Still sick

A year ago I never would have imagined that I would be spending the next Christmas in a hospital in China. That's right - I've now been sick for 13 days and haven't been able to properly digest regular food. Thankfully we have a four-day weekend for Christmas, so I've been able to rest and relax and catch up on sleep.

The past couple of weeks have been eventful. After taking Tuesday and Wednesday off school, I dragged myself to class on Thursday and Friday, even though it took all my energy to climb the four flights of stairs to my office. I slept through my prep blocks and went to bed as soon as I got home after school. Saturday was our surprise party for Anita. Anjali and I went into KaiFaQu early that morning to buy presents for Justin and Anita on Robson street with Mike. We managed to find a shirt for Justin, but couldn't see anything for Anita. We popped by Watsons to pick up a santa hat and I grabbed some warm tights at Trustmart. It was sooo cold that day that I was still freezing even with three layers on. We headed into Dalian to meet up with Justin and get lunch. I've never spent so much time wandering around Dalian as we did that day. We walked down to Russian street and then jumped into a cab to grab lunch at the Olive Garden. People have been raving about the restaurant, but I thought the spaghetti was just okay. It was just nice to get inside and warm up. After lunch, we still had almost five hours to kill to keep Justin entertained and in Dalian until the surprise party. We walked back downtown and shopped for Anita's present in the underground shopping areas. We found some earrings and grabbed a scarf in the Korean market. By that point it was still only 4 pm and we still had two-and-a-half hours to kill. Justin was suggesting going back to KaiFaQu, so we were getting worried about being able to keep him in Dalian. We were also worried because we were so close to the Qing Gui and knew that other teachers would be arriving soon. We jumped into a taxi to go to a Starbucks and decide what to do next. While we were in the taxi, we saw Peter and Kevin with the birthday cake, but luckily Justin didn't notice. We actually bumped into Anita at Starbucks serindipidously and we all walked over to Brooklyn Bar together. After a whole day of preparations, it was great to see that the surprise was a success! We had about twenty teachers come out to celebrate and we managed to get everyone to sign their birthday cards the week before. The burgers at Brooklyn Bar were incredible and we had the whole third floor of the restaurant to ourselves. Afterwards we went out dancing at a little bar and taxied it all the way back to Jinshitan. Here's a picture of Anita, myself, Anjali and Justin at Brooklyn Bar: On Sunday I woke up exhausted, but took the early qing gui to Dalian for church where we met up with Edgar for the Christmas service. We stayed for the free lunch after church and then did a little shopping at Metro. They're putting up an IKEA right beside Metro and it should be open before February - I'm so excited. I'll be able to get my candles again :) On Sunday evening I wasn't feeling very well, but I still got up for school on Monday. It snowed a little bit on Monday so flag ceremony was cancelled. We usually all meet on the basketball court in front of the school to sing the Chinese, Canadian, and Maple Leaf School anthems. It was just way too cold on Monday, so I was able to rest a bit during the break instead. After school we had a Christmas potluck at our place. We had a lot of great food and I made my broccoli and cheese sauce again, as well as an apple pie, but I mostly ate vegetables. We sang carols together afterwards and it really started to feel like Christmas. Here's Angali, Elaine, me, Anita, Timio, and Yiming enjoying dessert:On Tuesday, I had a hard time dragging myself out of bed, but I still went to school. I cancelled my tutorial after school so that I could come home and go to bed. On Wednesday, Kevin and I mixed up our girls and boys classes to do some Christmas math problems together. I handed out candy canes to my kids and got a lot of cards and chocolates from students. On Wednesday night, Anita, Elaine, Rody and I went to Dalian to sing Christmas carols in Zhongshan square. We went out to our favourite JiaoZi restaurant for dinner took a cab back to Jinshitan. Anita and I were supposed to leave for Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning, on Thursday (Christmas) morning, but I was sooo sick on Tuesday night that I spent the night in the bathroom. I woke up and told Anita that I was so sorry, but I'd have to cancel our trip. Suiki and Anjali came over for a pancake and crepe breakfast and prayed for me. I started feeling better right away and even sat with them for breakfast. I was all packed and ready to go to Shenyang, so I changed my mind and decided to just try to do the trip (I really don't know what I was thinking!) On the way downtown to buy our tickets I realized that it would be foolish for me to try to do a big trip and come back to another week of teaching without any time to recuperate. So instead of going to the train station, Anita and I went to the hospital. The Dalian University hospital was just gorgeous. We got to stay in the VIP lounge where they had a large flat-screen tv and comfy couches. I got to take a blood test, urine sample, and ultrasound. Because I was a VIP, I got to skip the line-ups for the tests and get my results analyzed right away. They didn't find any abnormalities in my tests, which is good, and the doctor gave me about twenty packs of pills to take. I've been taking them regularly and they seem to help a little bit, but I still haven't been able to digest anything except soup and rice. If I'm still sick on Monday I'll go the doctor again. I've been losing a bunch of weight and I just want to be eat regularly again (especially since we have our weekly girl's night potluck on Monday).

