Hummus and Chocolate

Last night, I went out to celebrate my friends Stephanie's and Claire's birthdays. Claire's was actually last month and Stephanie's is today. Claire and Stephanie had both previously worked at my school and have now moved on to the Beijing 5 Center (the one with no bathrooms) so their was an electric mix of Beijing 3 and Beijing 5 teachers and significant others and a few of Stephanie's friends from high school and university. We had dinner at a restaurant called the Turkish Mum and there really were people from Turkey there! It also serves hummus and Turkish coffee, both of which I really like, but I didn't go for the coffee since it was so late! I had a delicious dinner of hummus, falafel and pita along with a tomato and pomengranite salad. I had fun meeting some of the Claire's and Stephanie's friends and hanging out with my regular homeslices. The Beijing 3 teachers gave both the ladies vouchers for massages and flowers and they both seemed pretty excited about it.

Then, we all piled into cabs and went back to Chocolate, the crazy Russian night club that is probably ran by the Russian mafia and I am sure that many of the women who work there as dancers are also prostitutes. I had helped carry some of the birthday presents from the restaurant and the bouncers made us leave them up stairs with them. Stephanie had been given a gigantic stuffed teddy bear and the thought of the bouncers cuddling up with the big bear made us pretty hysterical with laughter.

We eventually made it to the dance floor. The DJ was playing some odd Sweedish techno music, but we were having fun. Marie even found the stuffed tiger that she ended up dancing with when we were there last June. Then, a few bouncer dudes politely asked us to move back to the sides in three different languages in order for the "show." It was quite a show! A bunch of scantily dressed women and a few fully dressed men did the risque version of "All That Jazz" that I have ever seen! Then, the show kept on going with lots of different "dance" numbers. We went back to our table and tried to wait for the dance floor to open again, but it never did! It was kind of a bummer. I had a good time chatting with everyone, but we all had been excited to shake it!

Today, I slept in and talked to Angela on Skype. I met up with my friend Marie and we went to visit the 798 Art District. We went into a few beautiful galleries that I didn't get the chance to see with Annie. The last gallery we went into has left a haunting image. It was titled "The Milky Way." In the studio was a dining car from a train. On the front of the car was a huge plaster salmon's head and then there were the heads of numerous stuffed animals poking out of the salmon's head. On the opposite wall was a video of a man shooting a bow and arrow, and on the other side of the train was a huge warehouse shipment of coke. I read that the artists wanted to display our world in chaos and it is up for us to decide if we are going to save it or not. I was pretty surprised by the structure when I first walked in and actually let out a yelp.

Freedom!

I received my passport back by courier today at school. I opened it up to discover that EF decided that they were kicking me out of the country on May 31st. My last day of work is May 30th. I'm upset that they didn't give me any sort of cushion. It was still a bit of shock to see it written down. Cindy and Miles promised to help shove my crying self back on the plane.

I had two small star classes this evening. The first one was a bit chaotic. It was a life club lesson and the students got to watch the "Singing In the Rain" movie clip, create umbrellas and make their own dance to a song. It didn't go so well... The kids started using their umbrellas as toy guns... It wasn't too pretty. My next class was so easy after that. I only had two little boys and we used blocks to build structure and count the number of blocks they used.

A lot of the teachers had some rough classes this evening. I had a little debrief session with Sabrina, Cindy and Miles who all had some rough moments since they have all started new classes on Mondays recently. Cindy has a student who eats paper. Miles has a rather larger child who enjoys sitting on the other children. Poor Sabrina has a class of all blue small star boys where all she did for the whole class period was removing them from climbing up on the tables in the classroom. Cindy talked about how they must have been trying to find freedom. The thought of a little three year old boy running to the little table and proudly standing on it, pumping his chubby fist in the air and screaming "Freedom" in Chinese just cracked me up. I totally lost it for the rest of the evening!

Caution: Little Fingers Wielding Sharp Objects

I walked into this weekend full of classes pretty unprepared because I didn't work a full week the previous one with Annie in town. I was doing a lot of last minute lesson planning... so it wasn't my greatest teaching weekend, but I still had some fun with my classes.

On Saturday, I was able to teach the Star Trek Life Club I had written almost two months ago for the first time. It turned out pretty well and the students had fun creating their own crew of people from different countries and planets. It's one of the lessons I can see myself taking into future teaching jobs.

