A Weekend Of Relaxation

After many busy days and weekends recently, I finally have a weekend to myself. The priorities are:

1. Get my apartment in order. I don't want to have to think about my apartment (organization, decoration, etc.) after this weekend.
2. Shop! My classroom needs color and I still need a few things to make my apartment my home.
3. Read all the textbooks. There is limited curriculum so I'm taking home everything I can to read and at least feel comfortable with what is available.
   
4. Explore! Some of our group is going out tonight and it will be fun to see the downtown area of Wuxi.

Here are my thoughts on life right now: Today we decorated our classroom. I am the 6th grade homeroom teacher so I am responsible for that room. I have a Chinese teacher with me and together we made our bulletin board in an underwater theme, complete with bubbles to post our students' pictures (all four of them!) I ride my bike to school everyday and it's about a 20 minute ride. Bike riding in China can be hair-raising at times. So far I have not fallen off or hit anything/anyone, so I'm counting it a victory.
I have never been so thankful for USB drives. I still don't have internet at home, so I have to bring everything back and forth by USB. I think I might break down this weekend and pick which pictures I want so I can post at least a few for everyone to see. Digital data and its' transportability is astonishing.
The cycles of life are always so amazing to me. The third week of August was usually when school started when I was growing up and now the reality of school beginning next week is rapidly approaching, except this year I'm (finally) on the other side of the desk. It is still unbelievable to me that my first teaching job would be in China, how incredibly cool!?!
Well let the weekend begin!
rpm