Second Week in Sanya

We are now at the end of our 2nd week in Sanya with Beach Chinese. We have picked up dozens of sentences and are catching onto the 4 tones (not easy). Saturday we had a beach outing with our teachers at Dadonghai Beach, the nearest to us, and Oscar surfed with the Californian owner of the local surf shop - it was so cool to watch! He has now officially surfed a wave and can forever say he first surfed in China.

Sunday we had a day off - hurray! - and went to Yalong Bay about 20 minutes away, a designated tourist zone with all the big 5 star hotels and it was gorgeous there, a wide, long beach unlike anything I've seen in Hawaii, and not crowded because it is low season in the summer. We posed as guests of the Hilton (thank you, Paris) and enjoyed their pool and restaurants and the beach. Ironically the meals at the Hilton were the only mediocre meals we've had in China, all others have been super cheap and super tasty. We took a day off from Chinese (but still spoke it about a hundred times.)

Mike says World Cup has been great here. Games are at okay times, except for the late game which hits at 2:30am. 5% Expats and 95% locals, with the expats supporting the bar. The locals have one drink for the duration. Awesome decorations at each bar and hands outs from Tiger beer have been impressive.

Josie's fan club continues to grow. Hoping for no long term effects, but it does seem she is becoming more and more demanding as a result of her risingfame. Daddy, I want a bigger trailer! Daddy my milk isn't cold enough. You get the idea.

All our love to those back in Kansas...Please let us know if you have Skype and send your Skype address. Vonage is not working out so well and we are looking for a new Voip option. Any recommendations accepted - leaning towards iCall. We get the notes you post through the blog and direct emails, but we cannot view the blog ourselves.