we're back!

Ni hao, from Kristen!

JUMPING THE FIREWALL took a lot longer than we thought! but now we are back, and of equal importance, have access to facebook, as well!

WOW - so much to catch up on! i know we promised short posts, but we gotta get everyone caught up to speed!

Beijing is Li HAI (awesome - one of the first words we learned, and over use). We have met a lot of great friends, that make this place feel like home. My best friend back in the states is in critical condition in the hospital, and if I didn't have a good support system here, I might have lost it by now.

We work at one of the best kindegartens in the city. It's similar to a montessori school, where we teach through music and dance - a very western approach! The best part is that we get free socks and get to wear crocs all day. Our school did a team building trip two hours away from here (we're still not exactly sure where they took us). Imagine doing trust falls with 30 people who don't speak your language. And climbing a 30 foot pole and then jumping across to a board, with instructions that are in chinese. Imagine dressing up your principle in a newspaper bikini. and imagine dancing a chinese version of the congo. enough said? it was LI HAI.

we moved into our apartment a week ago, and we came out pretty lucky. we bought very asiany sheets, and of course, hello kitty spoons. not having a dryer is standard for china, but something i'm not thrilled about because my towel feels gritty and my jeans fit too loose.

we LOVE the food. we found something similar to a beignet for 1RMB (holla!) for breakfast. one of our favorite lunches is a donkey meat sandwich from the donkey meat banquet. we've had a ton of dishes with chicken, pork, peppers, peanuts, RICE, and eggplant. we also really like pork dumplings. we went crazy today and made grilled cheese for lunch. oh man.

Things I LIKE about beijing:
- tshirts with english words, that usually don't make sense or are misspelled. the 40 year old mom wearing a pink slipknot shirt ranks high among our favs.
- the "asian trendy fashion" as we have so dubbed it. basically, everyone looks unique and everything goes.
- the FOOD
- best subway system i've been on. MINUS the fact that it closes at 11.
- cheap taxis, which leads me to...cheap everything. food, clothes, drinks, travel.
- being able to skip someone, push someone, or bump into someone and not feel bad or say sorry
- the city lit up at night. we were on top of our friend's apartment complex one night, and looked out over the city, and realized that NYC was only like an inch of what we were seeing. amazing.
- the people are so friendly...and well, they love us. i showed them my license the other day and they thought it was the coolest thing EVER.
- getting stared at everywhere we go. you might think this would be annoying, but it's actually pretty funny, and it throws them for a loop when you stare right back at them. tehe.
- you can buy almost everything on the street - fruits, vegetables, meats, oil, dough, dog food, rice. we could probably survive the whole year without having to leave our street (hutong)...if we really wanted to.
- my church. it's so diverse and different from home, yet so familiar at the same time.
- our job. and oh boy. the asian children are so PRESH.
- the men with their shirts up because it's "so hot." i wonder how they would do in miami? and again, i actually don't love seeing this, but it's hilarious.
- NINJA has made it to beijing.
- the history.
- the world's SECOND largest TV outside of my work, which hangs overhead...and since we've realized we do not in fact blend in, we layed under it for about an hour...and someone filmed us. AWKWARD.

Things that are DIFFERENT, but can get used to: - the driving is NUTS. our cab driver last night layed on the horn for a solid 15 seconds...the reason why? no clue.
- hang drying clothes
- can't flush the toilet paper
- squatters, which i actually HATE, but since i refuse to use them, i guess i can get used to them existing.

Things I DO NOT LIKE about beijing: - the dogs look mutated
- people hocking lugeys (sp?) everywhere
- the smog & the occasional whiff of nastiness in the air
- live scorpions on a skewer
- the stupid flappy things inside of door frames...NOT sure why a door won't work
- the STUPID MCDONALDS VOICE that we hear at least twice a day when we pass mcdonalds to and from work. at least it makes it easy to never want to buy mcdonalds...WOA, ironically, i JUST got a text from kelly who is on her way to work saying the mcdonalds song changed!!!!!! stay tuned to see if it is as torturous as the last one.

well, i still don't know how to say goodbye, so ADIOS! and check back soon because like i said, WE'RE BACK!