All in Chinese

Who knows if this will work, because it's all in Chinese. We'll see!
I've been here 10 days now and it's been an experience, that's for sure. The classes are very hard and very long. It seems I study for more hours than there are in a day sometimes, but it's necessary. Chinese is SOOOOOO hard! I've met some nice people from all over the US who are studying here. I hope to be able to post pictures soon - all of the blogger info is in Chinese, so I can't read it! But hopefully we can figure it out and get going on it. Otherwise, you'll just keep getting emails.

The weather has been very good to us - very warm (not hot) and humid. When there's a breeze, it's downright nice. We're told to enjoy it while it lasts, because it's going to get miserably hot very soon. Our classrooms don't have air conditioning and we're right next to the restroom (not so much 'rest'), so....

Well, I'm going to try and post this to see if it works. Sorry it's not that intesting!

Anticipation....

I DEPART ON MAY 16 !!!!!

I posted some websites on the side for you to see where I will be living for 6 weeks. One of them shows the current time and date in Chengdu, as well as the temperature.

I'll be studying at the Southwest University of Nationalities in Chengdu. I'm signed up for Chinese I (which I need to master quite well quite quickly!) as well as a Tai Chi class for fun. Where better to learn Tai Chi, right? The university has about 18,000 students from 55 ethnic groups and is surrounded by the Tibetan area in the heart of the city (6 million people in the city proper, 10 million in the greater area).

There are some cool weekend trips as part of the program. We'll be taking a weekend trip to Leshan and Emei Shan, one of China's 4 sacred Buddhist mountains. We'll see the Dafu, the world's largest sitting Buddah (over 100 people can stand on his foot) carved in the side of a mountain on the edge of a river. We'll also climb a mountain to Wangnian Temple - to the oldest surviving Emei monestary (10,000 years). Another weekend we'll go to the Panda Research Institute - see some of the most endangered animals on the planet - PANDAS. That's especially awesome since that's my school's mascot. Another weekend will be spent on the Yellow Dragon River and a typical ancient village used for Chinese historical films. Lastly, hopefully we can put together a group who would want to fly into Lhasa, Tibet to see some awesome Tibetan monestaries and see where the Dali Lama once resided.

So, I'm excited as I get ready to leave on this adventure. I'm not sure which will be harder - living in China OR trying to memorize Chinese characters, phonetics, and speech. Hmmm

I'm going back to China

OK - I'm trying out this blog thing in preparation to head to China. The district's sending me to "learn chinese" with a MS and a HS teacher so kids can start getting interested in ES, then move on to classes in the future grades. So, this sucker said "sure - why not?" I'm only going to stay for one summer session, but the other 2 are staying for both. I figure it will take me all year to teach these little kids the little I learn in 6 weeks!

If you want to see where I'm going, google "chengdu, china" and take a look. I also google-earthed it and it was cool. I'll write more about it later - just trying out this blogger thingie.

Talk soon!
robyn