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thawing out… and moving on
The snow has been a fun surprise (it was on the rooftops again yesterday morning!), but that’s not the only change going on in Chengdu. It is now "official" that we will be leaving our home of three years and moving to Dallas in June. Strange, how it’s a little scary to be returning to our home country. We have come to feel so at home in Chengdu - a great school, a nice apartment, a comfortable (and inexpensive) lifestyle. Granted, Sarah is looking forward to things like going to the grocery store without having to stand on a crowded bus for an hour each way! But, in general, married life in the good old US of A is a great unknown for us! We haven’t had to deal with insurance, car problems (does scooter trouble count?), renting vs. buying, and the list goes on… At least we can take care of it all in English!
We are very excited to be moving to Dallas, despite the fact that neither of us has ever been there, because of the large number of friends and acquaintances already there. Sarah feels like she has a great advantage in the music world, walking into a place where people know her and can vouch for her abilities (though she says her skills have been waning a bit - gotta get to practicing again!) It’s also nice to have people who can give advice on where to live and what to do in the area.
So, here we go! Taking a big step into the semi-unknown and moving on to a new phase of life. Exciting!!
Snow - Really!
I (Dan) am from New York, so I’m used to seeing snow - lots of it. And while Sarah may not have had much snow in California, her time in Ohio made up for that - so the absence of snow during the cold months has been disappointing. I tell you all this so that you don’t laugh too hard as I show you the “snow” that we woke up to on Saturday morning:
It may not be much - but it’s the most we have seen here in Chengdu! Heading into the city for fellowship today, we saw several “snowmen” (read: snow piles with objects stuck into them in a pitiful attempt to make a snowman) riding on the top of cars. While driving. In busy traffic. Go figure…
Far East Info
This article is very exciting to read. The author is correct in saying that cautious optimism is needed; things can change very quickly here.
Interested in knowing more about what is happening here in our Asian country? Check out this website. (In case you were wondering, ZG stands for 中国 zhong guo - the middle country - China)
Snow!
After saying it never snows in Chengdu (which it doesn’t - the last time of significance was 1995), both Sunday and Monday had snow flurries for most of the day, with temperatures near freezing and the possibility of more snow over the next week. The snow isn’t sticking on the ground at all, but the sight of snow two days in a row has people saying we need to put a snow day policy in place, including a way to contact all the students! It’s a little harder without using local radio stations…
Snow?
Although it gets disturbingly cold here in Chengdu, it almost never snows. The reason? The temperature is not actually that bad - maybe 5-10 degrees Celsius - but the constant high humidity causes the freeze to seep into your bones. And no, us “Chengduren” aren’t just whiners - I know several people who have dealt with frostbite because of the weather.
Anyway, all this to say that yesterday it almost snowed. It looked like a mixture of snow and freezing rain, which had no chance of making any significant accumulation on the ground, but did effectively mark the coldest day we’ve had in Chengdu this year. This also was the day the power goes off at school for the majority of the day, leaving us in the cold. I am now much more thankful for heaters, coats, sweaters, blankets, gloves, long underwear, and warm puppies.
One week down and a visitor
The odd quirk of mixing a Chinese and American calendar is two large breaks from school in close proximity to each other: we just finished our first week back to school, yet we only have three more weeks left before another two-week vacation. It makes it difficult to get some things done - the kids come back and are already thinking about not having school…
Thursday night Sarah and I, along with another teacher, Adelle, went to the airport to pick up a friend. My roommate Andy flew in from Beijing for a couple of days before heading on to other places in China, as well as Laos and Thailand. (We have two two-week breaks; the Chinese New Year gives Andy a full month off at the same time!) I gave him the tour of the school, we did the obligatory trip to the Pandas:
(There were cuter ones - but we weren’t allowed to take pictures)
In other news, our puppy Bailey got fixed on Thursday, but he has fully recovered with most of his manhood intact.
Back to School
I just finished my first day back to school. It was busy and exhausting (I hit a wall, so to speak at 12.30 and really needed a nap), but I was reminded once again that I really love what I am doing right now.
We started something different for our weekly assembly today - some of the upper classmen (upper classpeople?) are acting as small group leaders for the Re:View video curriculum series. Being produced by Cedarville, I’m a little biased for it, but seeing the students’ reactions today, I think it will work well with our school.
PS: thanks to Qumana, we can now publish on this blog much more easily!
Happy New Year!
It’s been a couple of weeks since our last post - and lack of time cannot be an excuse; we’ve been off from school for the past two weeks! It has been a relaxing break - here are some highlights: