It has been a whirlwind summer for this traveling fool. I plan to do some catch up blogs of the summer highlights, so stay tuned. The Reader's Digest condensed version looks something like this: Beijing, to Doha, to Miami, to Indiana, to New Jersey, back to Florida (2900 miles in a moving van in six days!) to buying a house and beginning MAJOR renovations, to Hawaii for a week with Emily and Ellen, then back to Beijing the day before yesterday. Whew! This old gal is a little on the tired side, not to mention being severely jet lagged. I landed in Beijing at 6am on Tuesday, August 25th, after an eleven hour flight from Honolulu. After getting through customs, picking up my HEAVY luggage, standing in the taxi cue, and negotiating Beijing morning rush hour traffic, I got back to my apartment at 8am. I hastily showered, made some coffee, threw on a dress, and reported to work by 9am. Again, WHEW!!!
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Look who was outside my apartment when I came
lugging my luggage straight from the airport???
MY PUPPY!!!! I about cried with happiness that
she is still hanging around. Then I nearly cried with
sadness that I had nothing to feed her. :( She and I
will soon get reacquainted. I was just thrilled to see
that she is still alive, almost as thrilled as all the
old folks and neighbors were at seeing me back again.
I have never been greeted so warmly and excitedly
by so many people in my life. It warmed my heart <3 |
While some colleagues did not show up for work my first morning back in the 'jing, I managed to hang in there working on my classroom and catching up with friends until 1:30pm. By then, I was toast, and I was home and in bed by 2:30pm. I didn't wake up at all until 10:30pm. I unpacked some, and tried to get a bit more settled in my apartment, and was back in bed by 1:30am. I woke up yesterday morning at 8:30am, feeling somewhat halfway back to normal...nothing that some Cuban coffee and a couple of Excedrin migraine formula pills couldn't resolve :) Such is the life of trying to re-acclimate to living halfway around the world in a time zone twelve hours' difference from my 'home'.
My bestie Jeanette had the presence of mind, and kindness in her heart, to feed me some delicious homemade food, knowing full well I had not been to the grocery yet. Last night it was a Vietnamese dinner out with friends, then I was home, taking melatonin to sleep, and I was back in bed by 11:00pm. This morning I hit the alarm at what is the usual 6:30am, to report to work for a busy day of back-to-school meetings with the full international staff at BNDS. We have 21 newbies on board, from all parts of the world- Czech Republic, Scotland, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Romania, Canada, and all parts of the US. I love having such an eclectic and interesting mix of coworkers- including the nearly 50 Chinese teachers, too. BNDS continues to grow, with over 120 international teachers on staff, serving over 650 students in grades 10-12. I love my job, and after today, it DOES feel good to be back in the People's Republic of China....
except for the kids, dogs, (and occasional adults) peeing on the sidewalks, grass, and bushes
and the spitting... So. Much. Spitting. UGH.
and the split pants (still not used to littles' privates out on display for all to see)
and the pushing, shoving, throwing elbows, and clothes-lining with the locals in any public place
and the chewing (LOUDLY) lip smacking, slurping, belching, and all sorts of disgusting noises at
meal times, anywhere and everywhere
and the stench of public squatty potties- which today, after just three days of school and NO STUDENTS YET, the stench is already eeking out of the squatty potties in our new building.
That's right, we are temporarily moved to a new building, but that is fodder for another blog...
So, after a day's worth of orientation and meetings, I was able to leave work at a reasonable hour to take the bus and begin the scavenger hunt of restocking my pantry with all the good things to eat. It took no less than three grocery stores/alley markets and a bakery, but at least I was able to stay on my side of town. I was loaded for bear walking back to my apartment complex. I could feel the vertebrae in my poor old spine compressing under the weight of it all, and I thought my arms would fall off before I could manage fitting the key to my door of my ninth floor apartment. WHEW! (Except remember that it isn't
really the ninth floor, because there is no fourth floor button in the elevator, because four is a
bad number in the China). If you live on the 16th floor, it really is the 13th floor, but there's no 13th floor button (an unlucky number for Westerners), nor is there a 14th floor button, because it contains the dreaded number four (which means death in China). So, in essence, when you take away those three buttons in the elevator, your 16th floor is really thirteen stories up, but you live on a floor that doesn't exist in Chinese culture- did you follow all of that?!
Yeah, the China can be confusing as hell sometimes. Mostly it makes me giggle and smile inside out.
