The Weekend Update

On Sunday morning, around 10 am, I was excitedly searching hulu for the new SNL episode ... and it took a moment, but when I couldn't find it, it occured to me that it hadn't even happened yet. Oh time difference.

Metro!!!
On Saturday morning the school organized a trip to the Metro in Ningbo (45 minutes away). The best I can compare it to is Costco. It felt like my first trip to Safeway with Jess our freshman year. It took an hour and a half, zig zigging through all the isles. I think I covered enough total walking distance with that cart to get me back to Beilun.

Exactly what we need to find right before Oktoberfest, the International Wine Festival, and we were the token internationals. The people would take pictures of us sampling their wine, and one of the hosts hovered around us, switching out our glasses, and he had a box of tissues :) we're not sure why.

And another thing we need, a guy in a suit that is typically used to attract children to an event. Ariana and Dana with the wine guy.



Oktoberfest!!!
- I went to my first Oktoberfest ever! Which I'm thinking was probably not like normal Oktoberfest considering all the Chinese food, probably Chinese beer, and Chinese people.
- There was a German band that played some classics from Germany, some songs in Mandarin, and some good old YMCA, Beat It, and Mama Mia ...
- I was most surprised by the amount of children. This is an unlimted beer party. And there were parents proudly taking pictures holding their babies with the band in the background. This year's Christmas card??? Or I suppose maybe their Chinese New Year card?
- I learned to count to 3 in Mandarin. (Before every chugging contest there was a countdown)
- Connie, you were right, except it was the guys that were fascinated with me, and it took about 4 beers before those inhibitions disappeared and they came up to touch my hair and take pictures with me. The ones who still wouldn't come near me pointed and laughed like 5 years at the ones who did. Then one handed me his cell phone and said, "Talk to my friend!!" ..... really??? I mean, really???
- Our server was a sweetheart, and she spoke very well in English. She asked me if I'm German.
- Afterwards we went to Lao Wai Tan, which means "Foreign Land", so all the international restaurants and pubs, and to my pleasure, other internationals! Which is good, because somehow Ariana's phone got left there, and the dimwit who picked it up and decided not to leave it with the bar staff actually spoke English, so we were able to call Ariana's phone and track him down.

First Solo Trip to Ningbo!!!!
- Mr. Wei is one of the private drivers (like Mr. Fan), except he speaks English. So I called him and told him that I needed a ride to Ningbo. He was not available so he called one of his friends to meet me.
- I have a handy dandy Ningbo taxi guide that has every location I'd ever want to visit in English and the address in Chinese. So even though the friend didn't speak English, I was able to point at my destination in the book, and off we went!!!
- I'm feeling pretty confident at this point, I can get around, no problem :) !
- When we came to the junction for the interstate to go to Ningbo, my driver stopped the car and started asking me questions in Mandarin. He pointed at the road signs, and then looked back at me ... waiting ... I realized, somewhat mortified, that he must be asking me, "Which way to Ningbo?" I swear, it's a straight shot. It should be named "Beilun to Ningbo Hwy". There's no messing this up. So I pointed to the onramp, he smiled and hit the gas, and off we went again! Me, super freaked out. He should be able to actually read the signs!! Apparently that was the only direction he needed and that was the only turn I knew along the way, thank goodness.
- When we pulled up to my destination in Ningbo, my driver asked what I assume was, "When should I come pick you up?" Ariana had showed me where I could catch a bus from Ningbo back to Beilun, and I wasn't as time pressed for the way back, so I used my fantastic pictionary skills to draw a bus. Success :)

