First Semester - Finished

Well, the first semester isn't officially done, but since we've both finished our examinations for each class, right now we're just watching movies, playing games and doing crafts. It's nice not having to make lesson plans for the classes, but it is also making these last 2 weeks go by at an incredibly slow pace. There isn't much news here from Karamay except the regular - IT'S STILL COLD! We've reached a new low this past week...-20 degrees Celsius, which officially brings us below zero on the Fahrenheit scale. It's so cold here that visible icicles literally form on our noses and on Tiff's eyelashes during the 10 minute walk to school. It's so cold here that we actually saw a Chinese person light a fire under his car to defrost it. I'm not exaggerating. We walked a little faster to get away from the car once we noticed that, but it did bring to mind that eternal question which burns in every person's mind - "Is gas explosive when in its frozen state?" We'll let you know if we find out.

To keep ourselves from going crazy from this cold we've been doing quite a few things to keep ourselves busy. In this picture you can see us using a "sled" on the outdoor ice-rink/basketball courts on the school campus. Mostly we've stayed within the same 1-mile radius of our apartment because anything farther is just too cold to bear. We've watched a few movies, experimented more with cooking, and hung out with friends. We've also been reading quite a bit - basically whatever we can get our hands on. Just for fun we are posting an updated list on the blog of all the books that we have read or are currently reading. We're actually running out of books (yes, even after Christmas!) so we hope to buy some other good ones while we're in Beijing this February because the bookstores here only sell Chinese-language books (what's the deal with that?).

And since we're now on the subject, we're eagerly anticipating our upcoming tour of "historical" China! We leave next Friday and couldn't be more ready. For those who don't know, we will be flying into Xi'an, the capital of a central province west of Beijing. We will stay there for a few days seeing all the different historical aspects of that part of China which used to be the capital of previous Chinese dynasties. We will take either train or bus to make our way north-east toward Beijing, stopping in various small towns along the way which have their own unique draw. We finally end our stay with about 4 days in Beijing, the capital of China and home to the 2008 Summer Olympics. We've seen parts of Beijing already but that was just a small glimpse compared to what there is to see. We can't wait to show pictures! Actually, we can't wait to take the pictures.

Before we end this blog we wanted to explain a few of the pictures we have also put up on this entry. The first is a picture taken of our performance together at the KBAS New Years Program, more of which can be seen by clicking on our photos links on this web page. They have promised to give us a video recording of this entire performance which we hope you will eventually be able to view. The picture here is another one of our cute cat, who is finally learning the rules of this household and therefore living more peaceably with us. It's a process, but at least she's cute. Until next time!