Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, Zhōngqiū Jié (中秋節, 中秋节) 2013

Ni hao!!  I know it's been a while! But here we are, almost to the end of September already!!  Today is the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, Zhōngqiū Jié (中秋節, 中秋节), a Chinese National Holiday, which means we have today and tomorrow off from school. 

                                                      

We have been in China now for 57 days, which is REALLY hard to believe. It is comforting to think back on all the things that were SO HARD are now easier...We have become quite good at getting around on the subway. As long as I have my trusty 'ole map, we can get anywhere using the subway. We know where the markets are to buy the things we like, mostly meaning 'the things Lucas will eat.' Sadly though, the pancake mix selection has dwindled to just these boxes that make about 10 pancakes and cost about $10. At the beginning, they had the bags of bisquick, they were small, but it lasted much longer...I fear the day I walk in and there is NO pancake mix.

We have had really busy weeks at school. Lucas is learning some Chinese, and though he says he doesn't remember it when we get home, he is learning to speak and read it daily in Chinese class. He is at the top of his class academically, they are working on letter names and sounds and he is ready to read, so his teacher now is focusing him on getting along with his peers. His class has 16 kids, which is MANY more than he has ever been with on a regular basis. I also signed him up for Reading Eggs (thanks Kelly!!) and he has been LOVING it!  He is sounding out words and reading short sentences. I have always worked with him with math at home, and though we read a lot, we honestly hadn't done much with reading. Now though, he is doing his reading on the computer and I have been having him read some phonics books with me. In my class, my students just finished up planning the assembly last week. It went amazing!  I was so proud of them!!  It was recorded and I got it put up on our blog if you want to take a look. Lucas' teacher also posts pictures and a post weekly if you want to check them out:

My class blog:  blogs.biss.com.cn/ajentzen

Lucas' class blog: blogs.biss.com.cn/rbaskevica

Last weekend we were honorary Australians. Scott, one of the other newbies and dad to Monty, Lucas' preK friend, invited us to go along with them to an Australian party that their embassy was putting on. As it turned out, there were 6 other staff members there, we have a large Australian staff pop. at school. It was a gorgeous day. The kids ran around in the large field and jumped in the bouncy house all day, coming back only for drinks and food. We adults sat around with our own drinks, chatting and watching cricket (I dont get that game at all). It was a great day of relaxed fun!!

We did not plan a trip anywhere for this vacation. We decided to do some things around Beijing during our 4 days off. This morning we went to the Panjiayuan Antique Market and checked it out. There were rows and rows of people selling things, a lot of beads and old (in some cases ancient) chinese artifacts. Lucas kept finding the swords and daggers. He innocently asked why I kept saying that he could not have one "look Mom, they are not even sharp, see?" When I pulled it out of the sheath to show him the actual sword he was surprised and even more excited about the "real sword." We were there for a couple hours, had some salad and ice cream and came home so little monkey could nap.

After he gets up, we will be going to the Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge) to celebrate the Moon Festival. There is a little town,  Wanping Town near the bridge that has a temple fair each year to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. The temple fair is a kind of traditional cultural event, which features all kinds of Chinese folk art. The Moon Festival itself is a family tradition, where you get together with your family to give thanks and ask for good fortune, health and harvests to the moon goddess. Moon Gazing is very common and a traditional part of the festival because the Chinese thought that moon and water brought rejuvenation to the body.  There are two ways to watch the moon, both observed during the festival...in the sky and in the water. It is also a time to think of loved ones who cannot be with you. When you are away from family, or they cannot make it home, you gaze at the moon to think of and remember them. A popular traditional treat is the Moon Cake. During this time, moon cakes are HOT commodities!! they are on sale EVERYWHERE, in fancy boxes, bags, and tins. They are a pastry that is filled with different fruit mixes, nuts, and jellies. Some are even chocolate and they are all delicious!! During the festival, it is common to eat them while watching the moon. Families also eat much fruit together at this time. Anyways, the Marco Polo Bridge is also pretty amazing from what I read.   It was built in 1192 is made of Granite stone and holds 485 stone carved lions. It looks spectacular!

(http://www.chinapage.com/history/lugouqiao/lugouqiao.html)

Tomorrow we are getting up SUPER early for a tour of JinShanLing, a section of the Great Wall that is unrestored, but is in the best condition (from what i read).  Its pretty far out, but we have a driver that will be taking us there and back, and an English speaking tour guide. Then on Saturday, we are going to have a bike ride over to the water cube to play in the water park there. IN the evening we will be heading to a Kung Fu show. Sunday will be our day of rest. Then just one more week until we have another week off for October Break!

2013 School Year Starts

Here in Beijing, I am the only 4th grade teacher at the school. There's actually less than 300 kids in the school (PreK-Grade 12) so there is only one class per grade. So, again, I am a "singleton" in this new school. I have messed up some lessons, misplanned my time, but things are coming together. It looks like a lot of the math "standards" are similar, though they are taught in dramatically different ways.

Lucas is in the PreK class here and his teacher Ms Ruta is fantastic!!! She came here with us as a "newbie" and we have become friends. Lucas is friends with her daughter. They have Chinese class each day, PE, Music, and even Library. The class is a mix of 3 and 4 year olds, so Lucas (and his friend, Monty, who is another newbie teacher kid) are the oldest and clearly the most mature. They both would have been fine in kindergarten, but they are very strict with the age limit. Its ok though, they have buddied up and are the "big kids" in class.

Beijing has been good. We got bikes and ride to work most days (3 miles each way). We've been blessed with several "good air" days over the past week. Watching the pollution level is definitely a new thing to do. Lucas is learning to read a bar graph this way though. He will take one look and say "wow, that's really good air Mom" or the opposite, "Oh No! Its really bad today." Our apartment complex is a little ways away from the busy street, so its quiet here and there are many, many, many paths, ponds and lot of greenery at the complex. Its beautiful! The ponds have lily pads, waterfalls, and goldfish. Its so serene! I packed a lot of things that I was thinking I wouldn't be able to find, but they are all here, except Lucas' foods. Its been hard to find some things, and when we do they are RIDICULOUSLY expensive,like the $12 box of cocoa puffs we've been buying, or the similarly priced pancake mix....but, with they HUGE transition, I have not pushed the food thing, and have just been giving him his comfort foods.

Last weekend we went to the Acrobats at ChaoYang theater and the Beijing Zoo to see the pandas. We are thinking about maybe going to the Forbidden City this weekend, but we shall see, its been such a busy two weeks! My kids are great though, I have 12 kids, from all over the world....8 countries are represented in my class of students. It's amazing!

August 7-10

August 7, 2013

Today shall be known as The Day I Got My New Bike. After another long day of training,

August 8, 2013

Today could be known as The Day I Ate Cheese, The First Day Lucas and I Rode Our Bikes to School, The day of Lucas’ Unfortunate Mishaps, or The Day We Got Our First Letter in the Mail.

August 9, 2013

This evening was Newbie’s Night Out!

August 10, 2013

Today will be known as The Day we Found the American Store.

August 6, 2013

Today shall be known as The Day I Ate Baby Shrimp. We took a taxi to work again today because we were running late. Lucas has been really tired and not wanting to get up in the morning. After I got him to childcare, I went to my meetings.

