Friends

Some of my friends here that make my Chinese world go 'round:

This is my best Chinese friend. She is also my tutor, so you know she is verrry patient. I really enjoy her company, we have lots of laughs together. Her English name is Cassie.

Me and one of the new volunteers on a sinking ripe, humid August night. I read his blog before he came to China, so it was fun to meet him in person. (New volunteers come every summer, and because we serve for two years, we all overlap by a year.) I've really enjoyed getting to know all the new volunteers, they are awesome!

My friend Kristen, from Hawaii. She was smoking and our Chinese host handed her another cigarette; she thought they expected her to smoke two at a time! We're sushi, sunshine, and men-ogling buddies. You can never have too many of those! She's a lot of fun. We were team-teachers this summer for our summer training program.

Two other foreign teachers at my school; they aren't Peace Corps, they get paid a full salary. They're a lot of fun to hang out with for a chill-out time-out. They're from NYC and Missouri, respectively. This was at our rooftop 4th of July party.

Nikkie and John, two of the volunteers who came the year before me. Nikki lived about 15 minutes away from me and really took me under her wing and helped me learn the ropes here. I hope to be able to do the same for the new volunteers who just arrived. I miss her a lot! John is staying here as a paid teacher and also loves to shop, so I'm glad I'll have a shopping buddy here. John was raised in Kenya and Nikki's from Illinois.

Two of our new volunteers, posing for the camera at the beer garden last week. They are both hilarious and I'm glad they're here. It's sad when the volunteers you knew for a year go home, but it's fun to make new friends, too. Bittersweet turnover! They're from Wisconsin and Virginia.

The girl in the middle is Renee, one of my great friends here. She's from a small town in Minnesota and a self-identified hippie. She's an awesome cook, a very peaceful person, and a great friend. She puts up with my girly girl stuff and love of Korean telenovelas. I'm lucky we're here together, we have a lot of fun just doing nothing. We're the Seinfeld of friends, and we like it.

And my recently gone-home-to-America friend, Nicole. I cried when I put her in the taxi to go to the airport. Things won't be the same here without her. Nicole (and Andrew my co-teacher) are big parts of the reason I've survived in China emotionally. We spent many nights dissecting our China experiences, teaching experiences, dating experiences, and all the other crazy things going on in life experiences. (This is an old picture because I just realized we didn't take any before she left. Oops!) She lived in Africa for two years before coming to China, I can't wait to see where she goes next! A true adventurer at heart.

Well, I don't have a lot of pictures, these are the few I had on hand. I'll have to take more pics of my peeps here. They are all great people and I'm very lucky to know them.