The Chinese really know what they're doing when it comes to fireworks. The shelling seemed to go off almost non-stop leading up the the Lunar New Year (January 23rd) and then kept going. Even two weeks later, as we returned to Beijing on February 6th, we could see from the plane that people were still lighting off fireworks all across the city.
Check out the video we took from our balcony in Beijing just before midnight on the eve of the Lunar New Year. Absolute craziness. Fourth of July in the states looks mundane in comparison, I'm sorry to say.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Taiwan: Around the Island in 10 Days
We just got back to Beijing last night after a 10-day trip to Taiwan. Check out the photos on Flickr. I'll put some highlights below. Hope you enjoy. We had tons of fun and ate lots of great food. We’ve concluded that Taiwan is much more foodie-friendly than Beijing. We were a little sad to come back; Taiwan was so warm, and Beijing is still soooo cold.
We’ve been enjoying our semester break and the Chinese New Year festivities. We have today and tomorrow to rest, and then it’s back to the office. Semester 2 starts on Monday.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Finally... the end of the semester
Well, we made it to the end of the semester and the end of winter camp. We're exhausted, but here are a few highlights from 3-1/2 months of work and adjustments:
-We can ask for beef, chicken, lamb, pork and duck meat at the market in Chinese!!
-We can get ourselves home with a taxi in Chinese (this is actually quite difficult as our school is a ways out of town)
-We took Chinese lessons ;)
-Biking on the streets of Beijing. Anything goes.
-Stories from the classroom. Here's one: In my sixth grade class (Chris'), we were learning prefixes such as trans-, sub-, and inter-. I was asking students for examples of words that used these prefixes, and one truly innocent student raised her hand and emphatically declared: "Intercourse." I fell on the floor laughing, in my head, but maintained my composure. Of course, no one else had any idea except for the TA.
-Students putting both fingers in their nostrils simultaneously. No shame.
-Watching where you put your feet because people spit everywhere.
-Finding a church we really like and hopefully a small group soon.
-Finding a Chinese guitar. 750 RMB.
-Celebrating our first Christmas and New Years away from home... It's not quite as special here as it is in Europe/America, but we still had a good time. Hamburgers for Christmas Eve, presents, etc. Petra, Chris' TA and our floormate, had her first Christmas, so that was really fun.
-Being so tired we could barely talk straight... not that that's different from the norm for me... (grace). But thank G for a break!
-Taiwan in 8 days!
-Putting on 2 plays each for Winter/English Camp, a lot of work, but worth it. They did great.
-Having to take over 4 science classes a week 2 weeks before finals (for grace). Not fun.
-Being taken out to lunch at a hummungous Chinese buffet - amazing food experience!
-Fireworks! This is what Chris is looking forward to in the next few days leading up to Chinese New Year.
Overall, we're really happy here. Communicating is an adventure, but I love that (grace) and I love trying to figure out "how to fit in." We both love discovering new places together. We're hoping to explore the city more in the next few weeks as well as enjoy some good restaurants. Thanks for reading our adventures, we love your comments! (Hopefully we can post more often now as we think we have a better connection.)
Happy Chinese New Year! (Haven't learned that one yet...)
-We can ask for beef, chicken, lamb, pork and duck meat at the market in Chinese!!
-We can get ourselves home with a taxi in Chinese (this is actually quite difficult as our school is a ways out of town)
-We took Chinese lessons ;)
-Biking on the streets of Beijing. Anything goes.
-Stories from the classroom. Here's one: In my sixth grade class (Chris'), we were learning prefixes such as trans-, sub-, and inter-. I was asking students for examples of words that used these prefixes, and one truly innocent student raised her hand and emphatically declared: "Intercourse." I fell on the floor laughing, in my head, but maintained my composure. Of course, no one else had any idea except for the TA.
-Students putting both fingers in their nostrils simultaneously. No shame.
-Watching where you put your feet because people spit everywhere.
-Finding a church we really like and hopefully a small group soon.
-Finding a Chinese guitar. 750 RMB.
-Celebrating our first Christmas and New Years away from home... It's not quite as special here as it is in Europe/America, but we still had a good time. Hamburgers for Christmas Eve, presents, etc. Petra, Chris' TA and our floormate, had her first Christmas, so that was really fun.
-Being so tired we could barely talk straight... not that that's different from the norm for me... (grace). But thank G for a break!
-Taiwan in 8 days!
-Putting on 2 plays each for Winter/English Camp, a lot of work, but worth it. They did great.
-Having to take over 4 science classes a week 2 weeks before finals (for grace). Not fun.
-Being taken out to lunch at a hummungous Chinese buffet - amazing food experience!
-Fireworks! This is what Chris is looking forward to in the next few days leading up to Chinese New Year.
Overall, we're really happy here. Communicating is an adventure, but I love that (grace) and I love trying to figure out "how to fit in." We both love discovering new places together. We're hoping to explore the city more in the next few weeks as well as enjoy some good restaurants. Thanks for reading our adventures, we love your comments! (Hopefully we can post more often now as we think we have a better connection.)
Happy Chinese New Year! (Haven't learned that one yet...)
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving from China!
Wednesday, November 23rd
Happy early Thanksgiving! I never used to get so excited about a holiday as I am this year. I want to share this unique part of our culture with others and we get to because Bill and Caroline ordered a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people! There are only 4 of us in the dorm, so we’ve invited a few other teachers, principals, etc. It will be quite a party – our first since being in Beijing. We’re excited. I’ve also decided that I am only going to play games and do crafts related to Thanksgiving… if you all aren’t working, why should I?!?
