She Works Hard For The Money

• Today was finally payday! In addition to the regular monthly paycheck, we also received our reimbursement for visa expenses and the tickets/luggage to move here. Makes you feel rich when you that many 100's!
• We celebrated by going out to dinner with James, Quinny, and Ellie to a Malaysian restaurant called Malacca Legend. It was delicious and surprisingly cheap. Many of the restaurants we've gone to have been equivalent in price to what we would we see in the States so we were happy to find a cheap, local place that is also nearby (it's on the way to the veggie market). We also enjoyed our lovely stroll to the restaurant and back learning more about our new friends and their past adventures (like accidentally stealing/borrowing a car).

Caterpillar Crawl

• Today, my co-teacher has informed me that the parents of the kids on my class don’t trust me very much because I don’t smile enough or show enough affection towards their kids (in the short time they see me at drop-off and pick-up). Because of this and because their kids report that they aren’t learning English, the parents are starting to question what I’m doing. Oh goody! Another thing to try to manage. I know that pleasing and working with families is a huge part of early childhood education but I wish these parents would realize how much work I’m doing and also that I just arrived in this country! I’m sorry if I can’t put on a genuine smile all the time. Needless to say, I did not achieve my goal of not crying about work this week…
• Also, I found something fun on my lunch plate today…

Yes, that is a cooked caterpillar. Ahhhhhhhh!!! Soooo gross. I gave it right back to the lunchroom workers (after confirming with others that it was not supposed to be in there) and they were disgusted and confused. I got more of the same dish but just could not stomach it! Later, the head of the cafeteria came to my classroom to personally apologize. It was very sweet and heartfelt. I could tell that this was a random mistake, not a regular thing, and he assured me that it had never happened in any of the settings he has managed. Plus, as Quinny pointed out, it’s more a testament to how fresh the produce is than the lack of cleanliness in the kitchen (like a maggot or something would have been worse). It’s still gross but I agree with her. And the cafeteria manager gave me 10 free lunches and said I could choose to pay for the rest of my lunches if I wanted to! I will probably end up paying, because it’s cheap (200 RMB for 20 lunches, which is about $30 USD) and the food is generally good and usually bug-free :D But it’s nice to get a little reward for my troubles!

• Tonight, the air was clear enough that we could see the stars! AND we could see the Big Dipper! I didn’t think that we’d be able to see the same constellations here but I guess it makes sense because we’re in the same hemisphere. It was so lovely and made the world seem a little smaller :)

All Over Town

Just a few random things I noticed around town today:

• Apparently we can can see the mountains from our school! I was walking up the street and thought I saw mountains in the distance. I headed up to the top level of the high school to make check and, sure enough, there they were. Yay for good AQI!

• Someone asked us before leaving if it was true that they washed the roads here in Beijing. I've seen it a couple times already and finally snapped a photo.

Two Years On

• Today marked two anniversaries in our life. First, we've officially been in Beijing for 1 month! This past month somehow feels like it was both quick and everlasting. Turning in our apartment keys, saying tearful goodbyes, and boarding the plane in Detroit seems like ages ago. We also can't believe its only been a month since we were rushing around, getting our bank accounts and phones set up. One month in and I think we're starting to get a handle on our life here but I'm sure we still have many more things to learn. Secondly (and more importantly) today marks our two year wedding anniversary 💓😊. We celebrated by getting mediocre Korean BBQ, where I think we ate chicken gizzard (we both agreed that Tomukun in Ann Arbor is far better); getting ice cream bars from the convenience store; and finally beating Overcooked. Here's to another year of adventures!

• We also found some Michigan beers! The shop was closed but it's the first we've seen here in Beijing.

Summer In The City

• Today we headed into the city for the first time! We managed to successfully navigate the subway (it's very well marked in both Chinese and English) and make it to the all the destinations we had planned and then some.

