I love having summers off, and for this reason if none other, I think I shall always remain a teacher. So starting somewhere around January, I start dreaming of summer vacation and setting a totally unrealistic number of lofty goals for all the free time I'm going to have... And, I don't know where the free time goes, but it goes. And so, "Oh, I'll blog so much this summer" just never really happened. But we had a great summer. Here's what we've been up to:
1. We spent the first couple of weeks doing an intense study schedule with podcasts, activities in Chinese, learning Chinese songs
2. We went to travel with some students to Sichuan province, about a 24 hour train trip to the cities we visited. We visited lots and lots and lots of temples that all looked remarkably similar to one another, ate lots of spicy food, went to a panda museum to see the beloved national treasures of China, and went to see a midnight showing of Transformers 3 in 3D (we even got interviewed by the news at this showing!) Here are a couple of pictures:
1. We spent the first couple of weeks doing an intense study schedule with podcasts, activities in Chinese, learning Chinese songs
2. We went to travel with some students to Sichuan province, about a 24 hour train trip to the cities we visited. We visited lots and lots and lots of temples that all looked remarkably similar to one another, ate lots of spicy food, went to a panda museum to see the beloved national treasures of China, and went to see a midnight showing of Transformers 3 in 3D (we even got interviewed by the news at this showing!) Here are a couple of pictures:
(Please note our panda-themed clothes...)
3. We took a trip up to Beijing to meet Austin's mom & Spencer who flew in. We got to see the Great Wall, eat constantly, and then we took a 27 hour train ride back to our province where we spent another several days together. We introduced them to the local specialties, got massages, and laughed a ton.
4. And most recently, we had a move across town to our new locale at the college... We're all moved in, decorated, and having a blast hanging out with students & friends... But that is a post for another day.