First Day at School

Hello Everybody, I am just getting settled in with my host family now. My Mama is the sweetest person I could have hoped for, unfortunately she doesn't speak English. No worries though we are getting by. My host brother is very friendly. His name is Yifeng. He fortunately does speak English. He hopes that I can help him with his English and I said that I would help him with English if he helps me with Chinese. I think we will make a great team. I have not met my Baba yet. He has been away on buisness but will return shortly. From what I am told, he does speak English very well. I am still getting to know the routine of things and I’m sure everything will be smoothed out with time. I ride my bike to school around 7 a.m. and home again at 5:30 p.m. My school day consists of four 40 minute sessions with the other 6 Americans solely devoted to learning Chinese. Then in the afternoon, we have classes with our Chinese peers. There are actually about 7 AFS students already here. One girl has been here for a year and a half and is from Shaker Heights. They are super great! Today, they took us out to the market and out to lunch. Everything is so cheap here. You can ride the bus for 1 yuan. (1/7 of a dollar). We went Go-Carting at the city's "Park on the Water" for 15 yuan (about two dallars). This "park on the water" is a very interesting place. It reminds me of a giant carnival. There is a ferris wheel and all the other fixings involved. It surrounds a huge lake, unfoutinetly, much too polluted to be able to swim in during summer. We also visited a market. I found a Girgio Arvanie wallet for 48 yuan. I know I could have found it for less elsewhere but my current wallet was falling apart, so I needed a new one stat! Anyways, I really enjoy school and all the teachers are very helpful . Everything is going great here. I’m just looking forward to getting to know the city more so I can go out into the surrounding area and be able to find my way home :)
Think of you all the time. Peace and Love.