Longqing Gorge

This week, Amanda and I don't have school.  We are out and about in the city of Beijing!  There is no school due to the National holiday, which is like our July 4^th.  I don’t know anything about it other than the fact that throngs of people come into the city.  So.  Many. People. 

Monday, we went with our friend Anne to Longqing Gorge (pronounced Long-ching).  It is about 1.5 hours outside the city, but it took us over 4.5 hours to get there.  Traffic is an ugly thing! I was glad to get out of the city and into the mountains!  On our walk to the gorge, we saw some people farming.  They harvest the corn by hand!  Stalk by stalk, the sun darkened people remove the corn from the stalk, shuck it, and throw it in a pile before moving on.  It was so crazy!   Amanda and I rode a boat through the gorge.   It was really pretty!  When we got back, Anne talked us into riding these little scooter things down slides that went down the mountain.  As we stood in line waiting with the rest of the masses, we noticed the signs above us that said something about if one hits the person in front of you, “One bears all responsibility.”  That’s encouraging!  We flew down the mountain on those little things!  With a metal handle in the middle, the driver of the scooter can control the speed. 

We stopped at a gas station to go to the bathroom with the rest of the masses.

This mother is putting her child back in the car after he squatted by the car to go to the

 bathroom in the middle of this stop and go traffic!  Oh.....China.

Donkeymeat Sandwiches.  They are called

China's Hamburgers.  They are delicious!

We ordered more of them after we ate the first ones. 

The restaurant we stopped at. 

Walking up to the gorge in the beautiful fall weather

was a much better choice than paying for a trolley. 

The grounds we walked through to get to the gorge.  Beautiful.

This dragon has escalators in it to take us to the top.

Enjoying this beautiful fall day with friends.

Don't eat me!

Decisions, decisions.  Take the cable car or the boat? 

The boat it is!

I enjoyed seeing some of the country of China. 

We got really cold when we were not in the sun!

We had fun riding in the boat!



This guy grabbed the scooters as they came up on a conveyor belt,

and threw them on the track. 

Ride at your own risk!!!  These things went REALLY fast! 

Amanda took off and was really far ahead. 

I'm glad we did it!

At the end of our journey in the gorge. 

 We passed many people in the fields harvesting the corn by hand. 

This terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad picture does one thing!  I

t documents my very first sighting EVER of The Great Wall of China! 

I may or may not have gotten a tad bit excited!

What a wonderful day!

It was a great way to start our week off!

Out With the Girls

Amanda, Bonze, and I went shopping today!  We spent the entire day in the city.  Amanda bought new 'toms' at yashow.   I bought a fun red coat.  I started looking at the coats while Amanda and Bonze were in another part of the store.  That saleslady thought she had a gullible (going to pay way too much) customer.  Too bad for her that is not how things went.  Bonze and Amanda came over, and Bonze did some fabulous bargaining!  I walked away with that coat for a great price....and we left behind a grumbling sales lady.  After getting our nails done, and enjoying a foot massage, we headed toward Qianmen.

My new red coat! 

On our way to Qianmen, we found out that the subway stop had

 been closed.  We had to take a exponentially crowded bus from the subway stop.  

I really like Qianmen!  It has lots of real shops (Canon, Swatch, etc.) and then in the streets beyond the main one there are tons of small, local shops. 

This is like no Starbucks I have ever seen!

We bought scarves!  This makes the cheap ones you can buy in nyc seem expensive!

We finally found the correct bus to get back to the subway. 

It was a double decker bus with a very low ceiling!   

We had a successful trek back to the apartment!  What a great day!

First Days of School

Amanda and I made it through our first week of school!  It was only two days (and I only had classes 1 of those days), but we made it!  Last Tuesday the Kindergarten, which includes all the children from ages 2 to kingergarten, had a day when the parents could come to the school and get information.  There was a large gathering in the auditorium and hundreds of parents were there to get information about the new school year.  The english department had it's own powerpoint, and I presented half of the information in english and Anne translated into Chinese.  The other half of the slides were presented by two other co-workers.  It went very well, and I wasn't abnormally nervous. 