At lunch, Lucas and I walked over to the Chinese restaurant next to school so I could order some of the broccoli I got the other day, and some vegetarian dumplings. I was sure to ask for vegetarian dumplings and got to speak to a worker show spoke some English today.  While the food was cooking, we walked over to State Grid to put 400 quai on the electricity card. When we got back, it was ready, so we picked it up and went back to school to have lunch. Lucas had his customary peanut butter and apples for lunch again and I got him a soda as a treat.

When we got to school, I ate one of my dumplings (it tasted a tad different than I remembered) then I ate my broccoli. I took a bite from another dumpling and saw something that looked funny. At first I thought it was maybe the end of a veggie, but when I looked closer, it kind of looked like a shrimp. I stopped eating because I really was NOT sure. When I took Lucas back to childcare, I asked Ruta if she wanted them because I thought they had meat. Marlena looked at it and said, “oh, ya, that’s baby shrimp.” UGH!!!  After I got back to my meeting, I shared this and Kyra said that they will often put the shrimp in there. Someone else told me that they often don’t think of seafood as “meat” and it will still often be seafood in “vegetarian” things.

Things I learned today: Be more specific when I am asking for vegetarian foods.

Things I took for granted: Being able to read food descriptions and ask for things with NO meat products and be understood.

August 5, 2013

Today will be known as THE Monday.  Today it occurred to me that “Mondays” can still be “MONDAYS” half- way around the world. I was very excited this morning to talk to Paul on Skype, we got all ready and I grabbed the computer to put it on the table, dragging the extension cord and power cable along with it, which caused a SPARK! and then the power went off with the cord.  It appeared that the outlet had tripped up, so I tried another outlet….and another….and another…and another…NONE of them were working!! Fearing the stuff in the fridge would go bad, I was trying to find that little red “reset” button that we have in America on outlets. There was nothing ON the outlet, but there was one ABOVE the outlets. So, I pushed it…and the FIRE ALARM WENT OFF!!!  Evidently, that is a fire alarm button, NOT an outlet reset button. So, the outlets are all off and now the fire alarm is blaring! I did not know how to turn it off, and saw that it was sounding and flashing on the panel next to the door too. I had no idea how to turn it off. All the labels on the buttons were in Chinese. There was one button though that silenced it….Ahhhh! Five minutes later, though, I realized that it was silenced only for about 5 minutes. I couldn’t get ahold of my agent, so I called one of the people from the school, not really knowing what to do. I ended up walking down to the guard station to get the cart so we could drag the big tub of school stuff down to the street to catch a taxi. Now this is probably the WORST cart I have ever used in my life! It would start to go ok, then the wheels would turn and not go back. If I were twirling around in circles it would be fine, but I was not doing that. I wanted to get my tub to the side of the road so we could catch a taxi. It took us FOREVER to get there with all the struggles getting the cart to run straight. When we got almost to the gate, the security guard was heading up. Neither of us could understand each other, so he motioned to go up to the apartment, so I nodded and said yes, thinking he was going to just so up and take care of it.

Once we got to work, we had another loooong day of training.  After work, we went with Ruta and her girls to get their pictures taken and then head over to the subway. We were going to head over to the international grocery store to pick up some pancake mix and syrup, we are DANGEROUSLY LOW!!! It took quite some time to get the pictures because one of  her girls really did not want to get her picture taken. Afterwards, we walked through the parks to the subway. It was a nice little walk. Lucas and Paula were all over the place. They really enjoy playing together! They got off on the Taiyanggong station and we continued on two stops to the Liangmaqiao Station. When we got off the subway, we took a wrong turn at the first go, but then turned around and walked through a little mall. Outside this mall, there was a HUGE air conditioner, next to one of the ponds. There were several ponds here and we walked around for a bit looking at and watching all the fish. We walked out the other side of the mall and ended up on the side of the street that I recognized. We continued on down the street…..on and on and on and on…. We got to “Lucky Street” which I recalled Marlena mentioning that street. So, we walked down Lucky Street, which is a strip mall that has many different international restaurants. We walked past them, thinking we would find the “Fat Burger” we were looking for. City Shop is beneath the Fat Burger. We kept walking, but didn’t see it. Though, I did see a mall and a Cold Stone. We were very, very hot and sweaty by no, the temp was about 32 degrees Celsius and it was very muggy. We went and got some ice cream and water, then decided to take a taxi home, since it was about 6:30 already.

After we got home, I finally had the nerve to go back into the little cupboard room in the hall next to our apartment to see if the slot was in there to put our electricity card in to see how much money was left on it. In China, when you prepay for the electricity, there is a place where you put your card in and check to see how much money is left on your card. Then you will know so you don’t run out of electricity. We still had 188 quai left. So, in 11 days, we used 112 quai of electricity, just under $20. I’m guessing that the amount we have been running the air conditioners (especially in the first week) contributes to the higher electricity use.

Lucas had pancakes for dinner and I finished up my take out from the weekend. Then it was off to bed. It was very, very late and we did not get done after work what we set out to do.

What I learned: When going someplace new in China, get clear directions OR the address in Chinese.

Things I took for granted: Stores that carry Lucas’ “comfort foods.”

August 4, 2013

Another beautiful day of relaxation!!! We went to bed a bit earlier last night, so we slept in only until 8:45 today. After breakfast (pancakes, of course!  It IS PANCAKE DAY!!), Lucas and I colored for a while, though he was really taking up all the space on the pages, then he raced while I caught up on some journaling. Then, it was LEGO TIME!!  We built and played for several hours. Our plan for the day was to go to the market for a few things, then go to the Chaoyang Theater to see the acrobatic show. There was really no rush or pressing matter to our day, so we just went at our own pace. After checking the air pollution for the day, it ranged through the morning from 178-155, so prolonged activity outside was going to be avoided. We’ve been on the go so much though, that was ok. There was plenty to do here and both of us were completely satisfied doing this. We had lunch, Lucas had pancakes and I had some of my leftovers from last night, then played more Legos. We now have many vehicles built and I have my eye on a cool little city block that I saw online. They don’t ship to China though, which could be a problem, but I may be able to have Toys’R’Us order it for me. J

Around 3:30, we finally had enough motivation to head to the store. Now, I knew it was going to be pushing it to try to get to the theater at 5:15, oh well. When we arrived at the mall, there was a crowd in the common area, evidently to see a Chinese superstar, A’Li. They were playing her music and some music videos while we were standing there, she has a nice voice, though all her lyrics were in Chinese, so I have no idea what she was singing about. Lucas was getting restless though, so we headed down to the basement to the market. We got some baskets, then Lucas was saying his little nose was smelling ice cream, and sure enough, there was an ice cream stand!  We were attempting to ask what the flavors were in Chinese, until one of the workers greeted us in English. When my Chinese gets a little better, I will try to speak to people in Chinese, but when you are flipping through a book or dictionary for every word, finding someone who speaks your language is a breath of fresh air!! Lucas ordered a kind that he said was vanilla, though the girl told me was “plain milk flavor” and I had an “orange and cookies” ice cream, which looks like cookies and cream, though has orange flavored ice cream. I tried another kind that was purple, and it had a very interesting flavor, unlike any other I have tasted. If I have learned one thing up to this point, it’s that food tastes dramatically different.

