This afternoon was positively awful, but then I started to feel pretty good about it. Had I written this blog around 6 this evening, it would have been a pretty upset entry. Luckily, the only thing people do fast in China is build stuff. I spent two hours at the bank. It's sort of like the supermarket where they think long and hard before lifting a finger and getting something done. That and as any Chinese person will tell you, there are too many people "Ren tai duo le!" At any rate it was probably a good thing I had the time to mull over the things that were bothering me.
Today was pretty good in general, but this afternoon was a total disappointment. When I was told I would have a homeroom, there was mention of going on the Experience China Week trip with them. I was kind of excited because I thought it would be fun and kind of nice to spend time with the kids outside of school. I know being a chaperone is hard work, but I was actually looking forward to it. When we started talking about it at school, however, I got the impression that I would not be going with my class. This afternoon, the principal confirmed that.
I imagine that at some point I will not care that I am not going (because it is a lot of work), but I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on the only chance I'll have to get to know the kids better. I am a little worried that it will set me up to be the "odd man out" so to speak. I know the school doesn't want to pay for all of the teachers to go, but it really wouldn't cost that much to have all of the homeroom teachers go. I think my disappointment is especially strong because this trip was moved forward in the year to make it a bonding experience, and I feel like I might miss out on a lot in terms of seeing the kids in a different light. Regardless of what I think, however, nothing is going to change at this point, so I suppose it's time to suck it up.
After getting all down about the trip and having that compounded by the heat and long wait at the bank, I had a really pleasant surprise. It may have been a total accident, but Huijia paid me for the last two weeks of school!! I had 2000 and some rmb in my account! I thought I had nothing, so anything would have been nice, but that's a chunk of money.
Maybe the title of this blog would have been more accurate if it was "For every action there's an equal and opposite," but I'm not sure if that's always true. 2000 rmb will certainly help if Dan and I decide to take a trip of our own during October holiday! So, it put a smile back on my face.
On my way home, with my pockets a little fuller, I stopped by the market. It was the first time I had really walked around there and it was absolutely fabulous! There were so many vendors with nice looking fruits and vegetables and all far cheaper than the local carrefour. I was a little hesitant about buying because foreigners almost always pay too much, but I'm getting better at reading and can certainly pretend to speak a few words. So, I went for it. I only bought some grape tomatoes and some grapes (which turned out to be slips kins!!), for a total of two kilos at 12 rmb. That's a dollar fifty for over three pounds of grapes, which are deliciously juicy, and 30 cents for a little over a pound of tomatoes.
It's hard to feel down when life is so cheap!! It is, however, easy to feel exhausted. Good night!
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
An uncomfortable update...
I'm really uncomfortable right now, laying on the hard floor because my butt was starting to fall asleep. I do have a desk in this room, but my battery was low, so I had to move the computer to the floor to be able to plug it in. Obviously, I am not yet lucky enough to have wireless. I guess I should buy an extension cord. Unfortunately, or not, it's a bit too late for me to go out (Carrefour is still open, but it's almost my bedtime). It just seemed time for an update.
Last week was my first week of school. I think it goes without saying that I survived. My classes went fine and the students are really great. Everybody is as helpful as possible, though, of course, not everything is possible. I feel like my classes are off to a good start, but I am incredibly disorganized. I have plans for a few weeks, but feel like they change a little every day. I guess that's par for the course though. I'm really not freaking out about school anymore, but I do feel like I have a lot to do to catch up.
Last weekend was pretty nice because I actually relaxed and managed to get out of the city for a day. On Friday after work, I went to our school social club's "Survivor Party." It was a barbeque and drinks at a bar sort of nearby. I had a good time talking to people and the food was o.k. I probably should have had more to eat before I started drinking, but that's a lesson that's hard to learn. Regardless of how quickly I felt tipsy or why (I'd like to blame some of it on exhaustion), it was meant to be an early night for me. I caught a cab back to the apartments with another teacher and was in bed by 11:30.
The next morning was hard. I had only had a couple of drinks, but the combination of that and lack of water and sleep was killing me. I had to be up at 6 and on the bus by 7 and I made it, with a few seconds to spare! I was off to a place that I didn't even know of and I still can't tell you the name, but it's somewhere South and West of Beijing. The ride itself was nice, there were only twelve of us on the bus, so there was plenty of room. I tried to sleep a bit, but wasn't very successful. The plastic palm trees by the side of the road were just too distracting!
We arrived at the park around 9 and the good (lead) climbers started setting up the routes for us top ropers. I was a little nervous, but not so much because I thought I would hurt myself. Actually, I was thinking, I hope I can make it up at least one of those! I think there were six different routes. I did two of them, the easiest of course. I did, however, do the second easiest one twice. I think I'm ready to do better the next time we go out. I realized that while it is more of a mental challenge, it was actually easier on my hands than climbing a fake wall, and there was less strength required.
