Keep going and going and going...

I feel like the energizer bunny right now, and I don't think the feeling will go away until I get on that flight home. This past weekend was anything but relaxing. In spite of getting enough sleep, I still feel exhausted.

Friday, I spent all afternoon baking. I made two pretty awesome pies, but didn't take pictures of them, and two batches of banana bread. I went into Beijing on Saturday morning, carting way more stuff than seemed humanly possible. I'm not sure quite how the morning hours got away from me, but they did, and soon enough it was one o'clock. Dan and I met at the supermarket to do our shopping for the party and had a hard time figuring out how much stuff to buy. In the end, we only wasted a little bit of food, so we did O.K. A lot of people showed up, which was cool, and in general it was a good time. I think I prefer smaller gatherings, but every once in a while it's O.K. to have a big one. It was exhausting though, and I pretty much crashed after we cleaned up. The next morning, I had to wake up at 7:30 to do the tutoring I had put off. I tutored all morning and then went to the rock wall. Before I got to the wall, though, I made the mistake of eating hot pot (sticks of various things like meat, tofu or vegetables in boiling broth) at a street stand. The food was good but way too spicy! I had heartburn for the rest of the day. I still climbed a little bit, but I spent most of my time laying on the mats at the bottom.

Later, bad weather gave me an excuse to go inside and just hang out for a bit. I love the people there. They're fun and so nice to us. After the storm subsided, they took us to a restaurant nearby, but all I managed to eat was some rice. Stomach still on fire, Dan and I headed home. I passed out at eight o'clock and it felt so good! Today we had to get up at the crack of dawn to get to work, but it was totally worth the extra night in our apartment.

The good life.

It seems like things are really shaping up. I added pages to my passport so that they could give me my visa, and hopefully I'll get that back soon! I also got permission to come late to orientation so that I can go to Jon and Emily's wedding! I almost feel guilty about it, but I'm glad I'll be able to see all of Dan's family now. After knowing about it for over a year, I would have been upset if I couldn't go. To top it all off, I got my flight changed so I'll be coming home a little earlier!

Last weekend, Dan and I stayed at our apartment and had another barbeque Saturday night. We were sort of celebrating his birthday and another friend of ours at the same time. After stuffing ourselves, we went out salsa dancing. We all had a great time, but Dan and I realized that we could definitely use some lessons. Any salsa teachers out there?

On Sunday, we met my co-teacher, Lena, at "Computer City" (a gigantic electronics market). She was there to help us buy an electronic dictionary for Dan's birthday. There were loads of dictionaries on offer, but that didn't make it easy. We ended up getting one that you can write the characters into (as long as you're fast enough... no pretty handwriting allowed) and it shows you a bunch of options for words. You can see the pronunciation and hear the words. It's a pretty cool toy. Needless to say, Dan takes it everywhere now. On the bus, he busies himself by translating the advertisements stuck to the ceiling. Oddly, almost all of them are medical adds. Some of the gems he translated with his new toy were "prostatitis" and "can't have baby disease" (we're pretty sure that last one translates to infertility, but Lena was all embarrassed when Dan said it, so we're still not sure).

Other than that, I've been trying to do more running. I was inspired, in large part, because Trillium (a high school friend who didn't really do sports) recently ran a half marrathon. I don't know if it is possible to get back into shape anymore, though. I mean, I can still run, but it's a 10 minute mile, not 7. In spite of having run 4 mornings out of the past week, I don't feel like I've made any progress! By the end of the summer I'd like to be able to run a few miles without dying, but right now, the fourth lap still kills me. I'd like to blame it on the pollution, which probably does play a part, but it seems I really only have my fat butt to blame.

Ouch.

Dan and I never made it to Beijing yesterday because it was raining all afternoon. Since climbing was out of the question, we decided to be lazy instead. We went into Changping for dinner with Matt and Tamara. The food was mediocre at best and Tamara and I still have remnants of the stomach virus we had last week. It didn't make for a very nice combination.

This morning I felt much better though. I woke up at six and went for a run. It was really nice to be outside today. The rain had made everything smell better and it was actually cool for the first time in about two weeks. Unfortunately, I may have overdone the running.

I am already sore and it's only been about an hour an a half since I finished. One of my co-workers even asked me if I hurt myself because I am apparently walking funny. I had to admit that "No, I'm just horribly out of shape." In spite of that, I think I'm going to try to do it again tomorrow! If I don't I might be too sore to walk.

Falling into place.

My life is starting to settle down a bit. I completed my application for grad school and I've gotten a little more information about what I'm going to be teaching next year. Dan has signed his contract and we're both making our plans for while we're home. Yet, I can't help but feel like I won't be able to really relax for a long time.

I guess I'm pretty nervous about my new job. I know I will do well, but not knowing exactly what's expected of me is making it harder for me to visualize success. It's a bizarre sensation, really. I haven't ever been nervous about a job before. What's especially odd is that I think my perception of the job is different because of the pay, as if they can't possibly want to pay me that much money to do the job I've been doing for four years now. I've had to do massive amounts of planning, creating materials and paperwork before. I've even taught up to 32 hours a week before (which was absolutely insane looking back on it)!