After ice cream, we ventured past a cell phone shop for Lenovo and looked at the price of their phones as compared to others I have seen. At this point I cannot unlock my current phone, so sadly this means that I will have to purchase a new one. Prices are comparable, though I’m really attached to my Samsung Galaxy, so I may just upgrade to the S4 if I have to get a new phone anyways. My phone bill will only be 96RmB (about $16 a month), so I think I can handle paying more for the phone.

Then, it was off to the market. We got a few of the things we needed, though after getting home I realized we forgot PEANUT BUTTER!!!! Luckily we have a little left. The drawback to living in the city and having no car to transport yourself in, is that there is no longer “big shopping” that happens. Otherwise, HOW would you get all that stuff to the taxi, then hike it through the complex up to your apartment without breaking your back?!? Anyways, it has caused me to think more critically about what I’m buying when, and often we stop by the market every few days. I know this will lessen as we get all the things we want to have for the apartment, and then it will just be planning for the shopping trips. We still need to make a trip over to the “Wet Market” which is near the mall and a great place to buy fruits and veggies. I’ve also heard that there may be some fabrics for sale there.  J

We got back home about 5:30 and decided that there was no point in trying to go to the acrobats for the late show, so we will go another day. Lucas had picked out some PlayDoh at the store that was sold in a hamburger tub that he wanted to play with, so he did that for a while and I put the groceries away. We had a snack and watched some of the videos that we had taken before leaving America, while in-flight, and once we were in Beijing. It was nice to see them, but also a little bittersweet. I know it’s only been just over a week now, 10 days to be exact, and there is no guarantee that I would have seen the family in that short of time anyways, but knowing that I won’t see them until Christmas is hard. We got a chance the other day to Skype with my parents, which was great!!  And tomorrow morning will get to Skype with Paul. I sure am going to miss seeing them all the time though.

I got Lucas into bed at our normal early time of 7:30 after books and then was ready to settle down to a nice quiet watching of Tommy Boy…unfortunately though, it will not play on my work computer, OR on my computer. Evidently, the wonderful Windows 8 does not have a media for playing regular DVD’s. I have been trying to download one through CNET, though there is a file that it needs to download to work that has failed twice now….BOO!!  I just want to watch some good ‘ole Tommy Boy before bed! Why don’t you use that nice DVD player you bought from Metro for only 298 quai? You ask. Weeeeellllll, we tried to watch Mater’s Tall Tales on it when we first got it last week, and sure enough, it didn’t work. I mean, the DVD played, but the audio did not.  Bummer!  So, I have to return it. The problem is that I turned in that receipt as part of my settling in allowance proof, so I don’t have the original, only a copy. I’m guessing that will not fly and since I am not fluent in the language, there is NO WAY I’m going to give that a shot!  I refuse to end up in a Chinese prison!!!

Anyways, I sit here in the living room with a beautiful lightning show going on outside my window, with the rain pouring. Pollution levels at 7pm were 219, which is pretty high, into the purple range. The lightning and rain usually work it all out. Just in the last hour, it is down to 197. So, I’m hoping that it continues to work it out overnight so we have a 51-100 day tomorrow. Honestly, I’d like a 0-50 day, but I think I will be back in America again before that happens.

OOOHHH! Hopefully good news!  Looks like the needed app was downloaded. I’m off to restart my computer to see if I can watch Tommy Boy!!  Until tomorrow!!!  (I got it to work!!!)

Things I learned: When in a foreign land, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…and again…and again.

Things I took for granted: Fresh, fresh air. Not having to look up the Air Quality Index to check the PM2.5 Pollution Particles before determining what we are going to do for the day.

August 3, 2013

Ahhhh….our first real day of rest!!  Today we slept in until 10:45!! It has been such an exhaustingly busy week, it was much needed. After we got up, we had brunch of pancakes and watermelon, then just played around the house for a while. We played several games and had some down time. I read a few of the Beijing magazines that I have collected from the school and other places, finding many really cool things I’d like to do. After we had lunch, we ventured out to find the pool. We walked over to the building near where I thought the pool was and in my very broken Chinese, I attempted to ask where the pool was. They were able to understand me, though I definitely butchered the tones on parts of the words. Then they said a lot to me that I didn’t know…I politely nodded and smiled. Then one of the women walked over to the scale model of the community (it is huge!!! Set up on a circular platform approximately 10 feet in diameter), then with her little laser pointer, she pointed to building 10. We nodded, said thank you “xie xie” (pronounced seeuh seeuh) and were on our way.

As we crossed the street, we saw the man who sells large house plants in nice planters. We decided on one, and paid him (about $30), then he carried it over to the cart next to our gate so we could roll it back to our apartment. We were very excited about this addition to our new home. I feel very fortunate to have been in a position where I had a paycheck come this week still. IN China, everything is “pay up front” where you typically pay for the whole year for things. Though for the electricity, gas, toilet water, hot water, and most cell phones you pre-pay, and with the services, you ‘top off’ by putting the maximum amount on your card. Moving into a new place, where my ideas of what a “furnished” apartment looked like and what it was also required quite a bit of work and money to get it to a comfortable living arrangement. Our apartment is very nice. 

After we took the plant up, found it a place, and took the cart back to the gate, we were off to find the pool in building 10. We asked the security guard at the gate and they directed us to the right spot. We went inside and talked to the receptionists. It took quite a while to get things figured out, usually you cannot go in unless you have a membership, but since we are going to join, they made an exception for us. :) I had to put down a 100 quai (about $17) deposit for the locker bracelet, which is a squiggly rubber bracelet with a magnetic circle on it that is used to open the locker. One of the receptionists, Cici, was very excited when I told her I taught English. She asked for my phone number and wants to learn English. They also said we had to have swim caps to go into the pool. There was a perfect shark one that Lucas picked out, took out of the package, and put on all by himself while I was looking for one. He looked so cute! I picked out a yellow one, then I paid 140 quai for them (about $20!!! For two caps. I don’t recall them being quite so expensive…

Then we went into the pool. Lucas had his circle floaty and we swam and kicked back and forth for about a half hour. Then I gave him a swim lesson for another half hour. He was SO energetic and excited about swimming. His favorite part of the swim lesson was jumping into the pool at the end, which he did about 20 times!  After swimming we headed back home and found a new section of the community.  There was a little outdoor workout area, with a few body powered machines, though there were no pictures, so some of them I have NO IDEA how they work. We played around there for a while, then I noticed there was a small circle track next to the workout area. Lucas, of course, saw this as a racetrack. ;) He ran around it several times and then we headed back to our apartment. I made Lucas pancakes for dinner and I ordered some delivery Chinese from the online food delivery system, JinShiSong.com.  While we were waiting, Cici sent me a text message and said she was really excited to learn more English, and said she wanted to be friends, asking if that was ok. I said of course!  So, I have a new friend, who can help me learn Chinese and I can help her learn English. J My dinner came some time later, the guy had a difficult time finding the correct part of the community, which I completely understand….it’s a big place, and split into 4 different sections. Finally about 9:00, I had my dinner. I had ordered a few different dishes, thinking they were smaller portioned, but now, clearly I have food for about 5 meals…it was absolutely delicious though! Lucas and I watched some Looney Tunes and went to bed.

August 2, 2013

Today could be known as The End to Our First Week in China. It was our last day of free transportation to/from work by the school. And now, it is FINALLY FRIDAY!! 

