Graduation Day

I started my day with a lovely Skype call with Meghan and an attempt to wire money home. I got off the bus at right place, it's a gigantic rainbow, and started to walk to the bank, but I realized I had left all of my home bank's information. Whoops! Guess I'll have to make another trek out there on Monday. At least I know how to get there on my own now.

I went in to work to plan for a bit before we had a graduation ceremony. The three afternoon summer course classes are "graduating" to the next level beginning next week. There wasn't many parents who were able to attend, maybe only eight or so. Each student had to prepare a dialogue with another peer or read their own summary of their last four weeks. The youngest group had a dialogue about their likes and which country that we studied during over the last month that they would like to visit. They did a very good job and were excited to present in comparison to the older students. The next class was the oldest group who did these hysterical dialogues as random celebrities. A pair of boys held up a quickly drawn flying car and told us about all of its powers. I thought our senior teacher Claire was brave to have her students be so free and creative in front of the parents and our boss. Finally, it was time for the class that I share with Miles to perform. They all had written summaries about what they liked about the class. One of the boys wrote a speech about China being the best country using Rev. Dr. King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech's pattern. It got the biggest round of applause. If he is attending the second half of the course next week I will have to ask him if he thought of it all by himself. I bet he did.

I taught my favorite every other week upper elementary class tonight. The class has been canceled in the last couple of weeks because many of the students have been traveling. I only had three students this evening and they told me all about their adventures at the World Expo. They told me what I should see. One student loved the ice cream from Iceland and another loved Turkey's food. One student waited for ten hours to get into China's pavilion. I'm hoping to maybe go during our bank holiday in October. I've been looking into train tickets and hostels and I think it would be doable!

Crazy Bus Ride during Rush Hour

I had today off from work. I spent the morning being lazy watching TV online and then got going cleaning and grocery shopping. Boring day off kind of stuff.

This afternoon, I met up with my boss Laura who helped teach me how to make a wire transfer at a bank a few neighborhoods away from ours. Beautifully, there is a Starbucks in the same complex as the bank. We both got iced coffees and enjoyed the air conditioning. We were in the Korean neighborhood of Beijing and Laura told me everyone in the shop was speaking Korean and not Chinese. I can't really tell, but I thought it was awesome she could.

We roamed around a big flea market across from another EF kids and teens school. It was fun looking around at some of the crazy, funny things. Laura is creating a box to send home of funny things she finds here in China.

We had a long, hot ride back to our neighborhood during rush hour traffic. People were literally standing on top of each other. I successfully bumped into perhaps ten people at any one moment with my clumsiness!

I spent this evening rehydrating and writing out postcards. Be checking your mailboxes! (OK, probably not for another week).

It's the Humidity that gets to you...

Oh the humidity...

It was another hot, unpleasant, pollution-y Beijing day outside today.

Inside, at school, I had a lovely day. I had fun with my summer course students. We watched an "Ellen" show interview with David Beckham because he is one of the featured sports stars in the students' texts. The students are really getting comfortable with auxiliary verbs and we read a little article about Canada. We made maple leaves and wrote facts about Canada on them to put up in the classroom. I had a low elementary study club in the early evening about clothing vocabulary. The school has a big box of dress up clothes (not fairly princess type of clothes, but normal street clothing that are all adult sizes) that I used to have the students race to see who could put on as many clothes and be able to give the names of all of the items.

This evening, I got some more insight on how to make money wire transfers from here to back at home. I've been learning a lot about asking for help in these last few months. Not just in an "any fool who decides to live in a country where they don't speak the language" kind of way, but in a real, personal way.

On a lighter note, I bought some good smelling mosquito spray. Didn't think it was possible, but it is in Beijing.

Forecast: Pollution

I walked outside today and saw the worst pollution haze I have ever seen in my life. It was nasty. Today has been really hot, but it is suppose to get worse on Thursday. This weather is not fun.

I taught my summer session class this afternoon. The class is constantly changing with new students every week. I am able to see some growth in a few of the students who have been in class since day one, but it feels like we are back to the start with the new students. Today we talked about sports, modal auxiliary verbs and Canada. At least I have been to Canada, and I was able to talk about Victoria. I told them about tapping trees for maple syrup and the students wanted to make pancakes and have syrup on top. It would be awesome if we could do that but we don't even have a working microwave at the moment, let alone a cooking space! I also had found a video online of Michael Buble singing the Canadian national anthem during the closing ceremony of the winter olympics.