I went to the gym yesterday after work and got stalked by two little small stars while I was on the treadmill! Gotta love working in the same neighborhood you work in!

Today, I taught the second lesson to my small star blues class. It was a pretty rough class with one little boy screaming his lungs out before even entering the classroom... you know it's bad when other teachers walk by your door and offer sympathetic, but grateful that they are not you right now smiles. I successfully (and hopefully with some tact) was able to convince a grandmother to change her grandson's English name from "Brain" to "Brian." This time, I only had one grandmother and one mother stay in for the class. I hope next weekend I'll be able to get them out the door before the class starts. The little students had to use scissors today and for many of them it was their first time wielding the little tools. The class turned into Scissors 101. I decided to call this lesson a success since their was no blood or any children running with scissors. I have a feeling this class was brought into my life to teach me a bit of patience and the importance of the basics!

Good-Bye Annie and Hello Little Ones

Thursday morning, Annie and I went on an adventure to find a dumpling restaurant that Cindy had recommended. It had dawned on me that night before that Annie hadn't had any dumplings on trip and that has to be a must while visiting China! We actually found the restaurant quite easily and had an awesome lunch. Dumplings are so yummy! I went to work and Annie went to the China Museum of Science and Technology.

After my last class, Annie came to the school so I could show her around and introduce her to some of my friends. We went out to a late dinner at the Korean BBQ place we all like so much down the street. It was a group of Marie and King, Laura, Miles and Annie and I. It was so much fun. I'm really happy that Annie got to meet some of my wonderful friends here.

This morning, we went out to get our nails done and then went out to an early lunch. Annie picked up some more candy for her people at home at the Lotus. As we were leaving the store, we saw a piggy bank. Annie had been searching for a piggy bank for one of her little cousins the whole time she was here. It felt like a sign that the trip was a success!

I walked Annie to the subway to say good-bye. We had run out of time for me to go with her to the airport. I was sad to see her go. It has been so nice to have a really good friend visit and share this fantastic city and some of my community here with her. She worked so hard to save and plan for this trip and I appreciate it immensely! Now at home I'll have someone to remind me that Beijing wasn't all just a long dream... Thanks for being such an awesome friend, Annie!

Tonight, I had two classes. One with with an older elementary class and both students were a bit under the weather, but did such a good job trying to keep their energy up for the class. Then, I taught a brand new small star blue class. Small Star Blues are the first level that EF teaches and they are suppose to be three, but I think a few of them are quite a bit under three! It was a bit of a rough go... First, they are scared to death. A few were just ready to go an have fun with the puppets, one was just unsure and silent, but kept a brave face, and the other two wailed so much that their grandmothers had to stay with them. It was rough, but they are so little and sweet and they melt my heart. I'll be teaching this class on Friday nights and Sunday mornings. Usually a local teacher will teach the students once and week and a foreign teacher will teach the other lesson. My boss said some politics were going on to when this class was being set up and I'm sure I'll learn about them as time goes by...

My other two big pieces of news is that residency visa has been extended so I am legal to stay in China until my last day of work. The second is that even though I am out of vacation days, our school will be remolded in April so our classes are being canceled for about a month. I'll still be working out of other schools, but Laura is going to arrange for me to be able to have my "weekend" on Miles and Ying's wedding weekend! I'm so excited!

Condensed Chinese Opera

It was back to work for me today, but luckily it was pretty painless. We had a program wide training at the Beijing 1 School about Trinity Language Assessment Training. It was nice to see my friends from work. Their school has a special door that leads to this big cafeteria, but first you have to walk through a butcher's area which was fascinating...

Tonight, Annie and I went to see some condensed Chinese Opera. We found a hotel in the Beijinger that gives a taste of traditional Chinese Opera scenes for visitors. We took a taxi to the hotel because I couldn't figure out how to get their using metro, and it took about an hour and a half to get there due to the traffic and the taxi driver not knowing where he was going. We were a little mad because we missed being able to see the actors put on their make-up which was a part of the package.

