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.