Saturday was my usual 3rd grade/7th grade routine.  I’m starting to warm up to the 3rd graders, but they are still pretty chaotic in the classroom.  I have one student who is 6 years old (yes—in my 3rd grade class).  He just got back from living in the states for two years.  His oral English is surprisingly clear and he would put any American 3rd grader to shame with his reading skills.  However, he has zero attention span!  I just don’t know what to do with him!  He actually reminds me of my middle-schoolers from last year.  It’s funny to hear a little Chinese boy insert “like” between most of the words in his sentences.  I think he does this when he is nervous.  His personality also surprises me.  He is very outgoing.  I will definitely keep you posted on him.

My 7th  graders surprised me with their written English skills.  They struggle with a few sentence structure items, but their thoughts are awesome!  I can’t wait to read more of their writing.  It’s easy to assign a lot of writing when: 1. you know the students will complete it—all of it, and 2. you only have seven students’ work to read.  We had some fun discussions about The Secret Garden.  They devour books like they are going out of style.  Who would have thought that I would be teaching the same thing in China as I was in the states? I certainly did not!  During class last Saturday, they wrote letters to American 7th graders.  We are going to try to start a pen-pal activity with some of my former 6th grade students from Watertown.  My Chinese students are very excited about communicating with an American student.  At first, they didn’t know what to write.  So we brainstormed ideas of what to write about.  I can’t wait for the Americans to get the letters.

On Sunday, we had our morning service. This was the debut of my trumpeting in Beijing!  We Beijingren 北京人 like to change things up in our services.  For Sunday, I played trumpet for three hymns (one with piano, one with guitar, one solo).  Afterwards we had lunch as a group and then another teacher and I went for a brisk walk in the park!  The park was busy with people walking (forwards and backwards), sitting on benches, playing random instruments out of tune, and babysitting grandchildren.  We’ve had quite a few beautiful blue sky days.  Anticipation of these days makes the other ones much more bearable.

My Sinopec men continue to work their way into my heart.  My heart still aches for them because they are so far away from their families.  They seem to be making the best out of their situations. They have really warmed up during class.  At first I was hesitant to try games and activities with them.  They seem to enjoy some of the ‘silly’ things that I try with them.  Yesterday I shared my Peanut Butter M&Ms with them.  They said they liked them, but I wonder if they were just being polite.  They are also very punctual.  I give them two ten-minute breaks during our three-and-a-half hour class.  They always come back in exactly ten minutes! However, yesterday they were ‘hanging out’ on a rooftop area having a very animated discussion in Chinese.  The time slipped right by them!  I had to go looking for my usually punctual students!  They sort of giggled (if you can imagine grown men giggling) when I came to find them. 

During the break time, while my students were hanging out on the roof, I was watching out my window at the window-washers across the way.  It seems like their method is so unsafe.  I’ve included a picture for you to see.  I also have a picture of the cars that they covered up because they didn’t want to get them wet. (Actually, this is an assumption of mine, but why else would they put what looks like a really big sheet over them!?!)  Also included in the pictures is one of the Sinopec ‘campus’ where I teach.  The photo was taken from my classroom window across to the dorms/cafeteria.

This week we finally welcomed the family that was missing from our group in Beijing!  It is so nice to have them here.  It feels like our group is complete now.  It was also fun to see their reactions to things happening on the way home from the airport.  I am sure that is what I looked like when I first arrived, and that was only a month ago!  So much has happened in the last few weeks that I feel like I’ve been here for a very long time already.  I hope that we can help them adjust as quickly as we did!

Update on Beijing Extreme Biking: I feel more and more confident as the days go by.  This may or may not be a dangerous thing!  Yesterday I ran into a guy on a scooter because there was confusion as to which way each of us was going.  I feel like this is going to happen more and more.  At least I now know that it doesn’t hurt that bad.  Also, (not really biking related) I got a ride with the other teachers from Sinopec to the subway yesterday. When I was getting out, the driver kept inching forward and the back wheel got my ankle.  Thankfully, I was able to pull my foot out before the tire ran over it! 🙂  I may have to change it from Beijing Extreme Biking to Beijing Extreme Transportation-in-general. 

Highlights of the week: Sunday service, practicing using a spoon and a fork with my engineers (and one of them turning them around to use them as chopsticks!), welcoming the Krauses, and visiting the post office by myself to mail an envelope back to America (Meiguo) 美国 and having a conversation with the clerk with gestures only. (She wanted me to write the characters for America 美国 on the package and I sort of looked like a little kid that wants something so she giggled and took the envelope back to write them for me.) I am going to be so good at charades when I get back!  I also think that I should probably learn to write the characters for America.

