Newbies

I've officially been here 3 years, as of this week. It's almost weird to think about when I didn't think I'd go past 1 year. His ways are higher...
So it's cool that a way I got to mark the event was by showing a newbie around Nanjing. Eddie is a new teacher at CPU, the uni I taught for my 1st 2 years in Nanjing. He's English, and really fun to talk to. We had great conversation over lunch at Blue Sky, mostly him asking questions about CPU classes and me sharing my past experiences. Then we walked up the street to the dvd shops across from Skyways, where I shared my "laowai" wisdom of dvd shopping, street-wise-ness, and the like. We then took the long walk to xin jie kou and the dvd shop next to the NICF's hotel, all the while still chatting. It was interesting to hear his observations about Nanjing and China so far, his reactions to things, how he's adapting, and even his comparison to his stay in Shanghai for a couple days before he arrived in Nanjing (smart guy...he likes Nanjing better). While we were in one of the dvd stores, we ran into a conversation of other foreigners, 2 Aussies and an American man, and it turned out the Aussies work with Danielle. Anyhoo, so one of the Aussies was commenting on how she loves this time of year when the newbies arrive in Nanjing, another onslaught of foreigners adapting to Nanjing life. And it was funny, because I had thought the same thing this past week. I look forward to it so much, new people in the fellowship, new foreigners perusing Skyways and the dvd shops on Hankou Xi Lu, and new people in general. And some of them do have this look of... "What in the world?!" :) Hehe...it's fun.
Be blessed y'all.