An Almost Rumble at the Bank

I was startled to awake last night around 3 or so in the morning to fireworks. At first, I seriously thought we were being bombed since it scared me so badly. It went on for about ten minutes and car alarms were going nuts. Eventually, I watched from my window as some of our complex's security guards started screaming at the people who were lighting the fireworks. My friends here tell me that I need to chill out about it for the next two weeks! The whole city smells like the Fourth of July to me.

I woke up pretty sore from my skiing adventure yesterday. I wanted to sleep in, but instead I went to the China Bank this morning to transfer some money to my bank at home. I wanted to get it done before the city shuts down for the next two weeks! It was complete chaos! I got there and they were serving numbers 55 and 56, so I settled down thinking I probably had a good hour to two hours to read and people watch. Two and a half hours passed, and they were stuck on number 65 with only one teller window open. People were getting restless and mad. I looked up from my book and watched one man try to punch another man out, but luckily a bank person came between them and the man reluctantly put down his fist. I was most amused by a woman who was wearing a custodian uniform pace back and forth between the aisles. She would start picking verbal fights with other people as she passed by. It was one of those moments were I thought it was probably more interesting thinking about what she was saying than what she was actually saying.

I thought about giving up around lunch time, but I decided to go next door to grab an egg and cheese muffin sandwich and a salad from Starbucks. Whoever decided to place that Starbucks next door to the bank was brilliant! Eventually, I meandered back to the bank where they had finally opened up two more teller windows and things started to move a lot faster. I was giving myself to 2:30 before I needed to catch a cab to get back to work. Luckily, I got my number called at 2:20, four and half hours after I had initially arrived at the bank! I was happy that I hadn't wasted all that time.

Today at work, everyone was sore and tired. I had only one student in my first class tonight. It was with a little boy named "Victor" who says his "V's" like "R's" which is totally cute. It was most relaxed, chill small star class I've ever had. My second class only had three students, but we were a bit more energetic.

I have one more day of work, and then I am on my Chinese New Year break! I can't wait! I get to spend New Year's Eve with Cindy's family, go to the Great Wall again on Friday, and learn to make dumplings with Stephanie's family on Saturday. I really want to be able to come home and make dumplings for everyone!

Falling with Style on the Slopes of NanShan

Today, my "work day" was located on the slopes of NanShan, a really big hill about an hour out of the heart of Beijing. We all met up at a pre-determined subway stop and caught a bus to NanShan. Joyce had arranged the entire outing, so we dutifully followed her as she courageously ran from bus to bus figuring which one was ours. We had a really nice bus practically to ourselves, with the exception of a few other snow bunnies.

I actually thought we were going to a mountain, but NanShan is really just a hill. A big, big hill, but a hill. The snow was "person" made. Walking on it is much easier than real snow, but doesn't pack that beautiful crunchy sound, though. I had packed enough clothes to survive for a few days, but was pleasantly surprised to learn we could rent ski pants and coats and everything! It took a long time for us to get into our gear, especially into the right size boots, and haggle with the ski instructors for a two hour lesson.

It was an absolutely beautiful day to go skiing today. The sun was bright and it wasn't too windy. Of course, it was cold, but not bone chilling, and I was dressed in about five layers, so I was ready for anything!

The instructor taught us beginners how to get our skis on and we learned how to bend forward and lean forward, "into the danger" as Miles kept pointing out. I actually felt pretty good skiing on flat land, but then, I had to learn how to stop. Stopping is real hard! Really, really, really, really hard!

Then, the crazy instructor said we were going up to the slope! EEEEEEEEEK!

The ride up to the top of the bunny slope was pretty interesting. There was a walking conveyer belt that you sometimes see at airports that went all the way up to the top. I felt brave just getting on the thing! Eventually, I made it to the top, and couldn't stop once I reached the top, and plowed into Cindy! The ski instructors took everyone else down at the same time, but me! They knew I was special case. Luckily, Laura and Miles had decided to check in on us on the bunny slope, and they were psyching me up, which was really sweet of them. My first time down the slope was rough. Once I was going with any momentum, I would try to stop, then realized I couldn't, and then I would freak out and make myself fall. This went on for three tries down the slope. It was exhilarating and awful all at the same time.

We had a little lunch break and rest. I had an interesting moment with my boot and had to beg someone in the rental center to help me out through body language and whimpering!

Eventually, us beginners headed back to the bunny slope while the others decided to try some of the more challenging runs. This time, when I got on the weird conveyer belt, I hesitated, eventually got on, and promptly fell off. They had to stop the whole thing for me to get back up. It was pretty embarasing, and I think it did my head in for the rest of the afternoon. I only made it down the slope once by myself after lots, and lots of falling, but most of the time I was able to get down maybe a third of the way, fall, and wasn't able to get my skis back on, and took the long walk down the hill! Eventually, I ended up practicing a little more by myself on the instruction hill. Cindy and Marie met up with me a little later and we took a fun intertube ride down a big hill, which may have been the most fun I had all day. A few us decided to create our own little photo shoot after we turned in most of our gear, except for our rented clothes.

We all took the bus back chatting about our various adventures and predicting the bruises, sore muscles and sunburns that would show up in the morning. We went out to a special Beijing Duck restaurant for dinner. They carve the bird up in front of your table! I didn't partake of any of the duck, but I did have a lot of good tofu and vegetable dishes. It was a fun way to end a long day.

I really wish I could have gotten more comfortable on the slopes like some of my other friends today on their first try. However, I know myself, and it takes me a really, really, really long time to learn anything sporty. It took me almost two seasons of CYO volleyball to learn how to serve, and even then, just underhanded! I am proud of myself for just trying.

Surprise Inspection

Stress levels went through the roof last night at work when it was announced that some of our classes would be evaluated by our boss's boss, Jan. I was already in the middle of a crazier night that I had expected. I had to teach a class with less than an hour's notice and running home to grab cooking supplies for another teacher's class. Luckily, I had planned a decent lesson plan for the class earlier in the week, but I was going to get evaluated during the second hour of the class, which is never as good as the first. Plus, I'm just a person who doesn't like those kind of surprises.

Everyone was on edge as the boss man wandered around the school. We were all on our best behavior. I was able to find some spare moments to punch up my lesson plan for him a bit! My small star classes in the morning were good, but I only had about half of my students in them since many families have already left the city for their hometowns.

In the afternoon, I spent my first hour of the class reviewing the material from last week and starting to introduce the concept of "then" and "now" or past and present. Jan arrived in the second hour, computer in hand. He took a lot of notes, but he told me to not even introduce himself to the students. I was teaching about personal pronouns, and we had to go back to what a noun is, which was a bit painful, but I should have been expecting that! The only feedback I got was at the end of the class, when after I dismissed the students, they continued to stay to work on their project and creating a baby dragon and describing it back "then" and an adult dragon to describe what it is like "now" and Jan told me it was a good sign that they were wanting to stay. I'm going to take that as a compliment. I hope I will get some more feedback though. I've only had one other non small star class be evaluated in September.

However, we ended the day pretty pumped because instead of going to work tomorrow, we are getting paid to go skiing! That's right, I'm going skiing for the first time! I hope to take lots of pictures to share with you!

Walking home from the gym tonight, I started to really feel Chinese New Year in the air! For about the last week, I've grown accustomed of fireworks being set off all over the city. Last night, my class and I listened to a bunch of booming fireworks being set off in the neighborhood. Today, my favorite fruit market people have closed up shop to leave for their hometowns, and my apartment complex now has their festive lights turned on! I feel excited, like it's Christmas time. I just feel that it is going to be a special time that I will never forget!

Well, I better get packing for tomorrow!

Mandarin Flirting and Name Calling 101

Today's Chinese lesson was super hard! We were learning how to introduce friends and family by inserting interesting adjectives into the introduction a la Bridget Jones style. I can say some of the adjectives, but the grammar possessions are completely out of my understanding!

The instructor made us practice saying "handsome" over and over again, but if you say the improper tone then you are accidentally saying "impotent" instead. Not a mistake to make. Of course, I've already insulted a wedding party in Chinese and have survived... I am already imagining the boys at work "practicing" for the next week.

James and I took the subway back to our neighborhood and actually got seats. The subway is starting to get less crowded due to people already escaping Beijing to visit their hometowns. The man sitting next to us played a tape recording of scientists talking about trying to find the human soul in the body. He turned it up really loud and pointed it at us. Not sure what point he was trying to make to us... Creepy. Luckily, he got off in a few stops and we had a good laugh over it.

I usually go to the Starfish office on Wednesday, but all the women that I visit with are already making their journeys home. It was odd to have the afternoon to myself. I got to talk to both Laura and Crystal on Skype, something I normally wouldn't have been able to do on a Wednesday.

Tonight, I decided I didn't want to eat the same thing I had made myself for lunch, so I decided to walk to the Korean restaurant that I like that makes a great vegetable noodle dish that I enjoy. I walked past two different people making little fires in the street. In China, it is normal that people make these special fires to commemorate an ancestor. At first when I arrived I was apprehensive of them, but now I think that they are quite beautiful. They never seem to get out of hand, and they are just small and low to the ground. The person makes a circle in the soil and lights special tiny pieces of paper on fire. I relate to it by thinking it's like lighting a candle at a church or at your home for the person you are thinking of. It's sometimes those little moments and observations that make me realize how lucky I am to be here, crazy subway rides, tones, traumatic small star classes and all...

Tales from a Small Stars Classroom

I woke up today with a head cold and saw that it was 5 degrees F outside! Yikes! Plus, I had to be chipper and energetic for a group of three year olds by nine this morning... Not so pretty! I kind of like the fact that when working with young children you need to be at least acting happy, which usually leads me to feeling happier, especially on rough mornings.

The Winter Academy class that I am co-teaching with Cindy is made up of these tiny beings with such dynamic personalities. One little boy came into the class talking about how different the environment was compared to the group we had last week. He was also very concerned that a few of the tables were stacked into a different corner. One of the little girls in the class already acts like a teenager. While the other children were screaming with laughter after I accidentally "dropped" my fake ice cream cone and started to fake cry, she sat there just staring at me like I was a complete idiot! The other children excitedly scribbled their way through the coloring and creation of their own fake ice cream cones, but this little girl carefully sat there filling in every line. Then, there was little Amy.

When Amy waltzed into the classroom I knew I was in trouble. She's a bit infamous and the source of many water cooler discussions. She came into the room, demanded to have the Vic puppet, kept just yelling, "I'm happy, I'm happy" while running around through every activity. During our first break of the morning, I witnessed her, from the water cooler, run into one of the Customer Relations offices, turn off the lights, slam the door, and began barricading the door with a chair and a garbage can. She was so gleeful about it. I tried to coax her out, but failed before needing to get back to my other little students. Luckily, one of the customer relations staff members were able to coax her out with some cookies! She arrived back to class munching on her treat and trying to take away the fake ice-cream cones of as many innocent three-year-olds as she possibly could.

I use to get really nervous when things weren't particularly going well in a small star classroom, but after almost nine months of doing this job, I feel that I'm starting to really learn how to pick my battles and when to let some things go. Sure, these children's parents are paying a lot of money to have their children take these courses, and I want to honor that the best way I can, but they are still little children that act like little children. Not all of them are going to grasp all of the curriculum of the lesson I am teaching, and that's okay. We all learn at our own pace, and that is a beautiful thing, especially when you are a three-year-old. I think the most important aspect of the small stars courses here are not the English words and structures that we try to teach, but being exposed to another learning culture at such a young age.

The rest of my day was pretty smooth sailing. I did a bit of grocery shopping after my morning class and came back to work after lunch. The boss was out of the office, so I felt more comfortable just chatting with Cindy and Miles while we worked through our weekends' stacks of homework assignments and quizzes to grade, all three of us commiserating about our newest Winter Academy colds. I taught two uneventful small star classes (no ceilings crashing in on me this Monday) and sang the final "Good-bye Friends" song loudly and proudly, with dance moves! Bring on my "weekend."

A Princess in Beijing: A Fairy Tale

I had another busy day of Saturday classes today. I enjoy Saturdays because I move from teaching the little ones in the morning, to the elementary students in the early afternoon and then finish the teaching day with the middle/high schoolers! It's a long day, but I enjoy having to think quickly and change my expectations every few hours. I think it will be a great tool to have if I ever get a "traditional" teaching job.

