here's a picture (if it works) of our church family. we were saying goodbye to someone (which is very common in this kind of community) and they wanted a group picture.

by God's grace we made it through this week. lots of fun and lots of busyness. every day was just packed full of things. I tried to fit in some teaching in between all the other music and Christmas activities going on. I look forward to things settling down in the New Year. though apparently it's quite busy with Chinese New Year, Enrichment Week, Spelling Bee, Brain Bowl. the fun just never stops!

our Christmas performance was on Thursday night. the kids did such an incredible job! they are all such enthusiastic singers and musicians. it was a long day and a lot of work, but we had a good time. and it was all worth it to show off to the parents :) I felt a lot of relief once that was finished, but even more after today was done. today the students were dismissed at 1:30. We had a spelling test in the morning, finished up some crafts, then had a tournament of Contig with the other class. then parents showed up with lots of food, we had a feast and then they went home! I got some cool presents too! my favourite being a quilted sign that says Merry Christmas in mandarin. pretty cool.

once the kids were gone I cleaned out the room of all Christmas things in preparation for the new year. I finished some last bit of marking and exported my grades then celebrated by going for a Starbucks run one last time with Hannah, who is leaving tomorrow. tonight we just relaxed! it feels so good to be on vacation. we're really looking forward to this trip. it's nice to have the weekend to get ready to head out. we leave early Monday morning!

Merry Christmas everyone!

it's snowing!

yes, it finally feels like Christmas here in China. This morning when I stepped outside I was welcomed by a light blanket of snow. It's still snowing lightly and the trees outside my classroom window are white now. For some reason we'll be having indoor recess today. Maybe because the snow is really wet.

What a good weekend we had! Yesterday was probably the best day of all. First of all, Scott shared his story (testimony) at church, then we went out for some dumplings with a fun group of friends. After a few episodes of LOST in the afternoon we went to Hannah and Becky's for a Christmas movie night. We enjoyed some Christmas treats, and hot chocolate as we watched Charlie Brown's Christmas and then Elf. Everyone was in such good spirits. We even played chubby bunny! This is Hannah's last week with us. She's a student teacher from Minnesota and flies home on Saturday. She even gave us all mugs filled with goodies. We'll miss her greatly.

On Saturday we had the special treat of going to see Handel's Messiah! A friend from church is in the International Festival Chorus, and they perform it each year. Best of all, it was in the Forbidden City concert hall. A modern concert hall in the middle of the ancient city. pretty cool. It didn't feel like we were in China, because the place was filled with foreigners.

Friday night was the Christmas performance of our school's middle and high school students. The newly renovated auditorium was an excellent venue. Apparently they used to have it in a room at the hotel, but it was too small and chaotic. This week we'll be going there with our students on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to practice. (The auditorium is at the other campus). Our performance is Thursday night. They definitely make everyone feel the Christmas spirit, because they are so enthusiastic about singing! Our report cards are also due at the end of this week! Yikes!

We were offered a dog this week! :) Our chinese neighbours are planning to move to New Zealand in February and have 2 dogs to get rid of. They know we like the little puppy...but we don't really think we'd want that responsibility, especially if we'll be travelling around in the summer. We went out for dinner with them on Thursday to a nice korean BBQ place.

there are so many funny stories I wish I could remember to write here. silly things that happen to us, or things we see. I can't even think of any right now....but we haven't forgotten that we're in CHINA, where you pay 70 cents if you want to use shrink-wrapped dishes (which is supposed to guarantee their cleanliness)...where my new gloves bleed colour dark blue into my hands....and where they kick the poor people out of the city so foreigners don't know about the poverty here. Annie, our neighbour says chinese kids mature faster because life is much harder. so many people means lots of competition if you want to achieve anything.

we are grateful for everything we have...and are glad to share it with others. it's great to have a community of people that is generous beyond words. we love our family here!

we love you and miss you all! Christmas will be very different without seeing all of you! this time next week we'll be in Hong Kong and then on to warmer places! yay!

some more pictures

Scott flying a kite in front of our hotel, in a city square




On the City Wall

a week since Xi'an

Well this week has just flown by. I intended to write earlier about our trip to Xi'an but I don't know where the time went. It seems we're getting busier. We only have 2 more weeks of school and the kids are a little hyper already. They're also preparing for the Christmas program so there is lots of excitement. But we're still having fun. The last week is basically a write-off, because we will be spending most of Tues. and Thurs. practicing on stage in the auditorium (at the other school). And the last day will be our Christmas parties.

So last weekend we took an adventure to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors. We were excited because it was our first trip out of the city on our own! Some of the office staff at the school helped me book train tickets. We left Thursday night. There are 2 train stations in Beijing and we had to go to the furthest one, which took almost 45mins to get to. that was an expensive taxi ride! 60 RMB, which is......$8! well that's expensive for us! we were booked for the "soft sleeper" train. it's basically first class. each cabin has 4 beds (bunk). each bed had headphones and little TV's. and there's a little door to the cabin room. it was quite comfortable. the train left at 9:20pm. We read for a bit then went to sleep. when we woke up at 8am, we were there! We immediately went to buy our tickets home (couldn't do before) then worked on finding a driver to take us around for the day. We found an English-speaking tour guide with a car but his first price was too high so we walked away. We found him again later (because the other chinese drivers avoided eye contact)....and he was speaking with another foreigner. so the 3 of us decided to go together for the day for 100 RMB per person, which is $15! and that was for the whole day!