We started off at The Beijing Flea Market which was held in a start-up incubator space. It was more of an artisan/local-made market then a flea market but it was still neat to see all the small businesses that people have started here in China. People were selling jams, peanut butter, handmade scarfs, and even reusable produce bags (the last of which we, of course, bought ♻ 😊)

• Our next stop was The Bookworm which a bookstore/cafe in the Sanluntin district of Beijing known for being a popular expat hang out. A group was running a voter registration sign up for Americans living abroad so we started the process of getting that paperwork started but unfortunately their printer ran out of ink so we still need to get our paperwork sent out. We also ran into another couple from BIBA and walked around the Sanluntin area with them until they had out.
• Then we headed to Tiananmen Square. We got there later then we expected so some of the sights were closed but we still got photos of the square and surrounding buildings. I also took a 360 panorama which you can see here (so you can feel like you were there with us 😉)

Forbidden City entrance in the background. We didn't go in because we need our passports but we will go on our next trip.

Carmel and us with Monument to the People's Heroes and Mausoleum of Mao Zedong in the background.

National Museum of China

The Zhengyang Gate which originally built in 1419 as part of Beijing's city wall.

• Carmel had already been to the square and she told us there was some hutongs just south of the us that we could explore. Hutongs are winding alleys of neighborhoods throughout the city. Some are filled with shops and restaurants and this one definitely was. Emily was adventurous and tried some meat on stick before we found a place to sit down and have some dinner. It was so pretty to see them lit up at night. It reminded us a little of Disneyland! We will definitely be taking visitors here!

Come To My Window

• After rolling out of bed and heading over to the cafeteria for lunch with Emily, I returned to find that I was locked out of the apartment. I had my key! But if you lock the apartment from the inside and leave the key in when you leave then you won't be able to fit your key in from the outside...oops. I figured the only way in was through the window but after attempting to unlock the latch myself I decided to just call maintenance. Guess how they got in?

• Today also marked my first adventure of driving in China. Korey, one of the other house spouses, let me borrow one of his tuk tuks (yes, he owns 3) to go to the store. No previous experience necessary needed to take one of these electric 3-wheelers out on the road.  I got a quick introduction (throttle on the handle, brakes with the foot pedal, and a switch from slow to fast mode) and then I was off on my way to get even more weird looks from the locals.

Let Me Rest In Peace

• We went to a neighborhood farmer’s market today. We’d heard about the great selection and cheap prices from others in BIBA Bay so we were excited to see it for ourselves. It was hard to drag ourselves out of bed but it was worth it. And the weather has been much cooler lately so the walk wasn’t too bad, even though it was farther than we’d anticipated. (If we can get bikes or a scooter, then it will be much easier). We met some other Ali, Carmel, Amy (and kiddos), James and Quinny there and found pretty much everything we wanted (bell peppers, grapes, sweet potatoes, hand-pressed sesame oil, mushrooms, an apple, a breakfast pancake thing, green beans, and bok choy)…for about 55 qui or $8.50!
• We also went to a supermarket and managed to not spend a fortune! Pretty much whenever we go, we’ve still needed to buy a lot of basic stuff for our apartment. Today it was just toilet paper and some snacks so it was about $5 :D
• On our way home from the store, we had to light our own path, even though we were on the sidewalk of the main road…there are hardly any streetlights here! Since the sidewalks aren’t very smooth, it’s a tricky walk. But at least there weren’t scooters or cars, like on the other pedestrian path that we take to Shine City!
• This weekend has been really restful and it was just what I needed after last week. There were crying children every day (sometimes 8 or more at a time) and there was a lot of learning to do. I am still trying to get a hang of the schedule and of what’s expected of me. I had a breakdown on Tuesday; in fact, both me and Erica cried in the cafeteria at lunch time. It’s been hard to feel like a good teacher when the kids are wailing, they don’t want me to comfort them (because you don’t speak Chinese), I can’t communicate as well as I want to with the Chinese teachers or the parents. I also have been having a constant stream in my head of seeing something happening in the school, evaluating it against licensing rules in Michigan (that have been drilled into my head for the last several years), remembering that I don’t have to follow those rules, and wondering if I should suggest following those rules here. The school wants to be play-based but there hasn’t been any training given to the teachers about what that means, so they either don’t know what to do or don’t want to change. There are a lot of things we wouldn’t expect 3-year-olds to do at Towsley that they have to do here (move between spaces as a large group, walk in a line, sit in circle time) or that we would allow them to do at Towsley that they can’t do here (run on the playground, climb up the slides, have more than 4 children in an area of the room at a time). Over the next few months, I think I’ll be constantly deciding what to fight and what to let go. Whew. But one thing I have decided to do (besides continuing play-based activities even when others aren’t) is to keep weekends for myself. I will need to do extra work and have meetings and such after school hours during the week but I’m try my best not to do schoolwork on the weekends. You all can hold me to it!