First Solo Trip Back to Beilun!!
- I gave up on the bus plan super quick, and just got a taxi to go back. Here's how it went:
Me: "Beilun, yi bai qui?" Which means, "Beilun, 100 rbm?" I can now say 1, 2, 3 and 100 in Mandarin. I knew the taxi was going to cost more than 100, but I just wanted to make sure that we had the same idea for how far I needed to go. If I didn't say Beilun with the right tones, I wouldn't get home.
Taxista: Pointed up to indicate more expensive, and nodded for me to get in. (Sweet, he knows where I want to go) Then he RAMBLED in Mandarin for like 5 minutes, each minute he got more and more urgent. And I heard him say Beilun several times.
Me: I started flipping through my handy dandy Ningbo taxi book, hoping to find an advirtisement for a restaurant in Beilun that I could point to. I ended up finding my school address, perfect!!!
Taxista: Looked at my school, and shook his head. Five phone calls later to his taxi buddies and he knows where to go.
Me: Relief! ... Except I started looking around at that point (I'd had my nose in the book) and realized ... I didn't know where I was. Remember that straight shot on the interstate? I didn't think I could get lost. So ... not relief?
Taxista: SUPER curious about my book. He looks through it at every stop light. Then, he found Li Ren Gardens, my apartment complex, and he pointed to it.
Me: WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, take me there, take me there!!!!
Taxista: DETERMINED to have a conversation with me. I keep shaking my head. But it's an hour long taxi ride (the road was dirt and full of potholes), and he just won't give up!
Me: I break down and call Dana and ask her for some key words like "teacher", "United States", "China" and "1 week" to hopefully let him know that I'm not a complete idiot, I've just only been here for 9 days.
- When we arrived, I was soooo tired, hungry, car sick, and just relieved, that my gigantic smile just turned into laughter. Which cracked up the taxi driver too. I think he thought it was an much of an adventure as I did.

Important detail: Apparently there is a second road to Ningbo, it's a little dinky piece of dirt, and it's not a toll road. So my first driver to Ningbo was actually asking if I wanted to take the cheap way or the toll way. My taxi driver on the way back took that road without asking, which is why I'd never seen it before and I thought I was lost, but I still arrived safely :)

Professional Development Day!!!

Today was a PD day, so no kids. And the lovely thing about being the nursery teacher is that none of it applies to me. You can talk about the 6 traits of writing all you want, but my 2 and 3 year olds can't even hold their pencils. So I got to spend the day setting up the classroom and lesson planning. Such a relief!

I couldn't get the tacs to stick in the walls while I was putting up a long string of posters (the alphabet), so I went into the storage room and looked under "h" for hammer. Instead I found a gigantic mallet. When I came back into my classroom, all the lights were off cause I was just using the natural sunlight today, and of course there are Halloween decorations up :) So the classroom was really dim and I came through the door holding this mallet and I freaked out all the TAs! They were so quiet I forgot they all sought refuge in my room, watching a Taiwanese animated movie. Whoops!!

I did get a chance to look up more of the tombstones of the other staff. And they really cracked me up. My two TA's:

Miss Alice - Died from a broken back, picking up fighting nursery students, crying nursery students, dirty tissues, toys, snack, wet pants, and the collapsed nursery teacher.
Miss Jean - Died from being mobbed by the nursery students while carrying in morning snack. (I can see this actually happening)

There was also one for our Headmaster: Died strangled by staff for too many committee asignments. (I think whoever wrote that one was gutsy, cause I've actually heard some very upset people talking about the mass time commitment of the committee meetings.)

My New Home

These are the school grounds. And in the background, the tallest building is my apartment building. More pics of the apartment to come! I just don't think it's presentable yet ...

Settling In

Interesting Tidbits:
- At least here in Beilun, they are OBSESSED with umbrellas. It's like an essential item. You leave the house with your cell phone, wallet, and an umbrella. It's funny, I never use an umbrella because I don't want to be a tourist, and I don't melt in the rain, but now I'm a tourist because I refuse to use an umbrella like the locals. It's only a drizzle!
- Free stuff. Anytime you buy something it comes with some free trinket. So when I got my cell phone, it came with a dual water bottle that the employees very excitedly draped around my neck, Miss America style. I waited til I was out of window sight to give the bottle to Rosalee. She promptly started inventing a way for me to have coffee in one side and cream in the other, and if I pour it at just the right angle out of the two spouts, I'll get the perfect ratio for my morning blend.
- There are one inch stairs everywhere. To get into the lobby, when you change rooms, anytime. Connie, I need you to come visit and trip more often than I do :).
- I've spoken more Spanish than Mandarin since I got here. Which I know has to change ... but it's a nice comfort.

Beilun from my bedroom at almost sunrise. Most of the buildings you see I swear were half as tall when I got here.

My apartment:
- Ridiculous-ness with the elevator. I live on the right side of the building, and a lot of teachers I like to visit live on the left side. So I have to go to my elevator, take it 12 floors down, walk across the lobby, and take the other elevator 19 floors up. When I went to visit Ariana the other night, I know I wasn't really "in public", but I think I should've rethought wearing sweats, that's a very American thing to do. I got the once over look AND the evil eye by this one couple, very disapproving of my public attire.
- The doors to the lobby are a lot like the doors at Kayla and Connie's apartment. Which I didn't realize at first. I knew I had to scan my ID card to get in. But when I tried to leave once, the door wouldn't open. I kept gently nudging it and shaking it, til I heard the guard giggling behind me. He walked up, and in a very exaggerated motion touched the button next to the door and held it open for me to pass, as only a true gentleman would, except he was still cackling his head off.

