Let me (Grace) go on a short rampage about 7 day work weeks. We're working the weekend in order to get a 3 day holiday, Mon-Wed (Qing Tomb holiday, when people decorate tombs of ancestors). The result = exhausted teachers, cranky kids, and the 7th day ends up being movie day, which is a basically a lost day but as a teacher I have no energy left to think of one more creative way to teach adjective phrases. --Btw, if anybody out there knows of any great teacher websites, please let me know!! -- All in all, we're working for such a short reward that in the end, it cancels itself out. Why do they do this in China? Because the government told them to, and no one asks questions.
People have learned to just accept things the way they are and though there is some complaining, it is the foreigners that ask "why?" But, whether or not they ask questions, we've been learning the Chinese like to give opinions. I've been hearing this line a lot this week: "wear more in the spring and less in the fall." It's a Chinese saying, meaning that because there are so many germs going around in the spring, you should wear more clothes to keep from being sick (not sure what the fall part means). I followed my TA's advice, but I'm still sick :( Which means I've been hearing this line a lot as well: "drink hot water." Apparently, the Chinese believe that cold water is bad for you, and you should only drink hot water to keep from extinguishing the "fire in your belly." There is also a drink here that Petra swears is to cool the fire in your belly. I haven't quite figured out what the fire signifies, other than it can be bad for you if it's too strong. There is also the belief that you can get wind in your joints, which is like joint pain/rheumatism, from my understanding. But whether you have fire or wind, the Chinese like giving advice, and everybody says the same thing! It's quite interesting.
And yes, I'm sick. I think it's to be assumed that any time we post, one of us is sick. It's getting to be a bit trying, but Chris hasn't been sick in 3 weeks, which is a record, and I went a good 2 months without getting anything major. We talked with some other expats, and they told us the first year was the hardest health wise, after that, it's fine. Good to know there's an end in sight.
In other news, we decided we're staying another year! Though Beijing is not the greatest city in the world to live in - there is currently a thin layer of dust covering EVERYthing due to spring winds - we feel like this is where we want to stay and have a sense of purpose here. It's nice to have the stability, job wise, and we can keep getting to know people through church, etc. We will be coming back to the States this summer, though the dates are still up in the air. Probably early July to mid/end August. We'll mainly be in WA and OR, and OH for a few days. Please do let us know if you will be around this summer, we are excited to see all of you!
Hope all is well in your homes, thanks for reading :)
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Snow today in Beijing. At least an inch. The most we've gotten all winter has been a dusting, due to the utter lack of precipitation in this place. Humidity has frequently been in the teens, which is unthinkable to a person who grew up in Seattle. Anyways, I'm no expert on northeastern Chinese climate, but perhaps this mornings' snow is coming at the intersection of a cold winter and a wetter spring. It makes the view from our windows less gray.
In other news, we had a feast on Friday night. A few weeks ago, a teaching couple from our school invited us over to their apartment for dinner. They really like to cook and they made us an amazing dinner with at least six different Chinese and Thai dishes. We finally got to return the favor, with Grace leading the way in the "kitchen" and all the rest of us helping (I made the tortillas, with help from our floormate, Veronica). The Western food included a dish that you could call Mexican lasagna, salsa, a cheesy pot of pasta, and bruschetta. Petra, our Chinese floormate, also made a number of Chinese dishes, including baked chicken wings and some other good things that I don't know how to describe. Our Chinese friends enjoyed our Western cooking and, even with all the other food on the table, the Mexican lasagna (with the tortillas that I made) was demolished by the end of the evening.
All this cooking got me to thinking about foods from back home, and the list of foods I miss would be quite long. I'm not starving here by any means, though, so instead of publishing a list of foods, I think I'll share a list of some larger things I miss from Seattle and Bellingham:
In other news, we had a feast on Friday night. A few weeks ago, a teaching couple from our school invited us over to their apartment for dinner. They really like to cook and they made us an amazing dinner with at least six different Chinese and Thai dishes. We finally got to return the favor, with Grace leading the way in the "kitchen" and all the rest of us helping (I made the tortillas, with help from our floormate, Veronica). The Western food included a dish that you could call Mexican lasagna, salsa, a cheesy pot of pasta, and bruschetta. Petra, our Chinese floormate, also made a number of Chinese dishes, including baked chicken wings and some other good things that I don't know how to describe. Our Chinese friends enjoyed our Western cooking and, even with all the other food on the table, the Mexican lasagna (with the tortillas that I made) was demolished by the end of the evening.
All this cooking got me to thinking about foods from back home, and the list of foods I miss would be quite long. I'm not starving here by any means, though, so instead of publishing a list of foods, I think I'll share a list of some larger things I miss from Seattle and Bellingham:
- fresh air
- mountains
- salt water
- fresh air
- rain
- the color green
- fresh air
- personal space on public transportation
- and of course, people
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| Above: This is what cooking in our "kitchen" often looks like. |
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| L to R: Petra, Mr. Guo, Mrs. Wong, Veronica, Grace |
Friday, March 9, 2012
Reasons Why We Never Get Anywhere in Beijing...
-Grace: "Isn't north what's in front of you?"
Chris: enjoying a good laugh
-Grace: "Did you write down the street names?"
Chris: "No, it's all in my head. I read Chinese better in my imagination than on paper."
Grace: "?!?!?"
-The city's too big, it has too many streets
-Can't tell the cab driver for the life of us more than our three Chinese phrases. It's amazing we make it home at all.
-We forget to do our Chinese homework, and so never learn more than 3 phrases.
- Chris thinks the maps are lying to him. I've heard this speech more than once.
But somehow, in the end, we make it home in one piece, mostly thanks to our Chinese floormate, Petra. So here's to being in one piece in Beijing with more funny stories by the day. Like the one where we walked west instead of north (that's wasn't my fault either, even though I'm slightly directionally challenged. Beijing makes everybody directionally challenged). We've managed to find ourselves a small group and it feels so good to be in community again. And, Chris is over his 3 week sickness and we're hoping he'll stay healthy another little bit. Maybe that will make living here easier next year. We've also joined an Alpha course as facilitators and brought 2 Chinese friends to it, and it was so cool to hear their questions and be able to answer them. God was present. Please keep August and Helen in your prayers.
Love from cold but sunny Beijing.
Chris: enjoying a good laugh
-Grace: "Did you write down the street names?"
Chris: "No, it's all in my head. I read Chinese better in my imagination than on paper."
Grace: "?!?!?"
-The city's too big, it has too many streets
-Can't tell the cab driver for the life of us more than our three Chinese phrases. It's amazing we make it home at all.
-We forget to do our Chinese homework, and so never learn more than 3 phrases.
- Chris thinks the maps are lying to him. I've heard this speech more than once.
But somehow, in the end, we make it home in one piece, mostly thanks to our Chinese floormate, Petra. So here's to being in one piece in Beijing with more funny stories by the day. Like the one where we walked west instead of north (that's wasn't my fault either, even though I'm slightly directionally challenged. Beijing makes everybody directionally challenged). We've managed to find ourselves a small group and it feels so good to be in community again. And, Chris is over his 3 week sickness and we're hoping he'll stay healthy another little bit. Maybe that will make living here easier next year. We've also joined an Alpha course as facilitators and brought 2 Chinese friends to it, and it was so cool to hear their questions and be able to answer them. God was present. Please keep August and Helen in your prayers.
Love from cold but sunny Beijing.
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