August 1, 2013

Today will be known as The Day We Missed the Bus.  We went out at 8:20 to catch the school bus, same time as yesterday, and waited 20 minutes, then I realized that it probably was not coming. I called school and was told to just take a taxi because, yes indeed, the bus came 30 minutes earlier today than yesterday.. Luckily, there was little traffic so it only took a few minutes, but still, I really don’t like being late.

July 31, 2013

Today was a great day!!  You could refer to it as The Day we went to Olympic Village, The First Day we Took the Subway (and all by Ourselves too!!), or The Day we were a sideshow in Beijing.

Today was another full day of training. We got a lot of “Nuts & Bolts” information today. The most important was finding out where to look up the pollution rating of the day, and banking information. We also talked for quite a while about phones. I do still have to get a China phone, and put the America one to rest for a bit. We had some classroom preparation time, which was nice.  At this point, I’m trying to get my classroom into an order that makes sense and it still tidy. There are some things that I want to replace and am trying to figure out how I want it all to look. Since the teaching theory is so much different, I’m also trying to wrap my head around what that will all look like in practice and in the organization of my classroom. I am very excited to see how it all works and the heights to which the students will reach using these methods! At this time, I have 11 students in my class, from all over the world: America, China, Korea, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, India, and Germany. It’s quite exciting!!!

After school, I decided we were going to walk up to Olympic Village. We headed off after school, walking through the neighborhood around the school to get to the main road up to the Village.  We kept walking and walking and walking. It was getting really hot! Lucas had to go to the bathroom, so we walked into a restaurant along the way that was a train restaurant!! It was really neat, with different models of trains in the lobby area. Then we went back on our way. Along the way, there was an ice cream man, so we stopped and got some pineapple ice cream in a cone. Lucas was eating it as we walked, and when I looked up, I noticed a group of Chinese people who were taking pictures of us. We kept walking and eventually a man in a little tuktuk (that’s what they were called in Thailand, I’m not sure what they call them here. I said no thank you, and he told me it would take an hour to walk from there. SO I agreed to the 20 quai (about $3.25) and we got a ride. I discovered that with the way we were walking, it definitely would have taken that long. I later discovered the way we should have walked. We walked in and got closer and closer to the Bird’s Nest. We took some pictures (and again discovered others taking pictures of us). There was a couple that I offered to take a picture of, then asked them to take a picture of us. And they did, on my camera and theirs. We kept walking around the village with many people as we were walking taking our picture and asking to take pictures with us. I guess this is how it feels to be a celebrity. We were going to go into the Bird’s Nest, but it cost 80 quai each (about $14.50) and I hadn’t brought a whole lot of money to work that day, so we ventured on over to the Water Cube. As we walked, same thing, people were taking pictures as we walked, trying to sneak them so we didn’t notice, but also just outright taking them. We got over to the Cube, and took some pictures of ourselves, then a vendor offered to take our picture, and as he was, a group had gathered and were now also taking pictures of us. We round out that it is 200 quai (about $33) to go into the water cube, which I read they have turned into a huge water park. We went into the Water Cube store and looked around a bit, then found a bench to sit down for a while and ate some apples and Lucas had a PB sandwich.

After that, we started the walk back to Beituchung subway station. Today was going to be the day we took the subway for the first time. I’d heard it was very easy. It took about 15-20 minutes to make the walk down to the subway station. We got our tickets pretty easily, then followed the signs and the masses to the Line 10 subway. We got to a point where the signs pointed opposite directions and I wasn’t really sure which one to follow, but then I realized that they probably both went to the same train, so we picked one and walked down the stairs. There were subway trains on both sides, so looking at the maps, I found the right train that would take us to Sanyigong station. As it pulled up, I noticed how PACKED the train was!!! We got on, and once inside I noticed there was a map on the upper wall that had a blinking light to show which station you were at. That was my fear with the subway, that the announcement would be made so quickly that I wouldn’t be able to determine what they were saying and we would be riding the subway in circles and circles. But, this map is PERFECT!!! We made it off on the right station, then took a few minutes to figure out where we were once we got off. We were both VERY tired at this point. I had bad rubbing spots on my feet from my flip flops (!!! Yes, terrible walking shoes) and Lucas’ legs were hurting from all the walking, but we were SO CLOSE to being home!! Once we got home, I made dinner, then we went to bed, by 8pm.

It was a big day, we went on the subway for the first time, and made it to the right stop by ourselves, we obtained celebrity status in China, and we visited a site of Olympic History!!!

July 30, 2013

Today was an extremely long, trying day. We got picked up rather early again…7:20 today. Our first stop was the medical check-ups with immigration. It took about an hour to get to the facility which was across town. We saw several things along the way that were quite interesting: some Chinese architecture, a structure built on the tippy top of a mountain, the first gas station I have seen in Beijing, what looked like an old traditional village, a jeep sign, and many, many Chinese stores and shops. When we first got there, I noticed that there were many rooms, an area to fill out the paperwork, and several lines. We got in the first line to turn in our forms and find out what tests we had to get done. I was ‘lucky’ to get to do them all. It was very interesting how efficient this whole process was. For several of the tests, there were two different rooms to go to. I got an eye/throat/ear check, an EKG, a chest X-Ray, blood drawn, an ultrasound, and weighed. For each test there was no wait, and if there was, it was less than one minute. For the eye test, I was shown one item for each eye, for the throat and ears, they looked for a second and then said I was good. During the ultrasound, they looked at my lungs and internal organs as I breathed deeply. The whole process took about 15 minutes, then I was done. Since we had to wait for the school representative to get all of our results, we were there for an additional hour or so, then it was back to the school for an afternoon of training. Throughout our drive through the city, it was interesting how green it was. I know that there is a lot of green in our little community, but there are so many trees, bushes, and flowers throughout the city. It was unexpected.

When we got back to school, we started by talking about culture. We learned some basics, many of which I had read about in the books I read to prepare for the trip. One new thing I learned though was about spitting. Our attention was drawn to the fact that you will often see people spitting on the sidewalk and that this is normal. The Chinese believe that this is a way to get your chi flowing. They believe it is bad luck to swallow all that junk because it blocks your chi. Interesting. They talked again about making sure to “top-off” your electricity card because if you run out, you will have no electricity. In China, with the water, gas, and electricity, you get a card. Everything is pre-pay. If you don’t pay, and you run out, the service stops.

At lunch, we went on a little tour of the block, past the restaurant we went to on the first day, then past the gas company and police station to the electricity station, where I put 200 quai (about $30) on my electricity card. I’m not really sure how long this will last. I need to find the reader in my building to determine how much I am using (on average) on a daily basis to see how much we are using. Right now, I’m just thankful to know there is more on it so that I don’t have to worry about it just shutting off. (Some of the administration shared this happened to them). After the tour, we walked to the store building next to our school to get a Chinese pancake. During this little trip, Lucas was having a REALLY hard time and we ended up having to leave prior to getting the pancake. We walked to the grocery store next to the stand and he screamed and threw a fit the WHOLE TIME we were in there. So, we walked back to school…he was crying, I was crying, it was a MESS! By the time we got back to school, we settled a bit, thought Lucas was still extremely tired and now didn’t want to eat lunch. I got him to eat some, then put him down for his nap and went back to my training. I was surprised to see that Dani had gotten me a pancake and it was spicy and delicious!!! At the end of the day, I went down to pick up Lucas, who had just woken up!! He slept from 1:30-3:45! Boy was he tired!! 

