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.