This is my aparment complex from my kitchen window. My building is like the one on the right. About 3 buildings to the left is where the school is located.

The Classroom:
- Now I actually only have 4 kids. One got moved up into kindergarten because she shows more maturity than the others. And she doesn't have that attention span of a bat.
- I have 2 Chinese, 1 Korean, and 1 odopted Chinese who's mom is from Spain. And them speaking English? Total lie. I have two TAs who speak Mandarin so that is super helpful.
- I'm a little worried I'm going to be the wicked witch for awhile. The students have never had an established routine or established expectations. They just kinda run everywhere and do what they want. But thus far, each time I've enforced a tough love policy, at least after the tantrum, they hug me or hold hand. Hopefully this means they know that I care and that is why I'm not putting up with any of their antics. There has been sooooo much crying though. Wendi says it's the most organized she's seen the class, but I feel like every other adult is silently screaming, child abuse!
- I'm tackling expected behaviors one mountain at a time. Today was walking in a line. (Normally the trip to the cafeteria is a screaming/running free-for-all) So I got a rope, idea being that they all stand on one side of the rope, and with one hand they hold onto it. Bam! Straight line :)  I had my TAs model how to use the rope to line up and walk together. Then I gave each student the opportunity to model how to walk very quietly, in a straight line, while hold the rope with the TAs. As one student modeled how to walk with the TAs, I was describing and praising each thing he was doing right when he shhhhed me! Apparently my praise interfered with how quietly he was walking.

The PTA decorated the whole front lobby of the school for Halloween, and they made each teacher a tombstone. (If you click on it, the photo will get bigger so you can read the tombstone) I think they had a little too much fun .

Street Noise:
- I'm honking because ...
             I'm about to cut you off.
             You're moving too slow so I'm going to pass you
             Notice me! I'm in your blind spot.
             I'm not going to slow down
- As in many other countries I've visited, the car horn is not rude, just an announcement, often a polite one. It says, "I'm here! Please don't hit me.", and when the other driver honks back, it says, "I see you, I won't hit you". Since they're constantly breaking the typical driving rules, the car horn is a VERY FREQUENT/almost constant announcement, informing other drivers of the fact that you simply refuse to choose a lane, etc.
- Contstruction. As I said things go up fast. And there is mass building here in Beilun. As the second deepest port in the world, once the subway and super highway to Shanghai are completed, they're expecting a lot of traffic to come through here from the cruise ships. The building is constant. Part of me doesn't want to adjust to the jet lag because it is sooooooo  peaceful when I'm awake at 3 am.
- As I'm walking down the street, I hear this melody, and I finally place it as the "It's a small world" song. I start looking for the ice cream truck, which frankly I'm surprised an ice cream truck would exist here. It's the myth of many Chinese mothers that cold things will make your child sick. That's why the drinking water is luke warm, and they never have ice cream. So with that logic ... it's not an ice cream truck that is playing the most annoying melody in the world. And it's not. It's a street sweeper. All street sweeping monstrocities play this tune over a loud speaker. NO CLUE WHY.

:(
- OJ is not OJ, and milk is NOT milk.

I'm Here!!!!

Hello all!! :) So as my first update this might be a long one. Especially because it took me a bit longer to get internet access than I originally thought. And as it turns out, Google and China still don't get along, so I might be rethinking the gmail account. It just takes longer to load. So that's why there haven't been any emails.

As always on my travels, I like to divide things up, so read what you like!