We were at the park all day, so it was easy to get a nap in there, and then headed back to Beijing around 4:30. We went straight out to dinner (PIZZA!!) and then most of us went home to crash. I went back to the hutong because I thought it would be nice to go there and easy enough. I got home and started getting undressed and... knock, knock... crap. The neighbor was at the door so I had to get totally dressed again and see what she wanted (as if I would understand anyway!). I opened the door and she handed me something to do with the water. She said there were two bills, that much I understood, but when I looked at them I was shocked. One said Y560 and the other said Y180. I freaked out, because that's about a hundred U.S. Dollars for water! I even had a nightmare about it, well, that and the water damage in the house (I'm petrified that something bad will happen and I won't be there).
So Sunday I woke up early and did some laundry. While that was happening I laid in bed and read or re-read The Diaries of Anne Frank. I am planning on using a few excerpts for class, but once I started reading, I had some trouble putting it down again. Like any good war story, it left me really freakin' depressed! I felt like crap the whole rest of the morning.
Luckily, Dan called in the afternoon, and I was reminded why life is good and why I shouldn't be depressed. Actually, it wasn't that deep. He called, I told stories, he told stories and I was happy. It was pretty simple.
Oh, and before I left the hutong I collected a few of the bugs. It turns out they are Rolly Poly bugs or Pill bugs or whatever people call them. It also turns out that Tamara wants some for her science class. Unfortunately, they're still in the school apartment because I forgot them on my way out this morning. I hope they don't die after all the crap I went through to get them here!
Today, I asked one of the Chinese teachers about the water bill. I wanted her to translate so I knew what the heck we were supposed to pay $100 for. Turns out that instead of using decimal points, they write Chinese characters, so Y560 was actually Y5.6 and Y180 was Y1.8. The stupid thing is that if I had really looked carefully, I might have even figured that out before I had all sorts of anxiety!
Last week was my first week of school. I think it goes without saying that I survived. My classes went fine and the students are really great. Everybody is as helpful as possible, though, of course, not everything is possible. I feel like my classes are off to a good start, but I am incredibly disorganized. I have plans for a few weeks, but feel like they change a little every day. I guess that's par for the course though. I'm really not freaking out about school anymore, but I do feel like I have a lot to do to catch up.
Last weekend was pretty nice because I actually relaxed and managed to get out of the city for a day. On Friday after work, I went to our school social club's "Survivor Party." It was a barbeque and drinks at a bar sort of nearby. I had a good time talking to people and the food was o.k. I probably should have had more to eat before I started drinking, but that's a lesson that's hard to learn. Regardless of how quickly I felt tipsy or why (I'd like to blame some of it on exhaustion), it was meant to be an early night for me. I caught a cab back to the apartments with another teacher and was in bed by 11:30.
The next morning was hard. I had only had a couple of drinks, but the combination of that and lack of water and sleep was killing me. I had to be up at 6 and on the bus by 7 and I made it, with a few seconds to spare! I was off to a place that I didn't even know of and I still can't tell you the name, but it's somewhere South and West of Beijing. The ride itself was nice, there were only twelve of us on the bus, so there was plenty of room. I tried to sleep a bit, but wasn't very successful. The plastic palm trees by the side of the road were just too distracting!
We arrived at the park around 9 and the good (lead) climbers started setting up the routes for us top ropers. I was a little nervous, but not so much because I thought I would hurt myself. Actually, I was thinking, I hope I can make it up at least one of those! I think there were six different routes. I did two of them, the easiest of course. I did, however, do the second easiest one twice. I think I'm ready to do better the next time we go out. I realized that while it is more of a mental challenge, it was actually easier on my hands than climbing a fake wall, and there was less strength required.
We were at the park all day, so it was easy to get a nap in there, and then headed back to Beijing around 4:30. We went straight out to dinner (PIZZA!!) and then most of us went home to crash. I went back to the hutong because I thought it would be nice to go there and easy enough. I got home and started getting undressed and... knock, knock... crap. The neighbor was at the door so I had to get totally dressed again and see what she wanted (as if I would understand anyway!). I opened the door and she handed me something to do with the water. She said there were two bills, that much I understood, but when I looked at them I was shocked. One said Y560 and the other said Y180. I freaked out, because that's about a hundred U.S. Dollars for water! I even had a nightmare about it, well, that and the water damage in the house (I'm petrified that something bad will happen and I won't be there).
So Sunday I woke up early and did some laundry. While that was happening I laid in bed and read or re-read The Diaries of Anne Frank. I am planning on using a few excerpts for class, but once I started reading, I had some trouble putting it down again. Like any good war story, it left me really freakin' depressed! I felt like crap the whole rest of the morning.
