Home Sweet Home

I arrived here in country on April 18th. I finally moved into my own place of residence here in country on September 18th! Yes, that would mean for the first five months that I was on field, I was a bum who borrowed a couch from the Pearl Hotel and from my teammate, James. Thankfully they were gracious enough to allow me to hang out for so long. Granted, the Phoenix was paid money, and James was given another roomie to add to his long and very illustrious list of roomies.

Well, I am officially living and teaching now in the city / area of Dong Sheng / Erdos (or Ordos). I honestly don't know what specific answer should be supplied here. Signs and peoploe refer to this as Ordos but my bus ticket reads Dong Sheng (characters not words). Anyways, I started teaching at the Ordos Mongolian Middle School on August 27th. I teach 13 classes each week at 45-minutes a peice. I teach all of the Senior One and Senior Two Students which translates to Sophomores and Juniors for the rest of the world. My purpose is to help improve their overall English skills but primarily their spoken skills. It has been a blessing to be here so far. The students are great to be with and to be around. I have told them that I like watermelon very much. When I am in the cafeteria eating at school, they will buy me some xi gua (watermelon in chinese) if there is none visible near me. It makes me laugh. The same is also true with bottles of coke or pepsi. I usually drink some with my meals here being it is my one American luxury when eating chinese food almost every meal. They will want to buy me one if I do not have one in hand. Granted, a piece of watermelon is about 7 cents and a bottle of coke or pepsi is 25 cents. It is the thought that counts. It makes me feel wanted, yet it flusters me because I don't wan them spending their money on me. But, it is who they are as a people, in general.

End of the digression. My apartment is about 2km (one mile) from the school. Eventually , I will get a bicycle and will ride it daily. Currently, I walk which is fine with me. I enjoy it. The weather has been quite nice here lately. The lows at night are about 55F and the day's highs are 75F. Lots of sunshine to go with it! My apartment is quite nice, but it is taking time to get used to being here things don't always work out in my American logic. It will be fine, and I will survive.

Further, I am learning more of my new home and more about it. I live in a quite nice city of about 100,000 people which is equipped with a KFC (Praise Father), a Dico's (another western food place), and several restaurants that serve western-style food. I am learning my way around town where things are located and where you can do things. Today, I found several DVD / CD shops, a coffee shop, and it seems an ice cream parlor. The last will require more exploring on another day. I will keep you posted as to my findings.

Well, I will write more later and will hopefully include some pics of my new home, place of employment, and city. In conclusion, Father arranged all of this; therefore, I give Him all praise and thanks!