The first place he took us was the Banpo Neolithic Village. They have found remains of a supposedly Neolithic village. Pretty cool. I'm not sure it was worth the entrance price though. Then he took us to a factory where they make traditional clay crafts, including all sizes of terracotta warriors. I had a feeling he got some kind of commission if we bought anything, but we didn't!

Next stop was the Terracotta Warrior museum, which is 45mins out of town. This site was found in 1974 by farmers who were digging a well. We actually met one of the farmers. He hangs out in one of the entrance buildings to shake hands with people. He's famous now! There are 3 different "pits" they have found that contain the warriors. one is closed for construction, but they put some of the artifacts in an exhibition hall. the biggest one is Pit 1 where there are thousands of warriors lined up. It seems they've done a lot of work restoring them. They were originally all painted, and each one is designed differently. they were found partially destroyed already by a fire long ago. Scott has some picture up on facebook. I keep trying to upload pictures here but it hasn't been successful lately. anyways, it was pretty cool. our last stop was the tomb of the Emperor that had the warriors built. it's basically a big hill you can climb to the top of. the soil around his tomb supposedly has high levels of mercury, so it hasn't been dug-up.

He drove us to our hotel in the centre of the city. We spend the evening strolling around the Muslim district. Xi'an is kinda in the centre of China and is where the Silk Road actually starts, so there is quite of bit of influence from just west of there, hence the Muslim population. they had lots of interesting street food. most interesting was something we thought was fried potatoes. it was in this massive pan, with some spices. we bought a bowl and when he handed it to me I noticed it kinda jiggled a bit. I shook it some more, and sure enough it was all square pieces of something with spices! it looked like fat! gross! I took a tiny bite and only tasted the hot spices, and then we put the bowl in the garbage! gross! why would they eat fat like that?! yuck! we found a delicious treat though of meat (who knows what) on those vertical rotisseries....like at a Greek pita place. and they put it inside a bun with some lettuce and spices. yum!

our hotel was decent enough for $35 US. though the bed seemed harder than our own! my neck hurt in the morning. The city of Xi'an still has it's ancient city walls. they've been mostly restored, and you can rent bikes and go all the way around. so we got a tandem bike and rode the 14 Km all the way around. it was cold and foggy.....but we made the most of it. it took 1.5hrs to do. after checking out of our hotel we took a little break in Starbucks. it was one of the nicest ones I've been in! the comfy chairs were soooo comfy that we both fell asleep! :) in the afternoon was walked around the city, to the arts and crafts district and then basically made our way back to the train station. we were tired of paying entrance fees to places so we didn't go into any more museums or historical sites :)

for the train ride back we opted to try the "hard sleeper" - so we can say we experienced both. hard sleeper was definitely not as pleasant as soft sleeper. each cabin had 6 beds. the beds were very hard and narrow, and it seemed like people had been using them already! there was no little door to close the cabin room so I had a light in my face all night from the hallway. people were generally respectful and quiet, but it was definitely more crowded. and I refused to use the bathroom :) I waited 'til we got all the way home to our apartment!

we were excited to be home. we got back around 9am, cleaned up then went to church. Scott will be sharing his story/testimony at church this week, and then me maybe next week.

and right now, while Scott is at a volleyball tournament, I'm going to go shopping! I really need to find another pair of jeans. I hope the prices aren't too steep at the Levi's store. and boots.....hopefully Aldo has something decent in my size!
bye for now folks!

Happy Thanksgiving

American Thanksgiving is coming up, which means this coming weekend is a long one for us! We get Friday off! We're planning a trip to Xi'an which was a former capital of China. It is also the site of the Terracotta Warrior Army, if you've ever heard of that. We're taking an overnight train Thursday night, arriving Friday morning. We'll spend Friday and Saturday there then come back on the train Saturday night. It should be an adventure since neither of us have travelled by train yet here. It's about 8hrs by train. We could fly but that costs more money.

We also finalized our Christmas plans this week. we're leaving here the 17th of Dec. and flying to Southern China where we'll spend a night with friends in Hong Kong. then we'll head over to Macau and fly from there to Manila. We're excited about going somewhere warm and having 3 weeks off! there are only 4 weeks left until the end of the semester, which means we have to start thinking about report cards again! really feels like we just finished those. but this semester is shorter than next semester.

lots going on around here. we had a seemingly busy week. lots of stuff happening with accreditation of the school. so many meetings and extra things to take care of. the students are also busy getting ready for the Christmas program. this week we also made a spontaneous outing to see the Chinese Acrobats. so amazing! seemed like a short program for almost $30. oh well, we had fun going with a group of friends.

we also had small group on Friday night. we're meeting with, so far, 2 other married couples. it's great to learn from one another. we're all at different stages in our marriages. one couple has been married for 2 years, and the other for 16. it's great to share our experiences and grow together.

yesterday we had my co-worker and her husband over for dinner and then we played Settlers! they've played it before, but hadn't in awhile so this was a refresher. but they are excited to play again! we're really enjoying the ch-rch we're going to. it really feels like it's full of authentic christians. we've been asked to share our stories, or give our testimonies. we'll probably do that in the next couple of weeks.

anyways, it really is feeling like home here. we've made our home together and everything is 'familiar' now. we have our routines, but always have things that throw us off. actually, about a week ago I woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of a woman crying. it sounded so close. it must've been upstairs. she was wailing and it sounded like she was just aching with grief. It kept me up for awhile...all I could do was pray for her. I have no idea why she was crying. she could've been mourning someone, or maybe it was domestic abuse (which is common here)...and it kinda haunted me into the next day....it's as if G-d wanted me to know about the pain that many women suffer in China. we've heard about it from other places before, but this time I felt it deep down.