There are many things I'm really excited about, such as having small classes, being involved in an active school, possibly coaching soccer (they don't have a girls' soccer team and it would count as one of the two extra activities required). It's a beautiful school with a lot of resources and a lot of community involvement. Still, it will be a lot of work and a lot of new things to learn. I just hope I don't get totally overwhelmed.

Fear of failure, anyone? Dan pointed out that not only have I never been rejected from any place that gave me an interview, but I've also never been fired. I know these are good things, but they do add to the pressure to do well.

As I mentioned before, though, aside from freaking out about my job, things are going fairly well. Last weekend Dan and I took our village friends out for dinner, which was a real treat.

We met up with them at 7:30 on Friday evening and set out in search of a restaurant. What Dan and I didn't realize is that if you invite people out to dinner, you can't just sit in the normal dining room of a restaurant. You apparently have to reserve a private room. It's not like it costs any more or anything, but it's just expected. There is also apparently no concept of having a drink and waiting for 15 minutes or a half an hour for a table to be ready. Because of this, we spent about an hour driving around Changping looking for a restaurant with an empty room.

Eventually, we found a place. We ordered a bunch of food and a lot of beer. The food was all actually good, but the beer was killing me. I pretty much hate beer now. It might just be because of the way Chinese people drink. Every couple of minutes they do a toast that requires you to down your entire class (small as it may be, it's disgusting). I am sort of exempt because I am female, but I still end up having to drink way more than I want because they keep toasting. In all, though, it was a great dinner. Dan and I went home relieved. Oh, and I almost forgot, we got a housewarming present from one of our friends. It is the best lamp ever! Dan and I were laughing so hard when we got it, but I'm not sure what we're going to do with it now. A picture will definitely be posted soon!

On Saturday and Sunday, Dan and I did some climbing, but mostly we took it easy. We woke up at 6 a.m. on Sunday to go get fried dough, but then went back to bed. It was so nice to do nothing, especially because the next couple of weekends are going to get busy!

Today we're going into Beijing to go climbing and take some more stuff to our apartment, while we're at it. It means I'll have to wake up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to get back to work, but I'll be glad to go climbing. My fingers have stopped hurting (and peeling) from what I did on Sunday, so that means it's time to go again!

Nothing new...

I don't really have much to report from this side of the world. I got sick on Monday along with the other two girls that were at the barbeque. We still haven't figured out what caused the horrible stomach cramps, because nothing really makes sense. The two other girls are vegetarians, so they ate vegetables and pasta (all washed and either freshly cooked or soaked in vinegar). The two guys didn't get sick, but they ate and drank everything we did and even had double portions of most of it. My dad actually suggested it might be the potato chips, since it is the only thing that all of the girls ate and the guys didn't eat much of. Who knows. There are some leftover chips, so theoretically I could test that hypothesis, but it might not be worth the suffering.


The barbeque mystery, however interesting, isn't actually the reason I'm posting. I just got some pictures from Traci and wanted to post them. They're pictures of Dan and I trying to save a HUGE night crawler from my merciless kindergartners (they tried to rip it in half!!). In the end, Dan managed to convince them there was never a worm there in the first place by chasing them around the lawn. The last one is a good, Chinese style, victory picture. Asians are obsessed with peace... weird, huh?


In other news, I have almost finished my application for George Mason! All I have to do is pay and click send. I love electronic applications! I'm actually really excited about the idea of studying again. It's been FOUR years since I graduated! I'm a little bit nervous, though, since I have apparently lost my ability to write academically. I'm hoping that will come back to me, but if it doesn't come back quickly, I may find myself in over my head.

I signed my contract!!

I am so excited! Even so, I'm still nervous that they will find somebody else they like better and take it away. I'm probably a tad paranoid, but it's just such a good thing, I really don't want to lose it.

I will be working at a real school, with students who care and grades that matter. I will have small classes and good resources. I will be able to get my master's and teaching certificate and even pay off existing debt! I am so lucky, and I know it.

Since Friday afternoon, I spent the majority of my weekend cleaning and buying some things for our new place. I kind of forgot how much stuff we use on a regular basis. Even after my shopping spree, I realized I forgot things like kitchen towels and sink stoppers. Our hutong is looking a lot better now, though, especially thanks to the intustrial strength floor cleaner (which, according to some really strange salespeople is exactly the same as floor wax) and scrub brush.

I wanted to post pictures today, but I forgot the camera this weekend, so it will have to wait until next week. I wish we could go during the week, but it's just really not practical since I have to be back in Changping so early every day. For that reason, we also decided to hold off on the plants for a few weeks. In all honesty, they would probably be fine since it seems to rain more in June, July and August here, but we didn't want to waste money on nice trees, just to have them die on us. Knowing Dan and I, it will probably be a struggle to keep them alive in the first place!

Yesterday, we went to Carrefour and bought a barbeque, and last night we tested it out. Turns out it works, but I'm glad I have a boyfriend who can light the thing. We had a few friends over for steak, for the first time since we came to china, sausages, veggie kebabs, salad, pasta and watermelon. Oh so American, except I had to use chopsticks to eat because we didn't have enough forks! It was good, but today I'm not feeling so well. I'm not sure if I ate too much or just the wrong stuff, or maybe it's because we had to wake up at 5:30 to get back to school on time.

Today, I will sleep. I will write my essay for GMU and I will sleep. I might eat, and I will sleep. I wish I could sleep now!