Last Wednesday I went for a walk and bumped into a young American couple from Virginia. They have a 25-month old daughter. They teach English at a university just 2 blocks from our house. They seemed kind of like deer in the headlights, having lived in China just 3 weeks. The mom and girl are coming over Friday to play on our playground.
The rest of the week I spent at home getting the house cleaned and settled. Sophia stayed home from school Thursday and Friday because she had a sore throat and scratchy voice. Saturday, Adam was home from school in the morning, so we were able to get a lot of work done. I was anxious to get the house settled because then I can start getting into my routines better and having people over.
Adam is part of a cohort that is led by one of his international business professors. His name is Professor Chang (as in song). Adam will spend a lot of time with him over the next 3 years. Often on Saturdays, Prof. Chang will ask his cohort to come to a seminar. This past Saturday was the first, and the whole thing was in Chinese, but Adam thought he caught about 40% of what was said. Afterward, Prof. Chang took them all to dinner.
Sunday was a good day for our family to finally be together and rest. Sunday evening we got together with another American X-ian couple that is living 2 blocks up the street from us. They are from the mid-west and are here working at Mr. Mai’s Coffeehouse. They also have a daughter who is exactly one month younger than Elise. Their names are Logan, Amber, and Lyla. We had a good visit with them, and I think we’ll be able to become good friends this year. They also brought along another couple they had just met. This couple is Joel and Rachel and they’re from Detroit. They’re also X-ian’s and are here for the year to study Chinese at the same university Adam attends. Logan and Amber had to leave first on Sunday night to get Lyla to bed, but Joel and Rachel stayed and visited until after 11, so we enjoyed getting to know them. Everyone plans to come to our house Thursday night and we’re going to cook together to try and make tacos, tortillas, and salsa.
Next post, I’ll pick back up with what happened on Monday.
We're sponsoring six Chinese students from Northwood University. They are so interesting and so eager to have an American family. The other day I was talking to one of the head persons in the International Friends Organization. She mentioned she has a daughter in China. I asked where and she said Wuhan. I told her I have friends who live there and she said there are several universities there so her daughter probably wouldn't know you. I tried to think of your names and could only think of Adam (old age) She said, "You don't mean Adam Carpenter." I said, "Yes, Adam and Rebecca Carpenter! I don't know Adam but I do know Rebecca and her family." Her daughter is also Rebecca and she does know you! Rebecca Kelch. What a small world! I don't know if she's married, if so this would be her maiden name.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy reading your blog.