This evening, I taught two preschool classes. They were both pretty good, but the parents complained that the rooms were too air conditioned! I don't think that is possible in this weather.

Tired, Hot and Cranky Teachers, Tired, Hot and Cranky Students

It was rather a moody day at work today. A lot of my fellow teachers have had little sleep due to not having air conditioning in their own bedrooms for those who have shared housing. The students were also very cranky today due to the same reasons. In my first preschool class of the morning, I had a little boy make a biting gesture at the TA when she stopped him from hitting another boy. The boy made the biting gesture at me a few minutes later when I told him "no" about something. Rough! He's almost six years old and knows better.

I went out to the restaurant across the street with Claire today after work. Over our conversation she told me she was celebrating being in Beijing for a year today. She's resigned for another year at EF. It was fun to talk to her about her experiences so far.

After I left the restaurant, I made my way over to the gym and it still felt like it should be the middle of the day, and not eight at night. I've enjoyed watching people walk in an absolute crawl to get anywhere on days like today!

Captain's Log: 11 Weeks Down...

The New Laminator

Today was another day that EF families elected to take off, so we had an inservice day today at work. We came in to plan individually and then had a workshop on how to run new course orientations for families before the start of a new course.

Next, it was back to creating more small star resources. I realize that it will be nice to have this all done, but we all have a lot more planning and grading to do over the summer, so I am not sure why we are getting this done now. Last weekend, we had fried the old laminator with all of our "art" work, so the school had to order a new one! We all were busy for the rest of the afternoon coloring, tracing and cutting out and gluing and arguing over what to watch or listen to on tudou.com. We ended up just grumbling together through it. The local teachers were trying to teach the International teachers how to say colors in Mandarin. I was trying, but it is hard! Much harder then numbers!

I went to the gym after work with Amy and something was up with the air conditioner. It's kind of cool not know what they are saying on the intercom every once in awhile. I like to use my imagination and make up stories of what people are saying to one another in Mandarin!

So Many Americans

This afternoon our school had forty American teachers transcend upon us as they came in to learn about our program. It was fun to hear voices from home. I was able to talk to a few teachers and answer a lot of questions. They are all being paid by EF to take students from the U.S. on trips to other countries. I met a few teachers who are going to Greece, Spain, Italy, France and China in future school breaks. They are being given an example "tour" here in China to model what their own tours should be like. I want to do that! They get to make some extra cash and travel the world. EF was hoping that if the teachers saw a school in action some of the teachers might want to apply to work in China. Many of them were quick to point out the lack of money Nick and I will be taking home even if we do a good job of saving in China! Nick quickly joked that he wouldn't be living in an apartment with a hot tube either in the United States.

I only taught once early elementary class this evening. There seems to be a lot of students on holiday right now and my class was pretty tiny. We reviewed for the test they had to take, and then in the second hour we talked about space. I found a cool NASA liftoff video that we watched twice!

Sizzling!

At almost 10:00 PM here it is still in the high eighties outside with 80% humidity and visibility is at one mile. Nasty! Today wasn't pretty. I drank a lot of water. A lot of water! People were walking around the neighborhood at a crawl when I went to the gym and got groceries this morning.

If I am home next summer, I am sure that I will be frolicking in the cool Northwest summer, wearing tie -dyed tee shirts and munching on as much hummus and vegetables as I can get, and trying to get myself out of the habit of boiling water! That will be the day...

However, in the present, I am trying to enjoy the hilarity of the heat, and am gearing up to host a bunch of Americans tomorrow at work. I'm been put in charge of making a group of teachers from the states feel comfortable before they join some of the afternoon classes at work. Not quite sure why they are observing our school, my boss doesn't even know, but it will be interesting.

Water Shortage in Building 8

This morning I started a load of laundry that stopped ten minutes into the cycle! Uh oh! Everything that goes wrong, like perhaps a broken washing machine or waking up to no power, just seem so much harder here since I can't communicate with most people here! Eventually, I realized that I was not getting any water out of the kitchen sink or the bathroom. Time to call Jason...