Scott and I are happy to be here, growing together....I can catch a small glimpse of the work He is already doing in our hearts to open our eyes to what he's doing, and to see the people he loves deeply. (you should all read Sacred Revolution by Shane Claiborne)

zaitian!

first weekend apart....

yes, Scott and I actually spent a weekend apart! He wanted to help at youth camp. I was going to, but felt it might be too tiring, and I'd rather stay at home to relax and take care of some things. we both had good weekends. I went out for dinner with a co-worker then she came over and we watched Planet Earth (nerds!). On Saturday I went with another co-worker and her visitor to an Antiques market. so busy! and what a great big place! I didn't buy anything big because we don't want to accumulate many things here, but I found a couple of interesting small things. including a birthday present for Scott. I'll tell you about it later!

back at home I decided it was finally time to go out and buy a little vacuum. we'd talked about it but never actually gone to buy one! and I could go find what I wanted! I found a powerful little dust-buster...didn't realize how LOUD it was until I got home. but at least it sucks up a lot of dirt!

as I was cleaning this weekend I may have gotten a little excited about the power of bleach! I was looking at our ugly, tiny counter, and all the little stains it had...and I thought "I wonder if bleach would take this out?!" sure enough, as soon as I poured some on it started to clear up! cheap counters! how terrible. but at least it looks nice now.

I also took advantage of the weekend on my own to watch a girly movie (Girl with a Peral Earring) - based on a novel, about the Dutch painter Vermeer and his famous painting. I also slept very soundly this weekend! no one to wake me up with their snoring :)

anyways, I have some more marking to do before my class comes back from gym class.
ta-ta for now!

Thanksgiving again!

tonight our staff is having a social....celebrating Canadian and the upcoming American Thanksgiving holiday. the hotel where our main campus is located agreed to roast the turkeys for us, which is a big deal. because there are only a few staff that have full-size ovens and it's a big job, especially to then bring it to the school. I'm going to make carrot cake this afternoon for the ocassion.

this week was a short week of classes, but a busy one! we had parent-teacher conferences Thursday afternoon and all day Friday. about half of them had Korean translators....which made for one awkward situation when the translator was the mother of another boy in my class. it's been stressful for me....I found out some things about some of my students. for example, one boy I thought had poor English because he just came from korea. but he's actually been attending international schools his whole life. so he's not fluent in either english or korean! a bit of a shock. I barely understand him when he speaks, and his writing is terrible.

and then a big incident between two girls. they came to me on Thursday morning to say that one of the girl's diary and wallet were missing. I found out from the mother on Friday morning that it was that same friend who stole it! one mother came to me crying about the situation, meanwhile the guilty one's mother didn't want to talk about it and brushed it off as not important! social situations seem particularly important to korean parents. another mother was crying to me because she feels bad about taking her daughter out of her previous school where she had close relationships. AAHHHH!!! I just have to remember not to allow their burdens to become mine.

what else have we been up to? umm....last weekend we tried to find a community center in a migrant village where we were going to volunteer for the morning. but we couldn't find it! but it was a good experience to walk around in this poor migrant village, which is right here in Beijing, not far from our house! welcome to China!

our neighbours also came over last weekend and taught us how to make dumplings and play Mah Jong. really nice of them! we are quite blessed to have neighbours like them.

last night we had another small group with two other married couples. we're studying a book by a christi-n author about communication. it's nice to fellowship with other married couples. so far we just hang out with non-marrieds our age.

anyways, I should go do some laundry, cleaning and baking. I'm really hoping to get a dust-buster or some sort of little vacuum. the dust is just overwhelming! Scott's at another soccer tournament. oh, and he starts coaching girl's volleyball next week. meanwhile I'll just get used to this teaching thing :)

another weekend gone by? and......biking!

so we finished the first quarter and I had to do report cards for the first time. no big deal really. I only had to write maximum 4 lines of comments per student, and assess them on personal/social/development skills. it was just all the marks that needed to be added in. and I thought I was doing well. maybe I mark too many things. I guess I'll figure it out as I go. so on Saturday, while Scott was gone to a soccer tournament in another city, I spent TOO MUCH of the day at school marking, and planning for this week. sad sad story. and of course the stress isn't over, because today my student who has been absent for 2 weeks (funeral in Malaysia) returned! and grades are due tomorrow, so I might as well fit in a few more tests for him! haha

you think I'd be a bit more settled....but I cannot help but think of ways I can teach the material better to my students. my ESL students struggle a lot because the material and vocabulary is quite advanced. I do a lot of small dramatizations during the day to explain small concepts, like "effort". today they did a self-evaluation of the past quarter and had to comment on their effort on assignments this past quarter. it wasn't easy for some of them!

