{"id":52,"date":"2009-08-30T19:02:54","date_gmt":"2009-08-31T01:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/?p=52"},"modified":"2009-09-11T00:27:51","modified_gmt":"2009-09-10T16:27:51","slug":"education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/?p=52","title":{"rendered":"Education?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very quickly, I am settling into life in Beijing!\u00a0 I’m learning many things about my new home.\u00a0 One of the things I have learned is that if you think something will take one hour, plan for it to take three!\u00a0\u00a0I’m getting pretty good (maybe confident would be a better word) at navigating the streets of Beijing on my bike.\u00a0 (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.)\u00a0 I now get to participate in Beijing Extreme Biking!\u00a0 It is difficult to know which way is North when the sun isn’t shining.\u00a0 This was until someone showed me how to read directions on the street signs.\u00a0 Now I know how to get to where the other teachers live and home again without any help.\u00a0 Even though this may not seem like an accomplishment, I’m pretty proud of it!<\/p>\n

Friday I met with Mr. Wang from my school.\u00a0 He is quite funny and a very crazy driver.\u00a0 He enjoys talking on his phone incessantly, especially while driving.\u00a0 There was a point when we were driving in the wrong lane and a rather large white vehicle was coming at us.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We arrived at the restaurant and he treated us to a lovely lunch.\u00a0 “Another piece of duck, Amber,” was what I heard over and over again.\u00a0 This was not a question but a command.\u00a0 Needless to say, I was quite full after this meal.<\/p>\n

Saturday was a fun, albeit exhausting day.\u00a0 I had lunch with some new Chinese friends (see picture below) who are studying with Prof. Lorenz from Hong Kong.\u00a0 He is here visiting this week.\u00a0 After a delicious lunch, I went to some other teachers’ apartment to ‘help’ them paint.\u00a0 I got pretty lightheaded from inhaling the paint fumes.\u00a0 Four of us ventured to a large store a couple of subway stops away to look for some items.\u00a0 In the evening, the four of us and four Chinese friends went to visit Olympic Village.\u00a0 We got there just as the sun was going down, and we watched as the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube were lit.\u00a0 This was very cool!<\/p>\n

Sunday morning the teachers gathered together in our apartment for study.\u00a0 It was nice to get together with everyone and afterward we went out for lunch as a group.\u00a0 I think\u00a0I will enjoy our regular studies.\u00a0 Later during the day, I experience my first “I’m lost” feeling.\u00a0 It wasn’t actually that bad.\u00a0 I was on my way to a new friend’s apartment (the friends I met on the flight).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This worked until he dropped me off outside the gate of her ‘community.’\u00a0 (I don’t really know if there is a name for it, but the city blocks are their own little gated communities.)\u00a0 I knew the number of her building and even the floor, but the taxi driver dropped me off pretty far away.\u00a0 So I was wandering through the streets of her ‘community’ showing the text message to people walking around.\u00a0 They all kept pointing in the same direction so I assumed I needed to keep walking.\u00a0 Eventually I found myself outside the door of her building.\u00a0 It was a secure entrance with a keypad and I had no idea how to use it.\u00a0 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. ____.\u00a0 I was suprised and said yes.\u00a0 So I followed him up to her apartment.\u00a0 Prof. ____, her daughter, the young man (who was one of her grad students), and I went out for supper.\u00a0 Afterward, we came back to her apartment to play Uno and another game that her daughter taught us.\u00a0 She drove me home and told me that the next time I come over, she would come to pick me up.<\/p>\n

Below are some photos for you to enjoy!\u00a0 Until next time…<\/p>\n

\"Lin\"Lunch<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Looking

Looking westward down 4th Ring Road from Olympic Village <\/p><\/div>\n

\"Close

Close up of the side of the Water Cube<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

\"Bird's<\/div>\n
\"Water<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very quickly, I am settling into life in Beijing!\u00a0 I’m learning many things about my new home.\u00a0 One of the things I have learned is that if you think something will take one hour, plan for it to take three!\u00a0\u00a0I’m getting pretty good (maybe confident would be a better word) at navigating the streets of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}