I called Jason and he laughed at me and told me I probably hadn't paid my water bill lately. I know that is posted directly to my apartment door, and I have never seen a bill on my door. He told me to go to the leasing office and call him back to translate. I went into the office with quite a few of my fellow renters all very angry. I gave my phone with Jason back on the line to one of the office workers who didn't let Jason talk very long before she started yelling to him on the phone. She must have been having a bad day. I got back on the phone with Jason and he told me that the whole building was having a water issue. Ahh... I asked Jason if he knew when it should be coming back on and he had no clue.

The water came back on around five this afternoon. Yeah! I was able to continue to wash my uniform.

It was bloody hot today! I went to the gym and went grocery shopping and watched a lot of "So You Think You Can Dance" and read the Oprah magazine my Mom sent me. Not too bad of a day off...

Christmas in July

I was able to spend a bit of my morning talking to Angela and her kids over skype. The little ones kept asking if I was going to come over help them help their grandpa with the yard! Too sweet.

I spent the rest of the morning figuring out where to go to pay my rent for the next three months. I went to the manager's office, but was chastised by crazy real estate dude Jason saying why would I go to someplace like that? Where else am I going to go to? I was directed to a few more offices around the complex before they got back a hold of Jason who was able to translate for me that he would call the landlords and have them meet me at my place after work.

I went into work and planned for my afternoon class. We talked about the future and I showed a bit of Star Trek. It ended up being a good way to get some discussion out of the students! It's come in handy.

My Mom sent me a package full of lots of goodies. I opened it after work after the landlords stopped by. They were friendly and tested my Mandarin. They were disappointed at how little it is. I'm still working on my numbers.. Anyway, the package was awesome! I now how good coffee and some tea! Plus, lots of other great things! Thanks Mom!

The Violent One Turns Angelic

I had a great start to my day by talking to Laura and my Mom!

I went in to work and realized that my summer class's plan outline was to teach about "the future" for two hours and the country of Poland for another hour. The future part was pretty easy, but I quickly realized how little I know about Poland. I was able to find a power point about some basic facts on Poland (all the students laughed about how "small" the population is) and some Chopin music to play. I did spend about ten minutes describing to them how it is possible to be one fourth Polish. It's pretty rare for most of the people in this city to be anything but Chinese! I made a pie graph of the nationalities I am (that we know about) and the students thought it was pretty hysterical. I also told them about perogies be relating them to dumplings and they thought it was disgusting to put butter on them! I tried to describe how they are cooked differently and soy sauce would not taste good on them! It turned out to be not such a bad class.

Then, an hour later I had an open door class with my least enjoyed preschool class with the violent child. An open door class is where the parents are invited in to watch the class period. I was really nervous about showing how I dealt with the chaos, but they were on their best behaviors with their families watching them. I was stunned. It was really easy. Then, the violent one's mom came up to me all huffy saying her son is just perfect. AHHHH! I told her we still had a lot of work to do, the violent one and me...

Open Air Market and Finding Maria's first item on her long list of presents...

Today was a busy Sunday at work, but full of fun students.

After work today I went with almost all of the local teachers back to La Bamba for dinner. We split a huge salad and an even bigger chicken and mushroom pizza. It was my first pizza in Beijing and it was tasty.

Our true purpose for the evening was to shop at the open air market in the same neighborhood. It was busy and noisy and lots of fun. Today had been ridiculously hot and it seemed like Beijing was coming out of it's heat wave induced lethargy and hit the open air market for the evening along with everyone else. Vendors just lay out blankets and some tables to set their merchandise on. There was tons of jewelry, clothing, bags, household needs and shoes. There were some food vendors selling kabobs. There were quite a few people selling animals in tiny, tiny cages that made me sell. There was even one person selling squirrels.

We had fun walking around and looking for treasures. I wouldn't want to go there by myself since it is all done through bargaining. I bought my little sister a beautiful fan that smells really good... I have no idea if it will smell very good after it's long plane/boat ride home to Oregon. I also bought three paperback books in English for really cheap with Stephanie's help. I thought it was kind of funny buying the latest Dan Brown novel from a person who couldn't speak any English.

We wrapped up our evening at a bar downstairs from La Bamba called Propaganda! Stephanie had a "Ladies Card" which got us in for free and we each got to have a mojito. It was refreshing after a long, hot day. We didn't stay too long because we all have to teach in the morning/early afternoon tomorrow, but we made a pact to come back and dance the night away after the summer course finishes!

