Blog #1:
After 20 hours of travelling I am now in China!!!

And after 5 days of struggling to get help with my internet, I now have the internet in my room!! This convenient internet access means that my room has become the place to be on the floor, but most importantly it means that I can let you all know how things are going on a fairly regular basis.

China is wonderful, people are great and everyone has been so helpful. This country is so different from Canada that I could spend all day telling you the interesting things I am seeing and experiencing, but because I actually want you all to read it, I will try to keep things are short as possible, while still giving you a feel for China. This one will be long as it will tell of my first week.

My first week has been a little hectic, setting up my room, cleaning, discovering my neighbourhood and trying to set up the internet in my room. Once we arrived at the dorm, we were taken out for a great dinner. The food in China is very good, very cheap, and not always what you expect. For breakfast the next morning we were given wonderful honey covered buns....with mystery insides. While it was odd, it was not edible. I'm being quite courageous with all of that. I sampled Tomato-Strawberry juice (I didn't realize the other red fruit on the bottle I was so looking forward to consuming was a tomato) and several mystery meats. Yes...I know they eat dog in China, but what I don't know shouldn't kill me. It might make me sick, but oh well.

One of the hardest things about this experience so far was unpacking, seeing as how every drawer or cupboard in my room was full of the last tenants crap. After careful organization and some light cleaning (the heavy stuff will be hit soon), my room is starting to feel a little more like my own.

This is my new room. The bed is hard, but big (too big---I miss Mat!), but the windows are big and the furniture is decent.

This is my bathroom. Note the flushing toilet (mine flushes for nothing more than #1--the living room bathroom is used for that--oh, and toilet paper does NOT go in the toilet. That's a hard one to remember, so yes, I've already had to go fishing....oh China). Hotels seem to be the only place with flushing toilets. All other toilets in China are of the squating kind. Some are modern porcelain, but most are long trenches in the ground, divided by very short partitions. If you are lucky, you get one that has a door--although I have only seen this in the school (yes, I will have to use a squater at school--the same washroom as the students too! oh the shame!!!). I have yet to use one of these, but I am preparing myself for the day...plus then I get to say I've done it. I guess I now understand why most Chinese women wear dresses.

To make sure I don't get too homesick I've even made a collage of pictures that I had printed today. It's quite nice.

Outside of my house (which is an old hotel in a laneway in the tourist part of Suzhou) there is a lovely river, which you must cross in order to get anywhere in the city. This is the river with a gondola going by. It is not very clean, but the architecture around it and the sheer fact that its a river with a gondola is intriguing.

In the hotel, I am living with 5 other teachers. This is a picture of everyone teaching at Zhenhua Middle School with me. I'm not sure if bamboo is native to Suzhou, but it is real bamboo and I love it! It's near the campus entrance. (L-R) Kian and Paul are from England,me,Marie-France my house mate, is from Quebec and Rita from Australia. Christine, from Colorado, also lives with us, but she teaches at the senior school and is not in this picture. Everyone is very nice and so far we are all getting along great!

These are the basics of my life in Suzhou...stayed tuned for some tales (which should actually be quite interesting).

Till then XOXO