Last Sunday we had a gift bazaar at church and I heard a saleswoman speaking French so I went to her booth. There was another girl there speaking French as well, but I could tell she had an accent. When we walked away, I asked her where she was from, she told me Vancouver B.C. So close to us! Then she told me she lived in France, in Strasbourg, about an hour from where we lived at BFA. And now we are both here… small world. I was excited to make a new friend who I have a lot in common with; now more than ever I treasure connections with people with common backgrounds – it is quite rare around these parts since most people are Chinese.
It is officially not warm anymore. It is, in fact, freezing. There is a wind that comes from who knows where and it cuts through to your bones and man do you ever feel like your face just got frozen off. Our clothes are not nearly warm enough for this weather, we’re going to have to invest in some serious down coats.
I got sick (again) this last week. A co-worker described the viruses here as never hitting you full on, like you never get a full on cold but your energy is totally zapped. Can’t get off the couch zapped. I’m doing better with the help of some Chinese medicine – I think I will start an import business for that stuff when I get back to the States, it is that good. Chris didn’t get sick, which is totally unfair but since nobody asked me what’s fair in the world of immune systems, I don’t have much of a say in the matter.
Hans and Howard, two men from our organization (Teach Beyond) came to visit us last week. It was so great to have people here from BFA (my high school, Hans is my old principal). We got to introduce our world to them and they brought a bit of past with them as well. When they left it felt kind of lonely and reminded me how isolated we are from things and people we know. Sigh. We are making the best of being here even though it doesn’t feel like home yet. We are very familiar with the McDonalds around the corner (hey, gotta do whatacha gotta do to get comfort food!), on Saturday we explored our neighborhood more and found a bookstore and a clothing market nearby. We went to church on Sunday which felt like a breath of fresh air and we have things to look forward to, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, a trip to Taiwan (we bought the tickets, yey!), and warm coats. Very very warm coats.
Since I’ve done all the talking, here is Chris.
Hm, well then. First off, my take on the cold is a bit less severe than Grace’s. It is certainly cold, but nothing we wouldn’t experience back home in Washington; it’s probably in the 40s during the day. I still walk around campus with my sleeves rolled up. The thing that does get me though is that the school leaves all the windows and doors open, making it 40 degrees in the cafeteria and all the hallways, too. I don’t mind feeling cold when I’m outside in November — I expect that — but I expect to escape from the cold as soon as I step inside. Supposedly the doors stay open to let in “fresh air.”
Second, I must announce that I’ve found myself a guitar. It’s nice. That is all.
Ok, it’s Grace again. I just have to say, that Chris is the ONLY person on campus that walks around with his sleeves rolled up. I don’t know what’s wrong with his heating system, but it seems to be on overdrive.
Chris’ words: guess I’m just hot. Lucky you.
Grace’s: ….
Okay, we should let you all go. Hope this was a good glimpse into our lives in China. Thanks for reading, and your thoughts, and encouraging emails – we love it all (even though we’re terrible at responding, it’s not you!). Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Friday, November 4, 2011
Happy Saturday morning to all. We are siting at Bill and Carolyn's, with worship music in the background, 2 of their boys having a nerf war, warm wonderful cups of coffee, and Bill getting into an argument about morality with Chris. It is great to be out of school, no dorm, no kids yelling outside our window and good food. You'll notice that so much of what I talk about is food, and as I think about it, a bad day is always made better by good food and a good day only made better by good food. Right now, I seek comfort food. I found scones at Starbucks last Sunday, and while Chris and Veronica (our floormate) went hunting for food, I sat and enjoyed my scone and green tea latte. We had just been to church where no one introduced themselves to us, people barely even smiled at us and I left with a chill down my spine. Therefore, scones and tea were a good comfort for the lack of human contact. I mean, you'd think that in a country where people are so unfriendly to foreigners (at times), that foreigners would stick together. Nope.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Just to confuse you, I'm sticking with this blog!
Staying connected to the outside world is not anything I take for granted anymore. I miss the days of a single click and voila, you're on to any network containing hundreds of people just dying for your latest update. Now , I'm using a remote computer in the States while sitting in Beijing and it types about 4x slower than I am typing. Frustrating? Don't even get me started.
Other things that are frustrating... let's see. Getting ripped off at the market when trying to bargain because we don't understand the language. Although , I have to say that for our first time bargaining Veronica and I did pretty well and had a good time doing it. The merchant pulled out her calculator so we typed in our price. We even walked away once thinking that she wasn't going to come down any further, but she called us back and gave us the rug at the price we asked. we were pretty proud of ourselves!
Other things like buying yogurt instead of milk and not finding out about it until the yogurt is in the coffee...The mosquitoes here are terrible and the water is only hot at night. Kids just pee on the side of the road or one the sidewalk. The garbage man is an old guy who picks up garbage on his bicycle. So many new and different things. Okay, I've got to run!
Other things that are frustrating... let's see. Getting ripped off at the market when trying to bargain because we don't understand the language. Although , I have to say that for our first time bargaining Veronica and I did pretty well and had a good time doing it. The merchant pulled out her calculator so we typed in our price. We even walked away once thinking that she wasn't going to come down any further, but she called us back and gave us the rug at the price we asked. we were pretty proud of ourselves!
Other things like buying yogurt instead of milk and not finding out about it until the yogurt is in the coffee...The mosquitoes here are terrible and the water is only hot at night. Kids just pee on the side of the road or one the sidewalk. The garbage man is an old guy who picks up garbage on his bicycle. So many new and different things. Okay, I've got to run!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
China promotes creativity...New Web address found here!
Due to extremes of the Chinese mafia, our contact has been limited. ;) We have acquired an undercover aid skilled in words and illusion. She-code name "Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo"- in the USA has found a way for us to report activity her directly to you!... :P :)
Posting under direct assignment of myself, Grace Caudillo ...please continue to follow our adventure at:
Toda! (Hebrew for Thanks!)
and Shalom (peace) to you!
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