October Holiday

Hi there dear Reader,


Ok, we've got a little catching up to do.


China celebrated 60 years of communist rule on October 1st, National Day. Beijing hosted an impressive cultural, political and military parade which we watched on TV.

October 3rd was Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional holiday when people return home to visit family, eat mooncake and look at the full moon. Some travelers won't see their families again until Spring Festival, in late January/early February.

Since these two holidays occurred in the same week, state institutions like our university had a full week off! But -- it's funny. We make up the days off on subsequent weekends. So Drew finds himself teaching Tuesday's classes on Saturday and Wednesday's classes on Sunday.



This is what we did over October Holiday:


Our Foreign Affairs Officer (boss/overseers of foreign teachers) came over for Mexican food and Guitar Hero! Hahaha it rocked!



Sweet and polite girl students came over for their first-ever American dinner. Drew taught them how to make "his cookies".



Took the train from Changsha to Hengyang for a little overnight trip.



In Hengyang we hung out with our buddy Portia! She was our teammate last year. We like her a lot.



Went over to our new friends' house for dinner and met their daughter, who is the same age as us. Too bad she lives in Shanghai. These folks are the cousins of our friend Nan in St. Paul, MN.



No way! This is Jared, who is a friend of Drew's brother Peter. Jared and Peter were in the same frat at Berkeley. This semester he's studying Chinese in Beijing, and his class took a trip to Changsha. He had some time off so we got to hang out.


Thanks for taking time to catch up!

love,

D + R + T