Luckily, Dan called in the afternoon, and I was reminded why life is good and why I shouldn't be depressed. Actually, it wasn't that deep. He called, I told stories, he told stories and I was happy. It was pretty simple.
Oh, and before I left the hutong I collected a few of the bugs. It turns out they are Rolly Poly bugs or Pill bugs or whatever people call them. It also turns out that Tamara wants some for her science class. Unfortunately, they're still in the school apartment because I forgot them on my way out this morning. I hope they don't die after all the crap I went through to get them here!
Today, I asked one of the Chinese teachers about the water bill. I wanted her to translate so I knew what the heck we were supposed to pay $100 for. Turns out that instead of using decimal points, they write Chinese characters, so Y560 was actually Y5.6 and Y180 was Y1.8. The stupid thing is that if I had really looked carefully, I might have even figured that out before I had all sorts of anxiety!
Thursday, August 09, 2007
WARNING: I plead not guilty (for the style and appearance of this entry) by reason of (hopefully temporary) insanity.
sort of freaked out last night for various reasons and didn't write because i didn't have internet access in my apartment and aaaaaaaaaaahhh, they are currently playing really horrible screaching noises over the p.a. system. anyway, i've been uber jittery this whole week and last night was just sort of the worst. i was up well past midnight reading things in sort of a last minute attempt to cram everything ib myp means into my head. needless to say, it was a failed venture and then when i did try to sleep i found it near impossible. i actually had to do yogic breathing to fall asleep.
going back about a week now (time is going by sooooo quickly!!), i didn't do a whole lot on the weekend aside from going to ikea on saturday which was not really fun to say the least. i went with a list of things i thought it would be easy to get there and managed, more or less. i bought dishes and sheets for our king sized bed :-D a cookie tray, and other random things. i had about forty-five minutes to shop and we got there right when the store opened, so i just sort of shot through the store and then didn't really have time to get distracted by things, which was good. what i did buy actually came out to a little over 1000 kuai!! the most expensive items, though, were ones like the italian coffee maker (like the old one except with spare rubber thingies in case dan forgets to add the water again ;-) and the dishes and sheets.
in the afternoon i had planned on going climbing, but i was exhausted and it looked like it was going to rain. i ended up buying some food and going home to eat and sleep. sunday i spent most of the morning doing laundry and discovered the hard way that the exit hose was out of the drain... oops. water was all over the bathroom! and it wasn't clean either, it had all kinds of lint and crap in it. it was fun cleaning that up. the washer and dryer are actually really good though, i'm super happy with them.
sunday evening i went to changping to meet up with john and jennifer. taking the subway to jishuitan, it took me almost exactly an hour and a half to get to changping. i got there around 6 and both of them came to pick me up. it was really hard without dan there. i found i could communicate some stuff, but some of it was just impossible. they were asking about his brother's wedding and practically all i could say was that it was in a big hotel and it was really fun. i tried to explain that it was jewish, but they didn't get it and i didn't know the right words. all of this while i am riding a bicycle was a bit much.
when we got where we were going to eat, john handed me the menu to pick something. i really wished i could have spoken fluently at that point to tell him that we usually just point and see what we get, but that was too hard to say, and i don't really know if he would appreciate how amusing it is to us so i just told him i could only read two things. anyway, we had chuar and some bean things that were really good and we ate some jaozi on the side. we couldn't put them on the plates because they were pork jaozi and we were in a muslim restaurant. that was probably a total faux pas i think, to eat it there in the first place. anyway, it was good food and i'm not sure what we talked about but it wasn't painfully silent. now that i think about it, they may have just talked to each other most of the time, but i was fine with that. we drank a lot of beer, of course, and by the end of the meal i was pretty tipsy.
we went shopping for a bit (by that i mean we went to buy anti mosquito stuff and look at dvds for a few minutes) and then we went back to their place. since their new place is still just one room they set up a curtain between jennifer and i and john. i ought to mention that before i came, i had no idea i'd be spending the night and it was really bizzare to me that john had to sleep on the little bed and jennifer and i on the big bed. it was like some sort of false modesty or perhaps something cultural that i, having had many a sleepover in college and beyond, did not understand.
i brushed my teeth. they have running water, but no place for the dirty stuff to go, so that was interesting. they have the sink set up to run into a large bucket which they periodically empty. of course, this means that they also have no toilet, so we had garbage cans with lids to go in should the need arise in the middle of the night. i managed to hold out, but woke up every single time they had to go because peeing in a plastic bucket is LOUD when there are no other sounds. and jennifer pees a lot during the night!
