You're Like Comin' Home ...

For some reason I have that country song stuck in my head. I'm back in my *temporary* home, and much like coming home to visit you all was just like picking up where we left off, so has it been here. It feels like I never left. You know, except they actually have a highway built out to the airport now, my apartment building is no longer the tallest building around by far, and it seems that there are soo many new faces at Cup of Joe (they no longer know my order by heart, but don't worry, that will soon change!)
Taxi Ride to Get Home:
- Taxi rides are always my favorite stories. My taxi driver couldn't lift my suitcases on his own, and he was noticeably disappointed when we set the first one in the trunk and I swear the whole car dropped at least a foot towards the ground. He didn't have nearly the acceleration power he was used to, but still managed to pull off several foreign taxi cab moves that would make the faint at heart, well, faint.
- He did stare at me for a full thirty seconds (I counted) and briefly checked that he was still on the road only 3 times, before finally asking me what was in my nose :) Not knowing the word for "nose piercing" I simply tried to show him that it's the same as my earrings.

Surprises This Year
- My fish! Last year I adopted some fish from Erich. On breaks the TAs would look after them for me. Whenever we transferred ownership of the fish, we always left him out in the guard station. At the end of the year, when it appeared that no one would be able to take the fish during the summer, Erich suggested that I leave him in the guard station just like I always have, and hopefully they wouldn't suspect that I was abandoning him. When I walked into the guard station yesterday for the first time to clock in, I noticed the guards had adopted the fish, and bought some new friends for him too! 

My fish survived the summer! And now has a few more friends.

- The computer fairy! Or, probably more commonly named, the ayi! I have a computer fairy who turns on the computer before I arrive, somehow even when I arrive early. That's super nice, because these ancient things can take up to 10 minutes to actually boot up, saves me lots of time.
- I did go up to my apartment to learn that I am no longer the only one living on my floor. I share a landing with only one other apartment, and I got so used to the quietness of having my own. Shock of a lifetime when I came to school and learned that I'm actually sharing my floor with our new head of school who is married to the kindergarten teacher. OY! I guess I have to behave now :) Haha.

Me in the News.
My cousin Ian last June sent me a radio show that did a piece on ExPats living in China. The show focused on one of the most common experiences for the expats is that we appear in the local media often. We usually find out by email from our colleagues who read the news and noticed a random picture of one of us. Sometimes we have nothing to do with the article, but sometimes we do. As many of you have already seen, I was featured in an article about a soccer tournament in Ningbo last June. Though our team did poorly in the tournament, the tournament organizers were very excited to have a foreign team, and wanted to feature the only woman in the tournament. I got a lot of responses saying, "Look Kari, you're famous!"
http://www.zj123.com/info/detail-d164919.htm

 Typhoon Haikui:
 - I was lucky to land before the typhoon hit, otherwise I would probably have experienced some delays... The Ningbo area narrowly missed two typhoons last week, one just south of us, one just to the north, but it appears that Haikui will hit us dead on.
 - I've been a little nervous about starting the 2nd grade this year, but I didn't imagine that my biggest challenge on Day 1 would be a typhoon. How to look professional in 90 degree weather when clearly a skirt/dress is definitely won't be practical attire?!
 - Please don't be concerned, Haikui is not a strong typhoon, it'll definitely be breezy, and the parking garages are expected to flood, but otherwise it's just the usual here. We do get tomorrow off of school though!


Cars parking above ground to prepare for Haikui.

Homophones:
- The taxi driver staired at me.
- Our soccer team did pourly.

Really, I don't know how I come up with this stuff!