I co-teach one class with my boss every other Saturday, a high level elementary class. I enjoy teaching the class, but I never really felt that they were truly excited by anything that I have planned in the past. Today, I felt we reached a bit of a turning point. Our chapter's theme was learning about different types of literature genres and publishing stories. I wrote an example fairy tale for the students about a princess on an adventure in Beijing, with her trusty sidekick, Bartholomew. The students thought it was pretty funny and I had them start to create their own fairy tales. I don't know how well my explanation of fairy tales went... I had students drafting stories about going to math class and another is writing one called the "Night of the Living in the Dead." I'm sure it will be a page turner to grade next week! The most important part was that they were excited to do something, and were getting some writing practice, too.

I've been on landlady watch for the last three evenings. On Thursday, she was going to collect my rent and check out my busted washing machine, but she was having fun at a party and we postponed. Last night, she came over with her friend that had previously helped us with my Internet solution. They came bearing some Spring Festival window clings for my windows and collected my rent. She took a look at my washing machine, and said that she knew what was needed to be done, but she would have to visit again tonight. Tonight, she arrived with her dad in tow who I was really only able to say "Hello" and "Thank you" to in Mandarin, who was prepared with a snake to clear the sewer drain! After about thirty minutes of work, my washing machine is now fully functional again. Her dad reminded me a lot of my Dad.

Shénme?

Today, I woke up early on my weekend day dreading going out to the subway in the cold to be crammed into a subway train to get to my Chinese class. I'm sure glad that I left my cozy, warm bed to get out there to see what Beijing had to offer me today. I got to witness some great Beijing magic today. Here's a short list of observations and thoughts from today.

1. James and Miles whispering "five" to me in Mandarin as I desperately try to tell my teacher the date she had written to me on the board.

2. Listening to Miles talking about his wife and hoping someday some man will talk about me like that.

3. Successfully answering how old I am in Mandarin!

4. My friend from another school excitedly telling me about a possible teaching position in Italy that she thinks I should apply for!

5. One of the women at Starfish telling me about her acceptance into a university in Russia to study languages!

6. Watching a women selling haircuts at a bus stop!

7. Having a discussion with an U.S. Embassy agent's wife about the importance of whole wheat bread at a French cafe.

8. Seeing a gay couple, a Chinese middle age man and an African middle age man, both very handsome holding hands and discussing their sugar selection at Jenny Lou's.

9. Buying tofu at an outdoor fruit and vegetable stand!

10. Cooking a successful Mexican dinner for my friends and throughly enjoying sitting around my little coffee table with them eating and gossiping and drinking lots of tea.

11. Stephanie and Joyce meeting Bartholomew and asking me questions about my friends and family in all the pictures I have up on my wall. Their favorite picture was the framed one that Alex gave me of him, Patrick and Dylan.

12. The most hilarious moment was that I noticed a street sign of a trumpet with a big "X" across it. I realized that it must just mean don't use a horn, but it just cracked me up. I then started to notice it everywhere. I can't believe I've been so oblivious to it for eight months!

Living in the Enchanted Forest

The dreaded Winter Academy has finally hit Beijing 3 Kids and Teen Center. We were all a bit crazy thinking about how much added work we would have especially since we didn't receive a schedule until Sunday afternoon. EF refuses to place a registration date on the Summer and Winter Academies, so it makes it harder to schedule the classes and the teachers for the class. I guess it makes sense on the business side, but as a teacher, it makes it hard to provide decent lessons to the students.

Luckily, I am co-teaching a small stars low class with Cindy. This week I taught on Monday and she will teach on Thursday and Friday, and next week we will switch. I have not taught a "Blue" small star class, which is for three-year-olds. I enjoy seeing the the little ones running around the school and give them big smiles, but I've been okay with not teaching them. They are little and they cry more. I would cry too if I were stuck in a class with probably the first ever white person you have ever met talking to you with a Roddy puppet on their hand in a different language! Cindy once told me that one of her blue students talks to himself in Chinese saying, "Why is the pretty lady talking to me like a monster?" So cute!

Anyway... I felt successful with my first class because there were no tears! A few were a little suspicious of me, but they started to warm up to me as the class went on for over two hours! Our main focus of the Winter Academy Small Star Low course if for the students to act out a small star video. In the video for Monday, Roddy and his friends leave the enchanted forest to go to school where they color pigs with either a red, green, blue or yellow pencil. Fascinating! The little ones can't really just put on a show, of course, but they were able to repeat after me after I played their line on the video. They all did a very good job. I have two twin boys in the class, Donald and Darren, and they are infamous around the school due to their obnoxious behavior. Luckily, they have both fallen head over heels for a cute little girl in our class and they fight each other to sit next to her. Ah, young love!

