The Stinky Cheese Man and other tales

So you know the story of the Stinky Cheese Man...yep, well, that was me today. I got a call saying I had a package in the office. No suprise, I had mailed it to myself the day I flew over. It was filled with all kinds of delicious foods: cake mixes, pudding mixes, mac n' cheese, granola bars, some other essentials, and most importantly fetuccini noodles and alfredo sauce...in a glass jar. Yes, let me take a moment to encourage you to listen to your friendly postal worker when they ask you if there is anything liquid, glass, or fragile in your package. If there is, it won't make it to China. I'm not sure what I was thinking...apparently there was a lack of thinking. Needless to say busted alfredo sauce is not good...not good to have all over your food...and certainly not good to smell. I feel so sorry for the poor foreign affairs people who had to smell that rancid package in the office all day. I wonder if it even made it out of America before it busted everywhere. I was able to salvage most of the stuff in the package. A few things I took out of the box and wrote on with a Sharpie. This may beat the syrup dripping package and the graham cracker/magic shell box.

In other news...

Teaching is going pretty well. I only have a total of 54 students so far split between two classes...which is amazing! I had that many in one class alone last year. Though they are 3 + 1 students, they seem ok and I'm trying to think of creative ways to not make listening class ridiculously boring. On the first day of class we listened to "Hey There Delilah." Not bad for listening class!

Brad and I tried the new "Western fast food" restaurant on Snack Street. None of us are very thrilled at the idea of Chinese food these days, so Brad and I ventured out to see how it was. They basically only serve chicken in various forms. So we opted for the chicken sandwich meal. It came with fries and a drink...what a deal! So yeah, chicken was good. Not really about the fries. The workers haven't quite grasped how to make them. They were more like greasy limp noodles. And who doesn't love a milk tea with green jelly balls for a drink? Upsize me!













I've been decorating my apartment all week. I picked up some free cushions that had been dumped at Kim and Katie's and made my own lounging/reading/study area, complete with a little tribute to Mommaw.


Last week Beth and I found a little store tucked away in the middle of "furniture ally" that had super cute dishes. Since we hadn't gotten paid yet, we vowed to go back. Today was the day, and I'm pretty sure we made these ladies' month! The dishes are so cute! We're talking Pier One/Target cute. They even have cute holiday dishes. My favorite may be the pumpkin bowls. I don't know if they're supposed to be pumpkins, but that's what they remind me of...and who doesn't love pumkin! I'm not sure if you can read it in the picture...but please note the Target Home symbol on the bottom of the bowl. Could it be that we've finally found in China something made in China that we would buy in America?! Here are my purchaii displayed proudly below: