China Firsts

This past week Eric and/or I experienced a few China firsts:

-I ordered a dish in mandarin and the waitress understood me!

-We hiked in the western hills, on and off trails. It was beautiful. We were so close to the city, but we felt like we were the only people up there.

Top of the rock in the Western Hills above Kunming.

-I saw my first car-bike traffic accident. No one was injured, but it looked horrible.

-Eric gave blood at a Chinese blood bank. Instead of getting juice and cookies afterwards, he received packs of playing cards and a tea flavored marinated egg (he couldn’t get past the smell).

-We ate our first dragon fruit and white pomegranates. Yum!



Dragon fruit

 -I biked out of the Xiao Qu on my own. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but biking in groups is safer and it is easier to keep an eye on traffic if you have someone with you.

-We had friends over for dinner. Again, doesn’t give the impression of being a daunting task, but since arriving we haven’t felt equal to the task.

-We biked to fellowship on our own and even had to lead another teacher there because she couldn’t remember the way.

There are probably more things that we don't even remember right now, but we feel like we are making real progress in the transition process. Kunming really is beginning to feel like home.