After the hospital, we got our hair cut and met up with Edgar for dinner. Anita and I went to the spa in Dalian after dinner. It was an incredible experience! For a 37 yuan (6 dollar) entrance fee, you get access to all the hot tubs, saunas, and spas. You also get a free late night and breakfast buffet. There's also a room full of huge lazy-boys where you can spend the night. We took the elevator up to the second (girls) floor where we got a locker for our clothes. We stripped down completely naked and put on the paper underpants the staff gave us. We rinsed off in the amazing endless-hot-water showers and then jumped into the hot tubs. I thought it would be awkward to be completely naked, but I got used to it pretty quickly. It was pretty quiet there, since it was a weeknight and there were only about ten other people on our floor. We enjoyed the saunas and then splurged on the services they had to offer. First of all, we got a full body rub-down with an exfoiliating glove. It hurt a bit, but it was good to get rid of the rolls and rolls of dead skin. I was seriously pink afterwards :) Then we got to lie down on a heated pad and they covered us with this saran-wrap stuff to keep us warm and we got an exfoiliating full-body massage. They also gave us a moisturizing face mask. I wish I had photos - the place was simply gorgeous, but understandably, we weren't allowed to take pictures. After we got cleaned up, we went upstairs for the free food (even though I only drank tea and ate rice). We went onto another floor for the lazy-boys, but the only spots that were left were in the smoking room. Each chair had its own tv and there were a ton of masseuses offering to give us massages. The girls were all dressed in shiny little dresses and looked like they were offering a different sort of massage, if you know what I mean. We tried to sleep in that room, but it was pretty noisy and got a little smoky, so we slept on some couches in the lounge instead. I managed to get a spot in the non-smoking room and had a decent night's sleep. In the morning, we enjoyed the hot tubs and saunas again and took advantage of the free breakfast. We got a free entrance ticket for next time because we spent more than 200 yuan. New Year's holiday, here we come!
On the way back home we picked up some paint so we can redo our apartment next weekend. I hope I have my energy back by then. Today I just stayed at home and rested all day, which has done my body good. Best of all, I surfed the net and found a flight home for $640 (directly from Seoul to Vancouver on expedia.com). So for the long break, I'm going to spend a long weekend in Haerbin to see the ice sculptures and then go to Seoul to visit with Joanne. I'll fly to Vancouver from there and spend a good three weeks with the family. Ever since I got sick, I've been a bit homesick and I'm really looking forward to seeing friends and family again.

Sicker than a dog

Today and yesterday were my first two sick days of the year. My friends tell me I've been overworking myself, which is partly true, but it's surprising I got sick now, because I really did take it easy on the weekend.
On Friday night, we had our last game of bowling. We stopped by Eddie's for dinner and I picked up an advent calendar for old time's sakes. I was on fire during bowling, for some reason. Even though I bowled zero in the first and last frames, I managed to score 136. I've never scored above 100 before. I lucked out with a bunch of strikes and spares - I just wish I'd had that luck earlier in the season. I hung out with some friends at Starbucks afterwards and took an early taxi back to Jinshitan. Once I got home, I buckled down and finished all my weekend marking. I was ecstatic at the first opportunity to really enjoy a weekend.
On Saturday morning, Anita and I headed into Dalian to run some errands before the Christmas party. First we went to the post office to mail some Christmas cards. We had them all ready to go, but we were told that we needed special envelopes, so we had to readdress every letter. Maybe that's why my letters from September took so long to send. I don't even know if they've made it to Canada yet. Anita and I were planning to go to a spa (where many Chinese people go to bathe - it's segregated into men and women and essentially you're taking a bath with a bunch of other naked people. It sounds more awkward than relaxing, but I still want to try the experience). Unfortunately, the mail took so long that we were out of time for the spa, so we did a little shopping instead. We went down to Er Chi square so that Anita could pick up her tailor-made dress for the night (I decided against getting a special outfit made, since I couldn't decide on a cut, colour, or fabric (too many choices!), but I wore a skirt instead). I did a little browsing and saw some beautiful coats at one of the booths. I've been wanting to get a long coat tailored, so I talked to the ladies in broken Chinese and managed to describe the coat I was looking for. The offered me a price of 450 yuan, but I thought it was a little much and suggested 300 yuan. They shook their heads, and I still wasn't sure I wanted it, so I told them I'd think about it. Then they said ok for 300, so I couldn't refuse (that's about 55 bucks for a knee-length peacoat). I can't wait to pick it up next week. I was so proud of being able to describe exactly what I wanted and negotiate a price without having Anita around to translate!
We went down to the hairdressers after Er Chi and got a dry hair wash, massage, and style. We did our makeup in the salon and jumped into a taxi to get to the party. The party at the Imperial Hotel was incredible! There was so much good food catered by Eddie's and at least 100 teachers came out to celebrate. We danced the night away until about 11:30 and then Anita and I went to Elaine's grandparents' apartment to crash in Dalian.
We got up early the next morning and ran a bunch of errands at Metro (my favourite store for groceries and imports, even though it's crazy-expensive), Decathalon (a great sportsware store), and B+Q (a furniture store). We picked up some cute lamps for $2 and a great shelf for our kitchen. The only trouble was that we were lugging heavy bags around Dalian to get to church. We finally made it a little on the late side and were glad to take a load off our shoulders for a while. After church we came straight home and Anita and I went for a bike ride since it was so nice outside. It's been so clear lately and hardly cold at all. I treated myself to a massage after the ride and went all out with a full-body and back oil massage. My masseuse didn't want me walking home alone at night, so he walked me back to my apartment, even though I assured him I'd stay safe. I went to bed early, completely relaxed.
Monday was Anita's birthday, so I planned to bake her a cake and have a potluck at our place in the evening. I didn't get a chance to back during my morning prep, since one of my students wanted to get some tutouring, so I rushed home after school. I baked a cake, some shake-and-bake chicken, potatoes, broccoli and cheese sauce. Anita, Rodi, Anjali, Elaine, Suiki, and I had such a feast together - thai curry, indian potatoes and chick peas, chinese soup, and all my dutch food (it makes my stomach queasy just thinking about it). I ate until I was stuffed and then we surprised Anita by inviting a bunch of other teachers over for cake. Anita and I went out for a bike ride afterwards to get a massage, but they were already closed, so we just headed back home. I was feeling a little sick to my stomach, but had no idea how sick I really was. When I started puking, it just wouldn't stop. I don't think I slept a wink that night and I lost track of the number of times I threw up after 10. I vomited more times that night than I have in the past 15 years put together. There were times when I didn't know whether to sit down or lean over the toilet. By the end of the night, I was puking up tea and medication. I called in a sub, but still had to go to school in the morning to make sub plans. Sometimes it's easier just to teach than to call in sick! I slept all day and all through the night, without hardly waking up. When I got up this morning, I was feeling a little better, but still really weak and unable to hold down food, so I called in a sub again. I still went in to school to make plans and practice for our New Year's musical performance tomorrow. I hope I'm fully better by then. I'm playing pachabel's canon with three violins. I'm grateful for all the wonderful friends I have here. Anita made me tea and prayed with me for the past few days. Rodi gave me some medication and Suiki called to see how I was. Anjali stopped by to give me a hug and get me something to drink. I'm so well cared for!

