New Year, New Post!

Happy New Year! So much has happened since my last post, including a change in the year!

We left for Zhengzhou, a city north of Guangzhou, on December 30. We got here by a 15 hour train ride! We've been helping out at a "language school" which has been very busy. There will be an English Camp January 13-18 which my team is in charge of running. Since we've been here, we've been going to various schools, mostly universities, to do recruiting for the school. This past week, we had English Corners on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. The turnout was actually GREAT (low 20s the first and last night; nearly 30 on Wednesday)!

Oh, and I should mention...IT'S SO COLD! No heat is supplied by the government, so not all of the rooms have heat. Showers and such are quite interesting and we tend to spend the day wearing our heavy coats. Today is a little warmer so I'm able to go without the coat, but I've still got a good number of layers on. At least I get a little winter to remind me of home :)

I'm finally learning more Chinese, so I'll actually be able to say a few things by the time I get back. It is such a crazy, hard language, but it's been fun to learn and try to pronounce things correctly. Definitely a huge challenge!

There have been many other challenges while being here, but none that were too hard to handle. A lot of us, however, are getting sick. One of our teammates has been sick for almost four days with some kind of stomach thing. Many of the rest of us have been battling colds. That's what we get for jumping into the freezing cold after being in Maui for so long!!!

I'm definitely missing all of my family and friends back in the U.S., but I know it won't be too long before I can talk to/see you all again. There's some hope and comfort in that, but there are still times when it's hard. So, know that I haven't forgotten you! You are often on my mind and will always be in my heart!

Thank you all for your continued support during this time. It means SO much to me to know how much you care!