Not the new kid anymore...

I woke up early this morning at 6:30 to a loud symphony of Chinese music from the neighbor that I have never met. I responded back by putting on an episode of "Glee" as loud as my little computer speakers could go, but it was no match.

My friends Sandra and Laura had my Mom over for dinner tonight and taught her about video Skype. It was really good to see her, even though we were having some connection problems. Thank you fellow Jones girls!

It was a hot day in Beijing today. My first outing out of the apartment this morning, I stupidly wore jeans and a tee and it was hot! I can never tell how hot it even looks like outside because of the pollution-y haze.

I got to meet the new foreign teacher, Marie from Australia, today. She's been already working in China for nine months in a smaller city for another company. I gave up my new girl tiara today and it felt nice. I even shared with her my personal apartment hunting journey.

I have my toughest night of classes on Monday, and I never thought that they would end up being preschool classes. I didn't pass out many of the reward stickers at the end of the first class. The kids just couldn't keep their hands to themselves and one little boy has a serious problem of smacking the other children relentlessly. I kicked him out of the class twice! My next class is a little more relaxed, and we had to watch a video, so they were a little bit better then normal.

My friend Cindy and I picked up ice cream bars and chatted in my courtyard after work today. It seemed like a large portion of the residents were outside escaping from their warm apartments. It made for some good people watching and Cindy taught me how to say bathroom in Chinese. Plus, I learned that there are Subway sandwich places here here. It was a good night!