Thanksgiving

This weekend was just what I needed. On Saturday I went into Kai Fa Qu to have lunch at The Real Eddie's. They have the best western food around. I love their pizza and especially the roasted vegetable sandwich. They also just stocked up on new imports like taco seasoning, salsa, mozarella cheese, pasta sauce, and spices. Mmmm :) We met up with Steve from Shanghai (the guy who used to teach physics here last year. Both Anita and I discovered his blogs before we came to DMLIS and that's how we met eachother). I did a little shopping at Trustmart after lunch and then finished all my marking at Starbucks. I picked up a tiny fake Christmas tree and some garlands to decorate our place. When I got back to Manjitan I treated myself to a massage and then hung out with Anjali. On Sunday, Anita and I came right home after church, but we still didn't get back until 4 pm! We did some shopping at the local markets in Manjitan. There's a wonderful spot to buy fresh chicken breasts and all the fruits and vegetables are sooo cheap. We had a potluck dinner and listened to Christmas music.
But the best part of the weekend was the discovery of most of my lost items. My cell phone was at the bottom of my purse (I swear I emptied my purse twice and didn't see it - I don't know how it got there), my USB was in one of my sweater pockets (I took all the clothes out of my closest this weekend and checked all the pockets), my attendance sheets were in the vice-principal's office, and my favourite mug was in the fifth floor office. My laptop is still MIA, but I have faith that it will pop up somewhere this week.

Rant

It's hard for me to imagine a more challenging week than this one. Let me explain...
First of all, on Monday we teach from 7:40 to 4:40, but this week was even longer because we had a meeting afterschool to welcome the ministry of education representatives here to inspect the school. I came home simply exhausted and then cooked up some spaghetti for a potluck with Anita and Yiming. After dinner, Anita and I went out to Manjitan for a foot massage, which took away some of my stress, but meant that I wasn't as planned and prepared as I wanted to be for Tuesday.

On Tuesday, I was scrambling in the morning to prepare all my materials and get my binders ready for the ministry inspections. The vice principal was supposed to come into my class during F-block, but got sidetracked and couldn't make it, so now he's going to surprise me sometime. It was such a hectic day, but thankfully I got a package from my parents in the mail which gave me the energy to make it through the day. I stayed late after school on Tuesday to plan and get organized and didn't get home until late in the evening.

Wednesday was crazier than I was expecting. I was called to TOC for another Math 10 class, so I lost one of my prep blocks. Then I had a meeting at lunch time and was running around in the afternoon. After school, there was a staff meeting for pro-d for new teachers and at 5 I ran my tutorial. There were tons of kids there, trying to get caught up on old assignments and ask questions about their tests. I felt like I needed a couple of clones to get everything done. I rushed home at 6:45 for our potluck and just crashed. I felt so bad that I didn't have time to contribute food to the potluck and I barely had the energy to eat. Right after dinner was over, I headed back up to the office to get ready for Thursday, and as soon as I got home, I fell asleep.

Yesterday, we had the Maple Leaf Angels club meeting at lunch and again I was running around beforehand and couldn't even get to the meeting on time. After school I ran my tutorial and again it was packed. I was so exhausted afterwards that I left a bunch of stuff in my classroom and just came home for dinner. Somewhere in the craziness of this week, I lost a ton of stuff. When I get stressed out, my brain can't hold all the information it needs to and I start to forget things. Early this week, I lost my USB, which contains all my teaching materials, my students' grades, and pretty much everything that was on my computer. Last week I tripped over my computer's power cord and pulled it face down onto the floor. The monitor cracked, but I managed to snap it back together and it seemed to be working reasonably well. Also early this week, our shower floor cracked and we couldn't use the shower for a couple days. I also can't find my attendance sheets for this week. I have no idea when I lost them or where I might have left them (I think I lost them on Wednesday because I remember writing down the attendance for that day). Even worse, last night I lost my cell phone. I've been trying to call myself, but I can't find it anywhere. And to make matters worst, yesterday I lost my laptop computer. So I didn't have any of my lesson plans or materials for teaching today. I had to scramble this morning to put everything together. We had another meeting at lunch today, so I didn't have time to eat until just now. I am so thankful that it's the weekend.

During lunch today, our Maple Leaf Angel club sold newspapers to raise money to buy winter shoes for children at an orphanage in Dalian. It was a good reminder for me that I am so blessed just to have things like a cell phone and laptop in the first place. I really have nothing to complain about - I have my health, a great job, wonderful family, and such good friends. Some days like today it's harder to keep a positive attitude and count my blessings, but I have to, or else I'd go crazy.

