Transitions

Well a new year is upon us, school finally ended (much to the joy of Spencer) and we have officially transitioned into the second half of our time in China: the internship.

The Flagship program ended the semester with a farewell banquet complete with weird Chinese food, awkward awards, funny games, and going way over time.

Fancy Chinese dinners are always served on a lazy susan. You
just use your own chopsticks to take whatever you want to your
plate.

The conference room where they had
all the Flagship activities.

Musical chairs. I totally would have won if Chris
hadn't THROWN the last chair to the other side of the
room.

Musical chairs are dangerous.

Baha, Spencer being "hugged" by seven other people.

 And some of the boys sang for the talent show! We have awesome husbands :)

Spencer and his tutor, Jialiu. Spencer really liked him and we really
appreciate all the time that he spent with him!

A few other things that have happened:
The year started with a bang (literally) as we partied until 2:30 am with some of the other Flagship couples on the 43rd floor of their building. (remind me to never stay up that late ever again!)

We said goodbye to our awesome friend Samy and her cute little boy (she had to go back to the States to fix some visa issues)

And said HELLO to our newest Flagship baby!

And Sister Brigette Bowen returned from her mission to San Bernadino, California! We LOVE being able to talk to her and laugh at (whoops, I mean "with") her :)

The transition to the internship period has been a little rough, mostly for me, with Spencer being gone all day but we are getting through it. I know, I know, cry me a river, right? Well this last semester he was only gone for an average of 5 hours a day, and I LIKED it. So being home for 12 hours, all day by myself, doing the shopping and cleaning and errands all alone with no Chinese speaker, has been tricky. But I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.    Except for yesterday when I didn't answer the door when a yelling Chinese lady was banging on it who turned out to be from the gas company to read the meter but then turned the gas off because no one answered so I couldn't use the stove but had people coming over for dinner in a few hours and I didn't know how to call them to turn it on so I had to take pictures of the notice they left on my door and email them to Spencer at work so he could call them and then they still wouldn't turn it on for a few hours so I had to reschedule dinner....phew. That might sound melodramatic, lo siento, but I had a slight meltdown yesterday. Nothing major, but definitely not one of the best days I've had in China. Now I know to answer the door to the yelling Chinese lady. She just wants to read the meter.

Anyways, Spencer is enjoying working again and I'll have him tell you more about what he does for his internship soon. He is still rejoicing that the "Flagship portion" of his China experience is over. Hallelujah!