5 a.m. rolled around and it was time to get on my way. by that point i regretted staying overnight and regretted having to work. but i made it through the day on monday the same way i've made it through most of the week, with horrible jitters and a lot of nervous energy. i'm sort of wondering what's going to happen when i'm not nervous anymore. i might just stop functioning all together and have a breakdown!
anyway, since monday it's just been one meeting after another and frankly, i'm really sick of meetings. i still don't have my room decorated and new kids and parents come to see us on saturday morning. yay. seriously, i will be enormously grateful for the first weekend i have when i don't feel like there are a million things i have to do, none of which are really to benefit me. this whole teacher thing... maybe i meant i wanted to be a professor. we'll see once the kids get here. i do have one kid that i'm already excited to see because he's from madrid. he's apparently sort of a pain in the butt, but i'll deal. anyway, i need to go get food and such so i am off for now.
going back about a week now (time is going by sooooo quickly!!), i didn't do a whole lot on the weekend aside from going to ikea on saturday which was not really fun to say the least. i went with a list of things i thought it would be easy to get there and managed, more or less. i bought dishes and sheets for our king sized bed :-D a cookie tray, and other random things. i had about forty-five minutes to shop and we got there right when the store opened, so i just sort of shot through the store and then didn't really have time to get distracted by things, which was good. what i did buy actually came out to a little over 1000 kuai!! the most expensive items, though, were ones like the italian coffee maker (like the old one except with spare rubber thingies in case dan forgets to add the water again ;-) and the dishes and sheets.
in the afternoon i had planned on going climbing, but i was exhausted and it looked like it was going to rain. i ended up buying some food and going home to eat and sleep. sunday i spent most of the morning doing laundry and discovered the hard way that the exit hose was out of the drain... oops. water was all over the bathroom! and it wasn't clean either, it had all kinds of lint and crap in it. it was fun cleaning that up. the washer and dryer are actually really good though, i'm super happy with them.
sunday evening i went to changping to meet up with john and jennifer. taking the subway to jishuitan, it took me almost exactly an hour and a half to get to changping. i got there around 6 and both of them came to pick me up. it was really hard without dan there. i found i could communicate some stuff, but some of it was just impossible. they were asking about his brother's wedding and practically all i could say was that it was in a big hotel and it was really fun. i tried to explain that it was jewish, but they didn't get it and i didn't know the right words. all of this while i am riding a bicycle was a bit much.
when we got where we were going to eat, john handed me the menu to pick something. i really wished i could have spoken fluently at that point to tell him that we usually just point and see what we get, but that was too hard to say, and i don't really know if he would appreciate how amusing it is to us so i just told him i could only read two things. anyway, we had chuar and some bean things that were really good and we ate some jaozi on the side. we couldn't put them on the plates because they were pork jaozi and we were in a muslim restaurant. that was probably a total faux pas i think, to eat it there in the first place. anyway, it was good food and i'm not sure what we talked about but it wasn't painfully silent. now that i think about it, they may have just talked to each other most of the time, but i was fine with that. we drank a lot of beer, of course, and by the end of the meal i was pretty tipsy.
we went shopping for a bit (by that i mean we went to buy anti mosquito stuff and look at dvds for a few minutes) and then we went back to their place. since their new place is still just one room they set up a curtain between jennifer and i and john. i ought to mention that before i came, i had no idea i'd be spending the night and it was really bizzare to me that john had to sleep on the little bed and jennifer and i on the big bed. it was like some sort of false modesty or perhaps something cultural that i, having had many a sleepover in college and beyond, did not understand.
i brushed my teeth. they have running water, but no place for the dirty stuff to go, so that was interesting. they have the sink set up to run into a large bucket which they periodically empty. of course, this means that they also have no toilet, so we had garbage cans with lids to go in should the need arise in the middle of the night. i managed to hold out, but woke up every single time they had to go because peeing in a plastic bucket is LOUD when there are no other sounds. and jennifer pees a lot during the night!
5 a.m. rolled around and it was time to get on my way. by that point i regretted staying overnight and regretted having to work. but i made it through the day on monday the same way i've made it through most of the week, with horrible jitters and a lot of nervous energy. i'm sort of wondering what's going to happen when i'm not nervous anymore. i might just stop functioning all together and have a breakdown!
anyway, since monday it's just been one meeting after another and frankly, i'm really sick of meetings. i still don't have my room decorated and new kids and parents come to see us on saturday morning. yay. seriously, i will be enormously grateful for the first weekend i have when i don't feel like there are a million things i have to do, none of which are really to benefit me. this whole teacher thing... maybe i meant i wanted to be a professor. we'll see once the kids get here. i do have one kid that i'm already excited to see because he's from madrid. he's apparently sort of a pain in the butt, but i'll deal. anyway, i need to go get food and such so i am off for now.
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