Things that really wouldn't fly in Canada

It's been way too long since I've updated this blog and so much has happened since then. I have so many little China observations and anecdotes, so I apologize in advance for the randomness of this post.

First of all, there are some things you would experience only in China. I'm not even sure if this is normal in China or if I just have all the luck. The last time Anita and I went to pick up drycleaning at the small shop in Manjitan, we were calmly and politely (or should I say Canadianly) conducting our business when a man walked in to drop off some clothes. He budged in front of us (a common occurance here. With so many people, it's truly survival of the fittest in China. You have to fight to be seen and heard). He started talking loudly with the store clerk, completely ignoring the fact that we were in conversation with her. He picked up his drycleaning and then proceeded to quickly strip down out of his pants. Now this store is really tiny, so I tried to avert my eyes, but this dude was really in our personal space. When you go into a store, you simply don't expect to see someone from the opposite sex take off his clothes right in front of you. He gave his dirty pants to the cleaner, put on a pair of clean ones and walked out as if he did this every day. Can you imagine if this happened in Canada? I could sue for harassment.

I still can't get over the way people drive here. I would never dare to drive a vehicle on the roads, although I am getting used to the honking (which really means "I'm here - get out of the way and fast!"). Last time I rode a taxi, the driver pulled up onto the sidewalk (even though people were walking there) in order to get in front of a couple cars to make a right turn. I rode in another taxi that was flying through the traffic, changing lanes continually and honking non-stop. He even cut off a police car with its sirens blaring. Can you imagine this happening in Canada?

The view I have from my office window is constantly changing. There's a new commercial centre popping up across the street and I've never seen anything get built so quickly. Just a couple weeks ago they were dropping huge, flat, round rocks to create holes in the ground for the foundation. Now they're building the actual buildings and at least one floor gets added every two days. I wish I had taken time-lapse photos of the construction. The guys out there are like lemmings. They're crawling all over the place, working 24-hours a day. There's a good 100 guys out there right now, each efficiently doing his task at hand. Labour is cheap in China, so construction happens at record pace. I wonder how stable it can be, however, if it gets built so quickly. Just the other day, one of our students was playing around downstairs and bounced a basketball off the wall once. The plaster crumbled on contact and now there's a huge hole in the wall. I can't imagine what would happen to our buildings if an earthquake hit here.

This afternoon our club, the Maple Leaf Angels, visited an home for children whose parents are in prison. We played games and sang songs with the kids and then make cookies together. It was a lot of fun and it felt good to do something in the community. We're hoping to raise enough money by selling newspapers at lunch time to buy the kids winter shoes.

My address

Here's a copy of my address in easy-to-print label form just in case you want to get in touch with me. I'd love to hear from you!

I stink?

My vice-principal came in to my office today and said she just met with one of my students who couldn't remember my name, so she said "You know, she's the one who's really smelly. She's the teacher with the big smell" It took the vice-principal a minute to figure out that by "smell", she really meant "smile" :)

Observations

China is full of great benefits and drawbacks:

- Today is so foggy and/or polluted that we can barely see the buildings across the street. My eyes are stinging a little, so I decided to check the air quality index. It turns out we're at 128, which is "unhealthy for sensitive groups". Anything under 100 is satisfactory. Surrey, in contrast, is at 9 right now. I'm just hoping that cold, cold wind from the North will come and blow the blue skies back again.

+ On the weekend, I took my first motorcycle ride back to campus from the Qing Gui for only 50 cents.

- While walking out to dinner in Kai Fa Qu last Thursday, we passed by an outdoor pet market. The puppies looked way too young to be separated from their mothers and many of them were shaking with their tails between their legs. One of the puppies jumped out of its box to the ground two feet below. I gasped in shock when the pet salesman gave the pup a good hard kick (the puppy squealed in protest) and then picked the poor animal up and threw it in the trunk of his car. I can't wipe the image from my mind. I just wanted to buy the whole lot of animals then and there. It looks like there is no SPCA in China.

+ Yesterday, I took my bike club guys on an hour ride up to the golf course and back. The views of the waves crashing along the beach were extraordinary. The pollution makes the sunsets even more brilliant. It was a great way to unwind from a long, long day.

- The list of foods which are safe to consume keeps getting shorter and shorter. So many things are tainted with melamine that I'm beginning to lose track. At first, it wasn't so bad. Chinese milk was infected, but then I never did like milk all that much, and I could always get New Zealand milk from Metro. Now all our dairy products are in question: yogurt, ice cream, coffee creamers... What took the cake was when they announced that Snickers and Dove had melamine in it. How dare they take my chocolate! Now it turns out that Dalian eggs are not good and our oranges have worms in them.

+ To end on a good note, we discovered another little luxury after our Halloween party on Friday night. For about 14 dollars, you can stay overnight in a lazy-boy at the Kerren Hotel, enjoy the spa, watch tv, and even get a massage (for a little extra). I was going to take advantage of it, but ended up going back to Jinshitan instead. It's nice to know that I can always stay there overnight if I'm out on the town late. One of these days I'll sleep there just because I can.

