captions for the pictures below n' more!

(sorry for the out of orderness and my lack of skill to put the captions under the picture :( it hasn't been working too well for me lately, so this is the best i can do!)

... in order from top to bottom, left to right...

picture 1: a few of my junior students in my class.. a technique to remembering their names ;)
picture 2: the view of the new campus where i teach from our office... all the students flocking in back to class with umbrellas to shield from the glorious heat!
picture 3: our first english corner with the students (okay fun story: i thought english corner would be about 5-10 students wanting to talk to foreign teachers to improve their english- instead there was a flock of students waiting for us.. immediately they all swarmed like bees to a beehive to the other obvious foreign teachers and i was alone with no flock. i got some great shots and enjoyed not being surrounded and overwhelmed by all the students! :) later on though they found out i was foreign and had lots of questions about being chinese american... they were super curious because i look chinese but act and talk like an american!)-btw this is how my life in china has typically been thus far- i'll post later about the pro's and con's- there's lots!
picture 4: my team and i :) our awkward head tilt smile family pose.. perhaps a future christmas card picture! hehe
picture 5: one of my favorite alleys to walk down.. i feel so a part of where it's all "happenin"!
picture 6: some of the student dormitories and the natural way of drying clothes hehe
picture 7: my roomie shannon and i with our awesome retainers in the morning :)
picture 8: our first real "hole in the wall" resturaunt.. we like to call it "square in the wall" resturant
picture 9: foreign teachers imitating our students expressions while we teach haha.. a typical chinese classroom at our school
picture 10: the view from our apartment on the old campus... such dedicated ballers from morning til' night.. not sure when they study, eat, or go to class!?
picture 11: i found a fish bone on the bottom of my rainbows, a priceless kodak moment.
picture 12: a dramatic change in the weather.. from the hot and steamy humid weather to windy and typhoon like weather!
picture 13: don't worry, i've eaten PLENTY of veggies here in china, just not so much the peas haha..
picture 14: jiaozi- aka dumplings! one of my favorite chinese foods- yum yum... plenty good and plenty cheap!

so...i compiled a list of english names that some of our students chose (note: these are random names that somehow they chose to have as an english name... it keeps us teachers laughing and amused hehe)

-shmiley
-soup
-samuel, johnny, will (girl's names)
-bye-boy
-bird
-roll
-cookie
-grabby
-mumble
-orange
-lemon
-bruce lee :P

a few random things about life in china:
-i climb average 300-400 stairs daily.. that's about 1,200-2,800 stairs a week. i will have amazing leg muscles after this year.
-using the squatties (the toilets in the ground) is an art and sorta unpleasant.
-our apartment has this thing called a "shoilet"- it's basically a shower, toilet, sink, and washer all in one. haha sorta.. all in the same tiny room together forever. when you take a shower, everything else takes a shower with you! yesssssss!
-earlier in the week the humidity was outrageous and i discovered that my mustache area can sweats large amounts
-never give your cell phone number to new students right away... they will pass your number around to all their classmates and then they want to make friends with you at 2am with phone calls and texts... yep yep.. i've learned my lesson the hard way! haha

life has been intense this past week with settling in, teaching, and adjusting to my new home! thankfully, this coming week we do not teach because it is their october national holiday break... weeeeee! he provides so graciously for all our needs- and he knows we need this week to catch up with our lesson plans (please ask that he'll give me wisdom for how to make good, challenging, and meaningful lesson plans-it's been a challenge for me), REST, and enjoy time with team and students :)


well... that's all for now folks! i'll try to post more later... thanks for tuning in once again :)