I just wished I brought my camera.

Captain's Log: 10 weeks and the adventure continues...

Free Dress Uproar

Nothing too exciting to report about from the last few days...

Yesterday, it was crazy hot and muggy, but no sunshine. The sky was dark all day long. Walking back from the gym I saw this busload of little ones arriving in front of a medical care center and they were dressed in pink princess dresses and tuxedoes. It was pretty cute. I just taught one class yesterday evening. I had planned a lesson with a lot of games, but only two students showed up. Uh oh! However, they were both new students so it wasn't so bad.

Today, the school was closed to students because their families had requested a day off. The students will going back to their normal school anywhere from early to mid- August so a lot of families take their summer vacations during this time. In China students get the entire month of January off, too, so that's a little different from us in the U.S. All of us showed up at one excited to plan and wear our own chosen clothing, but we were all told to put on our uniforms and that we were all suppose to help build resource material binders. I'm all about helping to make resources and lesson plans that everyone can use, but we had been told we would have the entire day to plan, catch up on our grading and get ourselves more organized. Amy, Miles and I grumbled as we colored in and traced all the alphabet worksheets for one of the small star preschool levels.

Tonight, I ran into Marie at the store after work and she showed me this ready made bowl of Japanese wheat noodles and vegetables that they sell in the "deli" area of the store. I had it for dinner and it was tasty. Marie and I hung out in my courtyard and each had a beer and chilled while swatting away at the pesky mosquitoes until it started to rain. Maybe tomorrow will be a bit cooler...

They should feature these kids on "Sesame Street"

Here are a couple more pictures from yesterday. The street sign is from my neighborhood. It's one of the few things I can say!

Nothing too exciting today. I have finally figured out how to convert kilometers to miles (1.5 km equals 1 mile) which has come in handy at the gym. I should have been paying better attention at OLS when we were learning about how to make conversions! It would have come in handy now. Now, if I can only conquer figuring out Celsius!

I went in to work and planned for a bit before my preschool classes tonight. I had a thought while we were talking about the letter "M" in one of my classes how our school should be featured on "Sesame Street." Many of the four-year-olds I was teaching tonight can sight read quite a few English words. I couldn't do that at that age and I am a native speaker. Besides, I'd take a fun muppet over the Roddy and friends p characters any day.

Yesterday was disgustingly muggy, but today it was rainy and wonderfully cool.

P.S. For Jean: There are all these funky art supply stores right across from the art museum. A person can buy a huge bust of Shakespeare or Plato or Buddha or a copy of the David to bring home to paint. I saw and heard a couple arguing over which one to buy. They ended up with the David! I'll try to sneak a picture next time I go back. It was pretty funny.

National Art Museum of China Visit

Here's a few pictures. The top row are (L-R): the picture of the door leading up to my school, the painting of Roddy and his buddies right outside the school, and Bartholomew being a little freaked out by Roddy. The last picture is of the outside of the National China Art Museum. The whole building is very beautiful, outside and inside!

Today was my day off. I spent the morning watching some American TV online and cleaning up my "flat" a bit. This afternoon I attempted to find the art museum again after my failed attempt last Wednesday. This time I took my guidebook and asked for help. Of course, it was in Chinese, but a lot can be read by hand gestures! I thought of the scene in the movie "Gung Ho" where Michael Keaton is searching for an office in Japan and ends up telling his life story while asking for directions in a lot of places, including a rice field, around Japan with kind people just listening and gesturing. Ok, so only my Mom and siblings are going to get that reference, but it's how I truly feel sometimes!

So I tried to follow the hand gestures and just kept walking and walking. Eventually I hailed a cab, pointed to the directions in Mandarin, and the cab driver said "ok." He drove me straight back to the subway station and kept on going the other way! OHHHH! Oh, well. I finally got there and didn't ruin another day off.

The museum is just as beautiful as the Guggenheim in New York, but with it's own beautiful Chinese flavor! There was an International traveling exhibition of art from the Aboriginal people of Australia. Everything was so beautiful and the colors were very rich. There was also a featured exhibition of a Chinese artist that showed his life in picture. My favorite gallery in the museum was of the famous water color paintings on canvas. There was a room with these huge, huge canvas water color paintings of trees and sunsets. I sat in that room for awhile soaking it all in.

