Finally, I began my first week of my full teaching load. I still maintain that I have the greatest job in China, although others will disagree with me. 🙂 I have Sunday and Monday off, which is a great blessing because I am able to be refreshed in HIS word and enjoy the day with fellow FOCers. I teach at Qinghua from 8:30 – 12:00 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Sinopec from 1:30 – 5:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and at the FOC school from 8:30 – 12:00 and 1:30 – 5:00 on Saturdays. I use my Sunday/Monday free time to prepare for my classes for the upcoming week.
I have a total of eight preps for the week. I teach two hour and a half classes at Qinghua University清华大学. Ideally, these two classes would be on the same lesson and at the same level. The first class (Class A) is at a much higher level than Class B. This makes planning for them challenging. It really is teaching two completely different classes. I immediately fell in love with my students! They are very hard working. They come to the classroom 30 minutes early just to study their lessons. All of my students are post-graduate students who work for China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) 中国铁道建筑总公司. It is currently China’s largest construction contractor and the world’s sixth.
Tuesday was my first day with the Qinghua group. I met Ms. Fan at the subway station in the morning so that she could show me where to go. We went to her office first so that I could make the copies for my class. She asked me if I drink coffee, to which I responded, “Yes! I like coffee!” Little did I know that this response would lead to multitudes of cups and free coffee (instant) in my classroom. She also told me that if I have any handouts for the class that I could email them to her or another person and they would make my copies for me and have them ready for me in my classroom. 🙂 How great is that?!?
My students are great! One man in my class asked if I was married and when I said no, proceeded to tell me that he was also single. “We can be friends!” was his response to this. I shook his hand. He came to both of my classes on Tuesday and both of my classes on Wednesday even though he is only required to go to one of them. I may have to watch out for this one. He said to me, “you are not as old as I am.” So I responded by saying, “How old are you?” He said, “24.” I said, “I am older.” 🙂
After the introductions on Tuesday, one of my students asked me to tell them a little about myself. So, I drew a map (drew is really a relative term here…) on the whiteboard to show them where I was born, where I went to college, and where I had been teaching for the past four years. They were very interested in anything I had to tell them. Ms. Fan wants me to teach them English songs. I think that I will have a hard time teaching silly songs to people who have degrees in business! Someday soon, I will bring in pictures of my hometown, my family and other pictures that I have from the states. They want to know as much as possible about Meiguo 美国!
Wednesday’s class was also very fun. I am really going to enjoy teaching my Qinghua students. After class on Wednesday, I decided to explore the Qinghua campus on my bike for a while. It is very beautiful! I took a few pictures of the “lake” and the waterfall. There was a large open lawn near the auditorium on the campus. Around this place there were hardly any people, which is so un-China-like! Maybe I will come back to this place to do some reading or writing. It was very peaceful!
My lessons are coming along more quickly than when I started because I know what to expect. I kind of feel like a competent Oral English teacher now! I know for sure that I will learn a great deal about Business English and am excited to do so.
Other happenings of the week: Kevin (from the train to Taishan) invited me to attend a violin recital of one of his friends at his school (Central Conservatory of Music 中央音乐学院). He met me at the subway and then showed me around the campus. This school is very small population-wise. He said that there are only about 2000 students! The campus isn’t anything spectacular. It’s pretty small and most of the buildings are ‘normal.’ We went into the auditorium/concert hall quite a bit early because the tour of the campus did not take as long as he thought it would. He told me he would go get me a program. So I stayed in the auditorium to listen to the violinist warm up. Awesome! It was taking Kevin a really long time to get a program. When he finally came back, I realized why it had taken him so long. He was having someone translate the whole thing into English for me! It was all hand written next to the Chinese! The recital was fantastic! After it was over, Kevin introduced me to the performer. I told him that his playing was excellent and he said, ‘thank you,’ and that was the extent of our English conversation. After the performance, Kevin and I and another one of his friends went to get some food. It is interesting/frustrating talking to him because I don’t speak Chinese and he speaks only basic English. There won’t be any intellectual conversations between the two of us any time soon. He is going to be coming to a concert this weekend with me and a bunch of the other Meiguoren 美国人. When I told him that there would be about eight other Americans with me, he made this gesture that signified confusion (waved his hands by his head)! I assured him that there were a few who could speak Chinese much better than I can. He just smiled!
My love of China continues to grow day by day! There are so many little things that make me smile when I take the time to think about them…the ‘Chinese chalupa’ lady who knows exactly what I want when I come to order from her and her assistant who does all his cooking with chopsticks!, the copy man at Sinopec who doesn’t speak English but has had multiple ‘conversations’ with me about copies/flash drives/pdf files/etc., the pink-haired stylist (male) who works on our street who says ‘hello’ every time we bike past and even took our picture with his phone one time, old Chinese friends who come to evening studies and share the same love of HIM, new Chinese friends who are learning of HIM and HIS SON for the first time. There are so many more things that I could mention. It’s difficult to put into words all of these ‘little’ experiences that are part of my day to day life! (Including being hit by a car on my bike!) If only you could come and experience this as well….. 🙂
The lake on the campus
Close up of the waterfall
Jeffersonian Architecture on the campus
According to The Lonely Planet, when Confucious climbed Mt. Tai (Taishan 泰山) he spoke the words, “The world is small.” When Chairman Mao journeyed to the top he said, “The East is Red.” When I made the trip, the first words out of my mouth were, “Wow, that was a lot of stairs!” But we’ll get to the mountain later.
