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.