29 October 2006

A Chinese Arcade

After I made my previous post, the weather took a dive. I had just reported how nice and warm it was, but it got a bit chilly this week. I was unprepared for it, thinking that it was cold in the morning and that it would maybe just warm up a bit as the day went on. Not so much, so I report that Thursday was the first day that I've worn socks in China. It was quite strange since up to this point, I've just been wearing flipflops and sandals. When I reported this to my mom, she mentioned how dangerous it was that I was riding a bike in flipflops (background: wearing flipflops while riding a bike was strictly verboten at the the Meyer household growing up). I hope that this blog continues to give a bit of the taste that "We're not in Kansas (AKA America) anymore." Most everything is different here. Allow me to demonstrate through pictures:



The view from my window at school. The smog/fog/haze has been awful the past few weeks. There was a sighting of blue sky after school on Friday and it was the cause for much rejoicing.



Lindsey got a package of winter clothes this week and Karri and I "helped" her out by wearing home her clothes when it was really cold on Tuesday.

I just uploaded a new video to Google, it was from our ride home on Tuesday--please click here to watch it (make sure to read the description information as it gives some good background as to what is going on)



I'm decked out in Lindsey's sweatpants, jackets, scarf, ear warmers and gloves. Silly me, I rode to school in only a skirt, sweater, and sandals, I was much warmer on the way home :)



Construction update: This is from the other side of the project, where most of the work has been going on. The blue roofs are part of the temporary housing provided for the workers.



There are three entrances to this project--this one is currently blocked off and the furthest away from my apartment.



This is the second entrance--the extensive construction can be seen in the background.



Friday was a good day--it was Daniel's birthday and I received a package from my parents. I had to carry my package on the back of my bike and I put my bag in the front. Daniel also received a cake from the school (see below), so I carried home the flowers he received from them as well.



Megan and Lindsey also received packages--we all had full bikes on our ride home on Friday.



What I'm missing at home--my parents have gotten 8 inches of snow. I'll be lucky to see snow more than a few times this winter.



The trees look so pretty there; I really miss autumn. We haven't seen any changing trees or much of anything fall-like yet in Wuxi.



For Daniel's birthday, our group all went out to Pizza Hut, then an arcade and a bar. This was the cake he received from our school. Check out the tomatoes (!!!) on the top of the cake.



Pizza Hut is all ready for Halloween--they were all sporting awesome wizard costumes.



Tena and Bill doing Dance, Dance Revolution at the arcade.



Some of the many racing games we enjoyed.



Karri and Lindsey (with Tena and Bill in the background) enjoying their shoot 'em up game a little too much.


On Wednesday, weather permitting, our school will be taking an all school field trip to Suzhou to visit the Suzhou Amusement Park. A few thoughts: This could be interesting because it's a field trip, China style. This could also be interesting because it's an Amusement Park, China style. We shall see.

This weekend was a great time of getting outside of my usual routine. Thursday night I went to a couple's house from church for a time of singing and talking. It was like a mini-UN with people from Russia, Burundi, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, China and America. The German couple is leaving in 5 weeks to go back home and invited us to their house for a brunch on Saturday. They live in nice Chinese/ex-pat housing and so it was wonderful to be in someone's home--I almost forgot I was in China. Great conversation, great fellowship--what more could I ask for.

Then this afternoon, we went to play softball. More on that later. Right now Blogger keeps timing out when I upload new pictures and I think I've posted enough for today. I took some fun pictures with our students during their midterm exams, so I'll put those up next time too (assuming Blogger will let me).

Just a reminder: China likes to do things its own way. While most everyone in the States had Daylight Saving Time, China did not (China also has only one time zone for this gigantic country of 1.something billion people). This all goes to say I'm now an hour off from whatever I was before (the range is 13-16 hours now, instead of 12-15 depending on location).

Happy Halloween--Enjoy the heathen holiday and the fall for me :)

rpm

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