today. was. awesome.

Today. Was. Awesome.

Connected with the man, my #2 in Phoenix and my parents this morning; always wonderful to start the day with people you love.

Then I went to school a little earlier than I needed to be there and was reminded how great everyone there is. As soon as I walked in, three people came up to me to talk about the issues I have with The Crack Den and make sure everything was getting taken care of so that I am comfortable (and I'm only here two more weeks). I didn't say anything about The Crack Den for the first couple of days because I didn't know what was normal here and what wasn't and definitely didn't want to be that whiny American girl, but from the second I did they've been completely on top of addressing everything. I got some new furniture and kitchen stuff today and tomorrow my new fridge and water heater will arrive.

This is my school, the green sign, all 4 floors.

Then one of the Chinese girls gave up a few hours of her time to take me to get more passport type photos for my new work visa, took me to open my new bank account and get my new cell phone. Yes, that's right folks, I am legit, complete with a Chinese bank account and phone number! I had actually already been to China Mobile and got a number a few days ago, but my stupid iPhone 4S that I got in the States and is completely unlocked hasn't been working here, so I had to got a super awesome and retro Nokia to supplement what now amounts to my very expensive iPod's uses.

Back at school I had some good training with my boss and got my class schedule for next week. My first day teaching is tomorrow, but I just have an hour tutoring. Friday, Saturday and Sunday I have two teaching hours each and then next week I'm teaching full days Monday through Friday! The next two weeks are a weird winter holiday period for us, so I'm working a zillion days in a row, but I get to accumulate my missed days off and take a longer vacation later, so it's actually better for me.

I got my first invite to a Chinese home at school today too. One of the girls I work with invited me to her aunt's house for a day and would like me to meet her family.

After work I had plans to go with the Indonesian Canadian teacher, the French Canadian teacher and my boss to go get foot massages. In between school and the massages the Indonesian Canadian teacher took me to the most awesome thing ever. All (and by all I mean like 95%) of the foreign teachers in Songyuan apparently play badminton together every Monday, or in this case Tuesday due to yesterday's holiday. I met pretty much everyone in the city that speaks English all at once! They play in this crazy mall literally right across the street from my school that randomly on the 6th floor has badminton courts. There are two other schools with foreign English teachers here; one has a guy that I didn't get to meet, not sure on his background, the other has three Kiwis (two are a couple), a Filipino and an American (also a couple) and the American is from Chicago! They're all very friendly of course and I'm the first "fresh meat" in Songyuan in quite some time it seems.

After that the Indonesian Canadian, the French Canadian and I got our foot massages (boss had to bail) and then Indonesian Canadian took me to a good dumpling place right down the street from my apartment. And I ate shrimp dumplings. On my own free will. Shocking, I know. They were little whole shrimps, kind of crunchy and fun, but still too much of that shrimpy texture for my liking. The mushroom and pork dumplings were great though, as was the milk tea. I actually tried some seafood the other night at the girls' work dinner, but I still have yet to have any rice in China. We'll see how long it lasts...

So people I love, Crack Den upgrades, legitimized Chinese life, upcoming extended vacation, family invite, English speakers and dumplings. Such an awesome day.