Saturday night Scott and I found ONE friend who was free to go out for dinner. Hannah is a student teacher from Minnesota. so we had dinner at the mall, which has many nice restaurants then decided to head back to our place to watch a movie. Scott and I had rode our bikes over, so we said she could take mine and I'd ride on the back of Scott's, as we often do. but Hannah is not much of a risk-taker....and to ride a bike in Beijing?! well, we just kinda forced it upon her. otherwise, she would've tried to get out of it (which she did, but I ignored it). I gave her a few suggestions and we were off. Scott and I with one broken pedal and me the heavy load. once she managed to sit on the seat (because she's shorter than me) she was fine. she got a little nervous when someone passed her.....all was good, hardly anyone on the path and then I hear "CRUNCH"!!! don't worry. no one was hit except the parked car!!! hahahha. Hannah was riding beside a parked car realized she was a little close, went to turn away but instead turned IN to the car! hehe. thankfully she was laughing and wasn't hurt :) probably embarassed more than anything. the car was a beater so we weren't too concerned. and we made it safely back to our place! I'm just glad she didn't run into another person or moving vehicle.

this Unit I'm teaching in Social Studies right now is all about the Northeast region of the U.S. , and the text had a section all about the Niagara River, Niagara Falls, and the power plants. it was nice to talk about something so familiar. I even showed them some of my own pictures from the area.

I went out for Hot Pot tonight with some other staff. Scott missed it because he went to a meeting about joining the worship team at our church. we've really enjoyed the sincerity of the leader, and he's looking to expand the team. Hot Pot is like fondue, but much bigger, and more like a giant pot of soup. I think I've mentioned it before. it's quite enjoyable, though I came back smelling like it!

'tis all for now my friends.
thanks for reading!

........

it's still hard to believe that I'm actually running my own classroom. some days just slip by and I barely remember what happened! Monday's I'm usually excited, full of energy, and ready to accomplish a lot! but as the week wears on it gets harder and harder to get out of bed.....and it doesn't feel like I get much accomplished during the day.

just this week in particular perhaps, because it's the end of the first quarter, and report cards go home next week! the grading program on the computer is excellent, so it's not too complicated, but I'd still like to put in more marks....which means more marking! Scott is gone to a soccer tournament all day Saturday, so I'll probably spend a lot of the day at school. sometimes it just has to be done on a Saturday!

we finally got a permanent teacher for the other grade 4 class this week! she also just got married and came over to Beijing. her husband is working on the American Embassy project. It's such a relief to all of us, and the class seems to be adjusting well. I'm really excited, because she has taught a lot of this curriculum before! she's got 2 years under her belt. so we hope to do a lot of planning together. and she's full of helpful, brilliant ideas! thank God for Jodee!

this past weekend I experienced more of what we call "Beijing Belly"!!! basically I ate something that didn't agree with me. either it was something gone bad, or some bacteria my body wasn't used to. I spent most of Saturday sleeping, trying to ignore the pain in my belly. thankfully we did pack lots of Advil.

I'm not sure I ever mentioned the little trip to the "ranch" during the second week of our vacation. basically we drove out of the city about an hour to a "ranch" set up by a Canadian. the accommodations were nice enough. cedar cabins, and the bathroom had a big jacuzzi tub and a sauna. by the grounds were nasty. not well kept. but we did lots of things: horseback riding, archery, go carts, bowling, ping pong. the best part was the hike that Scott and I took. no one else was on the mountain! except of course for the giant spiders and grasshoppers. we are very thankful that our chinese neighbour invited us along.....though we didn't know that all 6 of them were chain smokers!!! haha....not used to that much smoke in "Smoke Free Ontario!"

well.....that's all for now. I hope you're all enjoying the beautiful Fall.

p.s. sorry, it takes too long to load pictures on here sometimes....but check Scott's facebook if you want to see more

a week off...

Well our break is officially over. We're at school today for meetings. It's nice to be part of a school that is working hard to bring everything up to a high standard. We are working at getting accredited with WASC and NCCT (american and chinese respectively). So there are separate committees for every area having to do with running a school. They were working on this last year as well so much of the work is done, but we have to collect evidence for everything.



anyways, this past week has been fun. Monday we ventured to the heart of the city, along with about a million other people. (actually heard on the news that this holiday week 1.7 million people came to Beijing). we took the subway for the first time. at each transfer it got progressively busier and busier. at the final transfer we had to wait in line to get on the subway and then finally shoved our way onto one. downtown was just the same. massive crowds of people everywhere. there was no quiet spot. sidewalks were packed. Tian'anmen Square (the biggest town square in the world) was packed with people just mingling about. and there was nowhere to sit! no park benches, no steps, nothing! so people just sat down on the paved ground. at one point I found a curb to sit down on, but a police man came and told us all to get up. they kept people moving, yelling at us with megaphones. who knows what they were yelling, but it was annoying! going through Tian'anmen Gate towards the Forbidden City you could only walk in one direction. if you decided you wanted to exit you had to walk basically all the way around these massive gardens and walls. hordes of people just moving moving moving. so exhausting. the view from up top the Tian'anmen Gate was probably the best part of the day. since you had to pay to go up there weren't as many people up there. and you could see the entire Tian'anmen Square from up there, with all the people. that's where the leaders address the people from.