When we got home, we got a few things from the complex store, then it was time to make dinner. Lucas had agreed to have rice for dinner, so I made rice with carrots and soybeans. He tried a few bites of the rice, the cooked carrots, and even the soybeans, with chopsticks too!! I was SO PROUD that he tried something new. He really didn’t prefer it though, and since he tried it, I gave him a peanut butter sandwich and some grapes to finish off his dinner. This was a huge step for him! After dinner, we had a rainbow chip, Chip’s Ahoy cookie and watched one of Mater’s Tall Tales, then it was off to bed for little Mr. Lucas.  I stayed up for a little while longer, but was in bed shortly after 9.

Juy 29, 2013

So of course, today, the day we needed to be up early, we both slept in past 4am. I woke with the alarm for the first time in a while at 6am, then went in to get Lucas. Today would be our first day at school! We were going to be picked up at 7:30am to head to school and get our first tour!!  We again were the first ones picked up on the bus and went on quite a loop-de-loop to pick up the others. By the time we had everyone, I had no idea directionally where we were facing, except to know that the school was west of our apartments. We drove through traffic on 3^rd ring road and down side streets. One thing I have noticed is how disorganized all the traffic seems. Rules that are hard-fast in the US are used more as “guidelines” for a general thought to traffic rules. As a colleague said it later in the afternoon, the disorganization somehow brings order. If the rules were followed rigidly, you would be in traffic for hours and hours. Somehow the chaos just works, and like with the rest of the Chinese lifestyle, it all just flows. We have noticed this in the daily interactions and travels through the city, that cars, bikes, pedestrians, and motorcycles all just move how they want. They follow basic rules, but often there are people walking in front of cars, with cars continuing despite the people…horns are used all the time here as a functional accessory to your vehicle. You can use them to signal that someone is in your way, that they are going too slow, to notify someone that you are there, to tell someone to move, or even just as a heads up if someone is not paying attention. I have never heard so many horns, ever. And it is not an annoying blasting of or laying on the horn, but rather, just a short blast to make your point.

We turned off the main road and down what seemed to be an alley to the school. It again is another gated area in a small Chinese community. The building is an older one, similar to what you might think of an older brick built school building looking like. Our first stop was room 345, where there were snacks and COFFEE!!!! We had a few minutes to chat and drink our coffee before it was off on the tour. I saw the Early Childhood center where Lucas’ class will be held and once we were up on the second floor, I saw my new classroom! It was very exciting!  The coolest thing about what I saw in the building was the amount of student work, specifically in the arts that are all over the walls and on the landing shelves. The projects that are represented on the bulletin boards were amazing and inspiring! To see the level of work that students are doing all the way to the kindergarten levels is just astounding!  This is going to be such an amazing environment to work in and an even better one for my son to be educated in!  I am really looking forward to all the things he is going to learn and the challenges he will face that will allow him to use that wonderful mind of his in such an open and constructive way!!

After the tour, we took the kiddos down to the room where they will be during our meetings and off we went back to the “Training Room,” 345.

July 28, 2013

Today again started at 4am, with Lucas yelling through the apartment for me that he was scared. He came into my room and cuddled with me for a few minutes before we got out of bed. This morning we had to meet down at the gate at 9:00am for the bus from school. Today was the day we were going to meet the rest of the newbie crew and do some shopping at the market.  Since we were up so early, we had a leisurely start to the day, with cereal for breakfast (today it was fruit loops because Lucas said the cocoa puffs were too chocolately for him….I don’t get it either). We got ready for the day, went on a little walk to take out some garbage, and Lucas played for a bit before it was finally time to head down to north gate to meet the bus. At this time, we took yet another load of stuff that was left in the apartment to the trash to discover that the bin had been emptied already!!  Here, you don’t have to pay for garbage or recycling, there are cans throughout the community and, evidently they are emptied quite frequently.

The bus came at 9:00 and we were the first ones on, aside from Joyce and Zhao from HR and Kyra the principal. I met a few of my colleagues and once everyone was on, we headed to the market, which I found out was the Metro again.  My thought was, “I don’t know why we would go there again, there wasn’t even any food.” Then they said that the Metro was like a costco or a cash and carry, though I didn’t quite get it. Once we got there, we went over to another sloped escalator, and it all came to me….the store was downstairs!!!  We had only a few things on the list that had come up since our last trip to the market, so we strolled through the Metro and found them all!!  We also had the opportunity to check out the live seafood (side swimmers, crabs and LOTS of fishies). Lucas asked a lot of questions about the non-living seafood. He wanted to know what everything was. We also had the opportunity to ask where the toilet was (cesuo zai nar) and to discover the differences from western toilets….there were some normal toilets, but the TP was in the common area instead of the stall, and there were also the squatting pots, which basically are toilets that are level with the floor similar use to when you are camping. It was also very dim in there and there was the strong smell of incense burning. After we purchased our items, we took them to the bus and went back to walk around the mall for a bit since we still had a half hour left.

Once everyone was on the bus, we headed back to our apartment. There was another trip to a market with fresh foods, but since we were pretty well stocked up, we decided not to go. Kyra told us on the trip back to our apartment that the groceries were always in the basement of structures. Interesting…We had a dinner planned for later in the evening and Kyra offered for Lucas to go over to her house with her teenagers during our staff dinner later. Lucas didn’t seem interested (though I wasn’t surprised) so I thanked her and we headed home. We had time to have lunch, pancakes and fruit, and play some more before we started thinking about the dinner arrangements. After some contemplation, Lucas decided he would rather go to Kyra’s house with her kids than to the Chinese Restaurant for dinner. I called Kyra and got directions to her house, then looking at the clock, it was 4:30 and we HAD to get going in order to get a taxi to the right place and get Lucas there before I had to meet the bus. We got ready, ran down to the street, then took a taxi towards the mall, stopping it when we were in the right place before the mall. We ran around the corner and down the street to Kyra’s complex to meet her son. He gave me directions to where I needed to go, I gave Lucas the biggest hug and kiss and for the first time, I left him with someone else in Beijing. (Of course he had his ID tag on). By this time, it was almost 5:30 and time to meet the bus, so I ran down the street, around the corner and down another street, when I heard someone calling out. It turned out, he was from the school, also waiting for the bus. As I talked with him (Daiju) several others joined us there (Cory and his family, Ruta, and a few others). We waited for bit until the bus got there, chatting and acquainting ourselves with each other before our Peking Duck dinner at the restaurant.

