Surviving Our First Month

Wow - in some ways it is hard to believe that we have been here for a whole month! We've learned to say hello "Ni Hao", goodbye "Zia Jian", thank you "Xie Xie", too expensive "Tai Gue le", and water "shui" (pronounced schway). I have actually ordered the big jugs of water for the apartment (in Chinese) and we got the water!!
We are getting used to hearing the jack hammers and the little wheel barrows' back legs dragging on the cement as they ferry bricks underground at the new apartment building right outside our windows.










I am settling in at the International School and trying to get used to the 2-week cycle. It is hard to imagine that we are going to have a week off, but that will make the rest of the semester seem VERY long. We won't be off again until the beginning of February. I think the administration at the school have said that the XPats (us) can be off on Christmas eve. Since they don't celebrate Christmas, they won't be off.









Well, my hubby is getting his bags packed and I still have to iron my shirts so I better get started. I have to teach until 10:15 in the morning and then we will leave for the bus station by 1:00. We will join the other 40,000 travelers who are trying to go by plane, train, and bus across this country. We are going on a cruise down the Yangtze to see the Three River Gorge Dam project. It is the largest construction project going on in the world today. We will go by bus to Shanghai, by plane to Chongqing, then by boat down the Yangtze river to Yichong.
The part I am most concerned about right now is the ride back home. We had to get a hard sleeper train which will take 24 hours. There will be six of us in a cabin with six very narrow and close together bunks. There are supposed to be two seats at the end of the cabin so we can take turns sitting up for a spell. I can already tell this is going to be some kind of adventure!!

Zia Jian until the end of the holiday.
No more blogging until we recover from this week. :-)