I may as well stop saying the phrase

"Set in stone."

It seems nothing here in China is set in stone... Unless of course it is the sidewalk. And really, those stones suck. I know I was originally supposed to be in Wuhan starting June 9 and ending June 30. Well then those plans were changed and I came to Wuhan on June 16 and I was supposed to be leaving on July 6. But- since this is China and things are indeed not set in stone- that plan has changed yet again. Now I will be staying an extra week. I would stay even longer but we just realized that my visa is going to expire soon so I need to get back to Beijing to finish getting my work visa. So now it looks like I will be leaving around July 14. I really do have to leave some time near that date or else I risk being deported. And nobody wants that... So Theresa will be joining me around July 11 or so and she will take my place here in lovely Wuhan for about 5 weeks.

And in case you were wondering- Wuhan was not the only plan that was rearranged in the past few days. Oh no... of course not... that would make things way too easy. When I return to Beijing I will be moving to a new center in Wangjing. Don't worry... Wangjing is still in Beijing. You see- Beijing is this huge city and it is made up of lots of smaller cities. Before I came to Wuhan, I was working in ZhongGuanCun in the Haidian District of Beijing. Well, now I will be about 40 minutes away from my old center and will relocate in Wangjing in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. Theresa will be making this move with me so that is certainly a good thing. I am also really looking forward to it because this means we will be opening a new center and will be the only instructors working there. We will be able to have a lot more freedom to work the way we want to and teach classes the way we want to. It will be really great being a constant at one center. I am happy to take on the challenge and I am ready for the end of August to come so Theresa and I can finally be roommates. Theresa is going to be looking at apartments in the area and figuring out where our office is and things like that. Apparently we will not be close to the subway so that is a bummer... and the apartment they have for us to look at is not within walking distance to work. T is going to check out the apartment and see if we will like it. If not, we will find something else. If so, I will be moving in there as soon as I return to Beijing in a few weeks. Because we will not be able to walk to work we will have to take the bus. Luyin is having the owner of the site, Echo, go to the bus stop to see how busy it will be in the morning. Apparently if it is too crowded then he will buy us a scooter! Can you imagine me driving a scooter in friggin' Beijing?! Yeh... neither can I.

So there is much to know about Wangjing. One- it is the "Koreatown" of China with 70,000 Koreans living in the area. It is in a more popular district, Chaoyang, so we should have plenty to keep us busy. Some other notable sites in the district include the Olympic Park, Silk Street, and Sanlitun bar street. Apparently Chaoyang is also the largest district in Beijing. So we will be in a much more happening district. These all seem like good things to me.

Life in Wuhan is going... okay. I really enjoy the people that I work with. They are super nice. It is a lot different not having native English speakers around but it is something that I get more used to every day. I really enjoy Candy. I am hoping that we will be great friends! We went to get dinner tonight because I wanted to know where to get the yummy fried rice that Snow and Mr. O brought me last night. We walked to the restaurant and it started POURING rain when we got there. We left the restaurant and ran back to the office. Because the office was closer than home I just decided to wait the rain out there. We were so wet... I have never been in rain like that. If we were in the states I am pretty sure that would have been a classified hurricane. Or a tropical storm. Or freaking something. It was very intense. We changed out of our wet clothes and wrung out our hair. We laughed hysterically and also got laughed at by our lovely coworkers. I may not understand the language but I do understand when someone is laughing at me. It is always a special moment when you connect with someone from another culture and the two of you cannot even speak to each other. Anyways, I hung out with Candy and waited for the rain to subside... eventually it did and I headed home to enjoy my fried rice.

Speaking of fabulous coworkers- This was my lunch cooked by Snow's mother-in-law today. Yum!

Candy and I after the big monsoon...

Wuhan is not so bad...

Mandarin lesson:
Shī 湿 (wet) Xiào 笑 (laugh) Huájī 滑稽 (funny)