We were on the bus only a few minutes when we got to the restaurant. We were led through the restaurant, past the kitchen and upstairs to the dining room for our party. There were so many people!  A lot of administration and then all of us newbies and several newby families. When we sat down, there was a selection of soda, tea, and Chinese beer for drinks. We were then served dumplings, soybeans, and some small tortilla-like flats that you put meat, sauce, cucumbers, and leeks into. Then came more food: many meat dishes, tofu (but with pork sauce), a broccoli dish, an eggplant dish, and a portabello mushroom dish. They were all wonderfully delicious! This was my crash course in chopsticks, which I admit I was not able to use effectively prior to this trip, but since you do not get silverware, it was time to learn. Looking around the table, I was not the only one fumbling my way through this, though most the others were children. I was able to eat all of my food without any huge blunders, and felt pretty good about my chopstick success!  After the food, came the rice. Kyra shared that the Chinese always serve the rice last. Unlike American Chinese food where the rice is a main part of the dish, in Chinese cuisine, the rice is an “if you have room left over” thing.  Since I had none, no rice for me. After a delicious meal and a wonderful time with my colleagues, it was time to head home. As we walked through the downstairs of the restaurant, there were many people eating and smoking (definitely not used to smoking in restaurants). Then it was back to the bus. We walked a way down the street to where we were parked, past a little shop where Kyra said this family lived and made windows. The shop was about 12 feet long and 8 feet wide, with their window making supplies on the lower floor and a loft-like area above where they slept.

Once we got to the bus, it was back to pick up the kiddos. Lucas was standing there with the other and was SO excited to see me, even though I was only gone for 2.5 hours. It was already 8:00, which was 1-2 hours later than he had been going to bed, so he looked pretty tired. We cuddled on the bus home and were the last ones to be dropped off. Shortly before we got to our apartment, Lucas said, “Mom, is it ok if I sleep until we get there?” I told him “of course!” and he was out in less than a minute!  And boy was he SOUND ASLEEP!!! When we got to our gate, I carried him to the apartment, sound asleep, all the way up the elevator and into our apartment. I laid him down in bed and he slept through the night, no problem. At this point, I too was exhausted!!

Things I took for granted: Non-smoking restaurants

Things I learned: The market is always in the basement. Smoking is allowed almost everywhere. There are no serving spoons…you just use your chopsticks to get your food which you place on your small saucer-sized plate. 

July 27, 2013

Today could come to be known as many things….The Day of Waiting, The Day we Walked Down 25 Flights of Stairs, The Day we visited a 7-story Mall, The Day we Found the Supermarket, The Day Lucas Put Himself to Bed before 7pm, or The Day of Lego…..but more than likely, this day will become known as The Day I Said a Bad Word in Chinese…it went a little something like this:

Our morning started about 4am, when Lucas in all his bed-hog glory was pushing and kicking me prior to wanting to get up at 4 am!! I was able to get him to stay in bed until 6, but then we got up, I just couldn’t hold him off any longer. We got up and it was time for breakfast….you guessed it, pancakes and watermelon. J After breakfast, it was time to get ready for the day. This was our free day before the group trip tomorrow and our busy crash-course of a week starting. Since there is no bathtub, we had to take a shower, where we discovered that #1: the shower door leaks and #2: the drain does not drain. The water was dangerously close to overflowing into the whole bathroom, so shower time was dramatically diminished in an effort to NOT flood the bathroom. After we got dressed, I fumbled my way through figuring out how to run the washing machine (of course all the buttons are in Chinese). It was not even 10 minutes after the machine started that I went back into the bathroom and noticed that the washing machine was FLOODING the floor!!!! I immediately shut off the machine and called my agent. What a way to start the day! The plumber came about a half hour later and after much work and several calls to the agent to translate, it came to be that the problem was bigger than expected and he couldn’t fix it. Someone else was going to have to fix it and they would come 1-2 hours later. It was 10:15. Since I figured we did not have time to go to the market, which was what we were going to do today, I decided to do some more cleaning. We had the Legos out all over the floor and decided to build for a while, which we did. Lucas really wanted to work more on his “city” and today it was centered around building cars for the city, which he then decided to race. After a bit, I was feeling antsy, so we went on a walk across the street to another section of the Sunny Era Community, which is where the pool/recreation center was. The great thing about our community is that though we are in the big city, it covers a huge area and has trails and paths all over the place, with many. Many ponds, trees, bamboo, and other lush green foliage. We walked around for a bit, but was unable to find the recreation center before it was time to head back to the apartment to wait for the plumber. So, we got a really nice walk in, but did not find what we were looking for. When we got back, it was time to make lunch. Since we have been getting up at 4am, lunch comes early. I made pancakes again (big surprise) with kiwi today.

After lunch, the plumber still had not arrived. I called my agent and was about to leave to go to the market when he arrived. He worked for about an hour and a half on the drain. I made several calls to the agent to translate, though I still do not know really what the problem was or what was done. Not knowing the language has been a huge challenge and I have a lot better understanding of how that feels now. To be in a place where you are basically illiterate, trying (and wanting) to communicate, but unable to…After he was done, I paid him the 30Rmb (or quai) and got a handwritten receipt to get reimbursed from the agent.

When finally the work was done, we went down to the management office to ask about ordering water for the water machine. When we walked out of the apartment, Lucas asked again (he’s asked several times) to walk down the stairs to the 1^st floor. I agreed and there we were walking down the 25 flights of stairs. I noticed that on every floor, there were piles of things that people were ‘storing’ on the landings. Also, on each floor, there was a large tin coffee-like can for cigarettes.  It seems that people just smoke in the stairwells out the windows. It must be pretty common for there to be cans on each floor. When we got to the management office, the lady was able to get it ordered and told me that it would be delivered in a half hour…so, back to the apartment we went to again, WAIT. It was surprisingly fast though, and he was there in about 15 minutes. He got it all set up for us, then again, we were off.

I wanted to see about the Capital Mall, which is close to Metro and I was able to still see the apartment from there. Lucas hailed us a taxi and I tried to explain to the driver where we wanted to go, but he was not understanding. I attempted to look up “capital” in my English-Chinese dictionary, but no luck. After several minutes of this, I said sorry and gave our cab away to some other girls walking up. We went back into the management office, since now I knew there was someone in there that spoke some English, and asked her to write “Capital Mall” in Chinese so I could show the driver. The next driver knew once I showed him in Chinese, and it was back into the taxi.

