Okay, I'll play along

Sarah, I want you to know that I hardly ever get around to actually following through with these when someone tags me . . . so the fact that I'm doing it with your tag must mean that I really like you! So, here goes:

3 Joys

• Celebrating 3 years with my best friend in the world, Jon
• Our phenomenal summer of travel
• Having so many prayers answered this year

3 Fears

• Death
• Not being taken seriously
• Being misunderstood

3 Goals

• Be a mother
• Get a Ph.D.
• Learn to speak Chinese

3 Obsessions

• Jon Felt
• Jon Felt
• Jon Felt (no, he was not sitting next to me dictating what I should say :)

3 Random Facts

• I really want to learn to do Tai Chi.
• Sometimes, I turn the music up really loud at my house and have a dance party all by myself.
• I have a very hard time telling personal things about myself to people! (so if I actually publish this post it will be a real feat.)

And now I know I'm supposed to tag someone(s), but another random fact about me is that while I generally appear to be a social conformist, sometimes my non-conformist side comes out and I am compelled to rebel against expectations.

Our final stop

Our final two weeks were spent teaching in a small town (population 1 million) north of Nanjing named Suqian. The students in our classes were a bit more diverse than our previous class. They ranged from elementary teachers to a few college teachers of English. They also ranged from teachers in the city to teachers from small, rural communities quite far from the city. It was a great experience to get to know a new group of students. They were very fun to work with, and we learned a lot from them. The picture is of some of my students. Another difference for me was that my first class was all female students. In my second class I had about a dozen male students, which added a fun and different dynamic to the teaching.
Our translator in the second district was named Ms. Bao. She spoke English exceptionally well, and she was so good about helping us out but also giving us our space to do our own thing. We had some good conversations with her, and we got to meet her adorable 9-year-old daughter.
After leaving Suqian, we went to Shanghai for a couple of days. We were able to see the Bund, which is a section of the city with large European style buildings. We also spent some time shopping to get the last minute souvenirs and gifts that we needed before going home. On Sunday morning, we flew out of Shanghai home to the US. It was the longest Sunday of my life, since we added 14 hours to it by flying backward through the international date line. We arrived having had little to no sleep, but happy to be back home and with family. Since then, we've been enjoying time in Utah with both of our families. The jet lag has hit hard at times. Slowly but surely, though, we're getting our bodies back to the right time zone.