Whoops, I can't believe I haven't posted for a month! It sure has been an eventful month! I'm going to have to fill in all the details eventually...
This weekend, we celebrated Halloween to the extreme. Angali, Anita, and I got Jane-Austen-style dresses tailored at Er qi square in Dalian (I always thought it was Archie square, named after a tailor or something, but it's actually just "27th square"). I can't wait to get a bunch of different clothes tailored there. I was just drooling when I walked in. There are literally hundreds of booths, each with a different tailor and different specialty, just waiting to take your order. The rows upon rows of fabric to choose from are any seamstress' dream come true. Now I just need to decide what might look nice. There's just way too many choices!
Anyways, our dresses turned out wonderfully and we bought gloves and masks to match. Anita convinced me to dress up for exam invigilating during the day so we could show our students. I got a lot of work done before the party and headed home where our hairdressers from Dalian were waiting to do our hair. Anita had taken them on a short bike ride and they were both exhausted, but they still managed to curl all our hair with only one curling iron in an hour. We went out for dinner with them at a Korean restaurant and enjoyed a night out on the town at the Silk Road Bar afterwards. We definitely turned some heads walking down the streets of Kai Fa Qu on the way there (especially the guys in their dresses!)
Yesterday I went to another Halloween party near LvShun with the guys we met in Beijing. We were all exhausted from report cards and partying, but we still had a great time. We were even greater celebrities there. The party was mostly for the Chinese university students and they made a crowd around us when we came in. Everyone's cameras started flashing and I was asked to be in so many photos that I felt like I was being chased by paparazzi. We had a great time - we got the shy Chinese students on the dance floor and were entertained by an amazing magician. The best part was hearing the shop owners blare French pop music as we walked down the street.
Right now I should be writing report cards, so I'll have to save all the other interesting updates for later...

Beijing

Right now I'm on a one-week break thanks to today's National Holiday. So Angali, Anita, and I decided to go to Beijing for the week and check out the sights. We also joined up with Edgar from the Foreign Nationals School downtown. So far the trip has been amazing. Beijing is still basking in the glow from the recent Olympic Games. Flowers are in bloom everywhere, banners for the Olympics still fly, and it seems like all of China wants to visit the capital for the National Holiday. The streets are packed with foreigners and Chinese alike, thronging to take in the sights.

We left Dalian on Saturday night after a full day of teaching. The six-day work-week wasn't quite so taxing because we had sports day on Friday and didn't have any regular classes. Still, it was weird to have one more day of school before the break. It seemed like every teacher gave a quiz or test on Saturday, poor kids, and my class was no exception. That means I have a lot of marking to look forward to when I get back home! I actually thoroughly enjoyed sports day. I had a one-hour block to supervise various events and cheer on my homeroom, but other than that, the day was free. It was one of the most beautiful and clear days that we have had in a while, so I couldn't resist the urge to take my bike down along the beach and snap pictures of the coastline. I can't wait to share them with you, but the computers at the hostel here are having trouble reading my USB stick. Anyways, it was a wonderfully relaxing day. That evening, we headed into Kaifaqu for an all-you-can-eat buffet at the East Hotel. It was a little pricey by China standards, but the chocolate fondue made it all worth the while :)

So, as I was saying, we took the qing gui out to the airport to catch our evening flight Saturday after school. We were going to grab dinner along the way, but we didn't have enough time, so we ate at the airport. We got to take a shuttle-bus out to our airplane and walked right on the plane. The trip was about as short as the flight from Terrace to Vancouver, so we barely got in the air when we started to descend again. We were a little too excited about our escapades, I think, because one of the guys in front of us told the steward to tell us to be quiet. It's true that when Anita, Angali, and I get together, we get eachother going :)

We took a bus from the airport and arrived at our hostel in a hutong district of Beijing just after midnight. I'm so impressed with our hostel (Chinese Box Hostel) - it's incredibly clean and even has sit-down toilets that flush (truly a luxury in China). Anita did a great job finding an affordable, lovely place to stay. We're staying in a six-bed dorm with a guy from Switzerland, and a Chinese guy. We got up early on Sunday morning and went straight to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We had breakfast at a noodle restaurant by Tiananmen. I still have a hard time getting used to eating spicy noodles with meat and veggies for breakfast, but I'm learning to adapt. I don't crave Western food very often, but I do when it comes to breakfast. It's a good thing I brought a whole case of my favourite oatmeal with me to China :)

After breakfast, we were excited to explore the Forbidden City. It took us a long time to get inside the city since we kept getting distracted by the many things to see along the way. We got tickets for a small artifact exhibit, and on our way in, we met an art student who showed us an exhibition of his and his classmates' work. I picked up some paintings to put up in my place (I still have to show you what my new place looks like). Then we went next door and dressed up in traditional Chinese dress and had our pictures taken in front of screens of the Great Wall and the emporer's throne. Sure, it was a bit of a tourist trap, but it's also a nice keepsake. While we were waiting for them to develop, we checked out some of the small museum exhibitions and then finally went into the city. I could have easily spent a whole day there, exploring the alleys and buildings. It really is a city all to itself. I especially liked walking through the gardens and seeing all the exotic plantlife. It was there that we met Tyler, who is studying Chinese in a city close to Dalian. In her typical style, Anita picked up his cell number so that we could get together throughout the week. On our way out of the city, we bumped into a lady who was offering tickets to an acrobatics show. We haggled them down from 180 yuan to 100 yuan, but it was still too much for Angali, so Anita and I went on our own. It was an amazing experience to see girls spinning plates on large sticks, guys jumping through hoops, and eight people riding one bicycle. I was surprised that the audience didn't applaud more often. My favourite part was a love story between a man and woman, floating through the air on stretchy ropes. It was truly beautiful. After the show, we got a text from Tyler inviting us to meet him and some others in the bar district of Sanlitun. Angali and Edgar met us later that evening and we danced the night away. It was a fun-filled day!

More to come...

Things I miss...