We enjoyed some comforting KFC food for dinner! then wandered around the famous shopping street Wangfujing. We also found the Night Market, which is famous for its weird foods. everything on a stick. from pork, to scorpions, grasshoppers, star fish, to fruit (which is what we had) :)

it was an exhausting day, but it's one of those things were you're glad to say "I was there!"

Tuesday was a bit more relaxing. we biked over to a local park where they had lots of exhibitors, including a little Dutch village! they are celebrating 35 years of diplomatic relationships between China and Holland. so there were some Dutch people doing some traditional crafts, and making some food. we found some delicious raisin buns! but no cheese :(

I'll write later about our visit to a little resort Wednesday-Thursday. we're going to head to the bank, which should take us at least 1 hour. that's the thing about China. many things appear very modern, but underneath it's all still old-fashioned. they chinese don't like to "lose face"....which affects many things in society, including the traffic :)

bye for now! happy thanksgiving!

holiday!

has it really been two weeks since I wrote last? well, time has flown. these past weeks really went quickly, as we were waiting in anticipation of this holiday. It is the holiday of independence, when China celebrates it's birthday. so that means that this weekend everyone is working because during the week they don't have to work everyday. October 1st is the actual holiday, and that is the day that everyone in the city goes to Tiannamen Square, and we plan on joining them! we expect it to be a crazy experience, but an experience worth doing. still not sure how we'll get there even. maybe subway. it's a National holiday, so everyone in the country is travelling! that's why we've decided to stay in town, since there's so much we haven't seen yet.

our internet recently stopped working at home, which means it didn't get paid for....but I thought I paid it at the bank....better try again. everything here is "pay as you go"....so I was worried when our gas burner wouldn't turn on this morning, thinking we were out of gas credits. but we were fine. sometimes it's just finicky like that. but we have to remember to charge the gas and electricity bills so that we won't run out.

we bought a little oven yesterday!!! very exciting! this now means that I can finally make meals that go in the oven, such as baked squash!! I will be making that next Sunday because we've been invited to a Canadian thanksgiving! unfortunately turkeys are about $75 dollars here, so we'll be having some other form of poultry. but I'm quite excited about having a little oven. it's basically a bigger toaster oven. we even rode our bikes to go get it, and Scott tied it to the rack on the back of his bike to bring it home :)

so far at the start of this holiday we've enjoyed lots of sleep, reading, and a movie as well. we hope to visit other parks and sites around the city, as everywhere is decorated with flower arrangements, lights, lanterns, etc. every apartment compound even has a nice flower arrangement at the entrance.

my students do continue to amaze me. in a good way. this past week we played a game where I mixed up the subjects and predicates of various sentences, then they matched them up randomly and most often came up with a very silly sentence. they loved the activity! Language Arts had never been this fun! so the next day, a student arrived at school with a little envelope full of subjects and predicates she had typed out at home so that they could play on their own!!! wow! what a bunch of keeners! and they also have a book club, where the more pages you read, the more points you get! what a great class! we aren't free of troubles though. there are some social issues that go on among the korean girls. they also have a hard time getting along with others.

anyways, today we'll be watching the final for the women's world cup. should be a very exciting game. our neighbour also made us a DVD with Mandarin lessons. so nice!

that's it for now....
by the way, I continue to arrive alive every time I ride my bike somewhere :) it's not so bad once you get the hang of it!

more change?!

YES, me and my hair were ready for a change! I was tired of how long it took to blow-dry, and how many long hairs were all over the floor! I'd been thinking about it for about a week. and after allowing Scott some time to get used to the idea, I took the plunge on Sunday afternoon.

It's nervewracking enough to cut off so much hair, but it's multiplied when I don't speak the language! I went in, looked and some magazines, picked a style, and we were off! once he started cutting my hair off (with many stares from other staff and customers), I began to wonder what I'd gotten myself into. because he seemed to be cutting it quite! after a few minutes of panic I calmed myself down, telling myself "it's only hair, it WILL grow back!" I wasn't truly satisfied with the cut until 2 hours later when he finally made my bangs and it all came together! I'm quite happy with the change! my head feels so much lighter!

some of the comments I got at school today were "I can't believe you trusted a chinese person to cut your hair!" and "did you want your hair that short?" hahaha.... some people here actually wait to get their hair cut until they go back home! whatever. it's no big deal.

I finally took the plunge and also went to the bank after school today! yes, it's actually quite an ordeal because it usually takes at least an hour. so I got my number, went and did some shopping then came back to continue waiting. finally an hour later my number was called and I paid the phone and water bills. and boy does it take a long time! so many little papers that she fills out and stamps, and I don't know what else she does. but it was only $16 for the past month of water and phone. pretty good!

by the way I'm still glad to hear of so many of you reading this!
love to you all!