However, we still enjoyed a good show. We sat up in their highest balcony. We watched three performances. The first was a traditional classical piece of music. The second was an opera about a young woman who is sent to live in a nunnery, but is in love with a college student. She goes to the river to find her boy and a local fisherman tells her that she can ride in his boat to find him and the story begins. The showed the lyrics in English on big screens which was really nice! The third scene was the story of the Monkey King defeating the emperor's 18 soldiers. It was both funny and had some great martial arts dancing! It was a fun way to spend the evening. I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready for a traditional 6 hour opera, though!

The Great Wall at Badaling

We made it to the Great Wall at the Badaling site today. Annie got to experience subway rush hour traffic at its finest today at seven AM! We had decided to take a train to the Great Wall. We were amazed that we were able to get tickets so easily by just saying, "Badaling" to the ticket agent. We boarded the train around nine in the morning. The train was really nice and comfortable. It was a bit of a party train because everybody else was going to the Great Wall, too! It only took about an hour to get there. Once we arrived, we just followed the crowd on a ten minute walk to the entrance of the park.

The Great Wall at Badaling is much different than the other portion of the Great Wall that I have visited before. First, it is much more crowded because it is easier to access. However, it is much, much steeper! There were other rough spots on the other portion I have been on, but then it would eventually even out! Badaling doesn't do that... it just gets steeper! We spent about two hours walking on the wall. It was breathtaking. Even though it was louder and there wasn't as much animal and wildlife around, the hills and valleys surrounding the walls are beautiful! The last leg of the most touristed section is called "The Hero's Journey." It was a journey, but I wasn't feeling too heroic because it was tiring! I was so impressed with so many grandmothers clutching at the handrails pulling themselves up the steep steps so determined to reach the end! We reached the end where most of the tourists turn around and called it a day! We spent some time just sitting at the top taking in the view. I made Annie take a Rookie picture of me being triumphant. It took about an hour to walk back to the main part of the park. I shall be feeling the burn tomorrow!

We had lunch at a Subway sandwich restaurant... It feels so odd to be eating "American" food at the Great Wall, but it was a delicious sandwich! We walked back to the train station and caught the 3:30 back with most of our fellow travelers from the first train. I loved staring out the window and the desert scene until I fell asleep! I was one tired girl.

We took a long subway ride to the Sanliturn neighborhood so Annie could buy some more presents for her family and friends at home, and then we picked up some "deli" meals at the grocery store for dinner. It was a fantastic day that I'll never forget!

Back to work tomorrow... It's been so wonderful having so many days off in a row!

The Forbidden City

Well, today didn't start out too well. We were suppose to meet a tour group outside of my school between 7:30-8:00 this morning. We were there on time and waited about an hour and fifteen minutes in 13 mph winds. Not so fun! We went back dejected. We got through to the company and they were pretty jerky and said it was our fault for not seeing them... We are going to try again tomorrow by getting to the Great Wall by the fast train.

We rallied and decided to go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I have only visited Tiananmen Square once before, but it was at dusk, so it was pretty awesome to see it so full with people. We took a lot of pictures and asked a lot of people how to get to the Forbidden City! Eventually, we decided to follow the crowd and we made it to the Forbidden City.

I had read a lot about the Forbidden City, but I was still in awe of how vast and grand it all is. You walk up and down over numerous towers that are full of different rooms. My favorite part of the Forbidden City are all the gorgeous and vast gardens. We also went through the Museum of Treasures that took two hours. We went from room to room viewing all the jewels and treasures from the different emperors and their families. My favorite room housed a bunch of drums. On each drum was etched a section of a poem about a group of men that went hunting. One talked about how they left the city, the next talked about how they encountered rain, the next talked about how many animals they hunted, the next talked about their rough journey back and the final one talked about how they celebrated when they returned. It felt like a story told at the pub that was exaggerated over and over again. So funny.

We also got to see the emperor's own Opera House. There is a full blown opera house in the Forbidden City. So crazy... but also beautiful.

It took us about an hour to walk back to the front gate. We watched the military academy practicing their flag ceremony.

Finally, we tried to find the Hard Rock Cafe. I had been past it before on a taxi, but didn't know which exit! We got a bit lost and had to go into a hotel to ask for directions. It was pure happiness when we eventually found it! It felt like I had been transported back to the U.S. They had lots of fun memorabilia including a cool outfit worn by Stevie Nicks and one of Eric Clapton's guitars.

Lama Temple, 798 Art District and La Bamba

Today was a busy day!

