Hello, no new pictures today. I have been so busy and haven't really taken any new pictures. I am still a little jet lagged, but I am managing to get at least some sleep. The food here is great, even if I do not know what I am eating most of the time. On sunday at school, we had Chinese take out for lunch, which I thought was pretty funny. The Chinese take out here is much better, for any of you who are curious. The first few days of school are going well. I do not have much homework yet because Chinese classes haven't started yet. We are still doing placement tests. All of our other classes have not really assigned too much homework, yet. The weather here is really hot and humid, and it rained again last night. It feels like Cleveland in that respect, only with a much much better bus system. cheaper too. paying $2 to ride a bus seems a little ridiculous to me right now. As of now, I am riding the bus to school, but I hope to get a bike soon. Bikes here cost around $55 or so. Also, I just bought some school supplies and paid about $10. My cell phone was pretty cheap too. However, the yuan dollar exchange rate keeps changing, and not in favor with the dollar. I have not received the school uniform yet because the one they had for me was way too big, so a couple other students and I are wandering around in street clothes among 1500 Chinese students wearing uniforms. Completely inconspicious. My host family is great. They are trying really hard to speak to me in English, but I manage to answer most of the time in Chinese. They are very interested in the American way of life, and I want to try to cook them an American meal some time soon. They are especially interested in Mark. They think he is so tall and laughed when I told them he was only 15. Organized sports are not too big here, sports are mostly just pickup games, so the whole concept of cross country was pretty interesting to them. I also had to explain crew to them. I resorted to using pictures. Well, anyway, I am having a really good time and I miss you all back home. Talk to you soon,
love,
Stephanie