Don't get me wrong - I love life in China. But there are certain things I really miss from home. This is for all those people out there thinking about moving to China - I wish I had this list before I came!
Tortilla shells (O frabjous day! I found them at Metro today)
Taco Chips (yay, also at Metro!)
Chocolate Chips
Gum
Yeast
Bread that isn't sweet
Normal milk
EXPO whiteboard markers (ours run out sooo quickly)
Hockey Night in Canada, reality TV (yeah, I know, I'm addicted), Gray's Anatomy, the Big Bang Theory, Lost...
Rock Band
Dutch candies
Quaker Chocolate-Chip Granola Bars (I don't know what I'm going to do when they run out)
Rustic Touch, Clear Power and other Melaluca cleaning supplies (they're amazing, really)
An in-tune piano

I am sooo glad I brought:
Medication (I've become the resident dealer)
My whole spice collection
Herbal tea
Deoderant
Earplugs (the noise from construction, honking cars, and barking dogs is enough to keep anyone up at night)
My music!

I am grateful for the little luxuries China has to offer:
Cheap taxi rides (even though it feels like I'm risking my life every time I step into a taxi!)
Massages
My ayi (she is truly amazing)
Great food
DVD's at a steal
So many places to explore...

Lost in translation

I had an interesting episode in one of my classes the other day. I was just reading out the daily attendance when all of a sudden everyone bursts out in uproarious laughter. The kid whose name I read quickly excuses himself and rushes off to the bathroom. The next day he comes up to me and asks me to call him Tony M instead of his full name. I was so confused! So last night I asked Anita and Li Lei what it could possibly mean. Poor kid - apparantly when you put his English first name and Chinese last name together, you get a swear word. Tony Ma means "go *bleep* your mother". I guess he didn't realize what would happen when you put the two together (in Chinese, the last name comes first).

So overwhelmed

It's another gorgeous day in Jinshitan. The weather turned crisp, cool and windy overnight and it finally feels like fall. The cold winds from the North are a godsend because they blow away the pollution and leave the sky clear and blue. Winds from the South or the East just bring in more grayness from the big cities. I don't mind the cooler weather, but I'm just really hoping my boxes will arrive soon since they have all my winter clothes in them. That was a huge fiasco! We were told that the school would ship two boxes for us, which is wonderful, but they didn't tell us that they wouldn't arrive for a good two months. We were told to pack our teaching supplies, bedding, shoes, and winter clothes in the boxes (but not food, electronics, or medication because that stuff causes the packages to get held up in customs). Now I've been trying to survive these past few weeks without any teaching supplies and not many pants at all. We've been told that the boxes have arrived in China, but might take a month to clear customs! The good thing is that it will feel like Christmas when we do get them.
I did not sleep nearly enough last night, so I'm not as planned as I'd like to be today. I'm kind of panicking and trying to hide it, while scrounging for time to plan and mark. There's just way too many opportunities to socialize around here! After school today we have a club fair, where Anita and I will promote our bike and community outreach clubs. I would love to go on a bike ride along the coast today, but I think that I'd better finish all my plans before I take a break.

A tale of three cities: Jinshitan, Kaifaqu, and Dalian

This weekend I definitely treated myself again. On Friday night, we played ultimate frisbee afterschool with a bunch of teachers and then headed out to Kaifaqu. Anita and I met up with Anjali for dinner and we tried to convince the other teachers to come out for Korean food with us, but they really wanted to go to Pizza Hut. Seriously?? Pizza Hut in China?? It's incredibly overpriced and not nearly as good as the asian food options. Needless to say, our Korean meal was incredible and the company was great :) We shopped at Trustmart and a bunch of little stores along the way back through Kaifaqu. At the end of our long night we enjoyed some McDonald's ice-cream. It's a little creamier than the Canadian variety and it hit the spot. We were sooo exhausted! We planned a little bit for our Beijing trip - I can't believe we'll be there in less than a week! Even though we got back from Kaifaqu pretty late, I stayed up to watch a movie for the last time in my apartment.
On Saturday morning, I switched apartments with Rody, so now I'm rooming with Anita - yay! I'll have to post some pictures of my new place soon. My new room is huge and has a nice view of plants outside my window. I was surprised how quickly the move was with all the help we got, but I still needed to clear my head before I started unpacking. I headed into the ESL building and played piano for a good two hours. The pianos are okay, but unfortunately the building is never open when I need it to be! I wish I had a key or could climb in through the windows. Maybe I should try that... Some students poked their heads in while I was playing and convinced me to teach them how to play Apologize, so I acquiesed. Eventually I dragged myself away from the pianos and started a little lesson planning (not before first grabbing some icecream at the school cafeteria store. It's still almost 30 degrees outside and I can work up a sweat planning :) After dinner I got a massage at the Blue Phoenix, which was incredible. I didn't realize how much tension I had built up over the week. It was a foot massage (later I wondered why I had chosen the foot massage of all things, because I'm sooo ticklish), but they massaged my whole body and left me feeling so relaxed. Best of all, it was less than ten dollars and there's a chance that the school will compinsate some of the costs. I'm going to make this a weekly tradition! I came home and watched the Bourne Ultimatum before bed (my DVD player is definitely getting good use).
This morning, I went to church with Anita, Rody, and Yimming. The worship time was very uplifting and helped me refocus for this week. We went out for the best jiao ze (my favourite is mutton and cilantro) and a nice restaurant downtown and then met up with Tyler and Peter to get another dry hair wash and massage. We did a little shopping at a 2 quai store (a dollar store where everything costs 33 cents) and picked up a bunch of plates and utensils since we do a lot of entertaining. All in all, it was a great weekend, but I'm feeling behind on planning and marking so I'd better get to it!

