Each night I think of so many things that I want to write about, but it feels like days are too short and there isn't always time to sit down and write. But I want to post some photos and share a bit about the last few days.
The local market.
Great place to look around and pick up fresh fruit, veggies, meat, and grains, etc.
A look by the canal. And do you see that blue sky... we were LOVING looking at that! Often we don't see many of those around here.
Daddy and William
There are some massive building in the city. The mayor started a three year plan so many of the old buildings, apartments, etc have come down and new high-rises, shopping centers, etc have gone up in their place. It's quite a drastic change from what it use to be and now the city has a pretty urban feel to it.
Yesterday we had about 18 hours of fireworks. I'm thankful that William's a good sleeper. Although they were happening right outside his window, he managed to sleep through most of them during the evening. It sure did get annoying though constantly hearing the fireworks and the car alarms going off incessantly.
Luke's teaching today. He's really been enjoying it. Today he's being filmed by the foreign affairs department as he teaches. They are impressed with his teaching but I think he doesn't really like all that attention. He teaches and plays lots of games in class - he wants to make learning fun. This is a very different approach from other universities and even really any level. Even kids here are taught very methodically and aren't allowed to have fun in their classes. They don't laugh or play any games. Very different.
Language study is coming slowly. Yesterday my teacher told me that my characters were "ugly." I tried to write them just like she did, but unfortunately they did look a bit different. My teacher is very kind. I think that I'm her first foreign student and so she's learning how to teach Chinese and perhaps trying not to get too frustrated when I don't say everything correctly. She turns her head every so slightly and as I repeat the words, she will say "no, wrong" and then finally "a bit better." She gets pretty excited when I do say something right, but most of her comments exist on the lines of "no, no, hmmm... not quite." It is coming, even if it's slow.
William is definitely a people person. He can be super tired but all of a sudden a stranger starts pulling faces and he's smiling and giggling. It's amusing until I want to help him get to sleep (if we're not at home) and then I have little kids and adults coming over, poking at him and wanting to have a look at him. He doesn't want to be left out of the action and then sleep becomes the last thing on his mind.
With a girl who wanted to hold him (they all want to hold him)
William was having a great time with this guy! They were both cracking up. He had some great faces that he was giving William. It was about 9pm and he's use to going to sleep around 7:30, but here he was seemingly happy. He spent the next few hours at the train station and on the train laughing (and then crying with me because he was exhausted!)
Two days ago we said good-bye to our friends who came for a visit. It was so nice to see them! They were from Argentina and had planned the visit almost a year ago. It was a flying visit since they were only here for about 5-6 days, but we enjoyed every moment of it. They helped us paint our apartment (living room, William's room and the guest room) to get organized, went to an English corner, went around the city a couple of days getting to know it and finally we all went to the Great Wall together. I've never been there before and it was amazing! They loved seeing William, seeing us and getting to be here together.
Mixing paint is harder than it seems. I don't think we every really figured out how to make brown! And of course the locals thought I was crazy for wanting to paint my walls a different color than white. They also don't sell painting trays - we used a plastic shelving unit instead.
The finished product:) We love that William has his own room. My parents got him this crib; it was their baby shower gift. We set it up and he's loving it. The kids bed was already with the apartment. Just perfect for us:)
Write me to say hi! Our new email is: luch@galacticomm.org We're on skype too... harniess2
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