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!
