Shijiazhuang Huabei Hotel

... hui ren (black person) and took a picture because it was so rare. We thought this was pretty funny, and greed to pose in a few pics with people from the city. <br><br>One night i ran into some Spanish teachers from Spain, but they were unfriendly so are chat was very brief. <br><br>The city has better weather than beijing. The polution was thinner and some days you could see blue sky! <br><br>For two nights we ...

... no I goes out the the parking lot and intercepts each driver as they go to the covenient store and the bathrooms. Two hours goes by and we had asked about 30 set of drivers with no success. <br><br>It's 10:30pm. Finally just as I am about to give up I see two guys standing close to Liu Chang. They must be truck drivers. I go up to them, offers them some cigarettes from Germany I brought with me, sweet talks them into giving us a ride. Fortuantely they are ...

... words<br>I chose- none of which went together very easily so I received some pretty<br>creative stories. <br><br>*Field Day/Relays outside- We met in the classroom- I drew<br>pictures on the board and explained &#8220;Run backwards race, 3-legged race,<br>piggyback ride race, and wheel barrel race&#8221; &#8211;Gave away the medals my mom sent<br>from home (mine and my brother&#8217;s soccer, cheerleading, basketball, golf awards)<br>Since all the students ...

... biggie, we were almost out anyway. Birthday and Marriage *Went to a nice restaurant and had sushi for Sam's bday. It was soo good- I've missed sushi. Our Chinese friend Eileen surprised me with a text message that said she got married and she wanted us to meet her husband. So we went to "the boat restaurant" to celebrate Grandma &amp; Grandpa *Our new friend John (lives in our apt building and is helping the new Korean students get adjusted) invited us to have dinner at his ...

... which lies to the west, provide charming natural scenery. Mt. Cangyan Scenic Area and Zhangshiyan Scenic Area also attract visitors from all over China and the world. As the economic, political, cultural and scientific center of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang is becoming more and more ...

... I think my plate is a bit too full at the moment. Young Young has continued to impress me. She passed her first post-graduate exam and will take her second one in May. She's back to work now so her schedule is also very busy but she's always full of energy when she gets here at 8pm. Our friend Jason who worked full time at a Foreign Language school is now back in the states so Kara, Willie and I have taken over for him ...

... left and right. Here when someone says "gambei" it means "bottoms up" so you have to finish your drink. Most of the time it's with baijui but this time it was a mix with red wine as well. It was the first time I'd had grape wine since being here so i had no problem cheersing with it :) Everyone at our table was so busy talking and gambei-ing that no one really ate much of the expensive food in front of us. Today we had class and packed ...

... tiny, pot-filled street while other cars and people tried to pass us by. Once a motorcycle/bike got to close to our bus and totally wiped out- opps. One the way we passed a castle- I immediately thought of Mariah because this would be her dream home! After an hour ride we arrived at our apparent destination. I got out and was amazed by the beauty of the countryside! There were mountains off in the ...

... we're the only ones living in the apt building right now we werent using any electronics. when we went out that night we unplugged everything and the next morning helen had electricians come look at everything. they were in our apts ALL DAY fixing things. We woke up early today and took our computers to the school to see if the computer guys there could figure out what the problem was but they coudlnt so helen took em to a repair shop ...

... was university vehicle. In Beijing, we arrived at the Jingshi Hotel (the Center for International Academic Excellence) on the campus of Beijing Normal University (BNU). BNU sits right in the city, just north of the city center. It has about 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students. We were hosted by Professor Ru-de Liu, a classmate and friend of my colleague Min Li at the UW. The Jingshi Hotel is new, very modern - a contrast to the our hotel in Shijiazhuang which ...