Day 9

Day 9

This is Phil writing for Danielle today.  She is out for a run with my sister Lindsey.  I'm pretty proud of her, they have been running quite a bit, 3-5 miles every other day.  Danielle asked me if I wanted to write the captions so I thought why not!  I really have enjoyed China more than I could have imagined- seeing my sisters family and enjoying them was expected, but I also have enjoyed the city and how different everything is here.  I think people really need to experience different places in life to get a full grasp of the world we live in! 

Here in China, they have a fair amount of American food items, however, some flavors such as shrimp stew do not seem to hit the spot.

This picture doesn't do the mountains justice.  It is pretty awesome being able to sit from our bedroom window and view this amazing creation day in and day out.

D and I have started to slowly explore further out on the electric bike by ourselves.  Yesterday we went to a foreign import food store and met this nice old Chinese lady.  We bought some laffy taffy's for our students!

Rare moment of no traffic!

You never know what your going to ride by, under, over, or on top of while on the bikes.

This is how every major street sign looks.  I can't say that I've figured them out yet!

Cade coloring Spiderman. 

Danielle's lesson plan in the works.  

Me working on my lesson plan, after learning the night before that I was to be doing a different lesson than I originally planned for. 

She sure is a cutie and the most well behaved little one I have ever met! 

D getting stuff ready for her class. 

Yup, four boxes of mac and cheese should be able to feed us all! 

Me and three of my four young Chinese students this morning.  

Chinese Gospel tracks! 

This slippers, to me at least, represent a Chinese cultural norm of taking of your shoes and putting on slippers before you go into your house or another's house.  I am not very used to it yet and found it strange at first, but I guess it makes sense. 

Giving the little ones candy after a job well done learning English today! 

Sweet mountains in the distance. 

Getting ready to get back on the bikes.  The parking guy charged us two yuan apiece to park after charging us one yuan a piece five days earlier.  Things like this seem to be fairly typical around here! 

The ride home from teaching was fairly enjoyable, but the ride to our teaching facility this morning was anything but! 

This is what the entire ride to teach felt like this morning, with cars, busses, and all sorts of vehicles all around!

These situations are the worse- when the cars continue to move right- you really need to be a defensive and offensive driver here! 

People selling stuff under a bridge. 

Buildings are going up EVERYWHERE here!  Seriously, probably five hundred or more.  

We found an awesome street that goes along a river for a few miles when we drive back from teaching English. 

We actually hit the ramp on the way home, but on the way here the three of us on two separate bikes unintentionally flew off of this curb- we both landed it pretty well!

Just another day on the ole' chu.

Let's just say this bike in the right side of the picture is about to be coming at us.  People drive on whatever side of the road they want for as long as they want.  

There is honestly no telling what you will see people put on mopeds.  We saw a guy with fifteen feet of metal steel this morning and last week I saw a guy with six separate tanks of propane!  

Danielle bought a purse and a calendar from a local deaf ministry. 

Danielle got a good picture of us out running another bus.

This traffic circle separates four major roads plus a small road near our complex.  Let's just say it doesn't really work like a round a bout!  

Again, if you can make it fit, you can make it ride!

I think we ate noodles here- for like a buck for a HUGE bowl that we couldn't even finish! 

You really never know what you will see here!  

Ahh, a glorious Dr. Pepper (I get to drink one soda a week on a weekend day only) to end the day off!