Winter will bring quite a different experience for me. When I told one of my students how cold it gets in Florida in winter, he told me that was spring here. I asked what the temperature would be in December, and he said "You don't want to know". Just what everyone from the Sunshine State dreads to hear! Turns out it will be below zero. Like mega below zero. Not gonna lie, I'm scared. I have already been given one coat from someone who is leaving (I am a size XXL in China? Ouch!), and will need some more, I am sure. I am taking up a collection for thermal underwear!

*Spar: Pretty much the Target of the city. They have almost everything (except white wine and parmesan cheese), and is quickly becoming one of my favorite places here.

Well, I have finally secured a way to sneak past China's blockage of all things fun on the internet*... and now can really begin my blog! So here goes..

I am living in the city of Hohhot, which is the capital of Inner Mongolia. Yes, it is in China, but has major Mongolian influences everywhere. It is a small city by Chinese standards, but very up and coming. Research on it will not yield much info. All I knew coming over where was what my contact at my school or Wikipedia told me. Needless to say, I was a little worried.

Hohhot is a pretty decent city. It is very large, though unlike major cities in the US, most of the city is not made of office buildings, but of apartments (usually only 4-6 stories tall). I am in a two bedroom apartment with one roommate, Kirsty (from England). We live about a mile from school, which translates to a 15 minute walk or 5-10 minute bike ride (depending on the biking traffic).

The school I am working for is a franchise, and I am one of 12 teachers at the moment- though only one of 3 from the US. At the moment, during the intensive period** I am teaching 6 days a week. When it is over, I will work 5 days a week. I will explain more about the actual school in another post.

Due to my being money and health conscious and cooking dinner at home, as well as the opening of a new chain restaurant that serves many western dishes, I have yet to eat much authentic food. What I have had, though, was quite good, and seeing I am going to be here for another 11 months and 3 weeks I am not too concerned about missing out on the local customs.

Well, more to come later.

Much love to all!

*Due to a still partly Communist government, and deadly riots about a year back, China has a block on websites whose main job is to share info with others in a casual media, i.e. Facebook, Youtube, blogs, etc.

**Intensive periods- times of the year that the kids are not in school, so there are more classes than usual.

After checking in and taking our things inside, we decided to see if we could find the Alamo. We both immediately fell in love with downtown San Antonio, it had tons of little shops and old world charm. The Alamo is surrounded by a huge fence and tons of trees, so we really didn't get to see it. It closes at 5pm, and by the time we got there it was 8. We decided that we had an adequate experience with the surprisingly small fort, and headed off to dinner.

For dinner, we decided to check out a restaurant my dad told me he had been to about 20 years before. It is called the Magic Time Machine Restaurant, and it was so much fun! All the waiters and waitresses dress up like characters from movies. Our waiter was Ace Ventura, and he had a good time making fun of my being from Florida and Lebron James. After dinner, we went to the other side of the restaurant, where they have a bar. We sat and relaxed their for a little while, enjoying the company of some interesting people who had obviously been at the bar for awhile, by the sound of their conversations!

We left the next morning around 10. We still had to go through the other half of Texas, and knew that this drive would be harder. We drove through miles and miles of pretty much nothing. When we needed to stop to get gas, we ended up having to go 13 miles off the Interstate to find it, in Iraan Texas. If you will be driving across Texas, make sure you know how far you can go before stoping, and that their will be something there when you need to! We weren't on empty, otherwise things would have been very bad.

We made it to El Paso around 6. This time we didn't use my new favorite hotel tool, instead we used a gift card that Megan's parents had given to her. This worked out really well, because the hotel we stayed at had a free hot breakfast!

After some research, we found something called the Wyler Aerial Tramway, and decided to check it out. It is the equivalent of a ski lift (but enclosed) up a mountain. On top of the mountain you get a 360 degree view, and get to take in two countries, and three states- not bad for $7! Although I was a little worried about my Jeep's ability to make it up and down the mountain (or rather my ability to drive it, as I had never really driven up a mountain before), it was an amazing view and well worth the trip.

