked out and the kids working on it so that we can be ready by December 14th!  Working on Christmas music has been making lesson-planning easier but has added other responsibilities so it all has evened out as far as how much time I spend working on school-related things.  I have a feeling time is going to fly by these next two months!  School has been going really well and I feel like I am learning so much.  I am so thankful that I was lead here and can't imagine being anywhere else right now!

As of yesterday I have been in China for 3 whole months (or 1/4 of a year as Bethany and I like to think of it)!  In some ways it feels like it's been longer and in some ways I can't believe it's been this long.  Our apartment is slowly but surely starting to feel more "home-y" but it still has a way to go before it feels really lived in.  We bought a rug and some pillows for our living room and we're hoping to hang some curtains soon if our landlord will allow us to.

I've recently been revisitng crocheting and have found it to be a very good stress-reliever.  Today, Bethany and I went to the market to buy a lot of yarn and I found some decent deals.  I was with one vendor who was trying to sell the yarn at a high price and when I kept bargaining and talking her down she seemed rather surprised that I was actually doing that and laughed at me.  I always keep in mind that they always overprice for foreigners because we can be easily taken advantage of when it comes to bargaining....but I'm trying not to let them get away with that with me, I'm too cheap! :)

Hope you all are doing well and I can't wait until next June when I get to come home and see everyone!

(below is a pic of my travel-buddies and I at the lake in Hangzhou...we had no problems finding someone to take a pic for us since they were all taking pics of the crazy Americans anyways)

-Rachel