I was able to go out on a break for an hour and a half and did some grocery shopping and went home to eat lunch. I came back to school and lesson planned and did some grading and wrote a few e-mails to parents. Normal Monday things.

Then, yesterday evening, I dragged my heels to my first class with the violent one. He and I started the evening well. We exchanged "hellos" and he wrote his name on the board for me. Then, right after class started and "Roddy" was asking each student, "What's your name?" the violent one went crazy! He ripped off a sticker a little girl had gotten from her primary school which made her cry. He refused to give it back and started to hit the exhausted TA... who had been at the school since 8AM! Finally, I got the violent one to a time out chair and asked the TA to ask a CR to call a parent to get him removed from the classroom. Eric had been sitting quietly in his chair for awhile, and I invited him back to join the class who were sounding out the names of the colors with me. Right after the violent one got settled into the group, a large ceiling air conditioner grate fell right behind the TA, barely grazing her. Luckily, she was fine, but scared of course. We quickly got the students out of the room and into another classroom. I had noticed that more substantial parts of the ceiling were also tearing away. I felt really lucky that the violent one was not in the way of the grate. It was a very lucky event. The rest of the class was pretty much chaos in a new room, but we got on with it.

I was quickly able to share my little story of crisis with Miles, and then got on with my second class. Another trip to the Enchanted Forest with Roddy and friends. This time, Roddy was walking around the Enchanted Forest (EF) saying "Hello" to all of his friends.

I swear, I am amazed I didn't dream about living in the Enchanted Forest or ceiling grates falling during my classes.

Celebrating Dr. King in China

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Revered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This weekend I wanted to acknowledge Dr. King's birthday in my classes. I had adapted a lesson on Dr. King that I found on the Internet and added a few more of my ideas. A lot of my students were absent this weekend because of the cold weather and studying for their big middle school exams, so the lesson didn't got exactly as I would have hoped, but most lessons never really go the way you think they will! Sometimes they are so much better, and sometimes they are so awful!

Anyway... I only had three students in my late afternoon class last night. I spent the first 90 minutes on their normal curriculum, and then moved into my special lesson. They all recognized Dr. King's picture, and vaguely knew about the Civil War and segregation in the United States. I told them the briefest story of U. S. History from the Civil War to the 1950s! It was brief... Lincoln... Rosa Parks... Dr. King! Everybody seemed to grasp the point though. We went through a short power point on Dr. King's life. Everyone gasped when he was shot the first time, but lived, and then again when he was assassinated. Grace, who I have mentioned before in my blog, was especially interested in Rosa Parks, which was adorable. Then, we talked about heroes for bit. Finally, ( and this is the part I totally "took" from another teacher's lesson plan) I pointed to a few apples that I had placed on a small star table. We talked about how the apples all looked so different and came from all around China. Then, I split all the apples in half and we talked about how they are alike on the inside, just like all of us are! It was a really special moment to share with my class. Plus, they stayed for fifteen minutes eating apples and asking me questions about Dr. King and the Civil Right's movement. It was just so awesome! I think it might go down as one of my favorite moments inside an EF classroom.

Today, I taught the same lesson to my oldest group of students, and they were most excited to learn about the March on Washington and how so many people were able to be in one place at one time. I had never really thought about that before! They were really concerned for Dr. King's wife and daughter when the power point presentation ended. They are just so sweet.

Meanwhile, in the teacher's office, peace was not so easy to find! Even the most even keel teachers in our group were getting stressed because we hadn't received our first week of Winter Academy schedule that starts tomorrow. It was given to us right before our last set of classes began. Luckily, my last class for the day had been canceled because of low attendance so I got to review my lesson plan for tomorrow morning (Winter Academy lesson plans are provided to use) and get all my supplies together. I had to color in a bunch of pigs. Roddy goes to school and learns four colors, red, blue, yellow and green and enjoys coloring pigs in my lesson for tomorrow.

Cindy and I decided to get out of the craziness of work and go to the Vineyard for dinner. I was ready to not being eating another serving of chili! We laughed about the funny things at work and how if we ever have children, and they need some help, we could threaten them that we will send them to Auntie Cindy in Beijing or Auntie Colleen in Oregon.

