Blue skies smiling at me!

Rachel's random musings with photos!!!!

After days of heavy rain (video from the balcony at our home), today the sky was clear in Chengdu! I took some pictures off the roof of our school. You can also see some pics of my classroom. Things aren't quite set up yet, but my co-teacher was really great in getting the desks all ready. I'll get a pic of Alan's room once it is more set up. He currently has some plants, but may be getting a class pet (rabbit) soon. Please comment and let us know if this is a good idea!

(Above: This is the colorful Chinese school across the way!)

(Above: This our white and grey school...lacking in color but we love it)

(Above: Rachel's classroom not quite ready for Thursday)

So weren't the opening ceremonies spectacular? It was so cool to see! We got to see it live and WITHOUT commercial interruption! It is fun to see how excited everyone here is about the Olympics. We've been watching some of the events and trying to decipher anything we can from the Chinese commentary. We've heard them use the Chinese term for beautiful to refer to anything from gymnastics, to basketball, to shooting, to diving, to weightlifting. I guess it is just fun to understand something! Go China! They seem to be rocking in the medal count thus far.

Tomorrow our house helper will come to work for us. I know it sounds weird, but it is going to be a huge help for us. We are each teaching 5 different classes and don't really have the time to take care of our house. Right now she's slated to come 3 days a week to clean, cook, shop, etc. It will be somewhat strange because we will rarely cross paths. We will come home and have dinner ready without being able to truly show our appreciation. We will have to work on our Chinese to write notes or just take the easy way out and type her notes (it is much easier to type!)

In other news, we rode our scooters for a second week to fellowship without problems. It is so strange for me to ride a scooter because I was so scared of motorcycles in the US, but it's fun! They only go 25 mph at top speed and are pretty easy to maneuver. One crazy thing from this Sunday was this baby kitten (think the size of a guinea pig) that was scampering across the road. We all stopped our scooters because we didn't want to hit it and it climbed under Alan's wheel and then under our friend Katie's wheels. Soon it started to run into fast moving traffic. We were freaking out because it was just so sad but there was nothing we could do! We had to ride on. I hope you're ok kitty!

One last thing, I'm attaching a picture of McDonald's taken off the roof of our school. Yes, it is that close. I reluctantly admit we've been there twice already (for the convenience) but I also reluctantly admit it tasted really good. Of course McDonald's has the yummy fries, but the sandwiches here in China are different and somewhat tailored to local tastes. It was strange to eat something so familiar with a unique twist. Ok ok I'll stop praising my former employer and hope that we don't start "lovin' it" too much!

(Above: The oh so convenient temptation)