I love a rainy night...

The early heat wave subsided today for some rain, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. The city just smells better! The first week or so the smell was a bit hard to get use to, but it had gotten a lot better for me. However, even though the rain makes our windows disgusting, it does refresh the air. I've noticed that when it rains stores and businesses will put out rugs or towels that run across the entrances. It is very kind.

I was taken out today by my boss and the center manager along with Cindy, a local teacher who has already been here for a month, but hadn't had her welcome lunch yet. Claire, the senior teacher was also asked to go along. We went to a restaurant across the street for some spicy Chinese food. The center manager was freaked out by my semi-vegetarian eating habits and decided to order a lot of meat dishes in the hopes of changing my mind. He ordered this huge bowl of tiny baby shrimp with everything still on them! It is a much more honest way of eating meat, for sure, and I respect that, but it grosses me out! We did get some good broccoli and tofu dishes, so I had plenty. The restaurant was very pretty and had a great view of the street. We even got treated out for ice cream for desert and it was lovely.

I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for my future classes and I am starting to feel more comfortable in the staff room. I even got my own basket to carry materials around from classroom to classroom. I even have my own shelf so I don't have to stow away my lesson plans and books in my little personal locker. I found out today that I cleared all my medical tests and now can apply for a year long residency. I will be going with Lucia, my representative and the cute European boys next Tuesday morning to apply. It is nice to know.

My classes this evening were fantastic. My first class is all little girls and we learned about the letter "T." I feel that I am doing my own spot for "Sesame Street" sometimes in the preschool classrooms. I'm going to try to see if I can find any "Sesame Street" video clips that pertain to our specific letters of the day for my classes to watch sometimes online. My last class of the evening has a lot of students. I had a mom ask me to have her kid speak in complex and/or compound sentences back to me. We teach simple, complete sentence structures and phrases in most of the preschool classes, and often that is a struggle. I tried to appease the mom, but her little student was more interested in putting his little chair on his head tonight!

My friend Cindy is taking me to a Starbucks in her neighborhood tomorrow morning! I am so excited. I wonder if they have a Pike's Place Roast in Beijing? That would be sweet....