My life has been a series of packing and unpacking.

It has been far too long, and I have been far too busy having fun and working hard to update you all.

Since returning to Suzhou in early August, things have been busy. Anwer began his second year of Mandarin, second semester of his Masters, taught third graders for a month, and continues to seek adventure in Suzhou. I began my first semester of my Masters, my second year teaching IB in China, attended a PD conference in Jakarta, attended a PD in Shanghai, went to Huangshan with 27 11th graders, went to Guilin and Yangshuo with Anwer, and continue to bake and cook things with pumpkin. We certainly can't complain, and we are so grateful for all of the experiences we continue to have here.

I'll start with photos from Huangshan (Yellow Mountain).

We went rafting in a stream that also had roller coaster features. They had to turn the water "on." 

We climbed straight up stairs to get to the top of Yellow Mountain. It took between an hour and three hours for our group. 

It had so many Mussoorie-like features. Misty mountains being one of them.

We woke up for a sunrise with hundreds of other tourists. 

We stayed in a gorgeous village that was used in the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. 

The trip was great fun. We left at 6 AM on Tuesday and returned just before 7 PM on Friday. This was the school "Camp." I use quotations because we never actually camped. We stayed in a series of hotels and ate all of our meals at restaurants or hotels. I had ice cream. I also ate congee a few times because I was soo hungry, and the choices were limited.