Blue Sky in China

After the rain finally stopped the sun came out.

Nina's Belly

I know it is not the most flattering picture but Nina's belly is starting to show. We had a peacefully Sunday at home as it has been raining most of the day. It finally stopped this afternoon and now the sun is shining and the sky is clear. I've also posted a photo of the sunset from our balcony. This photo was taken last June.

Driving Range Open in Bin Jiang

The new driving range on our side of the river opened this month. It has been free from 5-9 every night until they are fully functional. Starting Sept 5th they are open all day and it is only 50 RMB (7 USD) for an hour of balls. Someday they end the 50% special and it will be 100 RMB for an hour. So I've been trying to go as much as I can while it is free.

The driving range is very fancy. They bring you water and wet towels to wash with. They have swing coaches to help you out. There will be a spa and massage center along with private VIP hitting areas up above. The VIP hitting areas come with a poker table and bar in a private lounge area. It only cost 53000 RMB (7500 USD) for a 3 year membership to be able to use the VIP area. You could play a lot of rounds of real golf for 53000 RMB.

They won't let us take pictures anymore (we got yelled at last night but we did snap these).

upcoming stuff

Random thoughts:
School starts today. Monday's are my favorite days since I have no class after 11 am.

The driving range by the #4 bridge is sorta of open. From 5-9 every night you can hit balls for free. In a couple of weeks it will be open all day and be half priced. It is nice, once they are charging regular price not sure I'll be able to afford to go there. It is call Riverside Golf Club. Seems everywhere I live there is a Riverside Golf Club.

My online classes are starting up. Good thing I'm teaching elementary PE this year. I have lots of reading to do.

Watching the Olympics in China was fun but we couldn't understand the announcers. We could understand Kobe's lips when we said "get the fuck out of here motherfucker." Some things don't change no matter where you are. China showed lots of things on tape delay. Not sure why.

Volleyball practice starts today. The boys are very athletic but haven't played much volleyball. Nadine will be helping me teach them the skills they need. We have a chance to be good if they can pick up the skills. Our first game is in less then two weeks.

Big News

For those of you who have not heard the news this summer we are expecting our first child this February. We had our second doctors visit last Tuesday and heard the heart beat for the first time. We also had an ultrasound and saw the baby. I can already tell he/she will take after Nina; it is much to cute to take after me. We will be having the baby at the VIP clinic in the local hospital. Our doctors and nurses all speak English and insurance will pay for almost all of it.
Nina is feeling good. No morning sickness yet. She gets tired quicker, and is sleeping more but other than that it has been a great pregnancy so far.
Baby gets half the pot on any pools set up on the birth date or gender of the baby. We'll try to keep everyone updated as we progress through the pregnancy.

Our summer

Our summer was quick but fun. We arrived back in the US on June 21. My dad picked us up in Chicago around 11 pm. We drove back to Riverside arriving around 3 am. We slept for 6 hours, woke up and had 6 hours to pack before having to drive to Kansas City to drop Nina off with her parents. I then headed on the Emporia Kansas to start my summer school classes. Nina headed to Fayetteville Arkansas to stay with her parents. Nina traveled to Florida to visit her grandparents. I was able to head down to Arkansas for the 4th of July weekend.
Once I was done with school we drove to New Mexico. We stayed in Albuquerque for a couple of days then headed to Santa Fe. On the way to Santa Fe dad's car broke down. We got it towed to Santa Fe and the next day found out we had to junk it. So we spent a day looking at cars and finally bough dad a little Ford Ranger pick-up. Hopefully it is still running.
While in Santa Fe we visited a lot of friends and went camping in Pecos. Then we headed to Taos where we stayed at our cabin. We did some landscaping and dreamed of someday building a house. We camped up at Big Al's horse camp with Anna and Andrew and then headed back to Iowa.
We didn't stay in Iowa long as the next week we headed to Salem MO to visit Frank and Carole. They have a beautiful piece of property. We went canoeing for a half a day before heading up to St. Louis for our annual St. Louis baseball game. The first game we say was very exciting with Pujols hitting a grand slam. We sat in an all incluisive area so we got our money's worth of free beer, nachos and bratwursts. The next game was kinda boring but still fun to watch. We headed back to Iowa for one week before heading back to China.

Now that we are back here it feels like we never left.

Back in China

Well we made it back to China without too much trouble. The flight was long but it went pretty quick; we each watched 5 movies. Both my butt and my eyes were tired by the time we landed. The weather when we landed was grey and raining. So much for the hope of blue sky. We had to wait a little over an hour for our bus to Hangzhou. Three other teachers took the same bus with us; we all passed out before we were even out of the airport parking ramp.
It was so nice to come back to our apartment with everything set up. We had water in the fridge, food in the cupboard, and dishes on the shelves. Life was much easier this time around.

On Sunday I woke up at 3 am and finally got out of bed around 3:45. Nina slept till almost 7. I unpacked my bags and when it was light I went for a quick jog over to campus. The field looks good. They moved the sidewalks so the field is longer and wider. They also took out some grates so we have a second continuous field also. Now if I can just get them to knock down the apartments we'll have a great field. They also put all new sod down this summer. The grass looks good but they are still trying to level the bumps.

This is all I have time for right now; it is almost 9 pm and I've been up since 3:30.

Intro

Welcome to our blog. My name is John Cloyed and I live in Hangzhou China. Along with my wife, Nina Buonaiuto, we teach at Hangzhou International School. We are beginning our second year living in China. In this blog we will write about what it is like living in China, teaching in an international school and traveling the world.