Wednesday was like a "Meet the Teacher" kind of day.  Parents brought their children to meet their teachers.  Anne and I wandered around meeting parents and talking (me....smiling) to people. 

Thursday was the first day of classes.  All children stayed in their homeroom classes, so there were no english lessons.  This meant I didn't teach!  Melody (the director) came into our office in the morning and said something in a very distressed tone.  Anne said, "We have to go help in Dumbo...everyone is crying!"  This is the youngest class.  The poor little children.  It was absolute chaos in the room.  Almost all of the kids were crying!  I am not sure if I did much good!  I am more scary to them than anything else!  I sat down beside one little boy who was sitting at a table and I started reading a book to him.  The book was in Chinese, but I was pointing and saying, "Bear." and then when the bear was hibernating I gestured and said, "sleep."  He thought that was pretty funny and I got a smile out of him.  He laughed and started talking when I gestured that the squirrel was small and the bear was big--not that I understood any of his talking!  I nodded as if it were the best thing in the world!  Later on, we took the ones who were not really, really upset (so crying just a little) down to the inside play area.  On the way, one of the little boys grabbed my hand and stood holding my hand.  Then, he looked up, saw who it was, intentionally let go of my hand and purposefully put his hand carefully back at his side.  Then, he stood staring at me.  LOL  That was so funny!

Thursday, I taught my first classes.  I teach 4 classes.  The first one is 30 minutes long, and the other 3 are 40 minutes long.  I was pretty nervous that first day and I went through my material, and looked at the clock and I had 10 more minutes!  Whoops!  I sang some more songs and did some more things with that class.  The next class, I sloooooowed down!  The day was such a learning experience for me.  I saw how things went, how the kids reacted, what they knew, what they didn't know, how the teachers acted.  It was quite the day!

Each class is so different!  Some classes are really into one song, and then the next class could care less about that song, but they love a different one!  The children do not understand much, so I have to talk very slowly and use one or two word sentences.  After some reflection, I told Amanda this is going to cause me to be very purposeful with my language...in instruction and in speech! 

I am ready for my first day of school.  All KG teachers got to wear this 'wonderful' shirt! 

Amanda is ready for her first day as Teacher Amanda.

During our first few days together, I took pictures of my kids in groups of 3.  I wrote their names under them, and used that to learn their names. 

Jonathan, Mandi, Amanda and I went into the city for some bible study.  It was a good time to sing songs and share what is going on in our lives.  We went to Peter's Tex Mex afterwards for dinner.  I had a peanut butter/chocolate milk shake.  I'll go back just for the milk shakes!  I had chimichanga's for dinner.  The taxi back home was pretty funny.  The driver acted as if he didn't know where we wanted to go, when really he just didn't want to go there!  We hopped in and mandi told him she would tell him.  He was so mad he was saying things in chinese, and driving roughly!  I sat in the backseat laughing at the communication issues, and the disgruntled man who had our lives in his hands!  We decided to get out early, and walk the rest of the way.  Jonathan paid him, and thanked him, and he sat there saying Xie, Xie....grrr, grrr, grrr, grr, grrr!  We all got a big kick out of that!

Yesterday, Amanda and I went to Merry Mart by ourselves!  This is the larger grocery store we use, and a trip there involves using the bus!  This was the first time we had ventured out into the great unknown...using transportation other than our feet...without someone more experienced with us.  The trip went well!  We got to Merrymart, did our shopping, bought some street food (whole roasted sweet potatoes! There is nothing like them!  We eat them just as God made them!), and took the bus home. 

Later in the evening we went downstairs to Ruth's apartment for a spaghetti dinner.  Ruth is the school counselor.  She is phillipino from the states, and she is such a wonderful, fun lady!  We brought the garlic bread.  Let me just tell you that there is nothing that can make me miss the kitchen I was using in the states more than cooking in this easy bake oven!  Ok, so it's a toaster oven, and I am happy to at least have it, but....it's nothing like the kitchen I just left!  LOL  I am having to learn how to cook all over again!  In an entirely different way, because of ingredients and equipment!  Everything is different.  There are 2 gas burners, 1 toaster oven, and all of the utensils and kitchen tools are new to me!  We had fun at Ruth's!  It was supposed to be a game night, but it was the first time everyone had seen each other since being back from holiday, so we sat around talking the entire time. 

