Things I Wish I'd Brought/Advice

So, as I am finishing up my year here in Guiyang, I've been thinking
about things I wish I'd brought. Perhaps I can help future English
teachers headed to China.

-Games: Scattergories, Taboo, Apples to Apples, Cranium. I made my own
versions/printed online versions of most of these games and more, but
I think it would have been nice to have brought some of the cards with
me, if not lugging entire board games. These games are really useful
in older classes.
-Play (American) Money: Once again, you can print some out. But I
could have easily brought some plastic money from home. For older
students, our book teaches American money. For the little kids, it's
fun for playing store.
-Make-up: for some reason I brought a year's worth of deodorant but
not my favorite make-up and my mom had to mail some to me.

Things I'm glad I brought:
-A year's worth of my favorite deodorant: you can get it here but not
our brands.
-A US map, some Arizona postcards
-Western medicine: you can get some of it here, but it's a lot of
Chinese herbal medicine. It's convenient to have it around when you
need it.

People have been asking me if I'm looking forward to heading back to
States, and what I've missed. Here's what I'm looking forward to most:
-Eating Mexican food
-Going outside and not being pointed at/stared at/talked to/talked about
-Not living where I work (the convenience has been overtaken by annoyance)
-The simplicity of not having a language barrier

Of course, I'm sure it won't take long for me to miss a lot about
living in China and teaching.

A Few More Waterfall Pictures

Chris gave me a few more picture, including a group photo:
http://s978.photobucket.com/albums/ae268/mobrien86/Huangguoshu%20Grand%20Waterfall/

Otherwise, I'm keeping busy with writing exams and progress reports
and planning my last few classes.

Huangguoshu Grand Waterfall!

Photos!
I finally went to the most famous site- well, around here anyways.
Guizhou is home to the largest waterfall in China. One of the local
beers is called Pubu, which is Chinese for "waterfall." I've heard
that it's best to go in the summer. So Matt, Chris, and Chris's
girlfriend Joline went with me to see the waterfall.

First we went to Anshun, and then caught a bus to the waterfall site.
It was only a few hours. Tip for anyone who might try to visit
Huangguoshu: they make you buy a ticket for 180 yuan, which covers
several sites like a bridge and some other falls. However, the things
are far enough from each other that you have to take a bus or taxi
between them. So it's not the best deal if you arrive around 3 pm. We
basically only had time to do the waterfall, which was fine but if I
did it again I would go earlier and try to see more things.

It was pretty cool. You could walk behind the waterfall through the
cave and touch it. And get really wet. I think that was probably the
best part. It's worth a visit. It's always nice to get out into the
country side around here- it's all fields and karst landscape.

I realized how little exercise I get after walking the stairs around
the waterfall. My legs are sore now. We had planned to stay the night
in Anshun. Another tip: bring some kind of ID to stay at a hotel in
Anshun. We headed home quite easily though.