I bought a book of postcards there so watch out for mail!

Why Am I Teaching These Kids About British Boarding Schools?

Hello out there!

This morning I had a good talk with my Mom and went in to work to plan for my day. My summer class grew students over the weekend and now we have ten students! There is so much more we can do. The summer academy classes have this awful book that we have to follow. Today I had to teach about Eton, the British boarding school the Princes of England went to. I tried to describe it as Hogwarts without the magic.

I had my least favorite preschool class this evening. No real violence this evening, but no got a Roddy sticker. My friend Sandra has asked about these Roddy stickers and here's the lowdown:

We have these hand puppets that we use in the preschool classes. There is Roddy, a bald headed white boy; Mel, a blue bird that wears glasses and suppose to be a girl, Vic, a shy hedgehog that is dressed in pink bows, so it is suppose to be a girl, too; Ben, a bear who looks like he lived through the psychedelic period and has lived to tell the tale and Kev a frog, who has feet like a person. There are also videos that go along with two lessons in each each of the units for all four small star level classes that the group of five are all featured in. EF must make a fortune out of all the puppets that they sell because a lot of the kids beg to collect all five of them. We are suppose to give out Roddy stickers to each student as they leave the classroom. There are stickers of Roddy in about twenty different costumes that I have affectionately named including "devil" Roddy, " "Grim Reaper" Roddy, "Hawaiian" Roddy, "Sherlock Holmes" Roddy, "Doctor" Roddy, "Cowperson" Roddy, "and "Kid" Roddy. I'll try to provide some pictures someday. There is a huge picture of Roddy right outside the school. It's a little creepy.

La Bamba

A group of us went out to dinner tonight after work to a Mexican restaurant called La Bamba. I had asked Stephanie earlier in the week if there was any Mexican restaurants in the city and she told me about La Bamba and organized a little outing for all of us. The restaurant is in the middle of the college bar district. The first floor has a bar and pool table and the second two floors are the restaurant. I was so happy to have chips and salsa and a vegetarian burrito. It wasn't quite as good as the Mexican food in Oregon but it was a nice trip for the taste buds. We hung out for a bit drinking beer and playing pool. I passed on going to another bar to watch the final World Cup game because I have to be at work at a decent hour tomorrow morning to do some planning, but it was really fun to get out a bit.

It rained for a lot of the weekend. I wouldn't call the weather cool, but it was a nice break from the heat! I have been appreciating it fully.

I was able to teach two really fun lessons. On Sunday afternoons I have been teaching a VIP student. Today we delved into poetry. I found some poetry by a few Chinese-American poets that we could listen to the poets read their works online and we looked at different rhyme schemes in a Shel Silverstien poem. The student taught me about tradition Chinese poetry's rhyme schemes. It was really fun. My final class for the weekend I had to teach a life club on space. The students were not interested, but I had fun planning for a different type of lesson.

Captain's Log: Nine weeks down...

An Ark would have been nice tonight...

We had a huge rainstorm tonight that is just beginning to move into a drizzle. I was entirely drenched on my walk home from the gym tonight, but it felt really nice since it's been so hot here. Beijing was not build with a drainage system in mind so the water just pools and stands at the end of every sidewalk. I landed in a few puddles way above my ankles tonight.

I went into work really early to plan for the day. I thought my boss was going to observe my evening class, but she wasn't feeling well and left early.

My afternoon summer academy class has tripled in size overnight, which is nice, because we can actually play games and do pair-share activities now. I told the students that they could pick out some music online to listen to while they worked on a project and a big thirteen year old boy kept playing old school Backstreet Boys songs. It made me happy.

Excessive amounts of stamped paper

I went on a few missions this morning. First, I had learned at the beginning of the week that I can not transfer money into my bank account at home from here unless I went to a really big bank far, far away. So, I decided to get some money exchanged and send it via mail. Didn't sound so hard and other people at work had done it before...

I spent forty-five minutes with a teller seriously staring at me, staring at my passport and re-entering my passport number a million times. At least, that is what I think she was entering because it sounded like the same number of key types each time. Was she finding crazy information about me that I didn't even know? My mind went wild with possibilities, but in the end, I got some US cash and a lot of paperwork I can't read! She gleefully stamped every single piece of paper!