For dinner we decided to Check out Andale's Mexican Restaurant. Once you stepped inside, it was like you were teleported across the border! Our waitress did not speak English, and had to go find someone else that did. My phone, which is on the AT&T network, somehow switched itself to TelCel, it's Mexican equivalent, while we were still in the US! All this was worth it, though, when the waitress brought out our 64oz margarita (no worries, we walked to the restaurant)! We wanted one for each of us, but the waitress said they were to share. We fully planned on ordering another one, but after eating dinner too, there was no way we could drink another! It was really interesting being in a Mexican restaurant in America like that, because we felt really felt out of place, and confused as to where we are. I definitely suggest checking out the 64oz margaritas and the tramway if you are ever in El Paso!

Our first stop- New Orleans.

We decided that we would stay two nights in the city, since there were so many things we wanted to see. On Wednesday morning, we got up bright and early and drove downtown. We weren't sure where we would be parking, but we knew there were lots of options. We settled on a parking lot that was $6 for eight hours, a good price, but then had to walk a mile to the French Quarter. The damage left over from the hurricanes is most evident outside the tourist areas (for obvious reasons).

We started our day at the Cafe du Monde, which is a New Orleans classic. They only serve beignets (which are like doughnuts covered in powdered sugar), coffee, and soda. We chose to get the Frozen Cafe au Lait, because it was so hot.. Amazing! Very sweet, and the perfect thing to drink when walking around the city in the morning (there are better things to drink at night haha).

After that, we began walking around the city. We got a little guidebook, and found some cool places through it. We went to a mask store that was full of the most amazing masks we had ever seen. All the masks were made by local artists, and the best thing was that you could try on the masks and take pictures! I can't remember the name of the store offhand, but I have their card somewhere.

We were thinking about getting our fortunes told, but the first place we found was closed, and the other was pretty expensive. We had some fun wandering around a voodoo shop for awhile. We wandered around the city for several hours, checking out the French Market, tourist shops, and the old US Mint. The mint was really neat to look around, and the top floor had an exhibit on the drug trade in the US. It was somewhat morbid, but also very educational. They even had wreckage from the World Trade Center and the Pentagon from 9/11. You could touch the wreckage, which was a very emotional experience.

We hit up Margaritaville for lunch (since Megan is very accepting of my obsession with all things Jimmy Buffett). After that we were hoping to get to go in and look around the Astrodome, but it isn't open for tours. We also wanted to go check out the Jax Brewery, but there we struck out again. We resolved to walk the mile back to our car, and go home and nap. On the way home, I had the great idea to check out River Road, and see if we could find any old plantations (according to websites, that is where they are mostly located). What the sites don't tell you though, is that the few plantations that still exist are not located anywhere near the city. After a little while of searching, we decided to turn around. We had managed to go way out of way though, so what should have been a 15 minute ride home turned into an hour excursion through Waywego and Harvey, Louisiana.

After a nap, we got ready and headed back downtown. We found a parking garage closer to downtown, and headed to the Carousel Bar. The bar is literally an old carousel that they put inside a hotel. It rotates very slowly (though, after my margarita it seemed to be spinning faster). It was kind of expensive, but neat to have a drink at. After, we headed over to Bourbon Street. We decided to just grab some pizza for dinner. There are tons of little places all over the French Quarter that have neon lights inviting people in for pizza and daiquiris. Back to those drinks that are nice to walk around the city with- at night, get a daiquiri in a to-go cup, and head out to wander the streets. We went to sit in the Music Legends Park, which is a very small "park" with a few tables and a cafe, but at night there is live (and free) music. After awhile we met up with my friend Danielle and some of her friends, and discovered the Hand Grenade. I have no idea what is in it, but it is quite yummy! We then managed to find a club that was featured in MTV's Real World, and enjoyed a very nice drag show. It was only about midnight at that time, but we decided to call it a night since we had another long drive the next day.

All-in-all, the Big Easy is a loud, fun, and shenanigan-filled place. If you visit, you should try to stay as close to the city as possible so that you can experience everything there is to offer. I am definitely planing a visit for Mardi Gras when I move home, if anyone wants to join me (in 2012)!