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!