Enjoy the photos!  Until next time…

View of Sinopec from my classroom window

Covered cars...so they don't get wet?

Window Washers

View of the whole building. They are all the way up there with only two cords and what appears to be a tree swing holding them up.

This past week in Beijing was pretty eventful.

Since my last post, my teaching workload has doubled!  I began my teaching at Sinopec.  I have a group of eight men, ages 30-45.  They all have degrees in engineering or chemstry.  None of them are from Beijing so they are all going to school away from their families.  It is interesting to know that this happens all of the time.  A husband and wife may not live in the same city if it is financially beneficial for the family.  My Sinopec men are just a few examples of this.  They are all in school for seven hours a day learning English.  I am only a small portion of their education here. 

My first class on Tuesday was interesting.  It takes me 52 min. to get from the door of my apartment to my classroom.  It may be different on other days depending on how long I have to wait for the subway.  I arrived early because Mr. Wang wanted to meet with the teachers before our first class.  There are eight of us teaching conversational/oral English to different groups of men.  I was the only female teacher this week.  My roommate will be joining us next week.  I also think it is very interesting to see the different perspectives of English that these men will get.  Of the eight teachers, six of us are from the states, one is from England, and one is from Australia. 

After our meeting with Mr. Wang, we jumped right into teaching!  I really had no idea what to expect.  Their English level is fairly low.  I had my lesson planned out for a group that would be willing to talk.  This is not that group.  They were really timid on Tuesday.  I don’t know if it was because they were nervous or just uncomfortable with me.  It was challenging to fill 3.5 hours of time with a group that doesn’t participate.  During our first break, they all just chatted away in Chinese! Ha!  I now know that they are not shy or timid.  Mr. Wang came during break to see if things were going well.  The men must have told him that they were having a hard time understanding me.  He said, ‘they like your accent but you speak pretty fast. Maybe you could speak slower.’  Speaking slowly is definitely a learned skill.  For those that know me well, this will be a challenge for me.  I know that this is what they need in order to understand me and will strive to do it.  However, it is hard for me to speak slowly (ridiculously slowly) to a group of men who are very smart.  Understand the dilemma?  For a good chunk of the class we talked about the United States and things about my family and me.  They had many questions. 

After class, I made my journey to the subway and met the previously mentioned Nebraskan man.  We chatted the whole way to his stop. (one stop before mine)  This made the ride much more bearable.  I made it home and after eating some supper I crashed!  I love taking unexpected naps when they are not right before bed.  Hmmm…   I woke up around 9:30 pm and had a hard time sleeping that night. 

I had Wednesday off from teaching but it felt like the never ending planning day.  I wanted to make sure to maximize my time with the engineers.  Most of the day was spent with them in my thoughts.  I’m hoping that planning gets easier and less time-consuming so that I can enjoy the days that I have off between teaching days.  Other things that happened on Wednesday: visiting the market to pick up a bag that I had custom made (with help from another teacher), supper with friends at La Bamba, and our groups’ Wednesday gathering. 

Thursday’s class went much better than Tuesday’s.  I made a point to take my time in all of my speech and eliminate unnecessary speech.  The group was also a little less timid today.  They did roleplaying, they asked each other questions, they discussed.  I think that maybe they are more comfortable with me.  We even had lots of laughter during the class.  I can’t wait until I get to see them again on Tuesday!

On Thursday night I visited my first song study.  It was fun to see the different levels of English and how the Chinese help each other understand things during study.  At the end of the song study, I received a call from Mr. Wang about my teaching schedule.  Earlier in the week he told me that I would be teaching American and British Culture at the Forestry University.  🙂  What do I know about British culture?  So, once again I was excited and a little nervous about this.  But before I even had a few days to think about how I would teach it, Mr. Wang called and said that I would be teaching Business English at Qinghua University. (pronounced Tsinghua)   Business English?!?!   I keep trying to remind myself that this may change in the next few days.  Who knows?!

Highlights of the week: my Saturday 7th graders, Sunday service, biking down 3rd Ring Road between buses and cars that are moving, biking across 4th Ring Road during a traffic standstill and weaving between vehicles, late-night chuar with friends!

