Ni hao.
Well the past few days have been full of shopping, eating, navigating, and more eating (thanks to our host families). We've bought cell phones, had medical exams (scary-ask me about it later), bought groceries, had our hair cut, caught taxis, used the public bus, visited our new school, and most importantly PLAYED ON THE BEACH! I have to say life here in China will be very different, but I'm adjusting very well and the transition has been very successful. The local people are very welcoming and eager to practice their English (as much as I want to practice my Mandarin).

I've found that the key to practicing Mandarin is confidence and when pronounciating ANYTHING you must first position your entire mouth and throat as if you were going to eat a popsicle. It feels unfamiliar at first, but it produces the best tones-and we all know that in order to succeed in Chinese, you must first master your four tones. So, I keep that rule of thumb in mind, plus a spoonful of confidence and it seems to go very well. We took our friends Beth and Amy to get phones today (without our translator) and I was able understand quite a bit from the lady assisting us.

I have to say my favorite food so far is Korean. ANYTHING Korean (especially coffee, curry, and kimchi) is just absolutely amazing. And, since more than half the population of Qingdao is Korean-it's easy to find.

The weather here is very tropical. Yesterday there was a typhoon off the coast of Japan and we got the crazy wind and 30 foot high waves. Our apartments are located right on the water so it was scary walking home and getting blasted by these huge towers of waves. After the rain always comes a nice breeze and we get to open up our house and our clothes have a chance to finally dry out on the back porch. During the day it is very humid, but that always means that an afternoon shower is on its way which also translates into naptime in China.

Today we are going to help my supervisor teach English to 30 local national teachers. Group teaching is the key to success here so our job is mainly to facilitate discussions among the groups. I have also found out that QMIS (my school where I teach) is willing to build a rock wall at the school. The only problem is that they had no one with the knowledge to build it. So, they asked ME! So, this year we are beginning the process of building a rock wall outside the school. I am HONORED to set up this project and EVEN MORE HONORED to participate when it is finished!

That is all for now. I miss you all more than you know. I heard a rumor that we can get half-price round tickets from USA to here/here back to USA. If ANYONE is interested, have a bag packed. We have empty apartments here waiting on you!

Kayla