There has been a change of plans. Phil and I are no longer going to the coastal city of Taizhou to teach English. And I am sorta glad because there is a pretty nasty typhoon named Saomai inching its way toward Taizhou and some other coastal cities as I write this. At last check, under our standards, it was a catergory 5. Eeek! At least now we will be a little more inland and won’t be completely drowned when and if a Typhoon comes are way. We have been relocated to Fuyang, a suburb of Hangzhou, the capital of the Zhejiang Province. Although, there is a river that runs right by Fuyang, and I imagine if it rains a whole lot – I may end up floating home. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Cause that would be bad. I guess the threat of Malaria is the same. Damn mosquitoes. They are every where! The school that we will be teaching at has an elementary, middle, and high school. We won’t find out what grade level we will be teaching until we get there. I am sorta hoping for the younger kids. Who knows though, they may be the worst of the bunch, but I guess one way or another, we will find out. The name of the school is Fuyang High School Zhejiang (浙江富阳中学), and if you want you can go to their website and try to figure out what all the Chinese characters mean, be my guest. You can also go to www.altavista.com and have it translated, but it doesn’t do that great of a job. I am not a 100% sure that it is right, but I think this may be our school’s website – www.fyms.net I guess I will find out for sure once we get there. Well, that is all I really know at the present. As I learn more things about where I am going – I will post the information. And once I get there – there will be pictures galore!!

A lot of people say that if they could be a bird, they would be a Hawk, an Eagle, or maybe even an Owl, but if I could choose, I would be a Hummingbird. They are a very interesting species. Very beautiful and delicate. I just wish it was easier to get a picture of them, but because they are very skittish and faster than a speeding bullet, they make it rather hard. If you have ever seen one, I am sure you know what I mean.

So, that leaves me settling with pictures like the one you see to your right. And I guess until I get one super awesome hi-tech camera or figure out how to rig mine in a place where they can’t see it – pictures like that one will have to do.

They are very curious little birds. When I stand by the window sometimes, one will buzz down to check me out, and then buzz away. They make me laugh when they fight over a feeder that could easily feed a legion of Hummingbirds and remind me of cats when they do. They always seem to hate one another, but there seems to never be a shortage of a new generation. Thinking about it, I guess humans are no different – we just happen to rule the world.