We got off the subway at our desired location and then found the buses.  The bus that we wanted (936) was no where to be found.  So we took a different route.  We made it safely to Huairou.  We were warned that there may be lots of guys driving mini-buses wanting to take us up the rest of the way.  We turned down the first one and stayed on the bus.  After waiting a long time at a bus stop, another man came on the bus.  It was interesting that they only wanted the foreigners.  They did not give the Chinese people the time of day.  This is because they wanted our money!  The next man that came on the bus offered to take us up and back for Y25 each.  We decided that we would get there sooner if we would just go with this man.  The mini-bus was quite a ride!  He took us up, showed us where to pay the entrance fee and then said he would wait for us.  This sounded awesome!

We paid our entrance fee and also the fee to ride the cable car.  If you know me well, you know that I’m freaking out right about now.  I have this SMALL fear of heights and these cable cars are not close to the ground.   Surprisingly, I calm down about one minute into the ride up and realize that it is quite enjoyable.  Below us is nothing but trees and the chute for the toboggan for getting back down. More on that later.

As soon as we got up to the top, I was in love!  I can’t possibly put into words a description of the view that was before me.  To walk on a piece of history and experience creation all around me was amazing!  It was such a beautiful day to experience this.  I’m at a loss for words, and I hope that the pictures below do the view justice. 

After we were done photographing the Wall, we made it back to where the cable cars brought us up.  The way down was much more enjoyable.  We tobogganed!  It was a pretty long way down so I was able to enjoy the ride for quite a while.  When we got off the toboggans we decided to walk through the street-market to see what there was.  Vendors knew limited English.  You would hear, “two t-shirts for a dollar.”  Do they even know what a dollar is?  I kind of wanted to get out a dollar and say, “okay!”  I did end up buying a t-shirt for an outrageous price.  We were able to practice our bargaining skills a little.  Some of the vendors would grab us by the arm and not let go.  It was a little overwhelming but after a while I got used to saying, “bu yao.”

Our mini-bus driver found us and wanted to go back down.  We wanted to continue looking.  I’m not sure if he was angry or not, but he started to follow us around.  Hmmm…..  Finally, we got back into the mini-bus and he said, “Y25 for one way. Y50 for both ways.”  This was not his original offer and we were a little upset about it.  We sat there arguing with him about his price and another driver brought a travel guide to show us the going rate.  We decided that we would just pay him and find another way back.  We got out of the mini-bus and left our irate driver. 

With no idea about how we would get back to Beijing, we decided to walk around a bit.  And then we found the elusive 936 bus!!  We hurried to get on the bus and it left soon after we got on it.  This was the bus we wanted to ride to Mutianyu 幕田峪 in the first place.  We were very excited to find it! 

After a long day of bike, subway, bus, mini-bus, cable car, walking, toboggoning, bus, subway, bike, it was time to take a nap.  I dozed off for an hour or so and then got up to meet two others for supper.  We experienced hot pot for the first time!  This was interesting.  We must have looked like we didn’t know anything because the waitress brought over the bus boy to speak limited English with us.  She then proceeded to bring out aprons and put them on each of us!  There was much laughter throughout the restaurant!  Delicious food, good company, and making the Chinese people laugh.  Who could ask for more?

I hope you enjoy the photos!

View from the Wall

Am I coming or am I going??

Today, (Tuesday) one of my roommates and I biked to 林大 to meet Mr. Wang, who would take us to our meeting at Sinopec.  We didn’t really know how long it would take us to get there so we left about 45 minutes before we were supposed to meet.  It ended up taking only about 15-20 minutes so we were able to enjoy the beautiful Beijing 北京 weather for a little while.  While waiting at the main gate, there was another foreigner wandering around, looking like he was waiting for something too.  He finally approached us and asked if we were waiting for Mr. Wang.  We struck up a conversation with him and found out that he is from Nebraska and has taught for Sinopec in the past and it was really great.  He thinks it is one of the best places to teach in Beijing 北京. 

