Great Afternoon

Jamie and I went to the school this morning and watched some college football via Slingbox with some co-workers. This afternoon we walked around Shekou again and the afternoon was mild and breezy. We found a place called Muslim Noodles that make the noodle in front on you. Pretty cool! I didn't have my camera, so I'll take pictures of them next time. Everything was in Chinese, but they did have a few pictures, so we just pointed to some dish. It was a tomato based noodles with some beef, peppers, carrots, and some spices. Delicious!

Afterwards, we just walked around Shekou and found a great little park with a large pond. Once again, no camera, but we'll definately go back and I'll take pictures. We found ourselves near Wal-mart again and took the bus home.

Speaking of cameras, I am looking for a new DSLR camera. I've done some research and actually looked at some in Hong Kong the other day. They come with some bundles of stuff like camera bags, extra batteries, and memory. I'll be a beginner, so I'm looking for a beginning DSLR camera that won't set me back a fortune. They had a Canon DSLR that the guy said was an entry level for about $700 with all the accessories. Seemed to be very reasonable considering they are going for that alone on Amazon and 3rd parties. If any of you have any experience or have recently purchased one, let me know. Shoot me an email. I think with all of our travels, it'll be a nice purchase and great investment.

Second week of school starts tomorrow. We're ready and refreshed from quite an enjoyable weekend. I'm excited about my Vols playing on Monday night, but wish I could watch them live. I'll be teaching 1st - 3rd periods.

Have a great Sunday!

Typhoon Day

We survived. High winds swept through most of the day. The eye of the typhoon reached us about 7:00 pm, so we are right now catching some of the back end of it. A store's marquis sign fell down the road from us, but everything else looks fine. Just some debris from trees and such all over the roads and sidewalks. We spent the day inside napping and watching TV on Slingbox (still very very cool!). We went this evening upstairs to some friends' apartment and dined with them (Spaghetti). We'll sit through the storm today, probably go to work tomorrow for a few hours, and then hopefully it will die down so we can do something this weekend.

We went to our favorite "6" restaurant last night after a trip to A.Best. A.Best is a grocery/convenience store just down the street. We found some decent deals on some food, but it is basically the same prices. They have funny English signs, and I hope to remember to take my camera the next time I go. The store is on the 2nd and 3rd level of the building. You take an escalator to the 2nd floor for groceries and another to the 3rd for household goods. No big deal, except we started on the 2nd floor, the realized they would not let us take our cart to the 3rd. We'll know from now on that you have to go up the 3rd first, then take the escalator ramp down the 2nd. Such is the small details we've had to learn while living in China. We continue to learn small things like this every day.

There is a hill/mountain in Shekou that is popular to climb. The city has actually built stairs to the top and it loops around to the other side of the city. Jamie and I are thinking Sunday would be a good morning to do that. We'll get up early, although it doesn't matter because the humidity will be a million anyway. If I thought I could carry 4 gallons of water, I would.

Nonetheless, we'll let you know of any excursions we go on this weekend.

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!