We spent the late morning and early afternoon at the Lama Temple. Annie enjoyed seeing the big, big Buddha made out of one piece of sandalwood! It still amazes me how so many people journey there to pray to Buddha. It really feels like you are in a holy place.

Then, we came back to my neighborhood to pick up some groceries. Annie was impressed with all of the fish swimming in tanks and the meat products on display that we normally don't get to see at home!

We then took a bus to the 798 Art District. It's located in a more industrial area of Beijing, but there are tons of little studios each displaying their own unique art. It's a great place to spend an afternoon.

Tonight, we met up with my friends Joyce and Stephanie at La Bamba Mexican restaurant. The gave us special "Ladies Cards" for reduced drinks. The ladies got to know each other very well! Joyce, Annie and I had an interesting taxi ride home with a taxi driver who didn't know our neighborhood. Annie showed Joyce and I both up as she lead the way home!

Tomorrow, we are going to be real tourists. We are taking a tour bus to visit the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. It's going to be an adventure!

Bartholomew, Meet Quacklin

Today, Annie and I started the day by calling our friend Meghan who lives in Reno to say "Hello." She was celebrating the beginning of her Spring Break. She was really surprised! It was fun.

We started the day at the Temple of Heaven. Today, I brought along Bartholomew and he met Annie's friend, Quacklin, the duck. I think it is the start of a beautiful friendship. I hadn't been to the Temple of Heaven since late last Spring so it looks a lot different in the Winter. There were tons of people out today. It was fun to be out on a real weekend!

Next, we went to Confucius's Temple. It still surprises me how peaceful that temple makes me feel. I think it has something to do with all the trees and the birds. Bartholomew enjoyed hanging out in the magical ink well!

Then, we walked around the Lama Temple Hutong neighborhood for a bit checking out some of the little shops and took pictures. We had dinner at the Vineyard with Cindy. Cindy and Annie got along really well, which was very fun.

It was a bit colder today, but no sandstorms! Tomorrow we are off to the Lama Temple and the 798 art district!

"I am feeling very Olympic today, how about you?" Sanka, Cool Runnings

I felt very Olympic today!

I began the day by showing Annie how easily I can get lost. I had to meet with a person at the downtown Beijing office to give my passport and registration to the woman in charge of Visas. Long story short, I had been only given an 11 month visa instead of a 12 month visa when I arrived last May. I still wanted to complete my 12 month contract and have actually asked to stay for an additional few weeks in order to enjoy more of the Spring here. Luckily, EF approved of it all and now it's up to the Chinese government to hopefully do the same! EF isn't worried, so neither am I. Anyway... I was trying to follow the picture directions from the subway that the main office had e-mailed me, but it looked completely different! I had to call and the Visa lady came and met us to pick up my materials. She told me that the pictures had been taken about two years ago and there has been lots of construction. No wonder I had gotten lost!

Then, it was back to the subway to get to the Olympic Park! Besides the Great Wall, I think Annie was most excited to see the park where the 2008 Games were held! We took the "tour" of the Bird's Nest! It was interesting to see it again because this time instead of the field it was a layer of icy snow from the snow park that had been running earlier in the Winter. We made the obligatory visit to the IOC Presidents Wax Museum! Still... so creepy.

We then made our way over to the Water Cube. However, in the official competition pool, there was a huge production going on. There was a big sound stage over the Olympic pool! People were practicing acrobatic moves and there was a choir. It looked like they were rehearsing for a big show. It was awesome. We walked around and toured the rest of the practice pools before having lunch and a nice little cafe that overlooked the big production. We had a nice lunch and got to watch more of the show!

The last time I was there, the museum had been closed, so I got to see it this time. It is a small museum that not only displays information about the history of swimming in the Olympics, but also the history of Chinese Swimming Olympians. It was such a proud display of how the sport has grown in China and how China hopes that it will continue to grow in the hearts of its people. As we were leaving, making our way around the gigantic gift tables (picked something out real nice for Maria) we were following a group of Japanese tourists! It was awesome. I wonder if any of them were from the flight from Tokyo that I saw yesterday?

We took the subway back to my apartment in the late afternoon. Annie is still amazed at the haze and she had made a comment to me about the air tasted gritty. The air was gritty. Beijing is starting it's sandstorm season! Today was pretty tame, but I guess it does get worse. Something to look forward to...? We started to watch a TV show called "White Collar" that Annie brought that is pretty fun and chilled for a bit before setting out again.

