Where to start

It's been so long, I don't know where to start.  I usually like to update once a week, so I don't leave out any wanted information.  I guess last time I updated, we had been Bieberfied.  Since then, a lot has happened.  I'm even starting to talk in Chinglish to my husband when we are in conversation together.  I have also started talking in Chinglish to my students every now and then, so they can UNDERSTAND me.  Wow.  That's sad.  Simple words like, 'the' and 'it' I have to omit when speaking to them.  For example, the sentence "Please write in your journal for at least 15 minutes.  When you are finished, I will choose 6 people to read it out loud"  becomes, "Write journal, 15 minutes.  When finished, I (pointing adamantly at myself) choose 6 (LIU!) people to speak to class".  They didn't even know what the word PRACTICE meant.  I tried explaining it to them, but I think only a select few understood me.  I finally found a definition that makes sense to them, which is "try, try again!".  However, I love to teach them new information.  As a teacher, that is my job - to present new information and broaden their horizons.  This not only happens to them, though.  I probably learn just as much, if not more, from them. 

On a personal note, the last two weeks have been spent enduring a common cold.  I still have a small cough every now and then, but all is much better with a little Vitamin C and water (shui).  It is very hard to teach a class when coughing, I already knew, but luckily there was only one day of uncontrollable coughing.  For those of you wondering, Davis is still healthy.  He has not caught the cold from me....  yet.

Last week, Davis and I started a second job, teaching little kids.  The lady in charge of the classes is very high energy (the kind of energy that leaves you exhausted after being around it, and you haven't even said a word).  I have never met anyone that loves to talk as much as her.  The kids are high energy as well, but they are fun to play with.  Davis has more energy than I do, so this job caters more to his abilities than my own.  I also enjoy teaching with Davis.  It's nice to be able to share the responsibility during that couple of hours. 

A week or two ago, two American couples came back to Binjiang (a district in Hangzhou).  They all work with Heather at Order With Me, a company that provides smaller quantities of items to smaller businesses for the wholesale price.  I don't know how that works, but that's what they do.  It's been really nice to have more American friends here.  Davis and I found out that one of the American couples was at the Global Missions Conference in Dallas last year, when we were there.  Small world. 

Yesterday, after lunch, we all played flag football with each other.  I was not looking forward to it, but when we played, I really enjoyed it.  We had to play on concrete, in a large open area, at an apartment complex near Starbucks.  It was also funny to watch little kids try to pick up our orange cones that marked the boundaries of the 'field'.  One lady was even brave enough to ride her bicycle through the middle of our game.  Haha. 

I don't know what happened, but I bruised my finger from playing flag football.