A Delay

Alright sports fans!
I hope every body is doing very well. My past 48 hours have gone for the most part unaccounted for- and I wouldn't want you to worry out there. ;)

Well- lets see. Monday- since we stayed up the ENTIRE previous night, we slept most of the day. I slept 6:30-2pm then went back to bed from 4-8pm and then back to bed AGAIN at 10pm. Not very exciting.

Then yesterday- was chores day. Jill and I spent most of the day puttering about the apartment. I finally completely unpacked. I had been holding off- for some odd reason- and I emptied my suitcases. Luckily my Ikea bed/storage/desk unit gives me LOTS of places to stash my clothes. We snacked ALL fricken' day as we hung out around the apartment. It was glorious! :) Luyin called and informed me that I needed to get 12 2x2 passport pictures for my work visa. So off to the mall we went. Jill and I walk EVERYWHERE and it has been great exercise. Especially when we lug all of out groceries 10 or so blocks back to the apartment. I got my pictures taken at a little Kodak store- and they are rather horrid. Jill made me laugh and then for the rest of the pictures I was trying NOT to laugh. The result is some sort of half nauseous looking face. We did our grocery shopping while we waited for the pictures to print. We stocked up on snacks, drinks, yogurt, breads. Jill and I have been on a crazy cheese kick. Cheese is our over indulgent treat to ourselves and we now have swiss, sharp cheddar, mozzarella, and chive cream cheese. All of which was sampled yesterday.

Jill finally got sheets big enough to fit her bed! After she made her bed, we laid in it and chatted into the evening. Then it came time for our BIG dinner date. We found an Indian restaurant a few metro stops away, the Ganges. The Metro is SOOO amazingly simple and a pleasure to ride. It is just 2Yuan per ride and the announcements are made in English and in Chinese. They also have video screens inside the metros with random assortments of clips: recipes, news stories, weather, stock market and a wonderful cartoon Leon and Leona. Leon and Leona are round, bulbous frogs. Leon is a little sleazy and Leona is a bit of a cranky B-I. Hilarity ensues. I love this one episode where they are eating dinner at a fancy restaurant together and he cannot stop farting. It is awesome to know that FARTS are hilarious in any culture.

We got to the Ganges and it was JUST what I was looking for. It had a menu that was in BOOK form and had every Indian dish I could ever dream of eating. Even better- the waitstaff spoke ENGLISH! They (of course) played Bollywood Music Videos which was the first TV Jill and I have seen since I've gotten here. Everybody who ate there was not Chinese- which was really strange to see. Jill and I gorged ourselves. We shared samosa's, naan and a desert called Kheer. I got my Muttar Paneer and Jill got garlic tandoori chicken. It was amazing. I haven't eaten that much since I got here- and it was nice to stroll back towards the metro stuffed to the brim with curry. AND leftovers for tonight!!

Today was back to work. Except- I skipped out on the first half of it for my work visa medical exam. This has been one of the most amazingly efficient things I have done here. Although- there was a bit of a hiccup when Luyin forgot to tell me that I was NOT suppose to eat breakfast. And today I had a HUGE breakfast of yogurt, apple juice, and a croissant. We begged them to let me take the medical exam and they conceded- but noted that my blood sugar would be really high. You go to 10 different rooms and in each room they do something different. There was a room for a x-ray, an ultrasound, an EKG, an eye exam, a throat & ear exam, blood pressure check, and finally a room to have your blood drawn. It was insane! I've never had an EKG before- and it was neat to have a print out of my heart beat. I'm not an expert- but it looked good to me. Also- instead of sticking the electrodes to you- they have a little vacuum seal that sucks right to your skin. It was cool-and completed under 60 seconds. The woman who drew my blood did an AMAZING job- I literally did not feel it. In a week they'll send me my results.

Luyin and I drove back through the awful Beijing traffic to our SOHO building. As soon as I sat down at RnR, Claire and I got right to work. We are putting together the beginnings of what will be the Romp N' Roll ESOL Curriculum. That's right folks, Rompy is teaching English! One bummer thing is that they want to use an outside work book- so we're aligning the books curriculum with the RnR curriculum. For those of you who know RnR we are going to run it sort of like a Rompy's Adventure class. We will work on 5-7 words/ simple sentences a week. It's really crazy writing this curriculum. My speciality is definitely not teaching languages- but with a hope and a prayer this will be successful. This is a market that Chinese parents have really been seeking out- and it will be interesting to see how it goes. They are calling it 'Romp N Roll's Oral English" It's a trip.

I'm back at home now. Waiting for Jill to arrive so we can eat dinner and watch an episode of something.

I want to say THANK YOU to everybody who has been posting comments and leaving little e-mails. I love love love it! I can't respond to any posts on my blog- but do know that I am seeing every single one of them and reading them! I have had some complaints that my gmail account is not working- but I AM receiving e-mails. Please just be considerate that the internet connection is not great here and it may be bouncing larger e-mails. Just keep hitting resend- it will eventually find it's way. Also- it looks as if my HCPS account is officially defunct. But- I love you all and miss you all! Love! Love! Love!