Home sweet home!

I'm home!!  Home in Taiyuan, Shanxi, China, that is!  We traveled by fast train and arrived Monday afternoon.  Since then, we've been cleaning like crazy and getting our apartments set up.  (On Monday night we all watched Disney's Mulan and it was totally epic watching it in China after having been to some of the places in the movie!)  My roomie is Lauren and she's awesome!  We're a lot alike and we're having a great time figuring out our new place together!  Here's a picture of us at our school:

Taiyuan is SO different from Beijing- it's definitely not even remotely westernized: no one speaks English, all signs/menus are in Mandarin, the food is hardcore Chinese, everyone stops what they're doing (even driving) to stare and take pictures, and kids run up to watch the foreigners.  So far we've only seen 1 other foreigner, so we're a huge anomaly here!  Beijing almost felt like we were still in America, just in a Chinese-ish area; Taiyuan is 100% China!  It'll take some getting used to, but I already love it!  OH!  There's a Walmart here... but it's pretty different, too.  Here's a picture from the food section:

Yup... that's some kind of bird, beak and feet and all! Yummy...

Shanxi is the most polluted province in the entire world!  There are multiple reasons for that, but it's mostly due to the immense amount of coal mining.  Even with all of the pollution, I still love this place!  It's actually kind of amusing, because it's impossible to keep anything clean; this will definitely get me over being a clean freak!  After dusting or mopping the floor one day, it'll be just as filthy the next day; there's this thick layer of dust that covers absolutely everything:

A car parked outside of our school.

The pollution makes washing clothes a really interesting experience
     (this is the water after washing my clothes from the 1st day here).

Even though I know it's going to provide lots of learning experiences and I'll definitely be challenged in ways I never would in the States, I'm SO excited to live here!!  YAY Taiyuan!!
Oh- I still haven't found out what grades or English levels I'll be teaching, but I start teaching on Friday!  Wish me luck!!