What Now?

Flexibility is key! I am learning more each day that I should never expect anything, especially here in China. I have been in Eerguna for the past week teaching and counseling at Shamineau East camp. We had a blast with the first group of students as we broke in the winter equipment together, studied American holidays, and 'whipped' each other playing games. We were expecting another group of students on Thursday morning but received a call that morning explaining that the second session would be canceled. So now we wait around for a week until the third session, I suppose, and hope that we have a few students then. In the meantime I am debating on some tourist trips, returning to Hailar for some shopping, or simply just relaxing here at the camp. Hopefully I'll post some pictures soon!

In the beginning...

Well, I've finally decided to join the blogging world. It has not, however, been an easy surrender.

As I was trying to navigate the blogspot world despite a hair-pulling slow internet connection I was racking my brain for a catchy title to my blog. Prior to leaving for China a dear friend of mine teasingly called me China doll one evening. I thoroughly enjoyed his term of endearment and rejoiced as a few others began calling me thus. So, in searching for a blog title, I remembered this nickname and found it quite fitting.

Although I still do not understand why or how, when I typed the name 'chinadoll' to create an account, everything in my internet window turned into Chinese! While I can usually figure out a settings problem, with everything in Chinese characters, it became impossible for me to even know if I was in my new created account, let alone change the language back to English. Thankfully, with a little help from my Chinese friend we were able to locate the settings and switch the page back to English! But then, I found out that the clever 'chinadoll' address was not available. So, by merging the Chinese name I was given last summer from my Mongolian friend Lily, with the original nickname, I arrived at a suitable blog address. From there it was a bit smoother in creating this blog and beginning my posts.

I still, however, have the annoyance that whenever I view any blogs from blogspot (my sister's in particular) the heading options are still displayed in Chinese characters! Perhaps I will be learning more Chinese than I expected.