Then, I went to the post office. I talked to a man who was taping up boxes and he told me where to stand in line. I was luckily able to talk to someone with some English language and they were able to help me out. It took a long time. Does that mean my address here or my home address? Do I really need to provide ten secret questions and answers for my Mom when she signs for it? Questions like that... It was kind of hilarious how many times I would mess up a form or we couldn't communicate and have to start the form over again with a dramatic toss to the waste basket. After a lot of stamping and laughing at my passport and forty-five minutes later I was on my way to mail my postcards. I had gotten pre-paid postcards which was great, but the lady at the desk had to write USA in Chinese, which looks pretty awesome... At least I know how to do it now. China Post is not so bad as I thought it would be!

I got in to work and had to quickly write a lesson plan for today's class. I hadn't thought my errands would have lasted quite that long! I taught a three hour lesson to them on newspapers! My Journalism degree came in handy. There are only three other students in the class right now, but EF is hoping to add more in a few weeks. After that, I taught two more preschool classes to round out the evening. I did get home tonight and talked to Crystal and Reilly on Skype. Reilly waved to me!

Boom! Two Month Anniversary in Beijing!

It's my second month anniversary in Beijing today. I had the day off and have been pretty lazy. I slept in, chatted with Annie Erickson on Skype, and watched the "Bachelorette."

I attempted to find the National Museum of Art, but I couldn't find it after going through all four subway exits. I must have read something wrong. I did spend the afternoon walking around the Dong Si Hutong neighborhood. There were a ton of cute shops and lots of restaurants. I found a Wu Mart and got some cleaning supplies and mosquito plug in. I have seen a few mosquitos in my shower so I hope this will help get them out of my apartment. I found some pre-paid postcards at a China Post. I wonder how long it will take to get to the states? I went back to my neighborhood, picked up some sushi for dinner and have been enjoying watching the movie "Roxanne" on Hulu and writing out my postcards.

I did have a talk with my boss yesterday about the little boy with some issues in my Monday class and she was very supportive. She's helping me find an action plan and having a conference with the parents. She is also going to try to get that class out of the awful room we are in!

Tomorrow is my first day of teaching the summer course. We are teaching about the different countries featured at the World Expo. Tomorrow, we will be learning about China... I'm not sure that's such a great thing. The students have so much more to teach me about the subject!

FIrst Day of the Summer Academy

We all survived the first day of the summer academy. My day was nothing out of the ordinary for a Monday since I won't be teaching my half of the summer term course until Thursdays and Fridays. We received a big shipment of Roddy crowns for the preschool classes to wear and they were a hit in the staff room.

I taught my awful Monday night preschool class tonight with the little boy who hits everyone. Today, he picked up a little chair and was about to pummel another student with it before I stopped it. I'm going to try to talk to my new boss about getting some support to help me with that class. I hadn't received any help from my previous boss and the customer relations person in charge of that class has such pressure to keep as many students enrolled as possible, I can't really count on her for any support in moving the student out of the class. The other two little boys are starting to pick up on the violent child's bad karma and it is making the class utterly miserable to teach and, I am sure, to be a student in. The EF kids and teens centers do not have any behavioral policy at all. My final class of the evening is very energetic, and of course, lost it as they always do during the final 15 minutes when they really should already by at home. I was also ready to go!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July to everyone out there!

I spent my fourth at work. I had four long classes today. I did teach about space and showed NASA clips in one class, so I felt a little patriotic!

I went out to dinner for Chinese food with a few of the other ladies from work. I really enjoy Chinese food when someone with Mandarin skills can order for me.

Our final stop for the evening was going to KTV (or karokee) at a place across the street from work in the basement. They were celebrating their opening weekend. At a KTV place you don't sing in front of a bunch of people in bar, but each group gets their very own room that looks a bit like a space station. There is a large TV that displays the music videos/lyrics, a panel to choose your songs, big couches and a cool applause machine. We sang our hearts out. There was a lot of old school Backstreet Boys that were butchered tonight.

I missed fireworks and my Mom's potato salad, but at least I got to spend the night with some fun people.

Hope you all have a fun and safe holiday! Someone please have a garden burger for me!

Feeling a bit more comfortable at work...

I stupidly checked the weather today. 95 degrees F. 38 degrees C.