She's Got Her Ticket

• We bought plane tickets to go to Korea today! We are going on my fall break from school, September 28-October 5. I'm super excited to start planning and to try to figure out how to show Nate all of the things I knew when I was there. A quick look at the map of Pohang made me realize I don't remember as much as I thought I did, so it will be interesting...but I'm still excited to have a trip planned to have it to look forward to over the next several weeks. A good reward for surviving the first 2 months of school!

Teacher, Teacher

• As it so happens, the school needed some substitute teachers the very first week of classes, so I was called into action much earlier than I had expected. It was my first time back in a secondary classroom setting since I was sitting at the desks themselves! I was scheduled to sub for one high school and two 6th grade classes. The high school class was a breeze because they all knew exactly what they were supposed to do. The 6th graders, on the other hand, were a little harder to handle. Since it was only their second day in middle school, they were still learning the ropes so it was much more of just keeping them contained as opposed to actually teaching them anything. I survived by drawing on my summer camp counseling experience, some residual knowledge  that must have rubbed off from 3 years working at the School of Education, and overall some pretty well-behaved students. I even managed not to lose any! Although I didn't have any rosters for attendance, so who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Having many teachers in my life (wife, aunts, family, friends, SOE colleagues), I already had a lot of respect for those who choose this profession but I have even more now. To do this 180+ days a year and actually help the students learn is something only the strong among us are capable of.
• We were also able to use some reusable produce bags at the store tonight. All produce has to be bagged and weighed in the produce section before checkout in order to keep things moving along at the register. In the States, we had moved away from using the plastic produce bags but that's not allowed here so we're glad we were able to find an alternate reusable solution.

Hello, Detroit

More adventures with Carmel today! Ever since we were got phones together on our second day here, we've been having little adventures together on the weekends :)

• Nate and I slept until 10:30 - which was very exciting because I haven’t slept much past 7:00 since we’ve gotten here. Then we bought a new chair for the living room from a teacher swap group and spent a good amount of time rearranging the living room so it fit. We picked up a package from the front gate (good knives…finally!) and met up with Carmel.
• Our goal today was to get to the big flower market (that everyone has gotten lovely plants from), a pizza place that Cat and Tony love, and a secondhand store. After getting the location and general directions from Cat, we took a bus to the subway and then got on the subway. It took a bit longer than planned and also included a very hot walk but we eventually arrived. But there was just one person selling some plants on the side of the road, in front of a small collection of stores. We looked around but didn’t buy anything because it didn’t look at all like what other people had described. However, we did find the pizza place and the secondhand shop in that group of stores :) The pizza place serves Detroit-style pizza and the owner is from Rochester Hills! We chatted for a bit and he said that BIBA is a little out of their range but he’d deliver for us if we were ordering a bunch of pizzas :) He also said to call him if we ever need anything. So cool!

Next, we went to the secondhand store, called Roundabout. It’s run by a charity in Beijing that helps needy families, so proceeds from the store and the artist boutique go to that. There were some really lovely handmade items that I think we’ll go back for after my first paycheck. We also met some other expats in the  store and they told us about a women's clothing auction that happens every few weeks. I might try to go!

Finally, it was time to find the flower market. James sent me an updated location and we got a DiDi. It came JUST as the heavy rain was starting and dropped us off at the [correct] market during a lucky break in the storm. When we got inside, it started pouring! The plastic roof didn’t leak but was SO loud with the pounding drops. Luckily, this also meant that the market was pretty empty so we had time and space to check it out. It was gorgeous. So many little shops selling tons of different things. The plant area was like a jungle in each booth. We found everything we needed and were even able to get the seller to deliver the plant.

