We haven’t been writing on the blog much, and we’re sorry, but we’ve been very busy and school is pretty exhausting so far. We’ve been here for about two weeks now, though it feels like two months most of the time! In all that time we haven’t had an actual day off yet, so we are really looking forward to the weekend. Hopefully we can sleep in a bit (if Inca doesn’t jump on our heads too early) and do some exploring around our new city. We don’t have much housework to catch up on because we’ve hired an ayi (literally ‘auntie’) who comes in to clean, do our laundry, and take Inca for a walk everyday. She comes in the morning, so we don’t actually see her or talk to her, but she’s good at her job. Hopefully Inca will get used to her soon. So far when we get home from school in the afternoons Inca freaks out and jumps all over us. We figure she’s trying to say: “That weird lady came again, and she moved things, and made the house smell funny, and she put my leash on me and took me outside…. I was afraid she wasn’t going to bring me home!!” or something like that.
We’re pretty impressed with Suzhou so far, although we’ve mostly just seen it out of the school bus’ windows! The part of the city that we live in is well-planned with tons of green space, which will be wonderful when we get Inca out a little more. There’s lots of space in our apartment complex too, including a little fenced in area where Inca’s been able to get off leash. However, the first time Ric took her there to play Frisbee, he accidentally threw the Frisbee over the fence around our complex. He had to climb over the wall to retrieve it, which set off the motion sensors, which sent the guards our way. Thankfully, by the time the guard arrived Ric was already back on the proper side of the wall so we just got a polite smile and bow instead of a cavity search.
The school is good, the beginning of any new school year is a stressful and busy time, so although we exhausted by it all these days we’re still really happy. The other teachers (both new and returning) are very friendly and helpful and we’re already making friends. We’ve got plans this weekend to have another couple over for dinner and drinks (we’re going to have to order dinner though; our kitchen is in no way ready for entertaining!). So stayed tuned over the weekend and next week, hopefully we’ll have some stories and photos for you.