I had the realization today as I was eating sunflower seeds during one of the 15 minute breaks between hours one and two of our last afternoon set of classes with a bunch of the other teachers that I am starting to feel really comfortable with the other teachers. I know more about what I am doing and know my students better and am able to swap stories a bit more. For the first month of so during those breaks I'd be running around like an idiot trying to find supplies and asking questions. For the last few weeks I've been pretty prepared in advanced and am having much more fun teaching and I do feel accepted by the rest of the staff. I was thinking this as I was watching our new teacher running around crazy-like during the break. Everything has it's own season!

Of course, this feeling may only last another day before the crazy summer academy begins, but I'll take it!

Today I had an enjoyable Saturday morning preschool class. I really like those kids and they think I'm funny. I also have the best TA for that class, Amanda, who really enjoys the children and looks like she is having fun, which I don't get that feeling from many other TAs. This job is usually just a job for some extra cash while in school. Little Leo was celebrating his fifth birthday today so we sang him the birthday song and he got an extra Roddy sticker.

I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoons on an Oral Placement Testing shift and I tested a lot of kids. Many parents are trying to decide whether they want to place their children in a summer course or not. There was one little girl who could only smile and not throughout the entire test. She was adorable.

After work I visited a little, new produce market in the shopping complex across the street from the school. I was welcomed by this man who I was able to exchange "hellos" with and then he went into this long speech and I had to just smile and nod and say "No Chinese." The fruit and vegetables were the best that I have seen so far in Beijing at the best price. One of the teachers found out that it all comes from the same family's farm. I can see myself getting food there at a daily basis.

Summer in the City

Summer in the City has truly began today in Beijing! When I left the building for the first time to go to the gym this morning and I wanted to just run back into my nicely air conditioned apartment building. It was hot. I mean, really hot. Like, I want to go back a year ago to my former self complaining about spending a hot day in a pioneer dress last summer and give her a stern "Suck it up" speech, kind of hot. The kind of hot were my arms got a little pink on my ten-15 walk to the gym and back!

After a good application of sunblock and finding my EF baseball cap, I made it into work. We had a meeting introducing the new boss to the entire community staff and then we had our academic meeting where we learned a little more about our summer courses. For the first four weeks of the summer course I will be teaching a high school class every day for four hours in the afternoon and then my normal evening and weekend classes. I was told I was most likely going to be teaching a preschool class in the morning, have a bit of a break, and then go back to work. I'm thankful to be able to keep some of my morning routines. The morning here is the best time for me to talk to anyone at home, so I am glad I don't have to give that up.

I spent the rest of the afternoon getting all my lesson plans that had been piling on my self organized and into a binder. I also got all my teaching supplies neat and tidy. It felt good to have that done. I taught a special study club class for low level elementary school students about space. It was pretty fun... but I had left out the planet Jupiter for about half of the lesson. Whoopsie! The kids enjoyed that I had made a mistake. We watched some awesome Nasa videos, too.

I went to a little market with my friend Cindy in her neighborhood. I bought my mentor teacher Amy a plant as a thank you present for all the help she has given me and making sure I was ok while I was really sick. Cindy and I chilled at a Starbucks were I had a yummy sandwich and a huge hibiscus iced tea!

Little Girl Madonna Impersonator

Today was an easy Thursday. I went to the gym early, (well, early for me so far) and there was no one there. I had the place to myself with the exception of a few staff members.

For the first time I am completely done with all of my planning before the end of the week. It was nice to just chill in the staff room and organize my computer files and chat with everybody about their weekends. Every work afternoon should be that easy! Our new boss came in and is really making an effort to be very kind to everyone. I really have my fingers crossed that we will have a smooth transition.

Both of my preschool classes tonight were exceptionally good. In the second class, there is a little girl with the Western name of Sissy who was dressed Madonna style, circa the mid eighties. She was wearing a small little black shirt, a see-through black gaze skirt and fish net tights and lots of little girl jewelry. It was pretty funny. She started telling me about her outfit in Chinese and the TA was able to translate for me. She told me her mom let her get dressed all by herself for class.

Even though today was the first day of July, it was the coolest weather I have experienced here so far. It must have rained last night and it continued to rain until this afternoon. The air was delightfully lighter and smelled much better during my stroll home this evening.