Nate and I did some more rearranging when we got home and filled the pots of some other plants we’ve acquired. I think it looks really homey now!

Best Things In Life Are Free

• We met the kids and families today! It was fun to see them in person and show them the classroom. A few of the kids will be a lot of work (in addition to the extra challenge of them not speaking English) but I’m excited to be with them. I was able to redirect two very active boys (who were head-butting each other, with their parents looking on, taking photos) into the block area, to build houses for their dinosaurs. Four other children joined and we were all building and naming animals for quite a while. It was so fun and reminded me of what I’m here to do…help the kids, teachers, and parents accept play-based education.
• Today, my principal asked if I would be interested in helping educate other teachers about being more environmentally friendly! She said she knew I was passionate about that (maybe I mentioned that in my interview?) and knew that I’d have some good ideas, since I’m fresh to China from the US (unlike her, who has lived in Beijing for 14 years). Of course, I said yes! (My Towsley peeps will be proud that I’ll be guilting a new group of teachers into recycling ;)) She even said I could lead a PD…woo! Yay for trying new things and giving people ideas on how to more green :)
• After all the PD today, we had a staff social at school. This is the third one in the past two weeks but they are actually pretty fun, especially since I haven't gotten to see many non-ECC staff over the past few days (and probably won't see much of them as school gets started :/). Plus, the food has been pretty good AND they serve alcohol! In the school cafeteria! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

• Nate and I went to Shine City (a big mall/outlet area close by) to explore a little and found a dollar-type store that Ali told us about. She called it "Dollar IKEA" and it totally was! All the colors of everything matched and was very modern and was all super affordable. Nate had to stop me from buying everything. BUT, best of all, they had free ice cream! It was blue moon-ish but it was FREE! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Way We Go To School

School has been busy the last few days so Nate and I have been relaxing by playing the video game OverCooked at night. We have Charlie Hunt, Cora Glass, and BKC to thank for getting us into it! It is so much fun and not too hard. 

Some things I’ve learned about my school:

• All the classrooms are on the east-facing side of the building (sleeping rooms, offices, and gathering spaces are on the west side), because Chinese people value the sunlight and warmth so much. Tara (my principal) said that parents would not enroll their children here if the classrooms were on the west side. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Chinese parents worry that their children will get too cold. This is part of the reason for the above preference and also why they always dress the kids in layers, regardless of the outside temp (this was a problem at Towsley too). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Also because of this preference, the classrooms often have windows open AND the air on. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Children have indoor shoes for school, so they don’t bring outdoor germs and dirt into the classrooms. I like this philosophy but we don’t have to follow it as teachers so it seems kind of pointless, because we are bringing those germs in on our own shoes. (This was a similar issue we had at Towsley, when transitioning the infant/toddler classrooms to shoe-free zones.) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• It’s unusual for the children to play on the floor if there is no mat or rug on the floor. This is partly because of the above preference for indoor shoes but it also seems that it might be a personal preference of the teachers. Other English teachers have done activities on the floor with no issue so I will also be trying that.
• Here are some photos of my classrooms (I'll be teaching in two). I can't take credit for the set-up...my Chinese co-teachers did a wonderful job with that!

Day The Rains Came

UPDATE: The water subsided the next day (with lots of work from the maintenance crew). Until the next rain!

Welp...it rained today! And it flooded. As you look through the pictures, try to guess how long it rained...

I didn't get photos or have to walk through it, but there were parts of campus that had thigh-deep water. Most of the rest of campus (at least the main part that I had to walk through) was knee-deep. I barely made it through with my calf-high rubber boots. (And to think I almost didn't bring them! They were super useful today!) The drainage system on campus is terrible...just 3 hours of rain and it created floods that lasted all day (and might last longer). Morning PD is cancelled tomorrow and we'll see about other stuff this week. We're supposed to have kids on Monday! This kind of rain happened the week we arrived (a few days before we came) but it subsided more quickly. Not sure what to expect for the next few days! Or the next time it rains...