Back to work?

This week represented our first true week of the summer season. I started language classes - 2 hours of Chinese per day - while Rachel begins next week. She spent her time this week at school studying independently, like a good student should! The rest of my time was devoted to completing my AP Biology syllabus, which I have to submit to the College Board.

However, we are only required to work half days. I didn't fully comprehend the difference that can make, until living through a week of 8am-12pm days (instead of the 7am-5pm days I pulled most of the year!).

So what are we doing with our time, you might ask? Well, on the recreation front, there was an exciting development this week: 1 year passes to Happy Valley. This Chinese theme park chain opened their park in Chengdu back in January, but we have not had any free time to go. So since our afternoons are largely free through August, we decided to go all in and buy the season passes. They pay for themselves after 3 visits, after all!

On Tuesday, we spent our first day there and tried out most of the rides. Since we were so worn out from all the walking, we also treated ourselves to a stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut. It's a tough life =) We went back again on Wednesday, because we wanted to try out the water park. Both days, we were shocked with how empty the park was. Most rides had a wait of less than 10 minutes. This is China - 1.4 billion people - can this really last?

I can't wait to go back.

-alan