International Family Day

this week was a hold build up to the big fair at the school on Saturday. throughout the week we discussed the different cultures represented in our classrooms, and Friday everyone was invited to wear their national clothing. so much fun! I forgot my camera, but thankfully another teacher took some pictures of my class for me.

so today at the school, each culture represented at our school had a classroom, where they had trivia about their country, food, music, whatever. and it's a fundraiser for the Parent Teacher Association. the Canadian room rocked! some families have been doing this event for a few years, so they bring things back specifically for this day, including napkins and plates with Canadian flags. someone even had a huge tin of Tim Horton's coffee! which, combined with the giant Timmy's sign another girl and I painted, it felt like home. Scott and I also made waffles and crepes throughout the day. we sung the National Anthem a few times, and even had a bit of hockey going on. it was a real fun time. we got to enjoy food from Venezuela and Korea, and had our names written in chinese calligraphy.

this week riding the bike to work was quite fun! it's so nice to have your own space, rather than be crowded like sardines in a bus. it did rain a few days this week and I actually biked. I noticed that most chinese people biking have these ponchos that go right over the handle bars and keep you quite dry. thankfully someone at the school had one they didn't need, so I have one for next time it rains. I managed to stay fairly dry without it though. Scott and I also brave it, and I sit on the little rack on the back to the corner where he catches the bus. it's kinda scary because I can't see anything. but so far we've been fine. we feel quite chinese doing that.

just 2 more weeks of school and then we have a week holiday! woo-hoo!!!
that's all for now folks!

moving into week 5!

starting week 5 of school that is, which means we've been here for 6 weeks! and married for 7! it's still hard to believe everything that has happened in that short amount of time. but here we are, having fun!

this past Monday I felt dizzy as soon as I stepped out of bed. I didn't want to eat and I thought I'd throw up any minute. but it passed so that I thought I could teach that day. I actually took the bus to school, but as soon as I arrived the feeling returned. so I handed over my lesson plans and went home to sleep. it must've been a bug from some food. all I did to recover was sleep, and I've been fine since. someone said it must be Beijing Belly, which every new foreigner experiences.

that meant I only had 3 days with my students this week, because Friday was a work day. our school is in the process of getting accredited with WASC and NCCT, 2 different educational associations. so it was mostly meetings for the day. then we had the privilege of waiting at the police station for 1 hour. all people living in Beijing must have a residence permit. chinese or not. so people can't just come in from the countryside to live here, unless they have a residence permit. the police actually goes around door-to-door to look for illegal residents. we have our "foreign experts certificates" but we still needed that permit. there were a pile of Koreans also waiting in line. but apparently we haven't experienced China until we've been to a train station. THEN, we are told, will we realize how many people China really has!

Saturday this weekend I was invited to join some of my female colleagues for a scrapbooking and stamping party! it started at 10 and didn't wrap up until 4!!! we actually didn't start making stuff until almost 12 because we were just chatting, and then we also had lunch. it was actually mostly a stamping party, because that's what most of them have. and boy do they have a lot!!!! they order from Stamp It Up. friends in the U.S. ship things out for them. I was so overwhelmed with all the choices! we had a good time though.

last night we called up our English speaking neighbour that we met randomly and asked him to join us going out for dinner. he's actually from Malaysia and has been living and working here for 6 months, but his Mandarin is quite good. we went for Hot Pot, which is almost like fondue. we got one big pot that splits into two: half spicy oil, have broth. then you order whatever meat and vegetables you want. then you throw them in a bit at a time, fish it out with your chopsticks, dip it in a sauce and enjoy! it's a long meal, but that's what the chinese like to do. sit around for a couple of hours around food and drink and chat it up with friends. chinese restaurants are generally really loud!

the bus to school has been getting increasingly crowded. it must be because of the start of chinese schools. they are sooo uncomfortable, I'm usually squished tightly between many people. and the other day I saw a colleague go by on her bike....and bikers always beat me to school, so I've decided to get one! yes, Scott might secretly be concerned about my safety, but I'll be careful :) it would be cool to get a video sometime on my bike and tape what happens on the streets. cars only follow traffic lights a little bit. if it's green though and you want to turn right or left, cars usually just go and weasle their way in. I don't understand it really. and sometimes riding in a taxi still makes my heart jump. but generally they're not going too fast, so that they can always stop before hitting someone. should be an interesting week of bike stories.

off to the market now to buy a cheap bike (because it'll probably get stolen) and a really expensive lock!

eating out...

since it was Friday, and we were celebrating the end of the week we decided to go out for dinner last night. a new restaurant opened just outside our complex, and Scott said he saw a picture menu, which meant we can go! off we went, excited about the new adventure.

the restaurant had a very nice picture menu, but unfortunately not one english word. and it's hard to see in the pictures what exactly it is, unless of course if you see a fish tail sticking out :) after a long browse through the menu, with the waiter waiting at our table the whole time, we finally opted on a dish that looked like meatball stirfry, and another one that looked like stir-fried green beans and other things. dishes always come out as they are made, so we got one a few minutes before the other. the meatball one was good, with peanuts, green onions, and garlic, slightly spicy.....and who knows what kind of meat that was! both we're both fine today. then we realized we hadn't ordered rice, and we didn't know how to....hmmm...Scott got up and was telling them "rice", and they kept pointing him to the bathroom! one of them even walked him right over to it. hehehe....we were drawing attention, especially since it wasn't very busy. finally there was a chinese lady who understand what we were asking for, and then we all had a good laugh :) we of course asked the words for rice, which I have already memorized so we don't ahve to go through that again!

and then our second dish arrived! the green things in the picture were actually all hot peppers! it was a plate of green and red stir-fried HOT peppers with a bit of beef! hehe. the meat was good, and we ate a bunch of the peppers, but it eventually became too spicy for us. Scott was in tears!

so much excitement just going out to eat! and that meal was only about 7 dollars! we'll definitely go there again sometime. unfortunately we didn't have a camera with us to capture the meal.
next time!