Mr. Wang arrived at the given time and we all packed into his car.  He drove us to the northeast section of Beijing, through the Olympic Greens on North 5th Ring Road.  We arrived (safely I might add) at Sinopec for our meeting.  The meeting was interesting.  Dress code and teacher policies were explained to us and then there was a lot of talking about us in Chinese.  The Nebraskan foreigner knew Chinese pretty well so he could tell us what they were saying about us.  It’s a little unnerving listening to someone talk about you in another language. 🙂 

After the meeting, we asked Mr. Wang when we would begin teaching.  He said, “next week…or tomorrow.”  We had a good chuckle about this but wondered if he was a little bit serious.  Mr. Wang said, “you take taxi home now.” He wanted to stay with the people at Sinopec to talk about scheduling us.  He told us he would pay for our cab and then did not give us money for it.  Hmmm….  Sometimes I think he is a tad forgetful. 🙂  On our way back from 林大, another of the veteran teachers and I had lunch together.  During our lunch, Mr. Wang called me.  He wanted to know if I could teach that afternoon as a ‘fill-in’ teacher for one class.  He made it clear that it was only one time.  I said yes and then went to the school to teach some 5th graders about the seasons.  They were definitely the worst class I have ever taught.  So, I have seen both sides of Chinese education now.  I feel blessed to have my Saturday 7th graders! While I was at this other school, Mr. Wang’s assistant said that they haven’t found a teacher for this school and that maybe I would teach there. WHAT?!?! This is not what we agreed to!!  Tomorrow I will visit with Mr. Wang about what I am expected to do.

This evening, we had another jog in the park.  This time there were many more people jogging through the park and there was no “bu hao” from an old lady.  It felt really good to have tennis shoes on after a long day in dress shoes.  Afterwards, the three new girls went out for supper.  It was a grand time. 

It was a rollercoaster ride of a day.  I wonder if this is what my whole year will be like.  I have heard that nothing in China is written in stone until it actually happens, and even then I have a hard time believing it!  Until next time…

The weekend in Beijing seemed to go rather quickly!  It was also not without adventure. 

Friday morning, a group of the foreigners and a couple of Chinese friends helped move boxes and boxes of books into the new office of the FOC school.  The three teachers (myself included) are very excited to have a place to store books and such and also a place to ‘debrief’ after the school day.  It’s amazing the tremendous joy that comes out of small things!  HE definitely provides!  We had school on Friday evening and Saturday.  I only taught on Saturday.  I feel a little more comfortable with the 3rd grade class.  It was a little different than what I had expected.  The 7th graders were awesome!  It’s funny how my opinion of different grade levels changes depending on my location and how much experience I have.  This particular group of 7th graders impressed me.  Since they have all lived abroad for some time, (Hai Gui 海龟) their oral English is pretty good.  Their written English is also pretty impressive.  One of my students, the only boy, was born in the states and lived there for seven years.  He’s a great kid!  I admire him for putting up with all of those girls.  This particular group of 7th graders is excited about reading some challenging books this year.  Two books that we will read that I can think of off the top of my head are To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. What a great year this will be!

Today (Monday) had a few lovely surprises!  I found out yesterday that I would’t be starting at Lin Da 林大 until next week.  So I have this whole week off to explore.  The next time I teach will be on Saturday.  One of the other new teachers does not start until after that so we went for a jog in the beautiful little park today.  The weather was so nice for it. (by nice I mean cold enough to not be sweaty all the time) 

After that, we biked up to where most of the rest of the teachers live to hang out for a while this afternoon.  On our way up there, I looked to the west and saw the mountains for the first time.  It was not sunny today but there was no smog and visibility was pretty high.  I almost stopped to take a picture and kind of wish I would have.  Beijing is just full of lovely surprises when you least expect them.  I can’t even being to imagine what else is in store for me!

Another surprise, (which was probably more of a shock) was this: I found out today that next week when I begin at Lin Da 林大 I will be teaching executives from Sinopec 中国石化, which is a Fortune Global 500 company ranked 9th in the world.  Talk about pressure!  I’m very excited about it!  I even did a little reading about Sinopec so that I know a little about the company.  Tomorrow we meet with Mr. Wang to find out about the details and to get our textbooks.  (If only I can remember how to get there)  Mr. Wang will probably be driving us from Lin Da to Sinopec tomorrow, and you know how I feel about riding in Mr. Wang’s car! 

I feel like I should also update you on Beijing Extreme Biking!  I stopped keeping a tally of the number of times I’ve almost been hit by a bus.  It usually happens once or twice a day and I sort of lost track.  I have hit one pedestrian on my bike.  I had the choice of going that direction or the other (which was right into a bus) so I figured that choice was the safer bet.  I’m sure the woman was just fine.  It was not that hard of a hit.  My new favorite thing to do while biking is to bike at an angle across a major intersection.  Imagine you are on the southeast corner of an intersection and you want to be on the northwest.  Instead of waiting for green, going north, waiting for green again and going west, you just wait for the green arrow and travel through the lanes of traffic that are turning in opposite directions.  The first time I did it I was a little freaked out.  But I realize now that it is still safer than biking with the busses.  I don’t miss driving at all!