Well, I need to be getting to bed. I got lots of small stars to face early tomorrow morning!

Dude! It's Cold Enough to Freeze Your Water Bottle!

Tonight, while walking home from the gym, I had placed my metal water bottle in a little half pocket on my backpack. When I got back into my studio, a nice layer of ice was beginning to collect on the outside and inside of the bottle. It's cold out there tonight!

The last couple of days have been all about preparing for our Winter Camp that begins on Monday. Our school is getting really low numbers so I might not have to teach an extra course. Yesterday, all the Beijing Kids and Teens Center teachers gathered at our school to learn about all the different aspects of the Winter Courses. I "love" how they divide us so creatively by schools to go to the different workshops. It's just so weird that they don't want us to mix with the teachers from the other schools!

Today was the last day of government and public schools for most of my students. They are on a break until about the 20th of February! My two students for my class were celebrating so my class for tonight was canceled. I was able to get a lot of boring administration work done instead before hitting the gym.

I had two wonderfully fun things occur today, though, besides my fascination with my water bottle! I got to talk to my friend, Dan, on Skype this morning. I haven't talked to him since the week I left Portland in May, so that was pretty wonderful. Plus, I understood how much the fruit man told me my purchase was today! Progress!

In the News...

I've been feeling for the numerous sad stories that are in our world news lately, but two have hit a lot closer to home, so to speak. I watched on Sunday as Nick learned about the killing spree in his home state of Arizona and Marie and Miles worrying about their fellow country-people in Australia. I think I would have been affected by these stories if I heard about them in Oregon, too, of, but when you watch your friends hear bad news about their homes from so far away it puts a few things in perspective. Sad things happen in Oregon every day, but I hope that nothing like these two events happen. It makes me feel so grateful. I'm not very good at keeping up to date on worldly events, never really have been, but I feel that since I've been living in another country I've been reading more about worldly events. My eyes have opened up a little more about what's going on outside of the United States. I guess that's what happens when the center of your universe shifts by a few continents!

I had a good day today. I successfully made it to my Chinese class even though my bed was so warm and comfy this morning. I have to get up much more earlier on my "weekend" day then I have to for my earliest start time at work so I'm always a bit grumpy about it, as our my peers, but I was glad I went today. I learned some key phrases for bartering at fruit and vegetable stands, and learned a few more names of fruit. Seriously, I could only say "apple" successfully before! I went for a coffee with James and Miles again before leaving to visit Starfish.

Today I brought in article for my students about happiness from the edition of "Self" magazine that I bought in Oregon as a listening activity. The listening activities in their books are pretty boring... they bore me! However, I had to define about every fifth line. They were so awesome and said they wanted to keep going even after I apologized for bring in something that was not at their level quite yet. Then, we wrote about the things and people that make us happy. It was a lovely afternoon. I have just one more class with them next Wednesday and then the two of them are going to visit their homes for Chinese New Year.

I spent the rest of the day grocery shopping, cleaning my kitchen and continued my quest to make a great chili here!

Congee Day

I had an excellent start to my weekend today. I slept in and met up with Stephanie, Joyce and Cindy for an afternoon of KTV! Stephanie wanted a smaller leaving party. We rocked out in our little Star Trek inspired KTV room. There was a lot of old school Backstreet Boys songs sung! You just got to love that even though we spent our teenage years thousands of miles apart on different continents, we can bond over the Backstreet Boys. So awesome!

Today is a special day in China. I still don't really understand it and haven't found any good websites to explain it, but here's what I've learned so far. Today is a day where you are suppose to eat congee. Congee is kind of like oatmeal, but with rice and people usually add vegetables, meat and sometimes fruit. Today celebrates the eight treasures in Chinese history. I haven't been able to link the eight treasures to Congee yet, and the girls were having a really hard time explaining it to me in English, but they told me to just enjoy the Congee we had for dinner because it will help me have a lucky year. I had a spinach congee for dinner tonight and it was very tasty. Here's hoping for a good year!

I was very sad to read on Facebook that the Ducks lost. Still proud to be a Duck, though! I bet tomorrow will be a sad day in Oregon.

Hi Meghan and Brian! Happy Birthdays you two! See not only is it your birthdays, but a special, lucky holiday in China!

