School, Sashimi, and Suzhou

Hey guys! It has been a while since I posted and I feel like so much has happened. We finished our first week of school this past week and man was it hard. I love teaching and the content is pretty interesting, however, the classroom management side of things is proving difficult for me. The kids are very sweet but when 20 of them get together, crazy things can happen. Hitting, pushing, yelling, wondering around the room while I am talking, leaving the room randomly...you know, kid stuff. I am hoping I will get the hang of things as time goes on. The kids are already growing on me and I love seeing all the different personalities.

Hunter is enthralled with his classes and students. His content is much heavier but his students sound amazing. They are so incredibly smart and very sweet. I will let him share about his students though.

We were too busy to go anywhere this past week so when Friday rolled around we were ready for some fun. We decided to go to a highly recommended Japanese buffet in town for dinner and drinks. That was the best decision we could have made. It was so delicious! I have never eaten straight up raw fish (sashimi) but we tried it and it tasted amazing. Everything we ate was great and there was nothing negative I could say about the food. We tried raw salmon, sushi rolls with roe (crab egg), shark, cod fillets, the list goes on. I am hoping we can visit Japan one day so we can try genuine Japanese food.

Saturday we went to Suzhou which is famous for beautiful gardens and shopping. We tried a vegetarian buffet and it did not disappoint! We both agree that one of our favorite things to eat are baozis. They are soft, chewy buns with an array of different fillings. Hunter loves the ones with pork, I prefer the ones with a sweet bean paste.

After we ate, we went to a famous shopping street with tons of shops and vendors. We searched in vain for winter coats while also perusing all the random knick-knacks. We then went to a small theme park that has a giant Ferris wheel overlooking one of the lakes. It was gorgeous.

We ended the night with some awesome Tex-Mex that we just happened to stumble upon. It was surprisingly not that bad. Today we will work on lesson plans and grocery shopping, have to get back into the groove!

Anyway, I am missing everyone back home and hope you are all doing well.

 Love, Chelsea.

 This was a neat temple we found randomly in Suzhou. You can't tell in the pictures but the statues are huge!

 This is Jinji Lake in Suzhou. There is a pretty little park as well as the amusement park where we rode the Ferris wheel.

 The people we rode with on the Ferris wheel were kind enough to take a picture even though I complained about having to ride with them. I didn't realize they spoke English ;-/

Quesadillas!!We miss Tex-Mex so much.