Today, we went into the city for Church.  It takes over an hour and a half to get there...on three busses or two busses and a taxi, or a buss and 3 subway trains.  We are going to try the bus/subway route next week!   Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called 1001 nights in the SanLiTun area.  It was really good!  We ordered dulma, hummus, lamb with mushrooms, spicy fish, and baklava.   We all ogled at this entree on the menu that was BBQ'd lamb.  They come out to the table with the kabobs all stuck in this half moon looking thing.  It cost 798 RMB, so we didn't get it. (The exchange rate is 6 RMB to 1 dollar....so it's expensive!) There was a table near us that did get it, and then they left half of the kabobs there with the meat on them!  It bothered me so much that all that meat was going to waste!  I sat there thinking that if I could speak to them, I would go and ask if they could box it up for me.  I know, I have issues!  Well, Ariel went to the bathroom and came back and was walking by their table and she said something about how she should just ask if they could box it up for us.  I said, DO IT!  DO It! DO IT!!!!  She did, and the guy said yes, and we brought home all their meat!  LOL  We laughed about it for quite some time! 

In front of the restaurant

Menu

Pine Nut Hummus

Rice

Baklava

Fish heads, fish heads, rolly, polly, fish heads.....

Roomies!

Amanda was excited about the free lamb we were taking home!

Anne, Me, Ariel

On the way back home, we met up with some other people and went to a market.  It's going to be a great place to get produce!

Xiao Bai Yang Market

This place has really good buns, and they are SO cheap!  She filled that bag!

Tomorrow is the start of a new week!  You could ask for clarity with my instruction and communication on my behalf! 

Keri

Bow gwah!

My co-worker Anne who speaks both Chinese and English went to the bathroom this afternoon.  (And, you are SO thinking, "Uhhhh, where is she going with this!?")  Well, while she was gone this man (shi fu) came to the window (there is a window into the hallway) and started talking to me in Chinese (I heard bow-gwah) and gesturing.  It looked like he was doing the motions for deep and wide!  I was so confused.  We both started laughing and he gave up and walked away.  Anne came back from the bathroom and he returned and said something to her.  She told me he had a package for me downstairs.  I was so happy!  I ran down the stairs to get it! 

Back in the office, I asked Anne.....what is the word for package?  She said, bow-gwah!  I learned a new word today!

I can't wait until 4:30 so I can go home and Amanda and I can open the package!!!

Planes, Pollution, and Helpful People

 Hey, everyone!  We made it!  We landed around 10:45pm last night.  I am not able to express how happy Amanda was to be off the airplane!  Our flight went up through Canada and made an arc that looked like the flight just went over the globe to the other side (for those of you who have been wondering and asking what route the flight would take).  Upon arrival, we packed the provided mini-van with all our (TONS of) stuff and headed for the hotel at the clubhouse of our companies living quarters.   

My senses are overwhelmed.  My eyes keep trying to focus...everything looks blurry because of the pollution.  The hotel (apartment building, school, WORLD) has so many foreign smells that my nose is in over-drive. 

Mandi and Jonathan (2 friends we know) have been invaluable.  I am so thankful I can learn from their experience!  Today, we met our roommate (she's from Africa), saw our apartment, decided who would take which bedroom and made a shopping list (cause we are our mother's daughters).  We also did some shopping!  Now, we both have phones with minutes, subway cards (enabling us to ride both subway and bus [we've ony ridden bus so far.]) and we will share a blow drier and a hair straightener.  Amanda was really happy to have found the straightener!  (Well, Mandi's gesturing found the straightener.) 

It has been quite the first day! 

Keri

(yes, I am blogging retro-actively) 

Our flight went North over Canada and over to the other side of the world. 

