holiday!

has it really been two weeks since I wrote last? well, time has flown. these past weeks really went quickly, as we were waiting in anticipation of this holiday. It is the holiday of independence, when China celebrates it's birthday. so that means that this weekend everyone is working because during the week they don't have to work everyday. October 1st is the actual holiday, and that is the day that everyone in the city goes to Tiannamen Square, and we plan on joining them! we expect it to be a crazy experience, but an experience worth doing. still not sure how we'll get there even. maybe subway. it's a National holiday, so everyone in the country is travelling! that's why we've decided to stay in town, since there's so much we haven't seen yet.

our internet recently stopped working at home, which means it didn't get paid for....but I thought I paid it at the bank....better try again. everything here is "pay as you go"....so I was worried when our gas burner wouldn't turn on this morning, thinking we were out of gas credits. but we were fine. sometimes it's just finicky like that. but we have to remember to charge the gas and electricity bills so that we won't run out.

we bought a little oven yesterday!!! very exciting! this now means that I can finally make meals that go in the oven, such as baked squash!! I will be making that next Sunday because we've been invited to a Canadian thanksgiving! unfortunately turkeys are about $75 dollars here, so we'll be having some other form of poultry. but I'm quite excited about having a little oven. it's basically a bigger toaster oven. we even rode our bikes to go get it, and Scott tied it to the rack on the back of his bike to bring it home :)

so far at the start of this holiday we've enjoyed lots of sleep, reading, and a movie as well. we hope to visit other parks and sites around the city, as everywhere is decorated with flower arrangements, lights, lanterns, etc. every apartment compound even has a nice flower arrangement at the entrance.

my students do continue to amaze me. in a good way. this past week we played a game where I mixed up the subjects and predicates of various sentences, then they matched them up randomly and most often came up with a very silly sentence. they loved the activity! Language Arts had never been this fun! so the next day, a student arrived at school with a little envelope full of subjects and predicates she had typed out at home so that they could play on their own!!! wow! what a bunch of keeners! and they also have a book club, where the more pages you read, the more points you get! what a great class! we aren't free of troubles though. there are some social issues that go on among the korean girls. they also have a hard time getting along with others.

anyways, today we'll be watching the final for the women's world cup. should be a very exciting game. our neighbour also made us a DVD with Mandarin lessons. so nice!

that's it for now....
by the way, I continue to arrive alive every time I ride my bike somewhere :) it's not so bad once you get the hang of it!