Long Time Coming

So, it's been over a month since our last post.  A ton of things have happened since then, and I don't really know where to begin.

We've settled in quite well.  Developed a routine and it's been nice.  We're still trying to plan travel over the holiday, but prices and pay checks are in flux.

We've been teaching at Jordan's Language School in Shaoguan City.  It's been interesting.  I have actually been much better at it than I originally thought (make that "feared").  We've found some games, and I really enjoy teaching the little kids.  Sure, they're hyper, but they're also really, really, cute.  I don't really care for the experience on the whole, however, because of the massive time investment in planning lessons for young children, the time taken to get to the school and back (an hour and a half class ends up taking us around 3 hours), and the schedule (evening classes suck).  We'll both be glad when we're done, but I'll be sad to say goodbye to the kids.

Yesterday Cecelia and I went out-and-about around Shaoguan.  We met with some friends for a lunch date, which, unfortunately, conflicted with the timing of a friend's kickboxing tournament.  Anyway, we did some shopping and went to the Buddhist temple in the city.  As you'd expect, it's really peaceful and quiet.  I really love temples here.  It was something I missed when I went back to America after my stint in Guangzhou in 2008.  This particular temple had a bunch of different books of Buddhist texts (Sutras, Dhammapada, etc), all of which were complimentary.  It is so weird to be able to take tons of books for free in China.  This is a country where NOTHING is free, but it's the Buddhist way.  We ended up with some beautiful books.

Buddhist temple in an alley behind Shaoguan's commercial district

On the way home, we saw a Chinese little person singing karaoke in front of a business (to attract customers I would assume).  He had a really deep voice.  I felt like an ass for having to work so hard to suppress a giggle.  It was really comical, though.

Today I was a judge for the Economics Department's English singing contest.  Groups (or classes) competed, singing terrible English songs ("We are the World", "Doe Ray Me...", "Rest Your Head on my Shoulder").  The groups were pretty good though, and it was fun to be a part of the contest.  Afterward I gave the awards and had to pose for about 300 photos.

Time to wrap this up, I have dinner to cook.