Mandi and Jonathan were very helpful during our first few days in our new home.

Packing everything in the taxi that came to pick us up. 

A view of the elementary school from our hotel room in the Living Quarters clubhouse.

Same view of the hotel (a few days later)  It rained and the rain moved out the pollution.  THIS is what the view should be!  See the difference.  Pollution is UGLY!

We had a plethora of things to do to do in those first few days.  Food, towels, beds, bedding, curtains, toiletries, phones, and so much more to buy......oh, and payday is not for another month! 

How Did I Get Here?

I’ve had so many people in my life who provide wise counsel and use their experiences to help me.  They have shared tears, shared pleas, and shared the work alongside me.  I am so thankful for them and Who placed them in my life. 

Over two years ago, I spoke with a woman who has been so special to me over the years.  When she learned a few details about the relationship I was in, she said, “Oh, Keri.  Don’t settle.”  Her words rang in my head like a resounding bell.  Over the next weeks and months, I heard them over and over.  Those words came from a place of understanding and experience.  They were wise words, and I will carry them with me always.  I will not settle.  Not in love or in life. 

That conversation has a lot to do with where I am now. During the past few days, I've found myself trying to wrap my head around the fact that I am moving to Beijing.  How did I get here?  How did I get to this place where I am planning a move all the way across the world?  It's a long story, but I guess I have the time.........

A little over 2 years ago I left my teaching position, put the majority of my possessions into storage, and I moved home with the plan of moving to New York.  It was something I'd always wanted to do, and it seemed like the perfect time.  I was dating a New Yorker.  What better time to make this move? 

After the horrendous conditions of my previous job, I didn't want to see the inside of a classroom ever again.  Hearing a child made me physically shudder and grimace.  I was done.  I set out to find myself any position I could obtain with an elementary ed degree.  No luck.  I sent out multiple resumes, and filled out one application after another.  I became a pro at writing cover letters.  It was all to no avail.  I began to apply all over the country.  I joked that I was unemployable.  To add to it, we ended our relationship.  It was painful, but it was the best decision I could’ve made for myself.  I laughed thinking about what my life would look like if I wrote the specifics down on paper!

I had another conversation with that same friend and she asked me what she could ask for on my behalf.  I told her to ask for wisdom, discernment and courage.  I wanted wisdom to know where to go and what to do (because at this point, I was about to go crazy!), discernment to understand, and courage to do whatever it was I was supposed to do!

Months later, after a year of looking for a job with nothing to show for it, a friend of mine approached me about teaching at a preschool.  She had an opening in a classroom.  But, it was only 3 days a week.  I felt strongly that I needed to pursue something full-time with benefits.  Something that would allow me to move out of my parent’s house and provide for myself!  She called back 3 more times during the following weeks.  Each time I said no. 

Again, another wise woman came alongside me and she shared her wisdom and love with me!

The director of the entire children’s program called.  She offered me a 5^th opening teaching in a pre-k classroom.  I took the job, and along the way I began to enjoy children again.  I enjoyed teaching again.  I had a wonderful year with my pre-K class, and I am so thankful to those who provided support and opportunities to see how wonderful it can be when it is right!
Even though I succeeded with my preschoolers, I hesitated to go back to teaching…..to what had been more terrible than words can describe.  I continued to question the impression I was getting, “This isn’t what I am supposed to do, is it?” My fear that I would walk right back into what I had left kept me from making a move. 

In January, a friend of mine who's teaching in Beijing, emailed me and asked if she could pass along my information.  I agreed.  I didn't think it would end in much.  I couldn't get a job here, what made me think I would get one there?  Not long after, I heard from someone, and he wanted more information from me.  Then, I had a phone interview.  Then, a Skype interview.  Then, I received a job offer! 

A door was opening here!  After every closed door over the past few years, this door was opening.  Through this process, doors have continued to open, and I know this is where I am supposed to be.  I know what I am supposed to do, so here I go.  I’m trusting, and I’m about to move to the other side of the world!  4 more days!