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! 🙂
