Back in Lanzhou!

Hey everyone!

I'm coming to you from the Lanzhou University of Technology Netbar! It's been a great day and a half here so far - too bad I can't get any pictures on this public computer :(

Evyerthing is going really well - me and Robert are both over our jetlag, and we're just chillin'!

This morning we went all around the area of campus and our hotel. We stayed at a hotel in Xi Guan (She Gwan) and we walked all around downtown Lanzhou and saw the shops, ate some 包子，and had a really great time walking around our little part of the city.

It's really great being back here - I got a text when we were coming into Lanzhou saying that there were 7 people waiting for me and Robert at the airport shuttle bus stop!! Benjamin Xi, Christina Yao, Ethan, Boss, and more of my old friends.........it was a truly happy moment to get that first glimpse of them from the bus window.

It's also a little weird being back as a tourist, so to speak. Yeah, I'll be teaching in the fall, but right now, I don't have any plans, and I'm just hanging out. I don't have to go to class, I don't have to shop, I don't really have to do anything. That's weird, and it puts up a weird wall between you being there and you being there.

This isn't to say this isn't great! I LOVE being back! I really do! It's been a lot of fun to speak Chinese and eat all this great food and be able to see my amazing friends again. Some of them will be leaving Lanzhou soon, and it will be sad to see them go. I'll see some of them again, but some, I won't. But we can't know that right now.

Life goes on in Lanzhou - there are a few new shops and vendors here and there, but it seems very much the same, which is just fine with me. There are more foreigners at the university now, I think around 30 this semester, and next semester, it will be over 50! Wow, they are really getting into it!

I have to go buy a phone, meet some people, and some other general Lanzhou things........(code for "I don't know"), but until next time, much love!

Austin