My bike was stolen today. 🙁

Very quickly, I am settling into life in Beijing!  I’m learning many things about my new home.  One of the things I have learned is that if you think something will take one hour, plan for it to take three!  I’m getting pretty good (maybe confident would be a better word) at navigating the streets of Beijing on my bike.  (Yes–I have a bike with a basket and a bell, which I ring to let others know that I’m coming up behind them.)  I now get to participate in Beijing Extreme Biking!  It is difficult to know which way is North when the sun isn’t shining.  This was until someone showed me how to read directions on the street signs.  Now I know how to get to where the other teachers live and home again without any help.  Even though this may not seem like an accomplishment, I’m pretty proud of it!

Friday I met with Mr. Wang from my school.  He is quite funny and a very crazy driver.  He enjoys talking on his phone incessantly, especially while driving.  There was a point when we were driving in the wrong lane and a rather large white vehicle was coming at us.  For those who were worried about my safety while I am in China, I fear that that I am safer walking alone down a dark deserted alley then riding in Mr. Wang’s car.  We arrived at the restaurant and he treated us to a lovely lunch.  “Another piece of duck, Amber,” was what I heard over and over again.  This was not a question but a command.  Needless to say, I was quite full after this meal.

Saturday was a fun, albeit exhausting day.  I had lunch with some new Chinese friends (see picture below) who are studying with Prof. Lorenz from Hong Kong.  He is here visiting this week.  After a delicious lunch, I went to some other teachers’ apartment to ‘help’ them paint.  I got pretty lightheaded from inhaling the paint fumes.  Four of us ventured to a large store a couple of subway stops away to look for some items.  In the evening, the four of us and four Chinese friends went to visit Olympic Village.  We got there just as the sun was going down, and we watched as the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube were lit.  This was very cool!

Sunday morning the teachers gathered together in our apartment for study.  It was nice to get together with everyone and afterward we went out for lunch as a group.  I think I will enjoy our regular studies.  Later during the day, I experience my first “I’m lost” feeling.  It wasn’t actually that bad.  I was on my way to a new friend’s apartment (the friends I met on the flight).  She sent me a text message with her address in Mandarin so that I could show it to the taxi driver and also in Pinyin so that I could learn how to pronounce it.  This worked until he dropped me off outside the gate of her ‘community.’  (I don’t really know if there is a name for it, but the city blocks are their own little gated communities.)  I knew the number of her building and even the floor, but the taxi driver dropped me off pretty far away.  So I was wandering through the streets of her ‘community’ showing the text message to people walking around.  They all kept pointing in the same direction so I assumed I needed to keep walking.  Eventually I found myself outside the door of her building.  It was a secure entrance with a keypad and I had no idea how to use it.  Thankfully as I was about to send her a text to tell her that I was downstairs, a young man asked me if I was there to visit Prof. ____.  I was suprised and said yes.  So I followed him up to her apartment.  Prof. ____, her daughter, the young man (who was one of her grad students), and I went out for supper.  Afterward, we came back to her apartment to play Uno and another game that her daughter taught us.  She drove me home and told me that the next time I come over, she would come to pick me up.

Below are some photos for you to enjoy!  Until next time…

Looking westward down 4th Ring Road from Olympic Village

Close up of the side of the Water Cube

Not so early the next morning, we ventured out into the streets of the Haidian District.  The city comes alive with breakfast foods in the morning.  Although the smog was still pretty thick it seemed more bearable in the morning.  Life blossomed everywhere!  I do not know what I ate for breakfast—what it was called that is.  It was some sort of sandwich-like food with meat (not sure which kind), green peppers, and other various spices on a bun-like object.  It sort of reminded me of a Philly steak sandwich.  It was very tasty and I would definitely eat it again! 

A while later I went with another experienced teacher by bus to exchange some of my money at a bank.  I was amazed at his ability to converse with the teller after only being in China for about 6 months.  I was grateful for his help and fully expect to need it again in the very near future.  In fact, he is helping me find a bike tomorrow! 

After money-exchanging and walking walking walking, we stopped at another teacher’s apartment for lunch—leftovers from the night before.  We rested for a while and chatted while drinking cold water (apparently a rarity in China) before heading to our next destination.  We walked to another teacher’s apartment close by (also a relative term) to get some transportation cards, try out the used bikes, and briefly use the internet.  During this time it was decided that we should visit a nearby Starbucks because it was buy one get one free day.  It happened to be the Chinese Valentine’s Day today so Starbucks was having a deal.  Knowing this tidbit of information was useful when seeing many people carrying roses throughout the city. Unfortunately 🙂 for the single ladies, the only people we had to share this special day with were the others!  It was quite an enjoyable time. 

Later, we ate supper at a really cheap restaurant with amazing food.  I will definitely not starve here!  After supper, it was back to the apartment for some moving, sweeping, mopping, and sweating.  Where is this cold shower when you need it? 😉  We all sort of crashed on the couch trying to figure out our new cell phones.  The group of teachers decided to visit a ‘restaurant’ (fan dian) for some chuan and pi jiu (beer).  (This is pronounced chuar by the Beijing locals.) Chuan 串 is basically lamb on a stick and surprisingly tasty!  Each stick was 1 kuai or about 14c. Try to think of it as going out for beer and wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. 

