Day 1 - Shanghai adventures

LOADS to see and do here!  Will write details later. Heading off on our big tour to Beijing.  

... DeAnn and Linda

Linda at the monument for the People's Heroes

View from our hotel.

Lisa and DeAnn walking The Bund.

Love the brooms!

Great advice!

Beautiful little gardens are scattered throughout Shanghai.

We saw tons of little market streets such as this.

We kept expecting to see James Bond race past on some high speed chase.  

Seemed more like a movie set than real life...

Street food.  Looked and smelled delicious!

 Taoist temple

On our way!

St. Louis to Los Angeles.  Check.

Less than 24 hours!!!!

A frantic pace around here...  but super excited!  Ella made us these character cards to use in case of emergency - How much?  Thank you.  Good bye.  I need to pee.(She said she couldn't find a more polite way to say this and it does get right to the point.)  I am allergic to shellfish. (Important one!)  We are ready for Rugao!!

... DeAnn and Linda

8 days...

NEVER worked so hard or prepared so thoroughly for 50 hours of teaching in my life!  I keep hearing our program coordinators' voices in my head,  "You ARE America to them.  They will remember everything you do."  No pressure at all.  ...DeAnn

This is cool!

So I just realized that if you click on that tiny "more..." on the left below the interactive map at the top of our blog page, it lists the cities we will visit.  If you click on the name of a city, it will then take you to photos and other blogs about that city.  Neat!
By the way, we are down to 13 days!!!  ...DeAnn

17 days! Aaaahhhh!

4 of us spent 9 hours yesterday planning, organizing, and worrying about bringing too much or too little.  By the way, these 9 hours resulted in just 2 days worth of lessons...  oh, dear...  DeAnn   
P.S.  I did figure out how to  put that cool map at the top of our blog page.  Just grab and drag to follow our route.  You can also zoom in and out.  :)

Getting ready!

And the countdown begins...  19 days!  Finished my final meetings at school yesterday and now all I can think about is China.  Have done some preliminary planning and Linda and I will meet with two other teachers tomorrow for a full day of planning.  My sister and I did a bit of shopping the other night, I've brought my suitcases up from the basement, and have taken care of all doctors appointments.   My mind is racing!!  Just hoping to get at least one good night's sleep before June 26th...  DeAnn

What we have for our students, so far...