World Trade Plaza Hotel Shijiaz Shijiazhuang

... 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.

One night i ran into some Spanish teachers from Spain, but they were unfriendly so are chat was very brief.

The city has better weather than beijing. The polution was thinner and some days you could see blue sky!

For two nights we ...

... to work at least 20 more years to save enough money for them.

Mr. Qiao likes to hear about my travel stories. He says he dreams of going to Inner Mongolia to ride horses on the grassland and go to Xishuangbana in the tropics, but it won't happen in this life time. He's got too much obligations already. But he's not a cynic. He tells me he's driven over 10,000 km on this truck alone, I tell him that's more than 2.5 times around the world, he chuckles.

... br>
We went to dinner and had a party for Eileen’s birthday-
everyone met at a restaurant downtown- Sable brought her to the restaurant and
we surprised her- she cried of happiness- really going to miss Eileen. Went to
Sable’s apt afterward, everyone caught up with one another and we played
drinking games. Then went to 7 club for a bit.

Some things I’ve done with my Middle School students over
the last few weeks ...

... 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 & 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 ...

... I took pictures of em and attached em if you'd like to see. The tv station also sent helen the news reports from these days (when we performed and then were interviewed) but they're both of the whole event so they're too long to upload. We have a 7 day holiday coming up so we've been trying to plan a trip. We really wanted to go to Hong Kong since it's our second longest break and HK is pretty far away (22 hr train ride). But since we just found ...

... then later moved to the front, next to a stage. The food that was prepared was so good! They had rabbit head, noodles, sausage, pepper thingies with something gross, steamed rice dumplings, the best fried rice in the world, very salty noodle thingies, sesame cookies, chicken wings, pork strips and a lot of other stuff we couldn't figure out. After we stuffed ourselves the entertainment began ...

... a new one. She assured us earlier today that if anything needed to be repaired that the school would pay for because it wasnt our fault (so nice!) Well, I'm off to grab some dinner and vs. Willie and Kara in Mario Party so, until next week! Here's my address- feel free to write- I absolutely love getting mail! Alissa Trowbridge Shijiazhuang No. 42 Middle School 42 WenYuan Street, Xinhua District Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, 050061 P.R. China

... specifically and exclusively to house the U.S. Olympic team (of course the University will inherit the building after the event). Citizens are being exhorted to mind their manners - no spitting in public, courtesy toward strangers, and perhaps most importantly, no slurping! Beijing taxi drivers have received "courtesy" training as well as English lessons (one of them actually slowed down to about 50 mph as I tried to cross the road!). The Forbidden City is ...