Meet Kian!

My cousin Catherine had her beautiful baby boy on April 13th. I'll get to meet him this weekend but I got to see some beautiful pictures today. Here is the family: Catherine, Naysan, and Kian.




--Sarah--

More Beijing Apartment Pictures

I just got an email from two soon-to-be fellow teachers who currently live in the apartment complex where I will move in August. They like it so much that they signed a two-year contract in October! It looks like I will basically be living in a swank hotel for a year with lots of country club amenities like tennis courts, a driving range, a couple of pools both indoor and out, restaurants (probably much more expensive than in the city), and utilities that are dependable! Woo to that!

Check out the photo tour they sent!

--Sarah--

Cross your fingers for Blue Sky Days!

Hopefully I will get to see lots of "Blue Sky Days" and not many days like these:



Let's hope for days like this:


123 days to go!

--Sarah--

A few more Fiji videos

Now that I have finally gone through all the pictures and video everyone took in Fiji, I have a few more neat videos to share. And, check out my Flickr site for all the photos.

First, we have Magic Coral.



Next, we have an anemone fish swimming through its anemone.



And finally, we have a lionfish (also known as a turkeyfish or a dragonfish) swimming around.



Now, go look at my Flickr pictures. They are finally all uploaded.

--Sarah--

Videos from Fiji

Here's a quick video I took of a Spanish Dancer Nudibranch while diving in Fiji.


And here is a strange animal we found on a night dive in Fiji. This one taken by Danny.



Finally, a little shark video.



I uploaded a bunch more Fiji pictures on my Flickr site.

--Sarah--

You can read it, I might not be able to

I have uploaded photos from my family's trip to Fiji last November onto my Flickr site (check my links on the right hand side of this blog) and photos from my trip to the Grand Canyon and Antelope Canyon during my spring break. Check them out! If you sign up for Flickr (free), you can leave comments and upload your own photos. Otherwise you can look at my photos and leave comments here.

If I have access to Flickr from China, I will put collections of photos up on that site in addition to some photos here. Hopefully, I will have access to this site in China. The government blocks many sites, including Wikipedia I've heard, so I won't know for sure until I get there. Sometimes you can access sites one day and not the next. My backup plan is to email my blog directly to this site so friends and family can read it (just not me!) or if that fails, email my blog to a friend or family member and have them post it for me.

I will probably try not to post anything that the government might deem blockable on here so that I have less of a chance of having my blog completely blocked. From what I have read, some blogger sites are blocked while others are okay....for now. Sites become blocked for months and then unblocked without explanation. It is definitely a situation that I admit I have not thought much about until recently. I don't want to get into any trouble during my stay, so I won't blog much about certain situations...unless it is in vague terms that you will have to creatively interpret.

132 days to go!

--Sarah--

146 Days to Go

I received my contract, both in English and Chinese. Good thing, too, because I can only recognize the numbers 1-10 in Chinese so far. I signed in about a dozen places and scanned and emailed it back to the school. March is almost over and then the last two months of school will breeze by. Soon it will be June and I will only have about 2 and a half months until I move. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a bit scared. But that feeling is being balanced by excitement. I am proud of myself that I am taking this giant step. I want to get as much out of the experience as possible. It would be a shame if I didn't.

I am trying to learn some Mandarin before I leave. One of the teachers at my current school is fluent in Cantonese and has said that she can read my Chinese characters (apparently written the same in both languages as well as others in China, just pronounced very differently) and she will be able to see if she understands anything I try to say. Once in China, I plan on hiring a tutor to help me and maybe tagging along with my students to their Mandarin classes.

Keep the comments coming! For those of you who need a little guidance:
Click on 'comments' at the bottom of the post. Type your comment in the comment box. Then, if you do not have a gmail account, click on Name/URL. Type in your name so I know who is leaving the comment. Finally, click on 'Publish your comment'. Yea!

--Sarah--