As I write, it is late Monday evening and two of the other teachers just left our apartment after a good supper and great company.  Once again, I see how HE takes care of me.  I know people have told me that there will be times when I feel lonely here.  I still have a hard time believing that because of the large number of us living in Beijing.  I am thankful for the fellowship with the others.  Praise HIM for his goodness! 

Highlights of the weekend:  Sunday service with the teachers and not missing too many notes on the piano, 7th grade, biking through the rain to go to game night, and talking to family and friends on the phone from across the globe!

After mourning the loss of my bike for a couple of days, I decided it was time to get on with life.  (Actually, another teacher said I could use the bike she was using and she would just cut the lock off hers. She couldn’t find the key.)  So, I have a bike for getting around.  It’s not nearly as awesome as my other one, but it is a bike, nonetheless.  A couple of the other teachers said that you’re not a true Bei jing ren 北京人 unless you have at least one bike stolen.  I’m sure that a stolen bike in the first week has to be some kind of record. 🙂

I’ve been spending hours of my days trying to plan what I will teach to seven 3rd graders for three hours and six 7th graders for three hours.  I start teaching on Saturday and have never felt so ill-prepared for it.  I do not know what their level of English is.  I do not know their reading or writing abilities either.  I am very excited to teach them, I just wish I had more information.  I’m especially excited for the 7th graders because the lead teacher told me that they like to be pushed.  I’m a little more leery about the 3rd graders.  I begin teaching at Lin Da 林大 (Bejing Forestry University–see picture in previous post) next week. I will teach four, three-hour classes during the week. 

The past few days have had some adventure.  Although things are becoming a little more ‘normal’ for me.  My roommates and I spent some time cleaning our kitchen.  I don’t believe it had been cleaned in quite a while.  It was pretty disgusting.  We scrubbed until it felt safe to be in there and eat food that is stored in there. 🙂 Now, if only our stove worked…  We visited the nearby Wal-Mart (yes, Wal-Mart has infested China as well) to pick up some items and to do some grocery shopping.  Wal-Mart in China is pretty overwhelming.  Because there is not a lot of space to build out, Wal-Mart is three stories high.  There are these nifty little escalators (but flat) that your magnetic cart attaches to when you want to go up or down.  Pretty handy!  Shopping there is not as much of a challenge as bringing the stuff home. 

Yesterday (Wednesday) my two roommates and I visited the police station to register.  Our landlady was supposed to take us there so that we could communicate with the officials there.  She sent a young man to help us instead.  His English was about as good as our Chinese so this proved to be quite a challenging task.  While we waited in line, the three of us played a game of Pass the Pigs.  I’m certain we looked silly to the Chinese people, but I’m kind of getting used to looking silly.  The best part of the trip to the police station was discovering a ‘small’ park very close to our apartment.  I got a little excited in the back seat of the taxi and said that I would bike to the park to check it out.

Today (Thursday) one of my roommates and I biked to this jewel that we discovered and walked around it for a while before settling on a bench to do some reading.  I need to read a book by tomorrow evening so I thought this was a great place to do that.  As we were walking, there were people playing instruments, singing, chatting with significant others, etc.  We saw a man playing an accordian and a whole group of people singing along!  It was strange to see, but as you know, I’m not sure that I have a definition for strange anymore.  I will definitely be back to this park to do some walking, reading, writing, or any other activity.  Biking is not allowed through the park, which is actually a breath of fresh air.  While you are in the park, the city noises almost disappear.  The smog does not, but I’ll take what I can get!!  🙂

Below are some photos of the park and one of a sign at Wal-Mart.  I’m going to love the translations of the signs here.  Reading the signs makes me wonder if that is how I sound to the Chinese people when I try to speak to them! 

Highlights of my first week in Beijing:  Meeting the returning FOC teachers, two-and-a-half days of blue skies, discovering the nearby park, and Sunday morning/Wednesday night studies with the other teachers, talking about HIM!

Possibly the name of the park?

Part of the park

One of the bridges

A little walkway

A sign at the entrance to the park...read carefully!

Don't put goods under the fire-fighting volume curtain gate! 🙂