Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

Here is a couple of billboard size signs that are posted in Shekou. Keeping to Chinese efficiency, the Chinese government wants to remind people not be lazy and keep working hard. These are the only two signs we've seen, but I'm willing to bet there are several more. Interesting propaganda. I wonder what signs in the U.S. would say? Anyone want to take a stab in the comments section on this post?

Jamie and I couldn't find the steps for the entrace to the mountain, so we decided to just walk around Shekou instead. We walked for a couple of hours and actually ended up at Wal-Mart, which just goes to show that all roads lead to Wal-Mart.

I took a few pictures including the two here of some sites in Shekou, and I have added them to China Album 2 at the bottom and even put them at the front of the slideshow. Be sure to check them out.

We are now watching the closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games. It has been a great one and one that I'm sure people will not forget. Jamie and I will never forget it as we remember every four years for the Olympic Games where we were in 2008. Great show so far and somewhat sad as the games come to a close. If you get a chance to watch it in primetime in the states, be sure to check it out.

Tomorrow is our first full day with students, and we are quite excited and anxious to get started. We both went in to work for several hours this weekend to get things straigtened away. Wish us luck!

2 More Days

Jamie and I spent the morning with some co-workers at our Director's house eating pancakes. It was delicious and we thank the cooks and hosts. The rest of the day was spent walking around Shekou's mall, a trip to Wal-Mart, and watching quite a bit of the Olympics. I'm sure that most of you will see the coverage tonight including Michael Phelps Olympic record in his 1st 400 individual medley heat by basically going half speed. I'm not much of a swimmer, but Phelps far exceeds the dominance of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer in their respective sports. Be sure to check out some of the swimming this Olympics. An athlete like Phelps only comes around once every 50 years or so with his dominance at that level.

Jamie and I start work on Monday with pre-planning for new teachers to QSI. We are looking forward to it, but have enjoyed our summer preparing for China and the last 9 days in China. We are settling in quite nicely and really enjoying it. The people are nice, it is easy to get around, and we learn a little bit more each day concerning where to go and what to do. We've heard that we might get our full work visas at the end of the month which will enable us to go into Hong Kong.

I have done some research on Slingbox. For those who do not know what Slingbox is, it is a way for you to watch you television away from home via the Internet. For us, we'll buy the Slingbox and have someone at home connect it to their television and Internet router. We'll then be able to access their television shows and mainly the college football games this fall. I'll let you all know if we get it and if it works well. It has gotten pretty good reviews, so we'll see.

We have also checked into the Rosetta Stone for Mandarin Chinese. It is quite expensive, but should be worth it as we try and learn the language. We've heard that the Rosetta Stone works very well. We'll see. I'm gonna begin another slide show at the bottom of blog. Some of the early pictures will be of some blueberry Extra gum, a Sprite can, me sporting my UT visor, Wal-Mart, a fast food Chinese restaurant, and some more Chinese English translation signs. Not sure if I can add captions to them or not, so just shoot me an email if you have any questions. By the way, Jamie and I ate at Garwon, a Chinese fast food restaurant today for $2.50. Sweet! It is just right out our apartment door too. I guess if times get tough, there will always be that place. Have a good day America!

Room with a View

Here is our view from our apartment. At the bottom of the picture, you have what is called Sea World anchored by this huge ship that is a tourist spot. Not sure yet what is about, but there a ton of restaurants, shops, and bars. In the background, you see some hills and teh Bay of Shenzhen. There is construction all over the place and a sign this morning said "Danger, Far Away." I assume they want us to stay far away and not that danger is far away.

We've been resting up the last 2 days and readying our apartment by going to Wal-Mart. I finally have the pictures for you to see below. My uncle emailed me and was able to track down exactly where we live on Google Earth. If you can find the Starbucks in Shekou at Sea World on Google Earth, we live in those apartments right next to it. We ate at McDonald's this morning. I had an egg McMuffin. Tasted like an egg McMuffin.

We go this morning to hook up our DSL, so hopefully the days of coming to Starbucks will be over and I can post more often. I think we'll also sign up for a mobile phone today. Here is how that will work. We'll sign up for a SkypeOut account and apply for a local phone number in Georgia (678, 770, 404: something like that). As long as you can call that number for free, it won't cost you anything. If you use that number, it'll forward it to our Skype account and then to our mobile phone. Cool huh? It'll cost us 2 cents per minute, so we would prefer you sign up for a Skype account and just call us from it.

We'll get that number later and I'll post it. Spread the word on this blog. I fully expect to be an international sensation by next week because of it. I really do appreciate all of the emails. I'll be trying to respond as best as I can, so be patient with me. Now that I am better, I'll be trying to take some more pictures of interesting things like the night life here, Americanized products, and funny things.

Thanks for reading!