A brief tour around the school and some areas you haven't seen before:

Meet some of my youngest, new students in my Beginner Book classes:

Now, here's some (possibly) familiar faces. They've gotten so big!   My second semester with these ones. This is my favorite class and they are so well behaved.  They had better be after being little demons last semester. Meet Book 1, class 3:

Here's some of the book 5 kids.  Can't believe the difference in a 2 year old, 3 year old and a 5 year old.

This is my Gao'An Sunday Morning Class.  this was their last day of Book 1, now I teach them book 2. My facilitator (not pictured) has an elaborate star system for good behavior that we reward with stickers, prizes, and candy. They were pretty awful before we started the system. Now, they're normally pretty well.  It's amazing how much kids love stickers and candy.  Though, I do hope I don't make them fat.

I'll write a short, bulleted post for everyone's convenience. Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been crazy busy these last months. I had intended on writing a Turkey day post and a post on my trip to Zhouzhuang, but forgot my camera for both occasions.

Thanksgiving:
  A couple friends of mine and I went to a nice dinner at Blue Frog on Thanksgiving.  Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing (that tasted like ground up cornbread), squash and apple soup (mmm...), and pumpkin pie.  Definitely nothing like home made Turkey Day dinner, but better than fried noodles.  The holiday was pretty rough on a lot of the teachers here, myself included.  For many of my coworkers, it is their first holiday season away from home. 

Zhouzhuang
 I wish I had remembered my camera for my trip to Zhouzhuang.  Zhouzhuang is an old watertown near Suzhou, and the weather was perfect, the company was great, and the town was beautiful. 

Everything else
  Generally, everything else has been going alright. Tickets to home have been booked, but I have decided to stay in China with my school longer.