Little Anecdotes from the Weekend

One of my favorite moments from this past weekend was in one of my older classes. Our target vocabulary for the weekend was careers. To begin the class, I had the class of five get into two groups, a boys' team and a girls' team. I gave them a sheet of paper with all the letters on the alphabet and they had to "race" to write down as many careers that they could remember. The girls read their list first and they worked hard to get at least one or two careers written down that started with almost every letter. The boys took a different approach

A: African footballer

B: Baseball Player

C: Computer Programmer, China Footballer

D: Doctor

E: Egyptian Footballer

F: French Footballer

G:

H:

I: Indian Footballer

J: Jordan Footballer

K: Knight, Korean Footballer

L: Los Angelos Footballer

M: Mars Footballer

N: Nigerian Footballer

O: Orlando Footballer

P: Panda Vet

Q:

R:

S: Sweden Footballer

T: Thailand Footballer

U:

V:

W: Waiter

X:

Y: Yunnan Province Footballer

Z: Zookeeper

I totally lost it at Mars Footballer and Sweden Footballer, and of course, ending it with zookeeper. It was just brilliant. The two boys were just giggling through it. I am glad they have each other in that class!

Saturday night after I went to the gym, I was on a mission to buy flowers and plants for the two teachers that are leaving our school, Claire and Stephanie, and the two new teachers, Sue and Sabrina. I was able to say "that, two" to the shopkeeper! That's progress, people! I went home and designed some Roddy-tastic "Good-bye" and "Hello" cards.

Yesterday, at work was good. Sabrina is going to be co-teaching a few of my classes so she shadowed me a bit. I was happy that my small stars were on their best behavior for me! I had a parent teacher meeting for one of my older classes that composed of all young women. All the parents want me to teach a novel in the class when it starts it's new term in about a month. I'm going to be busy trying to find something that is both interesting and mature enough and at their reading level.

Last night, we had a Christmas, Western New Year, Chinese New Year, Good-bye, Welcome party at a Japanese restaurant where we had our previous Director of Studies leaving-do party. We were put in the exact same room that we were in last June. They cook the food right in front of you and they even show off some of their knife flinging capabilities. It was all meat until they cooked up some mushrooms and Stephanie helped me order some pumpkin soup. The company was rather interesting. Everyone shared kind words for Stephanie and Claire, and were all welcoming to Sue and Sabrina. However, their was a lot of sake being poured ( I learned I really don't like Sake from our last outing, so I passed on that experience) and people got rather emotional. Our school's head manager, John, suggested we all go around the table to ask a question. A few of the questions were just fun and funny, but some got rather uncomfortable for a large crowd with lots of translation needed. It was quite a memorable evening!

Today at work with interesting. Everyone was either nursing a hangover or just tired from long night after a 11 hour work day. I have found a lite rock station on the Internet that I enjoy listening to in a classroom by myself as I graded papers this afternoon.

Go Ducks!

Captain's Log: A Quarter

Today marked eight months in Beijing (well with eight days in Portland). It made me realize that I only have a quarter left in my adventure here. I still have a lot to do. I've started to make a list:

1. Enjoy Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) as fully as possible. I plan on being decked out in red and will try not to complain about the cold as I watch the fireworks.

2. See some pandas! I want to plan a trip to the panda reservation.

3. Learn how to cook dumplings so I can make them at home.

4. Be able to have a short conversation with a storekeeper in Mandarin.

5. Visit the Summer Palace

6. See a flag raising ceremony.

7. Create a Black History Month theme for my two high school level classes for the month of February.

8. Create more intriguing lessons for my students at Starfish.

9. Continue to work hard at the gym. I have my first high school reunion this summer! Ahhh!

10. Finally, and most importantly, to try to stay as present as possible as I can even while I am trying to figure out what is next for me.

I have a lot to do in four months! I just have a feeling the these last four months are going to be the best and the quickest. First, I got to get to bed now. I have to be small star-tastic in the morning.

Jenny Lou's

I began today by watching a small Chinese man trying to use his body weight to gleefully shove more people onto the subway train! He wasn't a member of the "subway police" but just a guy in line enjoying shoving people into packed subway trains until it was his turn to get on. It cracked me up in an otherwise stressful commute to my Chinese class. I'm so grateful my "commute" is a five minute walk to work! People can be vicious when they are late to work!

