Life in Changzhou

China. What to say about China. Changzhou in particular. It’s a beautiful country and has been quite the experience. After our first dinner here we had our first teacher meeting and thus started the adventure. We haven’t been able to leave the campus much yet because we aren’t yet registered at the police department but that’s been an adventure of it’s own. After our meeting and before we headed to bed the first night a couple of our friends in our group who to a different route to China and had been here a little bit longer showed us around the campus and outside a little bit. Our first morning here Lorilei and I woke up around 6:15 and went running on the track that is located at our school, we have also done so this morning and I think we’ll make a bit of a habit of it.
Afterwards we went and got ready for the day and went exploring a little. We discovered a dance room for Lorilei in one of the buildings which was quite an adventure. We also discovered a little Eden within the bounds of our schools campus. A beautiful little garden which I think would be a great place to sit and think. After our little discovery we spent some time to ourselves and in the afternoon the group got together and headed out. We went into town and got some money from the ATMs and had the opportunity to do a little bit of shopping. That was a new and exciting experience. It seems like everything is a little bit expensive here but that’s really not the case. The exchange rate is about 6.5 so 1 U.S. dollar can go pretty far. When Lorilei and I went shopping we spent about 108 Yuan which is the Chinese currency and is really only about 15 dollars U.S. Later that night we had yet another meeting and with a couple of our other teacher friends we attempted to watch a movie. However, that didn’t really work out too well as we were all exhausted and were drifting in and out most of the time. So eventually we just gave up and headed to bed. The beds here are rather hard compared to the states it’s a little bit like a shelf with a little bit of padding. They aren’t too bad though but they are hard on my back so I have a tendency to sleep on my side.
Today Lorilei and I woke up around 6 again and went running. After we ran we headed over to breakfast and that was definitely a new experience. It wasn’t bad, however, it consisted of a kind of rice porridge which was rather bland and a kind of cake that kind of tasted like a tater tot. After breakfast we hung out in our room for awhile and I read. Then Nick ended up wandering by and so he came around and we played nerts and Egyptian rat screw, after which it was time for lunch so we headed over for that. About an hour after lunch a group of us headed outside and played basketball for a little while. It was nice to be active. Then we headed over to the head teachers room for yet another meeting and now they are having personal interviews to try to determine where to put us as far as teaching. That’s where I stand so far and this adventure keeps moving forward. Wish me luck. LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!!!!