Sent February 21, 2007

Hello Everyone!
I just wanted to let you all know that I made it to China safely! I absolutely love it here. It is incredible and strange all at the same time. School doesn't start until Monday so the three other foreign teacher and I have had some time to explore the campus and the city. Our first three days here in China were spent in Shanghai. I loved Shanghai. Shopping there is really fun because you can always get a good deal. They love to sell to Americans because we love to spend our money. Especially when you can get a pair of $50 shoes for $7.00.

After Shanghai, all the teachers split up to go to their school all over the country. I am in Xiangtan City at the Xiangtan University. It is a really nice university and almost everything that I will need to buy while I am here (except for Mcdonalds and kfc) can be found right here on campus. It is a really big campus. The school has about 30,000 students and almost all of the students and faculty members live on campus. There are apartment buildings everywhere you look.

Our apartment is pretty awesome. It will make for some great stories someday I am sure. Our bathroom is more like a shower-toilet-sink all in one. Every morning shower is an adventure. We are definitely used to a different style of living than they are here in China.

When they say that Americans are treated like celebrities here, they are not lying. Everywhere we go, people just stare at us. Some people run up to us and ask us where we are from, others just want to practice their English on us. We are the only Americans, that I have seen, in this entire city. People just don't come here because it is so far from anything touristy.

I have not seen the sun in about a week. It is just really really foggy/smoggy. I hope that it clears up soon. Every morning I am woken up by roosters. They like to hang out by our apartment building. There are also lots of stray dogs and cats everywhere here in Xiangtan. I should probably carry my pepper spray just incase one of the dogs thinks I want to play.

So far I have had some good experiences with the food and some bad ones as well. Trying to find American food in the grocery stores is really hard. I am craving peanut butter and Lucky Charms cereal. I am going to have a huge bowl of it when I come back home. We did find some oreos though. They are the peanut butter chocolate flavor. They taste so good!
Yesterday we were hungry for some American food so we took the bus into town and found a McDonalds. It was the best tasting food I had had in a week. I didn't feel guilty at all. You can find some really good fruit here. There are peasant ladies selling fruit and vegetables right near our apartment building which makes it very easy to eat well.

I think either today or tomorrow we are going to go to the capital of Hunan. It is about an hour away. It is called Changsha. Maybe we will get lucky and find a Wal-mart there.

Well, I hope all of you are happy and healthy. I miss you all and I wish you all could be here to see what it is like here. Please let me know what all of you are up to. I look forward to hearing from you!

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Elizabeth Jenkins