Best weekend ever :)

Okay, I just had the most amazing weekend and it's not even half over yet! Yesterday, right after school, I packed up my bags and took the qing gui (aka skytrain) from Jinshitan to Dalian with Anita and Anjali. We went to an Indian restaurant on the fifth floor of the Zhongshan Hotel and met up with some other teachers from the Foreign Nationals School downtown. The food was amazing and we were entertained by Indian dancing and music throughout the night. The hotel had a glass elevator which took us up for an amazing view from the 38th floor, which was almost as fun as the hellevator ride at the amusement park last week. Then we wandered around the night markets and enjoyed the nightlife. Dalian is always thronging with people, no matter what time of day or night. We decided to indulge in one of our favourite luxuries here: the dry hair wash. We went into a random salon close to the teacher apartments and introduced the Foreign Nationals teachers to the joys of the hair wash. The guys in the salon pour shampoo on our heads and rub it in, using a spray bottle to get it all sudsy. The best part of it all is that they massage your head, back and arms while they do your hair. These guys were way stronger than the girls we usually go to in Manjitan, plus they were entertaining and kept teasing us. We went to bed so relaxed that night, and for only two bucks. We stayed in the apartments with the Foreign Nationals teachers. They are staying quite a distance away from their campus, in small one-room apartments. After seeing their places I feel so blessed to have so much space. They don't even have kitchens or stoves, so they eat out most of the time. I'll take my smelly bathroom anyday, if I can have a place to cook. Actually, I might move out of my place next weekend and start rooming with Anita. I can't wait to have a roomie again!
Anyways, today we woke up to the most beautiful day we've had so far in Dalian. And it was perfect, because we planned a hike for today. We picked up some coffee at McDonald's and some breakfast from some bustling street markets early in the morning before jumping on the qing gui to Kaifaqu. There we met up with some other teachers and took a bus out to DaHeiShi (literally big black mountain). The bus only costs 16 cents a ride and the light rail is just $1.33 (quite a steal compared to Vancouver). We hiked up to the top of the mountain past horses, yurts, and Buddist temples. The hike was absolutely amazing and by the time we reached the top, we could see for miles towards Dalian, Kaifaqu, and Jinshitan and out over the ocean. I can't wait to post pictures! We were also celebrities up at the top. All the Chinese hikers took out their cell phones and started snapping pictures of us. A bunch of girls wanted a picture with me. I'm getting accostomed to the stares I get as I walk down the street. Tomorrow we have a great day planned too: we'll be going to church, having lunch there, shopping for bikes (since we just got paid today, yay :) and celebrating the moon festival with a potluck and fireworks on the beach. So right now I'm hoping to get all my work for the week done so I can enjoy tomorrow and not panic on Sunday night as usual.

Jiao Shi Jie Kuai Le

Jiao Shi Jie Kuai Le is Happy Teacher's Day. We celebrated yesterday and I even got a card from one of my students. So sweet :) I've been taking Mandarin lessons on Tuesday afternoons, but the students always laugh when I practice my phrases on them :)
I had my ayi come on Tuesday and she did such a great job cleaning my place. It was amazing! She does everything: she cleaned my floors way better than I could, dusted every crack, cleaned the bathroom and kitchen top to bottom, got rid of mold, did my dishes, cleaned and hung my laundry, and emptied my garbage all for $6. I will free up so much time on my weekends to get other stuff done and it's so nice to come home to a clean place at the end of a long day.
On Tuesday, we threw a surprise birthday party for Anjali, and I somehow managed to get her out of the house and stall her while we crammed 30 people into Anita's place. We even found cake and icecream! I have been eating at Anita and Rody's so much and getting lunch at the cafeteria (it's so cheap: $1 for a huge plate of food), so I have an overflowing fridge of food that needs to get cooked. Luckily we have plenty of potlucks coming up :) Life here is good.

Where did the weekend go?

So yesterday I had grandiose plans of finishing a lot of my prepping for the term, but I ended up cleaning my place, doing laundry, and checking my email instead. So that evening I went down to Dragon, our apartment manager, and hired someone to clean for me. Hopefully that will free up some time in my schedule. Saturday night, I also went over to Anita and Rody's place for a potluck to thank Brian (Dragon's assistant) and Lei Li for helping them move in. We thought we were doing these two guys a favour by cooking home-cooked food since we see them eating out all the time. But little did we know that Lei Li used to be a cook himself. He took over all his supplies and made the most amazing dishes, including fish soup and a turnip carved into a rose.
Today I went to the Dalian International Christian Fellowship again with the girls from my Thursday Bible study: Rody, Anita, and Sui Ki. They changed their location to a university out by Tiger Beach to accommodate a growing congregation. I love how multi-cultural the church is and the pastor's messages always speak to my heart. We even have the opportunity to get involved in the community and volunteer at an orphanage. I can't wait to make more connections with people from Dalian!