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Our National Holiday vacation began October 1st. I awoke to beautiful blue skies. It was interesting to discover the previous night that the government can regulate the weather (and has many times). I was reminded of a few utopian society books that I have read. I’ll admit it was a little bone-chilling to find out that this sort of technology is being used. I was naively unaware that rain can be controlled. Nevertheless, I enjoyed a lovely morning of packing, watching the parade in Chinese on television, and taking a taxi to retrieve my bike from where I left it during the rain the previous night.
After packing, I walked to the subway to meet two other teachers to go to the train station. This was quite possibly the fastest subway ride I have ever been on. Line 1 was completely closed because of the above-ground festivities. Line 2 had only a few stops open, so what should have taken an hour ended up taking half of that. While waiting to meet another teacher at the train station, the three of us enjoyed the blue skies.
Blue Skies for National Day
At the designated time, the other teacher arrived and we were on our way. We had standing tickets for the five hour ride to Taishan 泰山. My original feeling about this was apprehension. This changed from apprehension to indifference. I thought, “I guess I can stand for five hours.” I could not have been more mistaken.
My first train experience in China went something like this:
…getting onto the train by successfully pushing through a wall of people, standing next to a mother with two children (one of which peed on the floor three times), meeting my new friend Kevin who attends a university in Beijing 北京 for music (somehow we music geeks always find each other), visiting with Kevin and another person who appeared to be his friend but was also someone he just met (and an awesome translator for Kevin and me), constantly hearing “ting bu dong” from people on the train (I think that “ting bu dong” could be my new nickname), and constantly shifting (into people) to make room for those who were going back and forth to the bathroom (and for the cart which, even though there was no room in the aisle, the train staff insisted on shoving through)…
There were many times when Kevin, the other guy, and I would say, “No! You had your one roundtrip to the bathroom.” Obviously we were kidding, but the longer the ride lasted, the more serious we became. Just when I thought I couldn’t handle it anymore, the train made its second stop and most of the standers (along with a few sitters) got off the train! This was a much needed relief. The last hour and a half of the ride was so much more bearable. I continued to visit with Kevin and was even able to read my book for a while.
We finally arrived in Taishan–the first time. At the train station we purchased tickets for our journey to Qingdao. We would have gone straight to Qingdao from Beijing but, because of the holiday, they were fresh out of tickets. As we left the train station the giant screen TV outside was broadcasting the festivities from the capitol. We made it to the hotel where we dropped our backpacks and headed out to find supper. We settled for KFC because we were all hungry not in the mood to walk further to find something else. While we ate at KFC people were shooting off fireworks across the street in front of a building. We made it back to the hotel, crashed, and woke up refreshed for our journey to Qingdao.
The train to Qingdao was much more bearable. We had a sleeper car and a lot of room to stretch out, especially after a couple left to find an empty area.
Qingdao 青岛
We arrived in Qingdao in the early evening. Our taxi driver took us on the scenic route to our hostel but we didn’t mind because the beach and the sea were beautiful. We made it to our hostel and couldn’t believe that our entrance was cave like. You wouldn’t imagine the entrance to a hostel being through an alley and downstairs. The man at the desk (which was under the stairs and was also where he slept) showed us a few room options and we settled on two adjacent rooms with a double bed in each.
The next morning we awoke to explore the beautiful city of Qingdao. We taxied to the Catholic church in hopes of seeing the inside. This was not an option for us and we settled for walking around it and admiring the hoards of brides being photographed. We found our way down a little street that—according to The Lonely Planet once again—had the phrase “Long Live Chairman Mao” painted on one of the buildings. This phrase was covered up by an air conditioner.
"Long Live Chairman Mao"
We continued our meandering through city streets, enjoying the simple beauties of China. We came across some beautiful sites and some not so beautiful ones as well. Below is a little treasure that I found while wandering around.
After wandering the streets for a while, we decided to visit the another church in the city. It was very German in style, and we could actually go inside this one. When we got inside there was a group of singers practicing for a concert. We asked when the concert was and found out that it was to be on Sunday evening. We all agreed that it would be neat if we could come back for the concert.
Qingdao 青岛 Chr--tian Church
After visiting the churches and enjoying downtown, we ventured to the beach where we walked and walked until we found a place for lunch. We settled on a place right on the beach and enjoyed watching people while we ate. It’s interesting to note that most of the people in bathing suits by the beach were men…and they don’t wear bermuda style trunks like we are used to seeing. 🙁
We stopped for a short time to walk barefooted in the sand and enjoy the water. This was a nice way to relax before continuing on down the beach. It got dark relatively early and we continued down the coast. Off in the distance there were lanterns floating through the air. This was the night of the full moon. There is a reason why the people let the lanterns go. I’m not sure what it is but it was very cool to see! Two of the the others decided to try this and the lantern went right over the edge into the Yellow Sea.