We met up with my friend Shei and one of her friends for a hot pot dinner. Annie loved it as much as I thought she would. Shei was so sweet and brought us both traditional purses! We had a great dinner and conversation! It was a great way to end a busy day.

Tomorrow we are off to explore some of the temples!

Annie!

My friend Annie arrived this evening for a nine day visit in Beijing with me. I am so happy and excited to have her here!

I had fun traveling to the airport to wait for her arrival. Her plane was about an hour late so I sat in a Starbucks to finish some school work while I waited for the "Arrival" sign to appear next to the her plane's number. There were a few planes flying in from Tokyo and I was wondering how many of those trips were planned before and how many were planned after last week's disaster.

Annie didn't have a problem getting through on the Beijing side and was in a chipper mood! I had decided to take a taxi home so she could at least see the city. She was pretty amazed at the haze. The pilot had told the passengers that they were in for clear evening... Lie! She, too, is freaked out about how crazy the traffic is, but also impressed with how there are so few accidents!

We stayed at my apartment just long enough to drop off Annie's bags and for her to e-mail her mom and change her facebook status!

I took Annie to dinner at the Lion's Den where I often have tea with Cindy and a few of the other girls from work often. We ordered way too much food, but it was fun having her try some new things. The waitress had brought Annie some meat dishes that she had ordered, but they had just not looked quite like the pictures. She attempted to eat what I thought was chicken feet. A few minutes later, the waitress told us it was for another table! Whoopsie! Annie didn't make it too much longer after dinner!

It's pretty awesome to have a good friend in town!

Shiny: A Trip to Beijing's Rodeo Drive

I went to meet up with Cindy and a few of her friends in a neighborhood I have never been to for dinner and shopping. I had gotten a bit lost on the subway and was running late, so I told Cindy I would try to find the shopping center on my own. I was so surprised to walk out of the subway and find high end fashion store window displays. It really was like the Rodeo Drive of Beijing. There were lots of window displays showing beautiful gowns.

We had a nice dinner at a beautiful restaurant. The name translated into English was "The Spicy Grandma." Too funny!

We did a bit of window shopping. Cindy was hoping I would be excited to go shopping at a Gap store, but I sadly disappointed her by telling her I never shopped there at home. It was a fun way to spend the evening.

Penguins and Lotus Flowers

Today was a long day at work! Not only I was tired from a long day yesterday, but I had two small star hour and a half classes in a row this morning. It's a lot of small star madness in the morning. Plus, I have been struggling with one student who full participates in the first forty-five minutes and then just looses it completely in the last 30 minutes. Luckily, I only teach that class every other week, but it does not give me the gift of consistency...

We went out to dinner at a hot pot restaurant last night to celebrate Sue's birthday. Hot pot is so awesome. They place a boiling pot of water with tons of seasonings and vegetables in it and then you order as much vegetables, meat and noodles that you want. You place what you want in the boiling water and let it cook before eating it. It's a little messy, but really fun especially with a lot of people. We had to divide into two tables and it ended up with Laura and the boys at one table and the girls at the other bigger table. While the other table talked about serious worldly issues, we went around the table deciding which animal and flower we all most resemble. It was a lot of fun... The girls decided that I am a penguin and a lotus flower! We even got a cake with candles for Sue! It was a fun way to end a long weekend of classes.

From My Corner of the World...

I'm always going to remember learning about the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan yesterday. I was at the gym putting my book bag down and starting to take off my coat when I noticed the news video of the whirlpool that was occurring. I went over to the treadmill with the TV on and couldn't figure out where it was. Two of the custodians stood next to me just nodding in awe. I went back to my own treadmill to watch the English channel that usually talks a lot about Russia for some reason and learned that it was happening in Japan. I had that moment of relief that it was not China. I was also wondering how no one at the school had learned about it before I had left.

After the gym, I went home and learned about the tsunami warnings issued for Hawaii and the West Coast and was pretty anxious. Laura posted some news on facebook for me and I was able to chat with Angela which called my anxiety a bit.

This morning, I was able to debrief a bit with Ryan about the situation. The Californian and I shared what we had read about our states, and I was really glad I got to talk to him before classes started.

