Since my letters with photos cannot be emailed (they take too much space) I am trying blogging….hopefully it will work…

Hi Everyone,

I can’t believe I am already in my third week here in Guangzhou.  Orientation officially ends tomorrow and full faculty meetings begin on Monday.  Monday is meeting with the team leaders and TAs.  Tues and Wed is full school PD on PLCS (for you non-teaching folk, professional learning communities where we use student work –as opposed to our impressions- to plan next steps).

One thing I didn’t write about before was the health check required by China.  Quite the experience.  First you go to a special clinic, and fill out the most intrusive questionnaire you will ever see.  The questions ranged from our beliefs and knowledge about HIV (can you get it by sharing a toothbrush? Do you believe in extra-marital sex) to our personal sex lives (have you have x kind of sex?  Y kind of sex?  How often?).  In these moments one has to turn off one’s emotions and American attitudes of personal freedom and repeat the mantra ‘this is the hoop I have to go through’.  For the actual physical…12 different booths, each checking a different part of your anatomy.  The woman who poked my stomach was very confused as she couldn’t feel something she was supposed to and called in someone to translate when I said I didn’t have a spleen.  The woman doing my ultrasound was very confused why I was missing a female organ and was pushing real hard thinking maybe she was missing it….One complement from the ears nose and throat MD:  an instinctual ‘oh nice’ when he looked into my ears…I guess they are clean!

The neighborhood walk was a lot of fun because around our building is ‘old’ Guanghzhou and when you walk under the main road you are in ‘new’ Guanghzhou.  A real taste of the old and modern.  FYI, the green store front is a Halal Noodle place!

It was incredibly hot so I only managed 90 minutes of the 2 hour walk, and waited in the air conditioned restaurant for the others!  Overall I am continuing to do well with the heat…Kimberly’s advice about cotton and skirts continues to be appreciated.

One thing I did the first week here was go to the fabric market and ordered 3 pairs of cotton pants and 2 more cotton skirts.  They will be finished this week.  I was only going to go for 2 pants and 1 skirt but the fabrics were SO incredible I couldn’t resist. I am going to have to avoid going there because it is going to be hard to resist. The total cost was less than $250. The other photo is the seamstress who is doing the sewing, a woman who a lot of teachers go to.

My first ‘solo’ adventure (with Sophia but no returning Admin person) was to the leather market where I bought a backpack purse because I had ENOUGH of always having to untie and tie my cloth backpack.  Another danger zone…designer bags (normally $400-800) for $80, people able to copy any design you want, shoes and purses galore….I managed to control myself and only purchase what I came for, but boy would I love to buy an impractical bag one day!!

As I mentioned in my first letter, one aspect of Guangzhou I didn’t expect was how green the city is.  There are flowers and trees everywhere, parks and bushes, even in the modern areas.  Here are a few more photos showing this.

Bourganvillas lining the pedestrian walkways over a major road and a Forest coming in from the airport:

The view from our Director’s rooftop balcony:

Orientation continued at a busy pace but I had to finally excuse myself and go to work and start getting a handle on things.  We did all go on a night time boat cruise on the Pearl River.  Another unexpected beauty of the city is all the lights at night.

This is the boat we were on, which included an amazing serenade by a young girl on a traditional instrument which I will post on Facebook:

Buildings  lit at night, including the famous Canton Tower: