Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I just want to let everyone know that if you are reading this, then I am thankful for you. And if you have someone to tell about this blog to, then I am thankful for them as well. It's times like this that I really miss being home, but I'm trying not to think about that now, because I know that Christmas will be harder. As for our Thanksgiving plans, we are semi-hosting Thanksgiving dinner on Friday night. We don't get any time off for this holiday (I mean, sheez, we only get Christmas Day off....) so we decided to celebrate on Friday. There are 11 Americans in Shaoxing, so there will be 11 Americans coming and one American-by-Marriage.....but we'll count him too. I think that there will also be an Australian and maybe a Brazilian. We're still not quite sure what we will be eating besides mashed potatoes since we can't find a turkey (unless we kill it ourselves) and even if we did, it would be nearly impossible to find an oven to cook it in, or even an oven at all. So no turkey, no greenbean casserole. But we will have stuffing (I think, but I'm not sure how to cook it, maybe in a rice steamer?) and pumpkin pie. Natalie (another sweet American) had her mom send out some Thanksgiving essentials, including a Jello No-Bake Pumpkin Pie, we are all REALLY excited about this. She also sent some Stove Top stuffing, one can of cranberries and ingredients for two baked pumpkin pies as well (now if we could only find an oven.....) As for main dishes and the like, I think that Andy and I are making Chicken breasts stuffed with apples and Chicken Breasts in Mushroom sauce, plus garlic mashed potatoes, broccoli and possible yams. I might also throw together some baked apples too, we'll see. I will post pictures next week of how everything turns out and hopefully most of the people that we spend the most time with here!

So Andy and I have been really busy with all things relating to being teachers: teaching, planning lessons, judging English speech competitions, going to English corners and going on student picnics. These picnics are the best because we get time to spend with our students outside of the classroom, plus we get to eat and eat all of their good food! So we get on a bus early in the morning to go outside of the city where the 40ish class of students is seperated into groups to cook different dishes. It is great to get out of the city! The air is clean and the scenery is usually great. The students cook all morning and by the time we have tasted all of the dishes we feel like we have eaten 5-6 meals (which we usually have!). After eating everyone hangs out and plays cards or just chills and talks. Then we clean up and go home. If the weather is good it is a fantastic day. These pictures are from the most recent picnic we went on and probably the best. It was definately the most scenic. To get to the picnic spot we had to walk through fields where they grow tea. They only pick the tea in the spring time and only use the new buds, but the fields were beautiful none the less.



Speaking of teaching I have really started to get into it. I'm not sure if I am a good teacher or not, but I sure am having fun. I think that part of the reason I enjoy it so much is because my students are so wonderful. Of course we have good days as well as bad days, but overall they are so eager and friendly that I enjoy teaching them. They are like little sponges! They want to learn everything and seem to have fun using the English language. And they are so sweet! They have been sending me Thanksgiving messages all day even though they do not celebrate it themselves. I also do Show and Tell at the beginning of every class and sometimes the students bring me presents, including two beautiful calligraphy paintings done by one of my students that we had framed and are now hanging on our walls. (A side note: Andy hasn't gotten any presents and John gets very few.....) These pictures are from my two most favoritist classes. The first is my Freshman oral class and they are the quickest to laugh and are probably the best students that I have. The second class is my Sophomore advanced oral class and they are also good, and they always like to tell me how to make my lessons better. Which, when you have no idea what you are doing is welcome (though sometimes disconcerting) help! Overall I feel very greatful to have such wonderful and exciting students!

Now, on to the things that Andy and I have been doing besides teaching! The most exciting thing we have done lately is go to an authentic Chinese teahouse. On Tuesday night we decided to walk around the City Center and try to find a teahouse to go to. We found three cute little teahouses to choose from right on the canal in the middle of town. It was a lovely experience! We walked in and we were greeted by the owners and invited to pick out our tea and also choose the cute teapot. Then we were escorted upstairs and shown to our own private room. It was cozy with a table and two comfortable chairs as well as a cute comfortable couch. The room was warm and in the daytime would have overlooked part of the canal system. Beautiful! Then the woman brought up our tea and poured it for us as well as a large assortment of "nibbles" for us to eat. We have to buy the tea, but the nibbles are free. There was fruit, nuts, sunflower seeds, gum, and dried vegetables. We played a game of cribbage and talked. It was a very nice evening. On the way out we noticed that there was a selection of games for the patrons use, we'll have to go back sometime soon and try those out too!

So that's it folks, that's the end of my blog for this week. My new goal is to blog every Thursday morning. I don't teach until 1:30 and Andy teaches all morning, so I have pleanty of time to tell you all of our adventures. Please, email us! We are always so excited to get emails from home and if you have the time, packages are even better! (We will pay good money for Kraft mac n' cheese......) So until then, Happy Turkey (or Chicken) Day everyone!