Lovely weekend and the real China

Well, feel like I had a true Ningbo weekend.

Went out Friday with some other teachers, including the wonderful Katie, another intern from i-to-i.  Together we are the Katies.

And this morning Mom and I met up with new wonderful Chinese friend Jim at his school.  The kids there were soooo ridiculously freaking adorable!!! Then he put Mom and me in the right direction for Tianyi square.  I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to the giant and lively shopping district. Along with getting to eat pizza for lunch, I also made it to an H&M, Zara, and Sephora, and most importantly, the REAL China.  Just south of Tianyi we found a plethora of winding paths through the market there.  It was just the kind of bazaar I've been looking for - a possibility of finding anything you could want to buy with enough twists and turns to make the adventure fun and exciting with a constant accompaniment of assorted smells that come from passing by hot cooking curiosities every few feet.

Think I'll taking the bus there as often as I can to enjoy the excitement and magical foreign allure of the place.

Other good news: showers STILL hot, made some more friends over the weekend, found and bought cold cereal, and Brent brought us a coffee maker! Mom and I are also testing some Chinese pastries to find our favorites. (And I bought a really cute sweater at H&M today.)  China is looking pretty good at this point.

And tomorrow the week starts all over again with a bang - 6 classes and a total of 230 students within seven hours. Phew! Good thing I'll be able to start my day of with a cup of coffee in the morning. : D