Back to Xi'an

Last weekend I went back to Xi'an with Ben. His mom and sister were visiting and I needed to get some shopping done so we had a 36 hour adventure to see the terracotta warriors and meander through the city.

Tibet reopens to foreign tourists

As of yesterday Tibet is open to foreign tourists again, you can read about it here. I'm really excited now to have the opportunity to travel to Tibet, it was a huge draw for me in coming to China and now I'm just trying to figure out the best time to go and the easiest way to get there. I'll keep you posted as plans progress.

Ross and Landy's baby

It's obvious that I haven't posted in a while, because Ross and Landy's son turned one month old yesterday and I have yet to mention him on here yet. Well, he's absolutely adorable and he's getting big so fast. He was born on May 24 late in the morning and the picture on here is from about 30 minutes after he was born. His name is Wang Zi Long (his English name is Julian) and we have regular conversations about whether he looks more like a Chinese baby or a foreign baby. His face definitely looks more Chinese, but his nose is bigger like a foreigner and his eyes are a blue-green color. He's super cute and that's about all there is to share on that end of things.

Last day of class

So it's hard to believe, but tomorrow is my last day of class. I know I have some blog catching up to do, but I really just wanted to write a little bit about ending the school year. It is so insane to me to think that I started teaching almost 10 months ago and that tomorrow my first year will come to an end.

It has been a lot less dramatic saying goodbye to my students now that I know it isn't really goodbye. At the same time, I'll never teach this group of kids again and they really did make a huge influence on my time in China and just my life in general so it is strange to be saying goodbye.

This week has been really relaxed, I just took a group picture with each class and then we really just hung out and said goodbye to each other.

I've definitely had my ups and downs with each of my classes and there have been plenty of days where I haven't wanted to go to class, but every one of those days have been outweighed by the fun classes we had together, the silly comments my students have made, the small breakthroughs students have made and the progress I've seen some of them make. It has been a really rewarding year and in wrapping it up and looking back over the last ten months it has reaffirmed why I'm staying for another term.

So after tomorrow I'm free for a bit, which will be great but I know I'll miss my crazy students. All 1,200 of them.