Oh My God, You Guys!!

Longji Rice Terraces. 3 little words that equal so much amazingingness!!

Vacation, all I ever wanted

Last week, from Sunday September 29th to Friday, October 4th, I was in Guilin, China. We had a week off of school for National Holiday. Basically, all of China is on a holiday for a week. So very nice, but so very crowded. Most of the HIS teachers went out of the country, but 3 of us decided to brave the crowds and explore China.

Everybody's gone surfin', Surfin' Hangzhou

So today was the day of a tidal bore in Hangzhou and yours truly got to be there!!! I walked about 15 minutes to right above the bend in the river. There were quite a few people there, waiting for the tidal bore.

Waiting by the river bank

Is this home? Am I here for a day or forever?

So this is going to be a picture update on life in general here in China.

Qiantang River with smog

Do I stand in the shadows or do I stand in the light?

So life is slowly settling into a routine. Days are beginning to flow into each other, much as they would back in the states. Last weekend, I took the bus to Ole with Jessie. Ole is in MixC Mall, which is a big western mall with stores like Prada, Gucci, and the like. You get the picture. There was a ColdStone, KFC, and a Yankee Candle (good to know when I need my candle fixes). At the bottom was Ole, which is a Western-ish style grocery store.

School bag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning

Here is a short video of my walk into the school and a tour of my room. I'll post more videos to come and a better tour of the school. Next up will be a tour of my casa! :)

Video tour of room

Since you've been gone, a whole month passes by. And I'm not even sure what I've done.

 It's hard to believe that I've been living in China a month. It doesn't feel like it. Life has been a whirlwind.
This is going to be a long post with TONS of picture so you were warned.