We just finished our first day as a teacher!! We've both got about 18 different classes with about about 90 kids in each, most of whom don't speak or understand a lick of good ol' USA-an English. But we're managing and I (Lacy) am getting by with drawing pictures and writing simple definitions instead of speaking my hard-earned Chinese. Oak has both the more advanced senior classes and the less advanced juniors, so he can have conversations in one and can recite the ABCs in the other. I am stuck with the middle of both - but a much better schedule.

The apartment is large and spacious but smells of the six floors of defecation from the residents above us. (At least in the bathroom... and the kitchen. And the laundry room.) All the walls need a good scrub down with some brillo pads and bleach, but we've have only been terribly ill once between the two of us. Otherwise, our caretaker aka Foreign Affairs Officer, although he hates the Japanese and doesn't believe in gender equality, is awfully nice, despite the fact that we make twice his salary for one-tenth of his experience.

For the less social aspects of the country, we are situated in a delightfully rural area (think surrounded by 7000 noisy high school students) on top of an especially square mountain surrounded by farmlands, serene mountains, fresh air, and more bugs than you shake an electric tennis racket at. (How's about a giant 8-inch tarantula in your bathroom!?)

It's great to hear that some of our friends (Mikey and a friend from college) might be heading our way in a month or two. We'll try to keep everyone updated in the meantime and maybe upload some pictures (if we can figure out how to get this old dinosaur to work).