I definitely wasn't at my best in my classes today due to lack of sleep and feeling sad. I talked a little bit about the earthquake and tsunami with my older classes. A few of the boys said they were happy that it happened to Japan. One older student started telling me how the disaster would ruin Japan's economy which would be good for China. A few students told me that they were sad for all the families. One student, Grace, was trying to figure out how she could help.

I did catch a second wind this evening for my China's Tree Planting Day program. We had about sixty parents, grandparents and students in one classroom! Almost everyone had brought their containers as instructed. I only had thought Sue was going to stick around to help me translate, but I was lucky to have two other teachers, Marie and Sabrina, and two customer service staff members, Nina and Getha, stick around to help, too, which I appreciated and needed! A member of Beijing's chapter of Save the Tigers started the program. She was nervous, but did a fantastic job. The students and families were enthralled. She also brought pamphlets and DVDs for the students. I think she helped inspire a few future animal rights activists!

Then, Sue, Marie, and Sabrina took all the little small stars out of the room to plant their sunflower seeds and get them home to bed a bit earlier than the older students. I stayed with about 20 elementary, middle and high school parents and their families. I introduced the tree and we talked about photosynthesis. We talked about what would happen if we cut down all the trees. We talked about how many things that we get from trees. I lead the students and their families through a computer game brought to us by Oregon State University that asked us to decide how many items came from trees. I had been surprised when I played it earlier in the week, and the families and students were pretty impressed, too. We ended the evening by planting our sunflower seeds. Most of the students had never planted anything before in their life and were extremely excited to the point where they were pushing through the line to get their soil and seeds! We talked about how to care for our plants and that even talking to them would help them grow! They left excited and happy.

So did I.

Shù=Tree

Today I went on an adventure to find material for my China's Tree Planting Day program. I found a flower shop that I had read about in a guide book. The shop was a few floors tall and had lots of beautiful flowers and seeds. My main goal was to find seeds and soil for the planting activity! With the help from Cindy text messages in Chinese, I was able to find the stall that was selling seeds and soil. I got quite a variety of different types of flowers and a few bags of soil that actually doesn't look too healthy, but it'll have to do.

I was so happy to find those items that I was feeling a bit more confident to find a potted tree for as the symbolic "Shù" for the program. I found a beautiful tree called a Rich Man's Tree that I was able to carry out by myself just barely. It came in a beautiful, ornate potting planter that was much heavier than the tree. Luckily, I was able to take a taxi back to school! I named the tree "Maxwell" during the journey back.

Later on today at work, I got an e-mail back from the organization, Save the Tigers, in Beijing. I had e-mailed a bunch of environmental organizations yesterday hoping to find someone who was interested in guest speaking at our event. The Save the Tigers person agreed to start the program for us with some information about helping protect animals. I'm starting to get really excited about it.

Tonight at work, I had an open door class where the parents watch a class. The class had a super case of the giggles as did the parents! Two boys got into a fight in the middle of the class and one got so upset when I said "stop" that he was crying so hard he had to be removed from the classroom by his parent and a customer relations staff member. That wasn't too fun...

Boom! Ten Months!

Well, Beijing and I made it past the tenth month mark yesterday!

I did a lot of reflecting about my ten months here today. I had a lot of time on my hands today waiting at the bank! I thought about how my life has changed so much in ten months. I kept on thinking about how scared and frightened I was those first few weeks in the hotel room and then getting to know my new studio. I really wasn't very confidant that I would be staying here for the length of my contract.

Today, I thought about how natural it all feels now living in Beijing. Sure, I still get lost, and my Mandarin is disgraceful, but I feel good here. It's taken a long time. Don't get me wrong. I've been happy here most of the time, with some bouts of homesickness, of course, and times when work has been more stressful than other times. I've enjoyed and appreciated and have valued my time here very much, but now it feels natural. Beiyuan feels like my neighborhood. I've developed a lovely rapport with most of my students and classes. I have a community of teachers and friends that I rely on and a few from that circle have become such trusted confidants and beloved friends that I hope I will have for the rest of my life.

I am feeling really happy. I've done lots of soul searching, and I have a lot to still do, but I'm feeling the most confidant in my own skin for the first time in a long time. Miles asked me a few weeks ago, "Who is the boy? Who is the boy?" thinking I hadn't told him about a new romance in my life. There is, sadly, no boy, but it's nice to know the outside world sees me as being happier, too.