Tomorrow I venture out on the subway without any help from an experienced teacher.  This should not be a problem since I am now an expert.  Hmmm…..more to come at a later date!

Highlights of the day:  experiencing the life and activity in the streets of Beijing, amazing Chinese food, briefly seeing the blue sky while enjoying Starbucks with new friends, being “dinked” by another teacher, and successfully giving directions to a taxi driver without help! (I’ll let you figure out what “dinked” means!)

Downers of the day:  lingering smog, cold shower in the morning, and the feeling of jet-lag sticking around.  Hopefully this will be less and less in the next few days!

I was very excited to meet at the airport the morning of departure.  I had to get there early but was extra excited when I got to see the other group of teachers before they got on the first leg of their journey to Shanghai.  Checking in was easy and then we waited.  The flight to Chicago was quick; up and then right back down!  The next one was not to be that easy.  Almost immediately after arriving in Chicago, we were in line to have our visas checked and then boarded the next flight.  Beijing, here we come! 

Thirteen plus hours in an airplane is not an easy task.  I was in the very last row of the plane  (minus the row for the flight attendants).  We passed the time with exciting games of Mad Gab, Pass the Pigs, and Hearts.  Other time was spent learning a Chinese song from my new friend Kathy (or her Chinese name Xiang Yang).  She spoke English very well and offered to teach me Chinese during my stay in Beijing.  I may take her up on this offer.  Her mother is a professor at Tsinghua University very near where my apartment is located and also my school.  I plan to call them when I am more settled here.

Highlights of the flight: Flying directly over the North Pole (and the sky being clear so that we could see sheets of ice), meeting Xiang Yang and her mother, and not having to use the airplane bathroom, which I’m sure is unhealthy but has to be some kind of record.  I definitely paid for it when I had to go through all of the security in Beijing Capital Airport before visiting the bathroom.  Another highlight of the flight was that is was light for the entire time.  This was a little strange but I imagine that many of my new experiences will also be very strange so I think I’ll just go with it.

We met our Chinese friend in the airport who was also arriving to Beijing from Canada that day and we were on our way.  On the ride to our apartment we passed the Bird’s Nest, the Water Cube, and also the REALLY tall hotels that the Olympic athletes stayed in last summer.  I found myself just staring at this as we drove past because I couldn’t believe that I was in Beijing and seeing these things for my own eyes.  (“Seeing” is really a relative term because the smog was so bad when we arrived it was more like seeing a silhouette of these things.)

After lugging our stuff to our apartment, we went out for supper with the other FOC teachers.  This was quite an enjoyable time as we tried a variety of dishes (including the popular and delicious Peking Duck).  The total bill was less than $40 for ten people!  There was a ton of food left over and we warmed it up for lunch the next day.  I still have many questions about everything and hope to have them answered by this time next week. 

The rest of the night was also incredibly interesting and entertaining—to someone who is jet-lagged.  Had I not been so tired and giggly, I think I might have been a tad more frustrated.  When we got the apartment we found that the electricity had run out.  (You buy electricity on a card and insert it into the wall for your lights to work. Ours was not working.)  Thankfully I had thought to bring a flashlight (who knows why?) with me to China.  This was a crucial part of the rest of the night and also the extremely cold, dark shower in the morning. 

Before we went to bed that night we thought we would venture down to the massage parlor/hair salon.  The four of us decided that we needed massages.  This was also quite an adventure.  I have never had a massage in the states so I was definitely excited about it in China.  We had our own room equipped with four quite comfortable couch/bed things, and our own Chinese masseuse.  The most exciting part, however, was that the hour long massage was 38 kuai!!! (This is only about five and a half dollars.)  I will most likely visit this place again for a foot massage. 

All in all—a tiring, but excellent day!

Highlights of the day:  MASSAGE, realizing that I am in China, and fellowship with FOC teachers. I am eternally grateful for their help and patience with the newbies!

This past week was a good one.  There were not too many interesting things that happened so I’ll be brief.  😉

We had some more English training from Prof. Tom Hunter (MLC) at the end of last week.  He taught us a lesson in Japanese so that we could better understand what it would be like to be learning a new language with a teacher who does not speak yours.  It was interesting.  I learned a little Japanese that day and then I quickly forgot it.  Thankfully, the Chinese is sticking a little.  We got to have three hours of Chinese on Friday!  If ever there was a mix of joy, frustration, fun, and coloring, this was it!  We learned some Chinese geography, talked about food, and learned a dialogue for haggling.  Then we practiced haggling at the ‘market’.  It was challeging to try to not use English at all, (which didn’t really happen) and it was also frustrating!

This week so far we have been talking about culture and culture shock.  Pr. Peter Leyrer spoke to us about this and directed us to a nearby Somali Mall where we were to interact with the people, learn a little about them, and try the food.  Great experience!

On another high note: I learned that I will be traveling with the team for sure on Monday the 24th.  I will arrive in Beijing on Tuesday next week

Highlights of the week:  Three-hour Chinese class (or Chinese class in general), campfire/brats/King Kong and fun weekend with friends, The Gasthof, and playing sardines at Pilgrim when the power went out because of a tornado nearby.  (Pr. Leyrer’s house had some damage and the team went to investigate.)

One of the many trees lying across the streets of Minneapolis after the tornado this afternoon.