Mixing in a Bit of Spring

Not my favorite outfit, but I'm so happy I could finally get away with wearing this blouse with a long sleeved shirt underneath and jacket over top. I don't love that I still needed to wear booties with it, but I'll deal with it.

We finally made our way to Shanghai to hunt for the only H&M maternity section nearby last weekend. Up until then, this pair of maternity work trousers was the only thing I had that wasn't regular pants with a belly band. It's tough to sink a whole day into traveling the 85 km between Suzhou and Shanghai for errands. But, oh my gosh, was it worth it. With about 10 weeks to go, I needed pants with stretch!

Happy weekend to you all, friends! Hope you get to bust out a springtime favorite article of clothing and mix it with your winter gear. Maybe if we all collectively get into a spring-y headspace together, it will show up sooner. That's how that works, right?

 

The Grind

Daaangit. I'm back to work.

It's a big week to be fresh back at it and rolling at full steam- we have over 100 prospective students arriving for two days to audition for the music program and take diagnostic tests for musical knowledge. The Chinese higher educational system is really different from Europe or the States; students typically have to apply for the University, complete an audition (pretty normal), but the tricky part is the "quota system" where there's a minimum score on the entrance audition and a percentage allotted to each province based on how many applications we receive. On top of that percentage divided into 40, the maximum we can accept, a student's attendance depends on a passing grade on the National Test and our school being on the top of their list of acceptable schools. Lots of stuff has to line up to get kids in the doors!

So, wish me and my only legit pair of maternity pants (hauled all the way over from the States with fingers crossed that they would fit!) good luck, and keep your fingers crossed that we wind up with some great students for next year. Mostly my office mates need the good vibes, I just need to keep up a good attitude. Don't want to go back! I really liked managing my house and family for a month.

 

 

Nearing the End of Semester 1

Well, folks, I think all of the Western World's holiday breaks have already come and gone. And China has only had a 3-day celebration of the new calendar year (which I worked Saturday and Sunday prior to it to "make up the days")... so I am really looking forward to rubbing in my sloth when the Soochow University semester ends next week. 18 week semesters (!) deserve a nice long break, so I'm especially grateful that the whole country builds in a nice long hiatus to celebrate Chinese New Year. 

Rob is heading to the States solo next week and I'll be hanging with my critters and kiddo bump (who is still smallish) here in China. I'm a little sad not to have the opportunity to travel to use some of this extended break time, but I'm not going to say a peep because it's several weeks of quiet, training and adjusting with critters, and the chance to do some shopping without having to work around any sort of schedule. I like that.