laughing traveler

Today was quite possible the worst day of my life. I am dieing without internet! The group of teachers are emailing events back and forth and then I will get a text 5 mins before the meeting saying “Hey are you coming to dinner?” No! I didn’t get the memo! Then it’s “oh just take the 334 to the k115 to SeaWorld, they will know what you mean if you say Sea World, it’s a huge fancy area.” Well how about I just cry in my room alone because that was actually happens. So I text my contact teacher and say I am going to SeaWorld and just wanted to double check my directions. And she texts back “this is not possible.” Thanks for clearing that up, do you know the best way to get there? “22” I hate texting! 22 from where? Which direction? How long dose it take? Is there a McDonalds? These are the answers I was looking for. So I walk down to the bus stop and see if maybe there are signs or something. Oh there are signs alright, in all Chinese characters, none of which include the 4 characters ...

I arrived in my new apartment I will be living in for the next year this afternoon around 1pm. I finally learned that the school is grades K-7 in US terms. And I will be teaching the 6th graders! I don’t know how I feel about teaching middle school, but I am hoping I will be able to use some of the lessons I did for my primary kids in Beijing and just make it a little harder. Although those summer school kids were very advanced! So it may be perfect. My contact teacher Betty is super cute and speaks better English than me I am afraid! However, she was quite frazzled when we showed up to the apartment with a note from the previous teacher that everything was broken. No one had looked at the room since the last foreign teacher moved out in June. Betty said the last teacher was very shy and wouldn’t tell her anything unless she asked so please tell her if anything brakes. He had left a bunch of random junk that I am guessing didn’t fit in his bags. So the maintenance man met us in the a...

I have never in my life studied so hard for a test that didn’t count towards anything. I think I am becoming Chinese. I respect my Chinese teacher so much I don’t want to let her down. I have never felt like that about a teacher before. I feel if I don’t do well in her class she will take it as a personal failure. And if we as a class fail she will feel she failed us as a teacher. I can see how much effort she has put into teaching us, developing lessons and vocabulary that we could use and would need immediately. Overly praising every mispronounced word and broken sentence we put together. She spoke so freely and respectfully about her personal life, Chinese laws, travel, and cultural differences. No topics were off limits and she laughed with us at our observations. It seemed like every other day she had a treat for us, rice cakes and cereal bars, rice cookies. She sincerely wanted us to enjoy China and the food always giving us suggestions of where to visit, shop, and eat. It is a ...

And yes, it was painful! The Chinese sayings is “he who has not climbed the great wall is not a real man!” I had seen pictures so I knew it was going to be big, but wow! The night before I was laying awake in pain from my blistered feet throbbing and I contemplated skipping the group exertions, assuming I would come back another time. This was our first day off after a 7 day work week/ intense training so I really would have liked to sleep through the 7 am alarm. I am so glad I didn’t! I thought I would be smart and take the cable car up and then walk down, it was the best $7 I ever spent! Especially after the walk to the entrance was like 15 minutes of sidewalk straight up! The view was amazing, everywhere you looked was picture-perfect. And yes I went crazy over board with the photos. Every gosh I don’t know how far maybe like 3 blocks was an observation tower, and I would rush to the tower for shade from the blazing sun. It was no joke 20 degrees cooler inside the tower and a re...

I was expecting to see some quick tricks like America’s Got Talent, Not even close! The skill was not even comparable. It was a completely sold out showing which was nice because I was very concerned about when I could clap after the warning not to use cameras or bombs for the safety of the performers (that was the direct translation, oh China!). The beginning was kind of odd with this colored scarf dance. But after a while I really got into it once you see the whole picture and not just focus on one person. They would all kneel down and the jump up in rhythm and throw their scarf thing in the air and all together it was like a rainbow wave that made your eyes dance, very cool. The next act was by far my favorite, these 6 men and 4 little girls came out and the girls climbed up the guys and did a hand stand on the guys hand fully extended in the air. And then they start juggling the girls! Literally throwing them in the air and catching a different girl, all landing in the handstand...

It was easy to find my group at the Beijing airport by following the 75 white people! Our huge group drew alot of attention even the security didn’t seem to mind us blocking all the stairs and hallways as we waited for the whole group to make it through baggage claim and customs. I quickly realized my bags were way too heavy. My 80lbs gym bag kept falling off my shoulder, so I figured I could just balance it on top of my huge duffle bag and wheel them together with just the computer bag and my purse weighing down the other side. So all 75 of us get together and head for the escalator. So I wheel my duffle bag over and step on, my bag however is too heavy for me to lift along with me. So I start going up, loose my grip on the bag which slides down the steps and my gym bag flies off and behind that. As fast as I can walk down, the steps are moving up and all of my colleagues are standing at the bottom of the elevator blocked by my bags! Great first impression! The worst part, everyone ...