Mr. Bad Becoming Comfortable

***Note to readers***
Any text in my blog below that has orange text is a hyperlink. That means you can click on it and see another web page (i.e. my photo album). If you don't want to leave this page but also want to see the other web page that the hyperlink goes to, right-click on the orange text and select "Open in a New Window." Hope that helps!

It's amazing to think that I've been in China for an entire month already! It feels like much longer, although I feel like I just got here (isn't time weird?). And I can feel things starting speed up a little. Class is becoming more of a pattern and with things like Fantasy Football, I know it will seem like no time before I'm packing-up to come home.

School has been going well. I'm still trying to figure this whole teaching thing out... but I'm getting there, slowly. It does not help that my 5th graders are smarter than me... but I guess that way I get to learn too! I've managed to get a couple additional nicknames. One of them being Mr. Bad (not shown in picture- I had to lay down the law on a couple of the girls for misbehaving).

I'm beginning to be more comfortable in the area surrounding my apartment. Besides the difficulty with language, I've done some shopping in the small shops that cover the streets. To the excitement of my parents, I cooked my first meal this weekend: Eggs!! I was a little nervous using my gas stove for the first time... I didn't want to blow up my apartment. Here are some other exciting adventures. I added a few pictures to my web album as well, so check it out!

Thai Cultural Performance

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the Thai Cultural Performance in Xi'an China. One of our student's father is the Thailand Consulate and he invited the teachers of our school to attend. It took place in one of the oldest theaters in Xi'an and we were in the front row!

The performance was incredible. Nearly every dance had an element of humor and the performers looked so happy and excited. It really gave me desire to visit Thailand and see more of their culture (conveniently for me, our school takes a retreat to Thailand during the Chinese winter vacation!!).

To get the full story on the Thai Culture Performance, you should check out my web album. I added a ton of pictures and there are captions explaining the dances. Some of my favorites were the stick fighting, ant searching and the rooster fight.

The Cloth Market

This past Saturday, I went on an adventure with Carrie, one of my fellow teachers that I had the opportunity to meet over the summer before coming to China, and two others who have been here in Xi'an a little longer. Our first stop was the Xi'an cloth market. This place was incredible! It covered over 2 city blocks with store front after store front. Anything, from silk to leather to linen to cotton, could be found in these alleys. In addition, there were some hilarious bed sheets with very poorly translated English on them... I might have to buy some of that!

That's it for now. Since I'm all settled in, the blogs will most-likely be coming more frequently and shorter in length!
Thanks for reading!