Turtles

After a three year absence from the food in China, I am finally back in noodle paradise.  I was expecting that from Taiwan, but somehow in their transition from mainland China to that island they must have forgotten all their cookbooks and never went back for them.  You'd think it wouldn't be that tough since they managed to bring everything from the Forbidden City with them.  One little book, that's all it would have taken to satisfy my tastebuds for the past six months.  Instead, I gradually lost fifteen necessary pounds to poor eating habits formed from a lack of delicious foods.  Thank you, kindly, to those of you who have been so nice as to point that out.

Our two weeks of training in Shanghai was okay, but most of the details would probably bore you.  The bottom line, however, is that Shanghai is probably my new favorite city.  Truly incredible!  Plus, I was able to get some pants and shirts tailored at a very low price.  And due to my overwhelmingly perfect sense of style, I look awesome in exactly the right textures, colors, collars and cuffs.

At the end of August, we flew south to the massive metropolis of Guangzhou and were introduced to several of the people we are working with and our apartments.  The apartment isn't as swank as the one we had in Taipei (the washer machine is in my shower), but it is free of rent and we each get our own apartments.  The people here are naturally fantastic and we made several friends quickly.  I won't bore you with their details either, just as I wouldn't bore them with yours.  

The situation here is mostly as I had written in the previous blog, aside from one pretty big detail.  Instead of teaching third graders well-rehearsed in English, I have been given first graders who are just now learning the basics.  It's a pleasure.  The good news is that they are fantastic and cute and they love me.  They see their parents only on weekends, and it is pretty rough on them.  Fiona began to cry the other day, and Ella saw Fiona crying and it made her cry.  They left the classroom together and gazed into each other's eyes inches apart without blinking while crying big tears.  It was a quality mixture of sad and funny, and it's part of the reason that I probably already love these kids.  And there are a few funny names if you want to know those.  There is a girl named Join and a boy named Monkey.  My favorite, however, is Ym.  It is pronounced like Amy as you would suspect from the spelling, but it's horribly misspelled.  I think that whoever named her Amy spelled it correctly from the beginning, but she got it confused since then and insisted, when I tried to correct it, that Ym is the correct spelling.  So, I'm leaving it.  It helps me differentiate her work from the other Amy's--also, the other Amy's work is far superior anyway, so I could just differentiate their work by quality.  Ym is a sweetheart.  I have honestly never met such a sweet and cute girl as Ym.  But she is terrible!  She doesn't do her work.  She wanders the classroom when she should be in her seat.  And she has a terrible time doing as I ask.  But, still, such a sweetheart.

Ryan and I spent last weekend in his dad's apartment in Zhuhai, where we were able to get up at 4am Monday to catch the Seahawks game as they lost to the 49ers.  I grew a bit sick that weekend, and I'm sure you all would like to know that I got some nasty diarrhea that kept me up all night.  But I won't tell you about that.

Today, as we were walking to lunch, Ryan spotted a kind lady who was selling turtles on the street.  Obviously, we had to have them.  They're about an inch and a half in diameter and pretty green.  We got two each and have yet to name them.  Your suggestions will probably not be taken, but please share if you like.  Tonight, we went to town and invested in nice new homes for them.  I'll show you pictures later.  Of them and the kids.  

There is so much more to say, but I'm not feeling like writing it.  I only wrote this because Evan Kinne doesn't think I am keeping up with my blog well enough and is a whiner.  

Good night!