The trip:
- Getting over here had zero hitches! Everything went so smoothly. WOOT!
- I was immediately pegged as a teacher in Seatac by other passengers who asked me about my trip, and again on the flight. I got a travel buddy who taught me some Mandarin and helped me navigate the Beijing airport. 
- It was entertaining once I got to the domestic terminal in Beijing, and I knew that no one else spoke English. I would bet all my luggage that all the airport officials are swearing in Mandarin as I approach because they know that no one can help us communicate.
- The first flight, Seattle to Beijing, left a little after 4pm Seattle time, and got in a little after 6pm Beijing time, so for 11 hours ish we basically just followed the sun accross the sky. The entire trip it was perpetually almost sunset. Cool.
- I thought I had defeated jetlag. I have heard that the secret is staying awake during the trip, picking a flight that arrives at night so you can get a good night's sleep, reset your internal clock, and wake up in the morning local time. I stayed awake for as much of the trip as I could. I definitly konked out in Beijing for a few hours, but other than that I made it to the hotel in Beilun at about 2:30 am. I slept til 9 am, got picked up at 10 and moved into my apartment. That day, I also got a tour of the school and TJ (my interpreter) took me shopping.  For the first day, it worked. Everyone commented on how refreshed I looked. I thought I was golden. Til the next morning, I woke up at 1 am, again feeling refreshed .... shoot. I fought it. But there was nothing to do, I was wide awake. This morning I woke up at 2am. Adjusting one hour at a time! I was so awake I just started my morning routine. I made coffee :) and finished unpacking and setting up my aparment. Momma always says I have issues sleeping because I drink coffee regardless of the hour. I can just picture my her reaction at the thought of me, awake at 2am, sipping coffee in bed and reading a good book :)

Pleasant Surprises:
- Water pressure!!!!! I have a hot shower with REALLY good water pressure. YES!! I was so not expecting that. (Though later I'll tell you how I keep that hot water flowing. So weird)
- I have my own classroom and it's all setup for me! Woah! Ask my parents what it was like setting up my last classroom in the High/Scope style. Those were many late nights. Sometimes 10 pm trying to label everything.
- Business cards. Everyone has business cards. Which at first, I have the ???? reaction. They're obsessed. But until I get enough Mandarin under my belt, the cards are actually super useful. I just need to show the taxi driver the business card of my favorite restaurant and that's that. No lost in translation-ness.
- Cup of Joe. My new home. The husband of one of the teachers here opened an American coffee shop last spring about a block from my apartment. YES.

Things I'm already used to:
- The stares. I really want to learn "Watch the road!!!" in Mandarin. They have these amazing electric bikes here, and all the people seriously turn 180 degrees just to look at me, while driving! Wendi says some of the bikes have crashed into trees while staring at her. I'll keep a tally if this actually starts happening :)
- Driving tactcs. I actually think the Chinese are amazing drivers. Sure they break all the rules, but there are no sudden movements. No sudden braking or accelerating. Everyone drives sooooo smoothly that you can anticipate the other driver's intentions and avoid collisions. And while I'm talking about no sudden movements, same goes for crossing the street. Choose a steady pace and just start crossing. It's almost like playing frogger, except the cars have enough time to adjust their speed based on whether or not they can beat you or go behind you. I'm told running across will likely get you hit. Fender benders do happen here, they're called "kisses" and you just pay the other driver in cash on the spot for any damages.

Things to get used to:
- Not understanding what the people say when they stare. I'm used to eavesdropping on the Spanish. It's a little weirder not knowing what they say about me. Though I'm guessing it's all the same stuff.
- Blue toilet water. I don't know why.
- No dryer for the clothes. I like it when my jeans shrink. And I totally spaced on bringing a belt, now that everything is air dry.
- Light switches are outside of every room. I've seen this done before with bathrooms. But it's EVERY room. It took me the longest time to figure out why the lights I turn on are never for the actual space I'm in. More often it's for the room I just left.
- It's warm!! Maybe 70 degrees I think. I want my tank tops!! But no one wears them here, Winter is coming and everyone is wearing their fall jackets and boots, which is super unfortunate since they don't believe in deodorant here.

Shopping:
- The carts are designed to slip on all four wheels. They have no traction. Which at first is super annoying, but apparently they're designed for peak times and being able to navigate mass crowds.
- TJ took me shopping that first day for a few essentials. His English isn't the best (when we were going over the inventory for my apartment, he said "buffet" table phonetically), but I can usually guess what he means and we've had no trouble communicating all day. Til I ask for sugar. I brought 3 pounds of Starbucks coffee, a coffee grinder, a french press, and my favorite mug (one that Kyla painted for me) and I totally forgot sugar. I can't drink straight up black coffee. And TJ just stares at me blankly. I cannot believe this is the only word he doesn't understand all day. It is soooooo essential!! I tell him it's for my coffee, and he shakes his head. His first suggestion is chocolate, and I say, yes it does make chocolate sweet, but that's not it. Then he leads me to the cereal, and as I think about it, the way he says sugar totally sounds like cereal (the Chinese espeically have difficulty with the r sound). I'm getting a little exasperated when I say, "TJ, don't you EVER bake cookies???" And that's when I finally get the right reaction.
- Shopping with Wendi, Rosalee, Carol, and Mr. Fan. (Note that Mr. Fan is actually pronounced Mr. Fun) Mr. Fan is our Chinese driver and he takes us into Ningbo for bigger shopping, he's slowly learning English. Carol is the headmaster's wife. She's from the Philippines, but her exuberant personality reminds me of Adriana, my Mexican master teacher from student teaching. Carol's English is a step up from Mr. Fan's but still not crystal clear. Wendi is from Michigan, she the kindergarten teacher, and Rosalee is her 3rd grade daughter adopted from China. Rosalee's primary language is English, but she has the ability to pronounce all the Mandarin like a native. With everyone in the car having at least elementary English and elementary Chinese, What a car full we made! We hit all the international stores, yes including Starbucks, no I didn't get any. I'm trying to limit myself to essentials this first month. Rosalee and I immediately bonded, she holds my hand when we go shopping and translates for me. She's a total goofball, but I think she's adorabe. Until she asks what's all over my face. "Rosalee, you've never seen freckles????"

