Flowers are blooming and here come the little children!

It is finally starting to be spring here in Harbin and I am so glad! It has been a long winter and it is so nice to walk outside and be able to wear my chacos and see beautiful green leaves and trees and smell the lilacs (I have even picked a few for my apartment to make it smell nice!) Everyone seems to be in a happier mood and people are outside playing basketball, soccer, volleyball, and a lot of badminton! One of my favorite things to do is watch people-not in a scary, stalker way, but just to see people doing things they love and being happy. I think it has to do with my love of people. I just love watching people out and about around campus here in Harbin and seeing grandparents walking with their grandchildren and students having fun and not worrying too much about class and old men sitting and playing cards ouside of small restaurants. The children especially have been cute lately. They are finally able to wear normal clothes (you can actually see them other than their little noses sticking out from tons of layers of warm clothes) and they are wearing the wonderful split bum pants (pants with a slit so that they can just squat when they need to go potty!). They are all big eyes and always staring at us foreigners. I love it though!

For the first week of May we were off of work and so I was able to go to S. Korea and visit a friend from college. This was so fun and we had a great time going to the D.M.Z. (border of Norht and South Korea), shopping, riding bikes on the river, hanging out on the Army Base, and so much more. It was so great to be with a friend who I have known longer than a year and to relax and enjoy a little taste of America on the Army base there! (pictures on flickr)

Life is going well lately. I am busy as always but loving it. Chinese is getting crazy. My classes have definitely not gotten easier lately and I have been having to really work hard to stay at all caught up in my classes. Our books no longer have pinyin (chinese in letters)-only characters so that has been rough lately! I still love studying it though. Last week we celebrated one of my teammate's birthday in the theme of Hollywood and so that was really fun. It was nice to dress up and relax together with my team and other teachers in the city. (Pictures on flickr to come). Many other amazing things are happening here as well and I hope to share more soon. My family are coming in 2 weeks to visit and so I am VERY excited about that. It will be great for them to see China and see me in my life here. It will be nice to have people who can see my life in more than just pictures and stories! Love to hear from any of you!