Making the most of our time

A lot of fun things about China are the daily adventures we take part in.  Teaching, of course, is our main priority, but we have lots of time to do other things.

At the school:

This school is the bomb.com.  They've arranged for us to be a part of so many things.  On Mondays we have Chinese class where we've started to learn a little about this crazy language.  Earlier today we had to get up in front of the class and have a mini conversation in Chinese.  I got a little flustered, but Soren, Jenna, Maddie, and Heather totally rocked it. 

On Tuesdays we meet with a "culture club."  Basically, we get together with a group of Senior students and talk about differences between American and Chinese culture.  We've talked about food, music, family, schooling, and other stuff like that.  We also went out to Xuanwuhu park with a bunch of them for an afternoon of paddle-boating, picnicking, badminton, and Frisbee.  It's really hard to get together with these kids because they are constantly going to class or studying.

Paddle-boating

The culture club picnic

On Thursdays we have Kung Fu class.  It's awesome and I feel like Tigress from Kung Fu Panda, but I look like a moose trying to do water ballet. Soren picked up on it super quick.  This past week was a challenge because the routine we learned involved a lot of squatting on one leg.  So that one leg got super sore.

View of the school tower through the blossoming trees

In Nanjing:

Typical weeknights are spent at the food court we call the smorgasbord.  It has fried rice, chow mein, dumplings, Chinese BBQ, and a lot of other things we haven't tried yet.  Soren and I love to go there to get Squid on a Stick.  Our favorite Milk Tea place can also be found there.  Mmmmmmm...milk tea.

Sometimes we like to go out and explore.  This past Saturday night Soren and I stumbled upon a group of older people dancing in a bank parking lot.  I guess the best way to describe it would be to say it was like an informal social dance gathering.  Traditional type Chinese music would start to play, and they'd all grab a partner.  I don't know what kind of dances they were doing, but Soren and I joined in and did some Cha Cha, Lindy, Night Club 2-step, and Tango.  We want to find them again one of these days.

There are so many opportunities for us in this city.  We're just trying to do everything we can before we have to go.