The power of caffeine

I had some coffee after dinner tonight, so I might be able to stay up past 11:00 which means that hopefully, I'll sleep past 5:30!
I'm sitting here in my apartment, feeling the cool night breeze and listening to the sound of the waves crash against the rocks and feeling so blessed!
I wanted to tell you all about my crazy morning. All the new staff were taken to the international clinic this morning for our medical exams required to be able to keep living in China. I had been hearing bits and pieces of what would be going on. . .but I was still amazed when we had to make stops at the "fasting blood work" room, the x-ray room, the EKG room and the ultrasound room. No matter what country you're in. . .there's nothing like standing in the middle of a room, hugging an x-ray machine with three people watching you. There were 11 of us that needed to get our exams done and we were all finished with everything in about a half an hour. They were very efficient and everything was rather painless.
We were free for the rest of the day so three others went with me to set up our bank accounts. Two other girls had gone yesterday and met an employee there who spoke really good English and really helped them out. . .so we headed to the same branch and hoped we would run into the same women. Thankfully, we did and come to find out she studied for a year at Wright State to get her MBA. And when I told her that I went to school at Cedarville, she knew where I was talking about. . .it is such a small world!
I made two more exciting purchases today. . .I found a straightener which makes me excited because it will make getting ready for school so much easier. We also found this great basket shop that has every size wicker basket imaginable. They're all gorgeous and lined with different patterns of material. I found the perfect clothes hamper. I noticed it right away because in a store of brown, white and black wicker. . .this one was bright blue with a light blue and green paisley liner in it. Needless to say, I almost heard it call my name when I laid eyes on it. . .except it probably would have said my name in Chinese and I really only can recognize the numbers. But, I paid for it and now I can practice my chinese as I put my dirty clothes in it.
It was also an exciting day food-wise. . .I broke down and went to McDonalds for lunch mainly because I could order using numbers there. . .and french fries sounded so good. Although, here's an interesting piece of information--in China, you have the choice of getting french fries or corn with your meal. They also have these adorable Olympic mascot toys in their Happy meals, but I couldn't use a number to order those. . .so too bad! But the best part of the day, by far, was going over to another staff family's house for dinner and having TACOS!!!!!!! Most of you know me well enough to understand what a huge huge blessing this was! Home-made taco meat is one of my favorite things in the world. . .and the company that came with the dinner was just as much of a blessing. Three of us new teachers had dinner with another couple and the 3rd grade teacher who has been helping us get all of our settling-in stuff taken care of. It was so great
Well, this has gotten rather long. But I'm justifying it with the fact that once school starts, I know I won't have time for this. So I hope you've enjoyed another look into my life!
Until next time. . .much QD love!