My New Life

It's been awhile since my last blog post.  Life here has been really busy.  We have officially made it through two weeks of school.  We're starting to get the hang of things around here.  Doing normal everyday things tends to take quite a bit longer here because we still are learning our way around, and we don't speak the language yet.  I have so much to share, but it's hard to write about everything.  So I am going to show you some pictures that may give you a little glimpse of our life here.

Soon after we arrived, we decided we needed scooters.  With Jason's injured foot, it was hard for him to get around.  So we went ahead and purchased our scooters.  In this picture, Jason is getting ready for a test drive.

This is us after we purchased our scooters! I am on the left, Jason in the middle, and our friend Bekah is on the right.

Jason and I have discovered this great little restaurant, Bodhi Tree, very close to where we live.  We go there a little too often.  They serve Western food - or at least their version of Western food.

This is the bacon pizza we like to order at Bodhi Tree.

This is the area in front of Walmart.  Every night people gather to dance to Tibetan music.  They are very faithful to dance every single night.  We can hear the music from our apartment.  Someday maybe we'll join in :)

This is part of our school campus.  Blue skies are rare in Chengdu, but we have been fortunate to have quite a few since we have been here.  We just soak in these days.  When winter sets in, we will just see gray.

This is the front of our school on that beautiful blue day.

Beautiful sunset.

This was taken from Bekah and Sarah's apartment. They live on the 15th floor.

There are many beautiful mansion villas - but it seems that many of them are empty.

Sunset pictures taken from our balcony.

   

This is the view from the top of our building.  We can see Walmart and an arcade.  We live on the 4th floor and in order to get to the top we have to walk up the stairs past the 11th floor.

We recently got set up with a bank account here.  It is funny that the Construction Bank was under construction.

Today I had the opportunity to go to the fruit, veggie, and meat market.  Do you see the feet?

Chickens, ducks, doves, pigeons - here is another way to buy meat.

This boy was taking a nap on the rice sacks.

Today I purchased a bag full of fresh vegetables and a bag full of fruit for less than $7 (US dollars).  It was great! 

This is the bus I rode home on today from the market.

Here are some things we love about where we leave:

-bubble tea smoothies

-the convenience of Walmart and restaurants right across the street

-getting around on scooters

-beautiful surroundings

-our apartment

Here are some things we miss:

-fresh Oregon air

-organized traffic (traffic rules are optional here)

-Pizza delivery, Cornucopia (our favorite restaurant in Eugene), and Jason also misses diet Pepsi

Of course we really miss our family and friends!

Thanks for reading!

The Apartment

We really love our apartment!  It is on the 4th floor and has a lovely view.  We have 3 bedrooms all furnished with beds!  We have room for many guests to come and stay with us.  So if you are planning a trip to China, let us know.  Here are some pictures.  These are the "before" pictures - before we have personalized our home and purchased our own belongings.

Here is our living room.  The couch is really comfortable!  The couch faces a TV, surrounded by two large bookcases.

 Here is the view from our living room.  We have a ton of large windows in every room - tons of light!

 This is our kitchen. We bought a toaster oven so we can bake.  

The rack above is a dish sanitizer to be used after hand washing the dishes - I haven't figured it out yet.

Here is our washer - it's outside on the balcony.  Above it is a line for hang drying clothes.

All of this was in our welcome basket!

Instant coffee :)

Guest bedroom #1

Guest bedroom #2



Window seat in bedroom #2.  I really like it! I am making this room my office.

We have a bath tub!


Our bathroom in the master bedroom.

Our bedroom

Our teammates are so generous - they lent us towels and bedding. We were able to purchase new bedding from Ikea! I'll put up photos sometime later when I have everything decorated. 

This is the sunrise view from our bedroom.  Beautiful.

We have a shopping street right across the street from our complex.  There are so many cute stores and restaurants.  I can't wait to explore them all.  We have a Walmart directly across from us, and I have already been there many times.  It is super convenient! 

What do you see in this picture? Jason's favorite place.  It's right across from us!


More pictures and stories to come. Stay tuned! 
(Sorry for the funky layout of this blog - I am still learning the blogging program.)

The Fast Pass

Wow! We've been in China a whole week, and I have so much to tell.  This is really the first time I have been able to just sit down and be... and I really should be working on something right now considering the fact that I still haven't found a place for every item from our suitcases and school starts on Tuesday.
Anyway, I thought I would tell you about our flight experience.  As you can see in the picture, Jason has a bum leg right now.  His injury came at the worst time ever! However, we have found some benefits.  People who can't walk get their own assistance (plus lots of sympathy) in an airport.  From the get go, Jason somehow charmed the lady checking us in, and she gave us a discount for checking our luggage and didn't even bother to weigh them.  She saved us quite a bit of money! Jason was given a wheel chair and someone to push the wheel chair at each airport.  We got to cut in front of everybody for security and never had to wait in a line.  Plus, we never had to get lost.  The wheel chair assistant always took us exactly to the right place in the fastest manner!  We certainly would've gotten lost on our own in Hong Kong.  So if you ever want to get through a large airport quickly - take an injured person with you :) It's like Disney's fast pass!
For some reason, the airlines always chose the smallest woman to push Jason (around 4'8" tall).  They would have to push him up hill and put all their strength into it, and it was really funny to watch.  I did feel bad for them, and so did Jason.  Overall, traveling to Chengdu went well. All of our suitcases came through! Yay! And we were greeted by a large cheering group from our school.

This is what Jason had to deal with on his screen during our 13 hour flight.  This girl kept flipping her hair over his screen.  Then Jason would slowly push it off, and she would just flip it right back.  It was hilarious!  Who does that?