Where did August go?

So I'm not entirely sure where the month of August went. Somehow I've been back in China almost a month already. And school is entering its third week. In the midst of all this, I'm alive and loving it. The transition back has been smooth and the start of school hasn't been too overwhelming or paralyzing. The past week was quite full with Open House and other meetings. Open House went great and it was really nice to meet over half of my students' parents. Below is another picture-filled post about my first month. As I was putting together this post, I realized that it doesn't describe life in my new city very well. That will be another post for a later date--familiar places around town. Also, coming up too quickly is Fall Camp and a volleyball chaperoning/coaching trip to another province :)

But for now, this will have to do. A friendly reminder--you can click on any picture to enlarge it.


Part I: Random pictures from the last month--


The day after I arrived the children of our company had a huge water fight in the park outside our housing. It was a great way to cool off!



The beautiful bouquet of flowers that greeted me in my bedroom when I arrived.



One of my priorities was buying a new bike because I had to leave my old bike at my school in Wuxi. This is the bike market where I got my new set of wheels. Sadly, the one picture of my bike was blurry, so just picture an awesome dark green Japanese bike with a cool black basket.



We did get Sara's green Alice (seriously, that's the name--like the brand-- on the bike) fitted with a kid seat for Hannah.



The middle school hall is on the 4th floor and blue is the theme.



One day, I was coming out of school and saw this beautiful flowering bush on the side of the street. I took this picture because naturally beautiful things are hard to come by usually.



Same thing can be said for sunsets--the way the clouds lit up reminded me of sunsets over the mountains. Sunsets over buildings, sunsets over mountains, eh--one in the same, right? ;)



The sweet Kennedy girls out shopping after fellowship a few weeks ago.



To celebrate our first full week of school being finished, a bunch of us went out to an Inner Mongolian restaurant. They had musicians who were playing a 2-stringed instrument--one even came over and serenaded our table later in the evening.



The middle school girls opened their soccer season by playing our in-town rivals on Thursday. Here are some of players during halftime.



We tied 1-1.



After fellowship today, a bunch of us went out to Pizza Hill, a very good restaurant that even delivers to our neighborhood. Delivery takes on a whole new meaning here in China. This is their fleet of electric bikes that deliver pizza throughout the city.


Part II: A month's worth of awesome Chinglish--


From a sack of rice: "It always is a symbol of the best dessert for your own satisfaction."



The packaging from a pillow: "Anti-extruding" and "non-poisonous"
I sure hope pillows are non-poisonous!



The same pillow also apparently is able to "ventilate,moisture-absorbency" and "take in fresh air"
I want some fresh air also ;)



This is the top of my jewelry box, the middle is complete with a nice little angel picture too, just FYI: "Although wegot off to a rocky strart it/sure is nice to haveyou around" Hmm, not sure what that has to do with angels.



This is the packaging from a set of hangers I bought: "Routable hook and haning bar/Widely used in family/Durable plastic/Transform, damage, collect, and keep the function not easily good:" I couldn't have said it better myself ;)



"The quality of the Lilybell Cotton is very meek." Apparently cotton now has the human characteristic of being meek...What else can be meek? Towels? Shirts?



Paper products (journals, etc.) are one of the best sources for Chinglish. I didn't actually buy this notepad, although it claims that you will "enjoy your/writing with ChangJiang products/fair as a star when only/one is shining in the sky." BTW, Chang Jiang is the name for the Yangtze River--which was also the name of my street in my old city.



Somehow all of my 7th graders have great journals--I'm not sure how this happened, but I was humored: "Because it's where the wind stays"



"Commit to memory that an important matter"



Did you know? "People die when they are given the wrong blood type..."



For some reason, I feel that Disney didn't sign off on this notebook. "Feel the weather very cool last night, oneself return without heat/preservation, deliver message for him to tell him, the side of the/weather will is cool tomorrow, noticing the body to wear some" I'm curious what that was trying to say.



From Pizza Hill this afternoon: "Please take care of gout belongings/This premise is kept from the consumtion or pizza hill produsts"
So close to English, but yet, so far...



Pizza Hill's menu--Do you want to try some "ice sweet red-beans"? I know "your first choose of summer, is cool"
The others are just as funny!



Sara came back with this special, special present this afternoon. "Floral water snake bile" is apparently a body spray that repels insects, among other things. I'm not sure how snake bile helps with insects, but who doesn't want some flower water--too funny!


Another full week is ahead. Inservice tomorrow. Staff meeting Tuesday. A friend from MI arrives on Wednesday. Scipmylo (Olympics backwards=Field Day) Thursday. Great Wall on Saturday.