routine of things?

some days I wonder how long it will take me to get into a good routine. will it always be this exhausting? well, not every day is so tiring, and there are a lot of good days. but I don't like the feeling of "just getting by" with my school stuff. we had an open house last night. and Scott is at his tonight. I didn't see as many parents as I would have liked. but what I hear from parents, their students are happy so far! one girl who was always bored in grade 3, isn't bored this year. that's good news! I must be doing something right :) and the kids seem pretty happy in general. did I mention that have of my class is labeled "ESL" ? it's quite a challenge at times. and I'm glad I only have 15 students (one left for another school this week).

in other news, we had a very busy but exciting weekend. I went to the school first thing in the morning for 2 hours, then Scott and I ventured to a touristy location, the Temple of Heaven. it's one of the first temples built in Beijing. but it's all been restored, and there were LOTS of people there. then we went to the "Pearl" market. they sell lots of things. floors of electronics, trinkets, clothes, household decorations, and lots of pearls! pretty neat, but the vendors there really harassed us. they are so pushy! you can't look for something in peace, they ask you "what are you looking for?" and then quote these ridiculously HIGH prices. my first line is "no way! I live here, I know what I should pay for this!" then they say "ok, for you, this price! just for you!" but it's still too high. I was looking at a little wallet, but I didn't really like it. she started at about 280 yuan, and I quoted her 20! I got her down in price quite a bit, but then I decided it wasn't really what i wanted so I started walking away and she was yelling after me for awhile "ok, 40 for you! I'll take for 40!!!" hehe, it's entertaining. Scott and I can also split up and compare prices. but one lady almost wouldn't let me out of the store to talk with Scott about a price! she probably knew she was asking too much.



we also bought a few movies off the street, for 5 yuan each, which is about 70 cents! we bought Oceans 13, 'Evan Almight" (no 'y'), and the third Pirates of the Caribbean. so far we watched Oceans 13, and we think it was copied from a european version, because the subtitles for the spanish parts were maybe in russian? hehe.....but Evan Almighty was all good. ya never know what quality you'll get. James Bell, you'd love it here! they also had season 6 of 24, do you have that yet? I can't keep track of what season it's in.

on Sunday evening we joined some other teachers and their church friends, and went to an area called Hou Hai. it's this old lake with a nice path all the way around, lots of nice restaurants, and some parks with some genuine chinese musicians. we went to a well-known pizza place that was quite good. the whole area reminded us of hanging out in Port Dalhousie. you can rent little boats, and eat dinner at a little island too.

I finally decided to buy some flour! the stuff we're used to is only imported, their flour is different. so I had to buy it from the imports grocery store and it was a little expensive. but I was ready to start making my own pasta sauce! I made a nice chicken and broccoli pasta with white sauce. yummy! chicken is quite cheap here! people don't eat very much of it. they prefer pork. and we are able to find cereal for Scott's ritual giant bowls for breakfast. but it's expensive. I opt for the instant oatmeal or toast. we don't have a little oven yet, but might invest in one eventually. I also bought olive oil this weekend! now I can make salad dressings too.....because the prepared stuff is very expensive. hehe....little things that get me excited, things I took for granted back home.

well, it's nice to know some people are reading this. thanks! bye for now!

first week of school

well I made it through my first week! It started off great! my kids are great...scared little faces the first day. now they are much more comfortable, but still excited about learning! I felt more tired as the week wore on, and there are lots of new things to learn still, but we're making it through. I'll probably still have to come into school on Saturday to get some marking done though. students have workbooks for every subject, and I cant carry these big books home on the bus.

my class is an intersting mix of students. I have 15 right now, half of them are taking ESL, and I have only 5 boys! there are a few adopted kids, and about half of the class is Korean. on Monday I will be getting a student from the other grade 4 class. she's new to the school and her father requested that she be with her Kiwi friend. The Principal made the final decision...but I would've left her where she is.

last weekend we quickly found out something about chinese culture. we all know that women are not valued, but maybe we weren't aware of the abuse that goes on. Scott and I were leaving a friend's apartment to find a cab. it wasn't a very busy street, and we could see this couple arguing. as we got closer we saw the man slap the woman and pull her hair! Scott yelled at him to stop. he stopped hitting her but they continued arguing. we continued walking but again he started hitting her. I couldn't believe my eyes, I was so scared. again, Scott yelled at him to stop. In English, the girl yelled "I'm ok" while her husband was dragging her along by the hair. Scott moved closer and continued to yell at him so he knew it wasn't acceptable. he finally stopped and walked in our separate directions. and of course, we were the only ones to say anything. everyone else turns a blind eye to the abuse. I was glad nobody here carries a weapon!

better get some marking and planning done. enjoy the privileges and be thankful for where you live!

drowning in school books

it's Saturday and I'm at school!!! but what's exciting is that another Canadian teacher has arranged a game night at her place tonight, so we have something to look forward to!

this week has been insane. daily meetings, but mostly time spent in my classroom getting ready for students. my room is small, but it's fine for the 15 students I have :) the daily schedule for school days is very full. besides all the language arts, reading, spelling, science, math, penmanship, and bible that I teach, other teachers have my class for chinese, gym, music, art, and computers. so much to keep track of. and there are so many textbooks and workbooks! I can barely keep in all straight. AND we have to submit our weekly lesson plans each Monday morning! I haven't done this in a long time, so it's a bit daunting, but coming along slowly.