My apartment:
- It's huge!!! No really. I mean it. HUGE. I know I've been politely inviting you all to come visit me, but I'm dead serious. I need to fill this space.
- I have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (including the master) a living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, extra sink room (??), and a study. These are not small rooms either. I don't even know what to do with my king size bed. I only like to ever sleep on the edge. The rest of bed feels like a waste. Also, one of my sofas folds into a bed. I think I could comfortably sleep 5 extra people here, no problem. Which is perfect because I have 6 dining chairs. So I was going to have a sign up for visitors, but I don't think that's necessary anymore :)
- I've tried closing the doors to the spaces that I don't use, like the extra bedroom and the study, and definitely the extra sink room. It'll just make me feel less whatever the opposite of claustrophobic is, but I haven't figured out the door stops here. So the doors are stuck open til I have a moment of intuition (though I'm beginning to feel that these little contraptions were never meant to be figured out).

General China Oberservations:
- There is a distinct smell here. Not good or bad, it's just the smell of China. My travel buddy asked me if I noticed it the moment we stepped off the plane in Beijing. It's totally there. Especially in my apartment.
- Buildings go up FAST here. I wish I had taken a picture of the skyline from my apartment on Friday when I first got here. I'm not sure if I noticed it Saturday, but this morning there is a noticable difference, I think there are 8 new buildings blocking my view of the mountains. Ariana said she went to Shanghai one weekend, 3 days was all it took. By the time she got back, there was a corner store mini mart, which by the way is super handy. I'm told shops disappear as fast as they go up, so I'm hoping that mini mart stays.
- Marriage is controlled by the govenrment. They can decide when/if you get married. They can ask you to wait two years. And they even have incentives for marrying after 25, like getting 6 weeks off for the planning and honeymoon. We saw several marraige processions in Ningbo on Saturday so I had to ask about them.
- At least in Beilun, no one speaks English. The kids are starting to pick it up, but it's a very new thing. People are starting to enroll their kids in English because of the obvious economic ties with the US. (I thought this was already a trend, but it's just now hitting Beilun) But what I think is more interesting, is that they are also learning Spanish because they hear that Spanish is also a prominant language in the US.
- Fireworks. No joke. You can hear them all the time. As I'm writing this I'm watching some from my window.
- You can't get away from Taylor Swift music. Our first night out at a restaurant, they were playing a full playlist from all of her albums. But don't worry, after about an hour they switched over to Lady Antebellum :) Cup of Joe's plays oldies, which only makes me want to dance.

:( unhappy face:
- Plug ins. :(  I've managed to fry everything I've plugged in, which is a short list. My clock no longer works. And the coffee grinder started smoking. I may have unplugged it in time, if I get a voltage converter it just might still work. My laptop also sparked and produced a burnt smell, but so far it's doing okay.
- I know you're all thinking that food should be on the :( list, but I happen to live on International Row in Beilun. Along with Cup of Joe's there's also a good pizza place that delivers, a wine shop and a pub! Plus Cup of Joe's will order and deliver from the Costco in Ningbo, or even KFC for me. I did go on an adventure with Wendi and Rosalee, Rosalee ordered for us and I ended up with some type of spicy cabbage. So we went back and tried again. This time it was pork, potatoes, rice and carrots. That I can handle. I tried using the spoon they provided but the chopsticks were WAY easier.

Okay, I think that's quite enough for now. I start teaching this week!!! But the last week in every month is also a shortened week with meetings and professional development :( Still, I'll try and get some good classroom stories.