Survived another first week

So, the first week of teaching is now behind me. I really wish I had started blogging earlier because so many things have happened that I'd love to remember years done the road. I'll try to do some backtracking as I go along. The first week of teaching actually went pretty well, even though I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants. We actually started class last Friday, August 29. The kids take nine different classes during a week, of which we teach six. On Friday, we were supposed to run through all the blocks, but for a half-hour each, to give the kids a sense of what their classes were like and who their teachers were. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the computer system, so when I got to school on Friday morning at 6:30 AM, they still didn't have a schedule of which classes we would be teaching where. The admin team (who had been working all night except for a two-hour break from 2-4) told me to come back in a half hour. I was starting to panic because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find my classrooms in this gigantic school. I was hoping to scope it out before the school day began. Soon afterwards, the admin team realized that the student schedules couldn't possibly come together on time, so they decided to scrap the half-hour blocks and create a day of activities in the homerooms. So instead of doing a bunch of short math activities, I had to lead a grade 11 class through a bunch of get-to-know-you activities. We also took a walk down to the beach and played some PE games in the field (which you can imagine would be pretty difficult to coordinate with 500 kids on a field). All the teachers had to dress up semi-formally for the morning flag ceremony, so we were pretty sweaty and our feet were all sore from our nice shoes after the unexpected activities. Thankfully the kids were very well organized and knew where to go, so we could just follow them. The day was a success in spite of all the last minute changes.
On Monday, we had the first real day of school. We found out that our blocks and classrooms were rearranged and I ended up with one of the best situations imaginable. I'm teaching in a large, bright, new classroom equipped with all the latest projectors and sound systems (but not an overhead projector! What am I going to do? I just have a whiteboard and no whiteboard markers that work). My three prep blocks are all in a row, so I can get a lot of work done during the day if I choose to be productive. The school days are long here, especially Monday. The kids have class from 7:40 AM to 4:40 PM on Mondays and 7:40 AM to 3:40 PM Tuesday to Friday. Thankfully, the way my preps worked out, I teach 8:40 - 3:40 Monday, 9:55 - 3:40 Tuesday, 7:40 - 8:30 and 12:50 - 3:40 on Wednesday, 7:40 - 10:50 and 2:40 - 3:40 on Thursday, and 7:40 - 1:40 on Friday. Many of the other new teachers have to switch classrooms a couple times during a day or go to separate buildings for their offices, but my classroom is all mine and it's just two doors down from my office. I love the students already. This year, the school decided to segregate the genders in grade 10, so I have two blocks of Math 10 girls, two blocks of Math 10 boys, and two blocks of Math 11. So far I really love only having to prepare two subjects and having so many other math teachers to bounce ideas off of. Our classes are still changing a lot because the admin team is still trying to iron out problems with the students' schedules. Next week I'll make a strong effort to learn everyone's names. Each kid picks an English name and they definitely get creative picking names. I have girls named Cinderella, Memory, Funny, Cissy, and Tree, and boys named East, Wish, Rabbit, and Lucifer.
Last night, two of my close friends, Angali and Anita, and I caught the school bus to Kaifaqu to do some shopping. (It's crazy how quickly we all met and became friends here. It seems like this shared China experience drew us all together. I guess it also helps that we all work and live next door to one another. Relationships are developing all over the place). Anyways, we managed to pick up plane tickets for our end-of-September trip to Beijing. We have a week off for the national holiday, so we're going to explore China :) I can't wait to do some traveling! We also discovered an incredible store called the Haute bakery, which has amazing black forest cake. We went out for dinner at a pretty good Indian restaurant and then had a get-to-know-the-staff party at the Silk Road Bar. All in all, it was a great Friday night.
This morning I cleaned my place (which got incredibly dusty after one week - I'm definitely hiring a maid soon) and did my laundry (which is quite the task, involving dragging my heavy washing machine into my bathroom so I can hook it up to the sink, plug it in, and put the drain tube in the drainage hole in my bathroom floor). Right now I'm supposed to be planning lessons for next week, so I'd better get back to work!

First few days

Here's some stuff I wrote on August 22
It's hard to believe that I've only been here for two days because so much has already happened. It was so nice staying overnight in Japan - the hotel was wonderful and we had fun going out for dinner downtown. I'm not too terribly jet-lagged, although I've been waking up with the sun at 5:30 every morning. It's nice not having to drag myself out of bed in the morning :) Yesterday, we went for a medical checkup, which was a little crazy. First of all, we weren't allowed to eat anything for breakfast (probably for the ultrasound), and then we had a 2-hour bus trip downtown. We got there at 9:30 and waited in long line-ups for an around-the-world room-to-room checkup. The first one I went to made me lift my shirt and everything else and stuck wires all over my body and pulsed some sort of current through to check my system. It was especially awkward since you could see apartments through the window and there was only a thin sheet separating our room from the line-up waiting outside. Then I had to get two vials of blood removed to check for HIV. Something between the combination of no breakfast, a hot muggy room, and losing blood made me feel really faint afterwards. I'm still bruised from the needles. We also got an ultrasound, vision check, xrays, and had to give a urine sample (in a really dirty room with just a squatty potty). So afterwards when we went shopping, I made up for it and treated myself to everything I need for my apartment (including a toaster oven, DVD and CD player, rice cooker, and pots and pans). Even though restaurant food is incredibly cheap here, I can't wait to be able to cook for myself (my digestive system hasn't quite adjusted to the food here, but then my digestive system has always been a little crazy). I haven't gotten propane for my stove yet and my fridge doesn't work, but I have hope that soon I'll be all set up.
Today, we did a tour of the school and a lot of pro-d. The school is enormous! Right now I'm on the fifth floor of one of the buildings. It's like being on a university campus. The people that I'm working with are great. It really makes it feel like home when you always have someone to speak English with and almost everyone is from Vancouver. I haven't picked up much Chinese yet, but I know thank you, hi, how are you, 1, 2, 3, and cheers! I have no idea whether people can actually understand what I'm saying though :) Tomorrow I'm going to church with two other girls who just graduated from UBC and we'll do some shopping afterwards. I've also been hanging out with some of the other math teachers and since we all live so close together, we see eachother all the time. Now we're going to walk down to the beach, which is just a couple minutes from the school and see what it's like.