Where to start. . .

The only problem with not having time to blog like I would like to. . .is that experiences start piling up and I would love to tell everything that I have been experiencing, but no one wants to read a six page blog post :)
I'll start with some school details. . .we started our teacher orientation meetings this past week. It was great to finally be at the school, with the rest of the staff. It was great to get my teaching schedule (which I think will be really nice). The orientation meetings were very informative, although, I was starting to feel really overwhelmed with all that was going on. I had so many people that I wanted to talk to about my classes and where to start and what was available to me as far as curriculum, but the meetings kept coming. Especially as a new staff member, there was a lot of information that I needed to get. It was all necessary information . . .but it seemed like I left each day without feeling like much got accomplished. . .
. . until Friday. Most of the meetings were over by then and I was able to spend some concentrated time in my room. I didn't have my camera to take updated pictures of my room, but as we speak, I am uploaded pictures so you can see my school. I love my classroom and I really am excited for school to start.
(which isn't to say that I don't miss my old school. . .and feeling comfortable with the procedures and people. . .)
In other news, I was invited to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies at the home of my 6th grade homeroom co-teacher. They have an adorable 6 year old son who is quite the communicator and loves to show people what he has been learning in his tae kwan do class. It's so great to watch him. . .
Anyhow, my roommate, Erica, and I had a great time snacking and watching the Opening Ceremonies with them, the kindergarten teacher and another family that lives close by. Man, if you saw any of the opening ceremonies, you know what a spectacular event it was!!!!! If you didn't see them, I won't give you a play by play, but my favorite part was at the very beginning with the hoardes of drums that lit up. It boggles my mind the practice it must have taken to get to the level of synchronization they achieved. 2,008 men were hitting these huge drums and every time they hit their drum, it lit up. And they made all sorts of patterns and Chinese characters and even did a countdown. The rest of the acts were equally amazing. Such a grand showcase for the thousands of years of Chinese history. Last night I learned, that for each act, there were 2,008 participants. .. which is so cool and a very Chinese thing to do. I love how everything they do has layers of meaning.
We watched the entire ceremony, including the 3 HOURS of athletes parading into the arena. . .although, I did enjoy seeing what each team wore. I loved the African teams that came in national dress. And thank you to my 6th grade social studies teacher who made me memorize the countries of Africa and the former USSR. I would have made her proud, telling everyone where the countries of Botswana, Lesotho and Georgia are. Anyhow, we truly were watching history being made. Our host made the comment that it had been 100 years since the first person wrote about the possibility of the Olympics being held in China. Wow. . .so cool!
So, tomorrow is my birthday!!!! I've been telling everyone here. (You would be proud, Meg, although I haven't sent out a countdown) And just to give you a glimpse of the minutiae of my life here, cheese is really expensive. I mean really expensive. . .so we don't buy it very often. So yesterday, at the grocery store, I bought myself a birthday cheese. It was a beautiful looking piece of Colby-jack a little bit bigger than a piece of string cheese. But, it cost me 22 RMB, which with the exchange rate comes to about $3.25. So the next time you eat a piece of string cheese, ask yourself if you would pay $3.25 for the pleasure of eating it. . .For my birthday, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make. :)
Well, I'm going to go add comments to my new pictures. I know I've been bad at getting e-mail responses out. . .but I do love hearing from you and they mean more than you can know. Until next time. .
Much Olympic love!