The good news in all of this?!
I LOVE grocery shopping in the China! Food is so ridiculously CHEAP! I am reminded once again, how in many ways, I am incredibly blessed to have this opportunity to live and work abroad, meeting awesome people, making great money, traveling to all parts of the world, and STILL saving for retirement and the 'bigger sailboat fund.' (I've got my eye on a 40' sailboat for when I can officially retire and get back to some more sailing adventures in my life. Hopefully, it's just a few short years :)
Back to the food- the wonderful, delicious, food. It is so easy to live a heart healthy, kidney healthy and blood pressure healthy lifestyle on a diet of all the available fruits and vegetables to be had. There are still some that I cannot identify, and I wouldn't know how to prepare them if I did know what they were. One of my goals this year is to enroll in a couple of cooking classes to become better versed on local gastronomy. In the meantime, preparing food at home is a much healthier option, as the Chinese love to fry most things in vats of oil, and the majority of dishes are
loaded with MSG, which is not good for an old broad with high blood pressure and one kidney. I plan to cut beef, chicken, lamb (and yak!) consumption even further this year. My goal is to have any type of meat just once a week at most. I have other goals, too, like even more faithful workouts, further involvement in school activities with the students (perhaps jumping back in to plays/musicals, or extra curricular sponsorships), getting more comfortable on the bus system (I've conquered the subway), and expanding my Mandarin vocabulary beyond 10 words. I still play one helluva game of Charades, although I slipped back in to Spanish without thinking on my second day here!
Again, back to the food....
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"Seasonal" is a word that got lost in translation in the China.
It does not mean that Halloween decorations are out in August,
or Christmas decorations are out in October. "Seasonal" means
there are over 100 varieties of soy sauce on the shelves.
I couldn't help but giggle when I snapped this pic. And I'll
be danged, I could not find the one soy sauce I do like- so I
came away from "Seasonal" soy sauce-less. Le sad. |
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To give you an idea of how ridiculously CHEAP groceries are
here, the head of cabbage was 38 cents, the head of red cabbage
broke the bank at 47 cents. The head of broccoli was $1.00, the
bunch of fresh asparagus was 90 cents. Two heirloom tomatoes
were 30 cents, the zucchini was also 30 cents. Four huge plums
were just 50 cents, and big beautiful peaches were 20 cents each.
The big bunch of lettuce was just 60 cents, and the pound of
ground fresh pork was $1.19, but that will be three meals for me.
Crazy, huh?! On the flip side though, the jar of imported
feta cheese was $9.00, and I paid $3.00 for a can of black olives.
And now you know why I smuggle peanut butter and Kraft mac
and cheese in my suitcase when I return from the States! |
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Tonight for dinner I made a HUGE salad with all the veggies, and
I sauteed the asparagus in olive oil and fresh pressed garlic. YUM :) |
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While I was busy slicing and dicing, I also made
a big bowl of coleslaw to last me the week.
Actually, the slaw was my dessert :) Why?!
Check out my recipe; it's quite delicious... |
Karyn's sweet and tangy slaw
1/2 head green cabbage shredded
1/2 head read cabbage shredded
2 carrots shredded
1/2 red pepper and yellow pepper diced small
1/2 package of almonds
1/2 package of dried cranberries (from Aldi's, also smuggled in my suitcase!)
3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
6 tablespoons of pure coconut oil (from Hawaii, again, smuggled in my suitcase!)
dash of salt and pepper to taste
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Lastly, inspired by my Honduran friend, Alejandra, I made
some fresh peach infused water to take to work tomorrow. Our
hotel in Hawaii offered fresh apple/cucumber or fresh lemon/lime
infused waters in the lobby every day. Drinking more water is
also another goal of mine to help my one kidney along. It is so
incredibly dry in China. (I also smuggled back ten bottles of
coconut body cream to last me the year. Oh, and don't forget the
four tubes of Sensodyne and the twelve bottles of hair dye, lol.) |
And now you have the
rest of the story to my lugging very heavy luggage from the airport.
Still, I remain the happiest girl in China!
PS. Yes, that's Jack Johnson, Hawaiian home boy, playing on my Ipad. Thank God for a working VPN so I can listen to Pandora :) I also renewed my NFL Game Rewind membership, so this girlie is ready for some football!!!
And that, kids, is how you survive the China- good food, good friends, good attitude, great faith, a working VPN and the internet for all forms of entertainment, and the occasional glass of wine :)))
