Back to Blogging!

Blogging has been very difficult this year due to some technical difficulties, but at this point I think that I have figured out how to make things work!

So here is a really fast catch up for the past couple of months...

November-

Ran/Walked a 5k on the city wall here in Xian!

It snowed here twice, and made everything look really beautiful!

I had a really great thanksgiving with some of my China family and woke up in the middle of the night to talk to my America family!

December-

We had our annual 'Christgiving' celebration here in Xian. If you haven't heard, our company celebrates as one big group early in december. We have a friday night game night, then Saturday is Thanksgiving and Sunday is Christmas. It is a very busy weekend, but lots of fun too!

We had a really awesome Christmas party for the school with about 200 people in attendance!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day- The original plan was to spend Christmas Day with Zach and Carrie and Kai, but a few weeks before Christmas, Carrie's mom began having some trouble with her heart so on Christmas Eve they left to go back to America for a few weeks. This was a little upsetting because they are the ones that I am the closest to, and was really looking forward to spending Christmas with them...we were gonna have a mexican fiesta!...anyway, Since they had to leave, I spent Christmas Eve with some friends of mine (Jason and Jane). Then on Christmas day I woke up early so that I could spend some time with my family on Skype for our traditional Christmas eve party. Well you know how unpredictable Alabama weather can be...so Christmas Eve was a stormy night and therefore the internet connection was not great. I did end up being able to participate mostly over the phone, and that was probably best because I cried all of the way through the Christmas story...that was the first time that I wasn't sitting in Gmom's and Gdaddy's living room for it :(. Then they asked me to pick the first Christmas Carol, and I said uhhh...cause I was thinking, but they thought that I was starting Away in a manger, so that is what we sang...I thought that was kinda funny! I like that song, so that worked out fine:) Once we got through the main traditional stuff I was okay...there were some tears but not too too many. Then I went to James and Wendy's house for dinner and fun! we played a lot of Dance Dance Revolution! Then I went home and got on Skype with mom, dad, and noah so that I could watch noah open his presents. I waited and waited for them to wake up, I thought that noah would get up early on Christmas but he didn't...

I called them at about 9.30am Alabama time, and woke them up! Not only had they not opened presents, but they weren't even awake!!!so I did get to watch noah open all of his presents! Most of which were weapons :) thats what happens when you live in the woods!

So all in all, Christmas turned out to be great!

So a few days later it was New Year's Eve, and I had made plans to go and visit my friend Jenee who lives in Xining! I left right after school and hopped a plane to Xining. It was a great and relaxing few days. It is nice to go to a place with blue skies when its really gray where you live.

January

This year has been uncharacteristically hard for me. Not awful, just harder to enjoy life I suppose. Don't get me wrong I do enjoy my life, a lot, but it has seemed to take more effort to enjoy it like I want to. However, in January things started to feel a little easier. I think that part of it was that as a team we did a 40 day prayer and fasting thing. This seemed to just clear up a lot of things for me. It brought us more together as a team and helped me to focus on what was important. And, I think I am learning how to take care of myself more. So January was school school and more school. Oh and a trip to the orphanage that we work with which was awesome. We were able to give the kids a goodie bag full of stuff because it would be our last time to go before Chinese New Year! They loved it!

February

The first week of February was our last week of school before our 3-week break! So after that week was over I was on my way to Thailand! This trip to Thailand was a little different than last year mostly because we were in a different city.

This year I spent the whole time in Chiang Mai. Its a small city in the northern part of Thailand. The weather there was amazing! It was their winter season, but it was warm! I loved the weather there! It was very tropical feeling, but only in the 70's and 80's during the day! It is great to go there in the middle of the China winter. I might save the rest of the Thailand details for the next blog ;)

When we came back to Xian the weather was much warmer, and spring was on its way!

March (so far)

Back to school for a solid 2 months! This is the long stretch! This year my schedule has been pretty busy. I am teaching 5 different math classes and health! and I am taking chinese classes 3 days a week :) I love studying chinese! It isn't easy, but I love it! I am hoping to find some chinese people to talk to once I get back home!

Now I am in hot pursuit of a job! I will be sending out resumes in the next day or two, and I am hoping that this process is quick and painless!

Also, last wednesday I bought tickets for my trip back to America!

I will be flying through Korea! I will be there for about a day so I will get to do a little exploring! I'm excited about that! I will arrive in Alabama on June 29th!

So I am starting a countdown!

School Days left: 56

Days til I get to America: 100

These of course are just the highlights, my everyday life is an adventure, and I wish you could experience it with me cause words are just not enough to explain it all!

Love from china!

Pictures! click on the months above for pictures for that month!