We made it to the mall and upon seeing the merry-go-round and boat-water gun ride, Lucas wanted to go. So, for the low price of 10 quai for both of us (about $1.40) we rode this thing for about 8 minutes. J What a deal!! When we first walked into the mall, what did we see????  A LEGO building exhibit!!!  There were tables with regular sized Legos, Duplo Legos, and some rubber Legos that were very large all set up for kids to play with and build. What a treat!  We played with the Legos for a bit, got our picture taken with the human-sized Lego man, then off we went to walk around the mall to try to find the largest craft store that Mom had told us about. This led to us going up escalator after escalator, searching floor after floor (to discover pretty much every store you’d find in an American mall, filled with TONS of shoppers!!). When we finally made it to the top, we were on the 5^th floor!  Then I noticed looking down that it appeared to be another floor below the one that we started on! So, down, down, down we went to our starting floor, then down one more. On this floor, we found Toys R Us as well as a farmers market.  Lucas was most excited about Toys R Us (obviously) and I about the farmers market, where I found some organic noodles and rice to add to the cupboard. I wasn’t too excited about the look of the veggies I saw, so I passed them over. We ventured on and found that there was yet ANOTHER floor to this mall!!!  As we came down the escalator, which was unlike any I had seen before as it was a RAMP escalator rather than a regular stair escalator, I saw A GROCERY STORE!!!!  It was like finding gold at this point!!!  We walked in and there was a plethora of fruits and veggies at first sight.  We picked several different items: cantaloupe, peppers, bananas, carrots, grapes, pears and then walked on. Using my dictionary, I asked where the tofu was, and behind a counter similar to a meat counter, there was the tofu. The man got our brick of tofu, I thanked him, then off to use my dictionary again to find soy sauce…another success!!  We found yogurt for Lucas, then as we were walking saw CEREAL! Lucas chose some Chinese fruit loops and cocoa puffs, while I chose honey nut cheerios. We looked around for some other items on our list, then I remembered I wanted to get some vinegar to mix as a cleaning solution. The dictionary said CÙ so I approached a worked and said “kuhooo” and she looked at me in utter shock! I repeated myself and then she giggled and waved her friend over (two of them came) and I repeated myself. They all started laughing and then turned around. I was clueless, so I kept repeating myself and trying to show them the word written in pinyin in my book, when another worker came over (now I started to feel kind of like a side-show) and I said the word to her. She just stared at me and I said “vinegar.” She pulled out her phone and put in vinegar, said ‘oh’ and led me down an aisle, when I saw it!!!!  I picked it up in excited relief and said, “VINEGAR!” When they saw it, they read the price tag in Chinese and said, “oh, /suhooo/” and walked away giggling. I said thank you and GOT OUT OF THERE as quick as I could!!! We finished shortly after that, and went up to the counter. As the checker was ringing up our items, she came to the fruits and veggies. She saw the grapes, said something to me, I said “I don’t know” and she put them under the counter. This happened again with the peppers and the new veggie.” I was SO confused!!!  Then I saw a girl behind us in line with fresh fruit in a bag that had a bar code on it. An image popped into my head of when we were in the produce section. I thought it odd at the time, but EVERYTHING for the most part was individually packaged and there was a woman in that section who was weighing and wrapping produce in the aisle. It suddenly occurred to me that I should have had my produce weighed and bar-coded in that section before checking out. Regardless, we hit the motherload of food tonight and I felt really good about the variety we would now have in the house. We made our way back out of the mall (after a quick look around Toys R Us).  We crossed the street and found a taxi, finally on our way home.

When we got home, we decided to have cereal and kiwi for dinner.  It was quick and we were exhausted!!  Lucas finished rather quickly and wanted to be done. I told him ok and he said he wanted to lay down (it was 6:40). After I finished my cereal, I went in to see what Lucas was doing, and he was ASLEEP!!! Feeling rather exhausted myself, I did the dishes and climbed into my own bed at 7pm, sleeping for the first time in about a month and a half by myself... Goodnight Beijing!!

Things I took for granted: common language, tap water, convenience

Things I learned: I need to practice the Mandarin pronunciation for the pinyin sounds. Weigh my produce prior to taking it to the check stand. Traffic rules don’t really apply here.

July 26, 2013

This morning we woke up fairly early, 7am, even before the alarm. One thing I have noticed was that beds in China, not soft….the mattresses are much firmer than any I have slept on in the past.  After getting up, I started my list of things I wanted to get at the store to start us off in the apartment. The listing agent was going to be here at 9am, which gave me time to dig out the stuff I brought for pancakes, and make breakfast. I was SO thankful that Mom gave me that little frying pan, which was where the pancakes were made. Unfortunately, I did not bring a spatula, so was trying to flip pancakes with a wooden spoon, which brought about a new game “Guess what shape the pancake is.” Luckily they left us some water (and some Oreos and apples). We had breakfast and got dressed for the day. Then we decided to go for a little walk, hoping to see a store nearby, though we ended up in a walk through the nature trails of our apartment community and then around the complex, then headed back to the apartment.

When the agent arrived, we went over the information for the lease and I shared with them the lack of cleaning and if there was someone who could some to clean today. They said it was cleaned only yesterday, so it sounds like it was just done quickly, without much care to the quality. After going over the information, we headed out to the store. We first stopped at the bank to exchange some cash, which I was unable to exchange at the airport due to the offices not being open. After that, they drove us to the “Metro” stopped the car, pointed out the Metro, then said “we not able to park the car there and have some things to do, when you are done, you take taxi home.” I probably looked like a deer in headlights, here we were about to be dropped off and on our own to get back to the apartment (granted only about 6 blocks from our apartment and a straight shot to the apartment). 

We timidly got out of the car and headed on our way to the shopping center, when I saw a familiar sight….STARBUCKS!!!!!  YAY, coffee!!!!! We stopped in and I ordered a Carmel Machiato for me and a Juice for Lucas. Then we headed into the shopping building, where we were met with a MALL! We found a lot of the things we were looking for: bed sheets, towels, cleaning supplies, dishtowels, water, and some more snacks. We even found a little store full of toys where they had none other than….LEGOS!!  This was perfect, because I had told Lucas that when we got to Beijing he could get a “big set” to start his Lego City (“just like Uncle Pauly’s” he says). He chose a Police set that had a car, a shutdown gold mine and a criminal transport vehicle. Then it was back to the apartment in our first attempt to take a taxi back home. Luckily, all I needed to do was make sure we went straight from where we were. We made it back without incident!!  Woohoo! Once back in our apartment, I went to work cleaning things up and putting our things away in their place. Lucas was working busily and contently on his Lego project while I was unpacking.

I made pancakes for lunch, yes again. But this time, I had a plastic noodle spoon to use (I forgot to get a spatula). Again, another game of “Guess what shape the pancake is.” As we were eating, I got a call from our agent, who was in the management office to get what we needed for our temporary residency certificate that we would have to get from the police. We rushed through lunch to get down to meet her. It took about 10 minutes to get what we needed from management, then it was taxi time to the police station to get the residency certificate. This took a little longer, because it was lunchtime when we got there, and it is like the DMV…so we got our ticket and waited…about a half hour later, we had our certificate and back to the apartment. I had asked about laundry detergent and when the agent called management, they said there was a little store in Building 10. (score!!) When the taxi dropped us off, we headed to Building 10 to get some laundry detergent so I could wash the couch pillow covers. Once we finally found the entrance (it was in what looked like an alley) we found a STORE!!!  This was the first actual store we had come across that sold food. (We had yet to find a supermarket, which I was told the Metro was a supermarket, but all we found were mall stores). This was a WONDERFUL surprise!!!! We spent quite a while here looking through all of the items to find some snacks and other things to add to our current pancake diet. The best find was the watermelon and the kiwi! There were several fruits and veggies, but this looked by far in the best condition and was a warm addition to our current stock of food. We found the detergent (of course), apple juice, popsicles, peanuts, crackers, soymilk, soda and Lucas even found a little toy sword. With our newfound treasures, we were off back to the apartment, Lucas walking behind, and I was carrying everything, and of course NOW he decides is the time to walk slow as a turtle….but we did finally make it back to the apartment, without any bags ripping (bonus!). And it was time to make dinner. Pancakes and Watermelon.

By bedtime, I had everything disinfected, our things put away from the store, and had unpacked all of our tubs (except the school supplies).  The only thing left was the clothing, which I was going to need hangers for and decide how I was going to get it all into the one closet (!!!), which was in my room. After a very long day, we went to bed at 7:30pm (on our new sheets, but still without pillows).

Things I realized today that I took for granted: tap water, my car, common language, non-humid air

Things I learned: There is a different standard of clean here.

