Today was awesome!

Today I went for another bike ride (my third one of the trip). Pretty much it was amazing. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and I was happy. It is so cool to be able to ride around and see the local farmers and villagers. My friend and I explored a village that had a market going on. While it was mostly crap that was being sold, it was still cool. I really do love exploring random places and I enjoyed going down random dirt paths and getting lost in the different towns. Pictures will soon be posted. But, and this is sad, yesterday I managed to delete all my pictures from the trip. It was a sad moment on the trip, but I still have pictures from yesterday afternoon and today. I guess somethings you all will have to see with your own eyes (or through other people's pictures).

Yaks, yaks, and more yaks

I remember when my friend went to Russia and I saw her pictures of yaks and how jealous I became. How cool was it that she got to see a real yak (and not at teh SD Zoo). Well, travelling in Yunnan province (southwest China) I have not seen yaks, but yak is a common product on the menu. I apologize in advance for any vegetarians that are reading this or people who are anti-yak eating. Anyways, moving on, the first day my friend and I were in Lijinag we say "Yak on a Stick" and had to order it. I must admit, it was not that bad. Then for Easter, while the rest of the world is searching for eggs and eating ham or lamb, we we dining on all sorts of yak products. A guy who worked at the guesthouse we were staying at took us to a local restaurant and ordered for us. What apeared before us was a smogesborg (know I spelled that wrong) of yak products. We had fried yak meat, a yak butter-chesse type dip (think of blue cheese made from yak milk), yak milk tea, and to top it off (and Idid not realize this was what it was and truthfully did not eat much of it) a glutonous rice thing with yak blood (apparently the Brits call it Black Pudding but don't make theirs from yak blood). The food was not horrible, but my favorite dish was the local vegetables. This will defintitely be an Easter meal I will not forget.

Travelling in the Southwest

The past week I have been travelling in the southwest region of China (Yunnan Province to be exact). It has honestly been super mellow with not too much excitement, but good fun. The Yunnan Province is absolutely gorgeous with a balance of mountains and farmland. It has been wonderful getting out of the cement block of Shanghai and being able to just be in open land. I have spent three days hiking and two days biking, seeing amazing sights (I will post pictures when I return to Shanghai). Right now I am in a town called Dali. Of all the days, today has been the best. To start, it was warm. I was able to wear shorts and a shirt all day and sandels. How my feet have missed the sunshine. My friend, Claire, and I rented bikes and biked down to the is lake and all around these coutryside villages. It was amazing to get lost in the alleys of these villages and see the locals' daily rountines. There is a lot of farming aroung here and everything is done by hand, no machines. We were able to bike through the peoples' fields as they picked potatoes, green onions, and other vegetables. As I was on my bike looking at the farm fields with a snowy mountain backdrop I could not think of a cooler place to be. Never in my life did I ever think I would be biking through the countryside of China, but here I was. To top it off, I was able to wear my Rainbows! How I miss wearing sandels. I am convinced that moments like today will be among some of my top memories of China. While I love Shanghai (I cannot think of a better Chinese city to live) I also love getting out to explore.

With April about to start, I realize I only have four months of China left. Who knows, maybe I will return when I finish my Credential, but for now I just have to experience what I can while I am here. This summer I am going to do a bit more China travelling. I am debating between the Sichuan Province and Inner Mongolia. I know that both these regions have areas that, like today, have been untouched by the Western World's influence, and would be cool t check out.

Tomorrow is the last day of my holiday and I will either bike again or check out a minority village (not sure which). Pictures of my travels will be posted soon.

This is where I run...

Pretty crazy that this is where I run. Never thought my runs would consist of Chinese villages, but then again never thought I would be living in China for two years teaching at a British International School. I guess life is kind of funny like that, which also makes it kind of cool.

A brief update

I realize I have not posted in a bit, but life has been crazy over here and unfortunately I have not being doing anything too exciting or worthy of putting on my log. However, I have decided that I will have to resort to putting some not too exciting stuff on my blog just so that I can put a post up.

The past three weeks have not been the most fun of my life (I will admit) but have been getting better. Three weeks ago I had an incident with one of my students in which he went into a fit hitting and kicking teachers and throwing the tables and chairs in our play room for an hour and a half (it took that long to calm him down). Let's just say it was a very emotional and stressful day that made the week stressful too. Then the following week (two weeks ago) had to do follow up with the students and family and I was sick too. It was not a good combination. However, with the drama from that student being taken care of, despite being sick, it was a better week. Then last week,I got a terrible tooth ache and had to get a root canal and had two nights of parents' consultation. Despite these two things, my week was the best in the past few weeks. Who would have thought a a root canal and Parents' Nights could make for a good week? Yesterday I went on another Hash run to some mountains outside of Shanghai, and it was good fun. I am convinced that this week is going to be great. Oh, and after this week I get a week off and will be traveling around China (woo hoo!).

So I guess that is what has been happening. Despite it all, life is still good. Been running and playing soccer more, which is great! Meeting fun people and having a good time with my friends. Enjoying the fact that it is becoming warmer and the sun is shining more than it has been in the past. Sunshine is always a good thing.

My students are good and are a lot of fun. It is fun to see how much they are learning and have learned and they make me laugh. The last funny thing they did was we were reviewing the sounds "b" and "f". I had them share items beginning with these sounds, and then in their books they had to write three sentences saying "It is a ____" and fill in the blank with a "f" or "b" word and draw three pictures. One of my very cheeky students wrote (and had his table follow his lead) "It is a botim" and drew a picture of a butt and even colored it peach. So their whole table all had pictures of "botims" in their books. I really didn't know what to say because "Botim" does start with "b".