Food and shopping... What more could a girl want?

Hello again!

I've been here in China for about 5 days now, and I'm loving it! We've had lots of fun exploring our town, and we've already had some adventures! Here are some pictures of what I've been up to the past couple of days: 

These are the dumplings we had on our first day here. They're filled with pork and stuff... I think. I don't even know. If it tastes good, don't question it, right? They are served with peanut sauce, and it's delicious. And did I mention it's less than $1? They also have peanut noodles there that I had for dinner tonight. They were pretty darn good. 

Yum.

For our second night here we were invited to the school's end-of-semester New Year's party. It was in a nice restaurant, and the other teachers prepared a bunch of skits and dances for entertainment. The food was crazy. Goose and pigeon and shrimp and some spongy doughy stuff, among other things. They just kept bringing more and more dishes to our table; it was wonderful. Why don't they have service like that in America? There was also a raffle, and Larkin and I both won! (Emily and Kayryn also won, but they won more than we did, so we won't talk about them.)

Fancy chairs at fancy tables

Lots and lots of food!

Larkin and I winning the raffle. I'm mostly blocked by Selena, our coordinator, but it's the only good picture I can find. Sorry!

The next day was our shopping day. We went to Walking Street, where there are a ton of shops and vendors! I got a lovely striped cardigan for only 35 yuan (it was originally 45, but I bargained it down to 35! And when I say "I", I mean Chris. Because she speaks a little bit of Chinese, and the only Chinese I've learned since being here is how to count to 5. Which is, for the most part, unhelpful.)

 

Walking Street from across the river

Walking street up close!

There were lots of shirts with random English words on them that made absolutely no sense. 

Exhibit A: "Come Rainbow P Closet." What?

We spent Sunday relaxing and planning lessons. Then, on Monday, we got to do what we actually came here to do: teach!

Annabelle, Sam, and Oscar. Aren't they adorable?

So that's been my week so far. It's been great! Tune in next time!

Abby