I'm still trying to figure out how to teach on 40 minute periods and what the language levels of my students are. I continue to Ask for patience and strength in the classroom and in my planning.

In the name of Love,
rpm

My summer (or my favorite things in the US)

So this post has been a lot time coming. I've finally found an hour to sit down in front of the computer and blog about my life and I'm not even sure where to even start.
Well, I'm back in China and school's started. I'm settled for the most part and things are going great.
Before I talk about my present life, I should at least try to do some justice to my summer. In a nutshell, it was crazy. I got to see so many people and places--it was wonderful. A big thanks to everyone who hosted me this summer. It was so nice to see so many familiar things.


State #1: New York (for training)
My first two weeks were spent in the middle of nowhere New York for training. I wasn't super excited about it at first, but it was really helpful. I was able to take time to process what happened last year and to get excited for my new school this year. There were some amazing people at this training who are going all over the world.


It's been a while since I've been Amish country, so I have to fess up to my excitement about the buggy signs.



This cute baby now lives in China and we celebrated his first birthday during our training.



The beautiful state park not too far from the campus we were on. There is a visible rainbow if you look closely.



The same state park does hot air balloon launches.



Some very red berries on campus (I love the lighting on the berries--I want to frame this picture to hang up in my room in my new apartment)



Somewhere in the world there actually does exist an honest to goodness 'hole in the wall' restaurant.



We all now live in 6 different cities in China!



The kids had 'school' while we had class and these were some of their art projects.



This is my mentor who also lives in Asia.


State #2: Michigan via Canada (visiting friends)


I always went to the Farmer's Market on Saturdays when I was in college. It was so fun to go back!



The same vendors are still there.



The Fish Ladder Park was always a fun place to walk to in the city of Grand Rapids.



My dad visited for a long weekend and we made a day trip out to Holland. Tunnel Park is one of my favorite places in the world!



An old roommate lives in Petoskey and this was a picture I took in their city cemetery.



On a whim, I decided to drive to the Upper Peninsula--just because I could. It was fun to see the Mackinac Bridge; I hadn't been there since I was 10 or something.



Another dear friend from school lives near Sleeping Bear, so I got to visit the dunes.



Lake Michigan was sending a storm over to land.


State #3: Illinois (visiting friends and getting my new visa)


Another fav pic from under the L in Chicago.



The crazy water play place in Millennium Park.



The Bean sculpture which makes...



...this from the inside--seriously, how cool is that?!?



The end of the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue and the Chicago River.



Watching the sun set over the city and the lake.



I just had to visit Chicago's Chinatown to see how different it is from this Chinatown that I currently reside in.



I think I was at the beach every day I was in Chicago--it was so nice to soak in the water, sand and wonderful friends.


State #4: Colorado (visiting family and being a maid of honor)


My brother and I in the mountains after eating yummy pizza.



Flowers in a friend's garden (another one I want framed)



My high school social studies teacher who's more of a friend now--check out her rose garden behind us!



My adorable grandmother who is 92 and calls me every Saturday :)



I forgot how much I love the mountains. I took this picture when I was at the airport getting my brother.


So the event of the summer in our family was my sister's wedding. She got married outside in the mountains. The next however many pictures are from that...just giving fair warning!


The chapel was aptly named Columbine Point. Columbine is our state flower and is pictured here with the empty chapel and mountains in the background.



The morning of the wedding we had a brunch for just the women. My mom got us matching sweaters and here we are sporting them :)



Getting ready was quite the ordeal. Here's all our dresses lined up while we were still working on hair and makeup.



My sister with her flower girls. They were only 6 months old when she started babysitting for them!



Her bridal pictures were taken outside by this old farm at the camp. Here's another one of my artsy pictures by the rusted farm equipment.



Her bridal party smiling pretty for all the pictures.



She looked so beautiful! The flowers matched the setting so well.



My parents and I all dressed up.



Waiting for her to walk down the aisle.



The entire wedding party.



The reception was such a blast. The whole thing went by so quickly.



The bride and her maid of honor, me!


So that was the not-so-brief version of my summer, but I hope it makes up for the lack of posting since mid-June.

A few things to Think about:

• The middle school and high school have Open House tomorrow night. I will need an extra dose of His stamina to make it through the long night. I'm excited to meet my students' parents. I really hope that everything goes well.
• Please remember the team that is working in my old city. They still don't have the curriculum they ordered. I empathize with their situation and I can't wait to see them at our conference in October.
• The next few weeks are packed with meetings, a visitor from the States, our school's version of Field Day (more on that later), and more, so I need to make sure that I am balancing my time wisely. I am enjoying being in the school and I hope to continue building our classroom community in the weeks to come.
  

In His service,
rpm