and then of course we're trying to set up our apartment and make it comfortable. we went to the market this morning. we like it there. so many people, lots of excitement. but we're sure we're getting ripped off. as soon as they see us coming they start harassing us, asking us what we want (I think that's what they're saying :) lots of crazy smells too. the market right next to our apartment is called a "wet market" because it has all the fruits and vegetables, and meat. it's a big covered market, and along the sides are lots of vendors of household items, clothes, bedding. we got another mattress cover, because the foam is barely enough! I like walking around the fruit and vegetable vendors, so many interesting things to see, many I don't know what they are. but we're starting to stock up our kitchen.

but the washing machine! what a hassle. someone finally came to show us how to use it and we were all excited to finally get a load of laundry in. awhile later I came back to find the kitchen all flooded! the drain was too small to handle all the water coming out of the machine so it just spilled out onto the floor. and everything here is dollar store quality! Scott is frustrated trying to fix anything.

anyways, we're having fun! it's all so exhausting still, so we try to get lots of sleep. I'll try to give you all glimpses into what we experience each day....we have to remember what we've already gotten used to, but might be still interesting to you in Canada.

ok, back to work now!

meetings!

big day at International Academy of Beijing! we met all the returning staff. what a group they have now! 30 teachers! and then all the support staff! pretty exciting place to be! after some boring meeting stuff I spent a bit of time setting up my classroom, which was TRES exciting! I also found a giant dead cockroach while I was moving furniture around! he's still there :) I didn't disturb his sleeping.

our apartment is ready but we need bedding first. and our bed is so GIANT that it's hard to find sheets. a friend took us to a market to get a foam pad for our mattress. it's amazing how much you can accomplish when you dont speak a common language but use sign language, and calculators :) there was also a cute kitten in this little shop, bouncing around. and it was pouring rain and the drainage in the streets SUCKS, so I was walking in deep, murky water. yuck. THEN we got dropped off by a taxi at somewhere we weren't expecting, but it was a mall we'd heard had good sheets, and we found our size! what a relief. so we got a really nice set and duvet cover.

we're slowly gathering the things we need to settle into our apartment. sometimes you're just exhausted from trying to communicate with people and get around in a city you don't know well. but for being here only 1 week, I think we're doing alright!

check Scott's facebook site for pictures....I can't manage to upload them here yet. AND I can't really LOOK at this blog, I can only make it. I think they've blocked these sites. hmm......interesting!!!

crazy IKEA

who knew a trip to IKEA could be so disappointing and frustrating? sure Beijing has the biggest IKEA in the world, but there's a reason for that: there are so many people here! it could've been because it was a Sunday afternoon, but the place was teeming with people! we're used to our own personal space, but this was my first frustrating encounter with it here. and then we couldn't find the size of sheets we needed. why do they have King size beds if it's hard to buy sheets for them? anyways, I think we can get them custom made very quickly at a local market, but they won't be as good of a quality.

today we went to church at Beijing International Christian Fellowship. what a neat church! they hold services in a really nice theatre, with 2 different auditoriums. they have services in different languages all going on at the same time, an English one at 9:30 and 11:30. it felt almost like a glimpse of heaven, a huge crowd of people from different places of the world, all praising our God. the 11:30 service has at least 1000 people in it. there are a number of other churches in the area, but this is the only licensed one. and you have to show your foreign identification to get in.

we hope to move into our apartment at the beginning of this week, once we at least have the bedding we need. we also have to get a foam pad for the bed because their mattresses are like a wooden board! we've also got a guest room with a double bed waiting to be filled by our visitors! :)

after church we went to an exciting flower market. so many interesting plants that we look forward to buying and putting in our apartment. Scott also wants to buy lots for his science room. that market also have a number of aquarium/fish stores. we didn't buy anything today, but once we're settled in we hope to buy a little aquarium.

goodbye for now from hot, humid, smoggy, and crowded Beijing.

Arrived and Settling In

We are here! Sometimes I still say to Scott "We're in China!" It's hard to believe sometimes. For example, we were on the Great Wall this morning! How incredible is that?! Unfortunately it was foggy so we didn't have the greatest view, but it was pretty neat. Our principal took us and 3 other new teachers. The place was pretty busy, with people on the sidewalk shouting at you "Coke, Water, Beer." hehe, I can't imagine drinking a beer to quench your thirst and then climbing on the wall. We took a ski lift up and spent at least an hour walking around. The section where we were, Mutianyu, goes up and down on the mountain side, and some of the stairs are very steep. It's quite exhausting, but worth the view. Lots of people on the wall too. Going down off the mountain was the most exciting part! they have these little tobaggon sleds on this steel track, about 1600 metres long, and you zip down. It's so fun! Until you meet up with the people in front of you who are going too slow! It was a fun trip.

Yesterday we signed a lease with our landlord, paid the deposit and 3 months rent. We're really excited to move in. It should be ready on Monday. We'll post pictures once we're moved in. This is it for today. Scott didn't want to start a blog, but I did. Maybe he'll post here, maybe not. "Probably not, check my facebook" he says. We'll see how this goes.

Goodbye for now from the other side of the world!