I remember telling my Mom many times that Asia had never been on my radar. I never even thought about really wanting to travel here, until I became a little fascinated with India after reading a book about a man in India before I started graduate school. I hadn't really thought about China that much at all, which is a really sad thing to admit to many of my Chinese friends, but it is the truth. It was just never on my radar. I remember telling my Mom so many times how I never imagined being in China after I accepted the position in the fall of 2009. My Mom just smiled and nodded and said "That's okay, " and continued to listen to all my doubts and fears, as did so many other people in my life. I owe a lot of gratitude to all the people who helped encourage me to get on that plane.

It's funny how something I never imagined materialized into such a gift.

I have about two and a half months left, and I still have a lot to do and a lot to see. I want to try to live them as much in the present as possible and appreciate the community and the city that will always live in my heart.

Part of me wishes I could tell that girl in the hotel ten months ago that it was going to be okay, and maybe she would have chilled out a bit sooner and let her guard down sooner, too. I don't think she would have believed the ten month older version of herself. Plus, she would have missed out on that discovery herself.

Work Weekend

I have had a funny, but busy work weekend! Most of them usually are. I've been trying to promote my Tree Planting program for next weekend in all my classes and the front desk let me know that parents are interested. The customer service staff have all worked hard to send text messages to all the parents about it.

I covered a small star class this morning and it is pretty fun to watch the students and parents reaction to a substitute teacher. The parents are all so nervous that their normal teacher is not there, but the children all have their own unique reactions. One boy, "wild Bill" as Ryan warned me, immediately smacked my bum as he walked in. There was an immediate discussion in both Chinese and English after that... "Wild Bill" solemnly promised to be good and then promptly wrestled the next kid that walked in to the ground! After that, the class went pretty smoothly!

My favorite class this weekend was my oldest class. We started a new course today and spent the first hour arranging a class contract. One of the students in that class told me that she started this week at an International school and met a black man for the first time in her life. He is her math teacher. She wanted to know what was the most polite way of talking about his skin color. We had a long discussion and we talked about using person first language instead of just jumping to the skin color. It was a good conversation. Quite a jump from the small stars curriculum!

Tonight, I went with Cindy to meet her friend at a Cantonese restaurant. I'm slowly starting to be able to make distinctions of different types of food, but just barely. I'm guessing that Chinese food, much like Mexican food, tastes best in it's country of origin!

China's Tree Planting Day A GO at EF

My idea for EF celebrating in China's Tree Planting Day got approved yesterday! I'm really excited. We are making it a free event. I'm not against EF making profit... I mean I really appreciate being paid... but I think this is going to create a more community centered environment for the program. I also sometimes get really bogged down by the business side of EF, and this is just a nice burst of excitement and motivation for me!

The basic plan is for us to have an evening where we will all work together to create a big list of little things we can all do for the environment (the little small stars will have their own work to do in a few other classrooms), make posters about those tips on recycled paper, plant flower and vegetable seeds in recycled yogurt containers and then have a naming contest for the one tree that we are going to be able to plant at the school. I am also trying to find a guest speaker! If I was at home that wouldn't be a problem, but here it is a bit more of a challenge, especially being lost in translation!

I made some posters today with the help of my friend Sue who helped me translate them into Chinese and got them up around the school. I have a feeling this is going to be chaotic and fun!

Metro Cards Blowing in the Wind

A few more pictures of Confucius's Temple. The middle one is a sacrificial oven!

I had a fun day that seemed to revolve around my metro card. This morning, I started my classes again at Starfish after their long Spring Festival break. At the subways here you have to swipe your card once when you enter and then when you want to leave. I went to swipe my card as I was leaving the station and all the machines went crazy and wouldn't except my card. A nice man in front of me told me in English to just be patient and wait a few moments and let everything rest. It actually did the trick! However, I seemed to loose my card somewhere between the terminal and the bus stop! I shoved onto the bus as I was still looking for my card in pocket. I had to buy a ticket on the bus from the special ticket agent. Can you imagine if there was a special ticket agent on every Trimet bus in Portland? I was so flustered that I actually got off at the wrong stop! I decided to just get into a taxi for the rest of the trip to the shelter.