JULY 24 2013-TRAVEL DAY

TRAVEL DAY!!!
This morning started with a relaxing sleep in, where even Lucas slept in until about 9!! We had to get everything ready to go and left the house just shy of our target of 1:30 to head to the airport. The drive over was not too bad, though I did find my eyes “sweating” (a term later to be coined by my Dad) a few times during the drive. I have been preparing for this for months, and though there was this knowledge of what it was that I was preparing for, it hadn’t really felt real until we got closer and closer to the actual day. As we were driving to the airport, my main thought was that we were moving halfway around the world and would not be able to see my parents again for another almost 5 months…the LONGEST I have ever gone without seeing them. This left quite a sad spot in my heart. We are very close and it will be difficult to not see them for this long of a time. When we got to the airport, there was the bustle of getting the 8 tubs and suitcases onto the cart to check them inside. Thought the process went very smoothly and there was no time we had to wait in line, there was still a bit of stress with getting through this process. But finally, everything was checked and on its way down the conveyer belt to the plane. Paul met us there too, so after getting checked (it was only about 4:30) we all sat at the Seattle’s Best Coffee shop and had some snacks and just hung out. I soaked in as much as I could, because this would be the last time we spent together in almost half a year. Over the years, it has come that the 5 of us spend EVERY holiday together.  I am reaaaaaallllllly going to have a heavy heart over missing this.
Around 5:45, we made our way to security, though a little part of me really wanted to just stay sitting there because I knew once we got into line, that was that…but on we went. Then I was faced with probably the hardest time in my adult life, saying goodbye. We tried to keep it not sad, but how in the world do you do this when you are saying goodbye to the biggest part of your life? We said our goodbyes, and I forced myself to leave, Lucas saying, “Come on Mom, let”s go to the playground.” (An example of a 4 year olds Big Picture) All the way through security, I was like a water faucet, and with one last glimpse of my parents and my big brother waving to us, we waved back and passed the point of no return. I was leaking for about another 45minutes after that, all through the corridors and during much of Lucas’ play time at the playground. He got some good running around time, jumping and playing tag with many other children. I let him play for about an hour before we went to get something to eat and headed to the gate. We took the tram and walked to our gate, S6, where we saw some ‘friends’ from the play area, a boy and a little girl with their mother. The little girl had taken much time to show me all the cool tricks she could do while on the play toys. The kids played for a while, laughing and jumping cars until they had to board their flight to Anchorage. This was when I noticed the time, 7:50, and the fact that there were only about 5 other people next to this gate. When I got out our tickets, it said boarding began at 7:35, so I knew something was wrong… We gathered up our things and headed to the ‘big board’ to check…sure enough, we should have been at gate S9!!!!!  Whoops!! I guess looking through the water in my eyes, I missed flipped the number…we rushed over to S9 to find that at that exact moment they were calling our names to board. It was a bit of a frenzy, but we finally made it on the plane. Lucas carrying baby, and me carrying everything else onto the plane, bumping into everything along the way. What a mess…
So, FINALLY, we are on the plane and seated, waiting to take off. Now, this is a big plane and we were one of the first to board, so I didn’t really think much of the amount of time it was taking to take-off, until an announcement came on over the speaker, “Ladies and gentlemen, we just wanted to inform you that we have completed some maintenance on the left engine and will be starting it up and shutting it off to test it out.” (!!!!!!!!!!!) My thoughts are we are flying on this plane halfway around the world, and there is ENGINE maintenance happening now!!!!!   You can only imagine the thoughts that were going through my head at this point. So they started it up and shut it off, then we sat there for a bit longer (my thoughts festering and multiplying into ‘bigger’ and ‘better’ scenarios). Then it was time to take off. We made it down the runway and into the air in a very smooth takeoff (thank you Captain). About ten minutes into the flight, with my mind still mulling over this whole “left engine” thing, there was a loud POP and something flew past my head and bounced around the cabin. OH …..(insert choice word)!!  I about threw up!!!! We are almost up to cruising altitude and now a BOLT has popped off the cabin of the plane, I’m imagining part of the plane breaking apart and now, we’re going down….UGH! That left engine, I knew taking this plane was a bad idea!! So, with my eyes as big as the moon, looking around the cabin, the girl in front of my said something and looked really embarrassed. She held up a small champagne bottle, from which the cork had popped as our altitude increased. It was slightly humorous once I got past the whole I’m-going-to-throw-up-because-the-plane-is-going-down thing. The rest of the flight was uneventful, we chased the sunset for many hours, so mostly what I saw was beautiful sunsets amidst beautiful clouds. The plane had small tv sets on the back of the seats so everyone could watch their own choice of TV, movie, etc. This was perfect, because they had Cars 1 and 2 so Lucas could watch these without me having to get out my computer. He fell asleep about two hours into the flight and slept most of the time. I tried to doze here and there, but this was difficult in this confined space, while also trying to keep Lucas asleep. 

We arrived at the airport just about 11:40pm (Beijing Time) on the night of July 25^th. So, not only were we on a plane for 12 hours, but then we lost another 12. After finally getting off the plane with all of our things, much more gracefully than the trip onto the plane, thank goodness. The moment we stepped off the plane, there was the overwhelming rush of HOT, MUGGY air, hello Beijing….Next step was to follow the masses to the baggage claim. We grabbed one, then two of the big, bell-hop style carts and waited for our boxes and bags. They all came out in one rush, so it was a mad frenzy to grab them all off of the turnstile, with Lucas at my heels pointing them out. Finally I got them all off and onto the cart, then  with Lucas ‘helping’ to push, we got these two large carts through the “nothing to claim” aisle. One of the security men came up to help us push one through the big gate to where the ‘non-flight’ folks wait. We saw the “BISS” sign almost immediately. Phew!! Once we met Joyce, we went to the van, loaded everything and headed to the apartment. A half hour from the airport, we were finally at our apartment! YAY!!  After making it through the maze of the parking garage, we were at the garage door, leading to the elevator. Joyce took us up to the apartment and we looked around. It was 30 degrees Celcius (and muggy) in the apartment, so I knew my first task was going to be how to figure out how to cool it off. We put the bags we brought up with us into one of the rooms and went down to get more. Joyce and the driver helped to get everything up the elevator and into the apartment, then after leaving us with the emergency numbers, settling in allowance, and copies of the lease, she left. Now it was 2am Beijing time and we were hot, tired, and alone in Beijing. Our apartment is a two bedroom, with large beds, there is a small kitchen, spacious living/dining room, and bathroom with a shower. We have a washing machine but no dryer, and a fridge in the living/dining room. There is a microwave, but no oven. We have a large window overlooking the city, and a window/sitting area in my room. First thing I did was look around the place, which was not “furnished” to the extent I imagined. I had expected the basics: sheets, pillows, dishes, silverware, etc. What I found was an apartment that was not cleaned fully, the floors were dirty, dusty under the furniture and in the corners, the fridge had clearly had something go rotten in it, there were no towels, the bedding that was left had stains, there were only a couple dishes (not clean), the microwave was dirty, and the pans that were left were scraped and yucky looking. Clearly I had a LOT of work to do to get this place up to my standards of living. Luckily one of the mattresses was brand new, still in the plastic, and since I did not bring any bedsheets, I tore off the plastic and that was where we slept on night #1, when we went to bed at 3am.