I missed so much during the two weeks I was off for my holiday! Apparently, there was even homework! We had to say what we like to eat! I swear I just started making stuff up as I rambled along since my food vocabulary bank consists of: water, tofu, apples, mangoes, beer, coffee, rice, lotus and tea! We practiced a dialogue about exchanging money at the bank. I sure could have used that a few months ago!

After class, I walked over to a Starbucks with Miles and James and had a coffee with them before heading over to Starfish. One of the women had her friend buy two iphones in the United States for her, and the friend sent them over to my Mom's while I was home so I could shuttle them back to her. She was so happy and we spent too much of the class figuring out how to get the iphone working and setting it into Chinese.

After tutoring, I met up with my friend Jennifer. Her parents had given me some things to give her while I was in Portland. Jennifer took me to a little French coffee shop that is a short walk from the shelter. The owner was there working and he is really from France. It is a very cute coffee shop and I could imagine myself spending time there in the future with a good book. Then, Jennifer told me about this special International grocery store next door called Jenny Lou's. I walked in and I felt like I was (almost) transported back to the states. The store carries lots of American products. Many of the soup jars were Safeway's "O" Organics brand. A few things are a bit out of my grocery budget, but most of the stock is well priced and many of the items that are carried at my local grocery stores are even cheaper at Jenny Lou's. I had a lot of chili waiting for me at home, so I didn't get too much, just some flaxseed to add to my oatmeal and two avocados! At the grocery stores in my neighborhood, it costs between 60-70 RMB for an avocado, and there it was only 10 RMB! Not too shabby, even though the one that I bought had already started to turn when I opened it up this evening. Sadness. They have all the fixings for a Mexican feast, so I think I might do that next week. Jenny Lou's is an exciting place!

Electricity, Beans, Heating Solutions and Other Stories

I woke up Monday and noticed my heater was off and the light on my computer wasn't on! Yikes! There went the electricity again. Normally, that wouldn't be such a big deal on a Monday, but we were making up our Saturday classes, so I just had to hope I could get seen at the bank during my lunch hour. I raced out of my last morning class and the dude ahead of me getting into the bank practically ran me down at the number taking machine! He was either just really rude or desperate, too. I nervously graded paper and tried to telepathetically speak to the people in front of me to make it snappy! It's never good when the teller has to call someone else over to help them! Luckily, my number was called ten minutes before my first afternoon class. I was incredibly happy. I didn't want to go through an evening of no electricity or heat.

Speaking of heat, I had a revelation last night. Normally, I have been just using the air conditioner/heater system for heat, but I decided to try out the main heating system thing-y again. I had tried it right after the government turned on the heat, and it never seemed to work. Last night, I turned on the controls in the front living area, the kitchen, and the bathroom and it started to work. I have floor heating. It was a good experiment. My apartment is a much more pleasant place to live in now!

Today, I ventured out to renew my gym membership. I haven't been to the gym in two and a half weeks, so it was a bit rough going at first, but it eventually felt good to be back on the treadmill. I had the easiest time signing up and paying for monthly membership. I said "Hello" and they just started to get the papers and stamps ready! At least I have a reputation at a healthy spot!

I went home to conquer my first try of making chili from scratch here. I got inspired from my friend Laura's New Year's Even dinner of chili. I bought beans- a black bean and maybe a soy bean of some sort- and soaked them overnight. It took a long, long time for them to cook this evening. My chili turned out to be more like a bean soup with vegetables, but eatable, which was the most exciting part since I have enough to last me a week! I miss my crock pot, but I felt like I was really doing something starting with dried beans for the first time in my life!

Pictures are from a Very Roddy Christmas and our little New Years party.

Whole Wheat Bread

Today was my first day back teaching at school. I had a lovely small star class and a fun middle school class that helped eat up the cookies my Mom sent back with me. Luckily, I had a few hours to catch up on lesson plans for tomorrow. In Beijing, most people get the 1st, 2cd, and 3rd off except for us! Not as many shopping centers are opened during this time.

I had dinner with Cindy and we caught up from stories from my break. I found whole wheat bread at a supermarket that we went into. I was so excited. One of the greatest food aspects of going home was eating whole wheat bread. Cindy was laughing about how happy I was!