Wang Fei was the only student available for my Intermediate class today. We just talked about our Spring Festivals. She was worried that she might have lost all of her English while she was at home, but she was just fine. She is going to leave to study in Russia soon and is working hard to study for a few exams. I was introduced to a new student today who will be joining my Beginner's class next week. We talked for about thirty minutes. She was exhausted. She is married and has a ten month year-old son and another baby on the way, plus she works 8 hours a day. Now, she wants to improve her English. She makes my lifestyle seem lazy in comparison!

I met up with Marie in Sanlitun to show her where I got my hair cut last September. She was going for a total hair make-over, so I told her to give me a call when she had finished. I spent an hour in a coffee shop reading a book, got my nails done, and took an adventurous trip to the Movie and Music store. I walked into the store and noticed all the movies were not there. One of the salespeople asked me "DVDs?" and I said "yes" and she said "follow me." I was little surprised, but decided to go with it since the hallway she was leading me into was full of people. She walked me down a few hallways and then finally into a little room that was full of DVDs and jam packed with foreigners like me in search of movies from home. I learned from a friendly Australian that the movie store had been raided and they often move their DVDs into different sections of the building when that happens. The best part was that I listened to so many people get upset that they had run out of copies of The King's Speech. One English woman was so mad and kept on talking about how they could have so many copies of The Black Swan and not enough of the Oscar award winning movie. If only Colin Firth knew of the people's demand for his movie in Beijing, China. I felt bad for the salespeople. I had actually gone to the store for that very movie, too. However, I still came out of the store with a few movies that I am excited to watch.

I went back to check on Marie three hours after I had left her. King, her boyfriend, had met up with her and was dutifully watching episodes of "Lost" on his ipod while she getting the finishing touches on her new look. We went out to dinner at a fantastic Korean restaurant and King told us some funny stories about his childhood. When we reached the subway this evening, I learned a hard lesson. I had bought about 20 quai worth of subway tickets to tide me over until I could buy a new metro card. However, I learned that one can only use a ticket at the subway station that it was bought at! Whoops. King helped me buy a new metro card that I will guard safely in my wallet only from now on!

Confucius's Temple

Happy March, Everyone!

I've been enjoying a lovely day off. I always enjoy not having to put on the uniform on my days off and wearing big earrings just because I can!

I started the day with a fun Skype chat with my friend, Laura. Then, I decided how I was going to get into trouble for the day! I had been wanting to visit the Confucius Temple for a long time now. I had tried to find it during the summer, but had failed! Today, I went through a couple of guide books and maps online and decided I was going to try again! It turns out that I had been passed it a lot, but during the evenings when it is closed! I spent some time at the temple this afternoon. It is a beautiful place full of lots of trees and there are birds there! I don't get to see too many birds in Beijing. I guess that's just one of the many things I take for granted as a girl from the Northwest. I felt really peaceful there.

My favorite temple was the music temple where students would play as an offering to Confucius for inspiration. It was a beautiful temple filled with lots of instruments, but sections of it were taped off because of reconstruction. Actually, a few of the buildings were closed due to reconstruction.

I also enjoyed seeing 20 statues of the teacher all in a row. They all had a bit of their own personality and Confucius was carrying different items in most of the statues. I put Bartholomew on one of the statues. I know that's probably a bit disrespectful, but I just couldn't resist. I had the thought of Confucius smiling down at it more than of being angry. Considering his temple in Beijing is right next door to both a university and a grade school, I have a feeling that there is a lot of merriment that goes on at the temple! I just imagine how often the students are asked to find inspiration from the great teacher.

Another impressive structure where these huge stone tablets that hold the names of the graduates that passed the special exams from the school of Confucius around the Ming Dynasty area. However, many of the names have been eroded away over time.

After I finished my visit at the temple, I took a walk around the hutong neighborhood. I was walking around 4:30 and I watched as many parents were picking up their children from school, mostly on bikes, but some with cars. Hutong neighborhoods make me think about what life was like for most Beijing citizens before more Western housing became more available and affordable.

I stopped in at a coffee shop after my walk and had a hot chocolate while I waited for the restaurant I wanted to have dinner at to open. I did some people watching and played on my Kindle.

I had a delicious garden burger at the Vineyard before heading home. I plan on visiting Confucius's Temple at least one more time when it gets a little warmer.