Before we decided to leave the beach for the night we ended up in Music Square. Of course I thought this was awesome! I got my picture taken with Beethoven (a stone likeness of him, that is) and also photographed the various works of his that were ‘inscribed’ on the ground in the square. After this, we hit up a pizza place for supper, Old Jack’s Cafe for a beer (you can’t go to Qingdao without drinking some of the beer), and then we retired to the cave for the night.
The next morning we got up, had breakfast and coffee at the ‘Rich Bakery’ next door to the hostel and read HIS book together. After getting ready we headed back down to the beach and began where we left off the night before. We made it through the olympic area (Qingdao was the location for the sailing events) and decided it was time to go back downtown for a bite to eat. We found ourselves at the ‘Fanciful Hibiscus Restaurant’ across the street from the Qingdao brewery. We were meeting another teacher and a few of her friends at the brewery shortly after lunch. Here we dined on splendid Chinese cuisine and some dark beer.
After our delightful lunch we crossed Beer Street to visit the brewery. The tour was awful (it was self-guided…I must be a terrible tour guide) but the signs were hilarious! I think I may have more fun taking pictures of Chinglish signs than scenery. After we finished at the brewery we headed back to the cave before the concert at the church. We had a snack at the bakery before going to the church. The church was crowded and it was so cool to see so many people there to worship HIM. I was able to take a few videos of some of the songs which included Panis Angelicus. It was so awesome to hear! The tenor was amazing! After the concert we headed to an Indian restaurant for supper and back to the cave for the night. We had an early train ride the next morning.
We awoke at 4:30 the next morning to get ready to go catch our early train to Taishan. We were on a fast train that only took three hours back to Taishan instead of the six it took to get there from Qingdao. This was the nicest of the three trains that I took on vacation. I managed to spill a whole cup full of milk tea on the floor as the train was tilted. So, the milk tea crept to the other side of the train. This was only slightly embarassing as I got the attention of a random person who looked like she may be on the staff. She was not and kind of looked at me strangely when I did this. I found a real staff member, tapped him on the back and then pointed to the floor. He immediately got his little mop and began to clean up my mess. This was a source of great entertainment to the people around us. Somehow I always manage to make the Chinese people laugh. Something tells me this will not be the last time.
Taishan 泰山
When one of the other teachers made the suggestion to climb Taishan during our National Holiday vacation, he made it sound like it would be a walk in the park. “It’s all stairs!” was one of the phrases that came out of his mouth. Yes, it was all stairs. However, stairs in China for some reason are six inches wide and rounded. In order to climb Taishan, one must ascend 6660 stairs covering a height of approximately 1.3 km and a distance of 7.5 km. No problem, right? Right.
We met two other teachers from Wenling at the train station in Taishan before heading to the mountain entrance by minibus. It was great to have new people join us for our travels.
The first half of the journey up the mountain was decently challenging. In 100m increments, measurements on the stairs told you how high you had climbed. There were hundreds of people climbing the mountain. At the Midway Gate to Heaven, the group split up. Five of us chose to take the stairs the rest of the way while the other two decided on the cable car. How much further could it be, really? The second half of the climb was much more brutal than the first half. We took many breaks on the way up. During our ascent, many Chinese people wanted to take their picture with us. Now and then we would hear various ‘hellos’ from random Chinese people. Apparently this is hilarious to them.
The view at the top left a little to be desired because of the haze but it was still worth the effort. We made it to the top in time for a quick supper before the sunset. The top of the mountain has its own little town. There are restaurants, shops, and places to sleep for those who want to catch the sunset the next morning. This is what we did!
We stayed in a hallway on the eastern side of the mountain. This was a perfect location for viewing the sunrise in the morning.
We stayed in the building on the hill in the distance.
Close up of the west side of the building
After finding our way to our hallway, we spent some time on the porch/balcony enjoying each other’s company. We decided to go to bed fairly early so that we could catch the sunrise the next morning. Little did we know that we wouldn’t get much sleep anyway. Around 11 pm, the hallway came alive with noise as the Chinese people who were staying there decided it was time for bed. The noise came back around 4:30 in the morning when they decided that it was time to scope out their sun-watching spots. We also decided that it was a good time to ‘wake up’ since we hadn’t really slept anyway. We went out to the porch/balcony to get a spot to see the sun…and then we waited. The sun appeared and the people cheered.
It's so small...
This was the view of the sun that we had.
We lingered for a while and then decided to find some breakfast on the mountain. After a quick bite we made the decision to descend the mountain by foot. We could have taken the cable car down, but down is easier than up, right? 🙂 Down, down, down, we went. We rested more on the way down than on the way up. This made our legs feel like jello and was pretty hard on our knees.
On the climb down. The mountain behind me is the one we climbed.
After making it down the mountain, we picked up our stuff at the train station and headed to the hotel. We then found some supper in Taishan at a really cool restaurant. I had a great time on the trip. It was awesome to see new parts of HIS creation and to enjoy them with friends! I can’t wait for the next big adventure!
Below are the people I traveled with.
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! 🙂
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
