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!