China 629 He's here!

I got this photo from my love while I was getting ready for
bed last night...he was in Zurich on his way to the 'jing!
I took off Friday morning to get him from PEK-
I barely slept a wink last night.

If I can't be home with him in Florida,
second best is having him 'home' here with me :)

We took to being lazy on Saturday, the air
wasn't so great anyhow.  By Sunday, we were
ready to go play some frisbee in Sculpture Park.

Nice catch, Dr. Olsen!

Oooh, soooo fancy!

It was a picture perfect afternoon, and I
worked up quite a sweat...and acquired a few
bruises, too. I don't have the same skill set, lol.

We walked about the neighborhood, and watched
the old guys playing Chinese checkers.  It's not
the same game of Chinese checkers I played as a kid.

We stopped by the weird fish and flower market across from
the north apartments.  

We talked about the possibility of one day having a salt water
tank. I would love some tropical reef fish in my living room!

We were on the hunt for some fresh
herb plants like basil or cilantro,
but we struck out.  Instead, we ended
 up at the little dumpling place for some
shuijiao for a late afternoon snack- delish!

All I know is that I instantly feel better

having Len around. Like the Jack Johnson

song we love so well, "Better Together" <3

I'm looking forward to this next month in the 'jing- Stay tuned!

G'nite, y'all!

China 626 AP Brain Projects

One of the challenges of working for BNDS is that we are on the Chinese school calendar....in that respect we are not a true International School, but an International Department of the National School.  The Chinese schools are in session until July 8th!  The true International Schools here in Beijing finish the first week of June, as their school year is on the American system.  I only have a five week summer because of it, where my friend, Brandon, has been playing on the beach with his beautiful wife and daughter in the Philippines for a month already.  His Facebook posts are KILLING ME.

A second challenge of teaching under the AP program is that we must wrap up our teaching by the end of April.  AP Exams are the first two weeks in May, of which Psychology is always on the first Monday of May.  That is why I describe the school year and plowing through a 746 page textbook as both a marathon and a sprint.

The third challenge is that we have to keep the students (especially seniors) "actively engaged in educational activities" at least through graduation which is June 17th.  That is a month, y'all, and we can't show movies for a month!  (Though truth be told, I did go back and revisit Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and Roger's humanistic psychology while I showed the film Dead Poet's Society.) There wasn't a dry eye in the house at the film's end, and it provided many 'teachable moments' to discuss dealing with parental pressures and expectations to talking about suicide which is a harsh, but unspoken reality here in China. (There have been nearly 40 jumpers on the subway lines since I have lived here- so sad- God only knows how many other suicides go unreported in a city of 22+ million.) The kids were surprisingly open in their discussion, and suicide has touched several of their families.

We also went back and revisited the chapter on Motivation and Emotion, and I sneaked in another film- Pixar's Inside Out. The preteen girl, Riley, is uprooted from her home in the Midwest which allowed me the opportunity to about the geographical and cultural differences of the United States for my seniors who will be fanning out all over the USA.  Riley's family moves to San Francisco, CA, and she has to navigate a new school, new friends, new home, all while dealing with her emotions- joy, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust.  THEY LOVED IT, and again, there was barely a dry eye in the house by the end of the show. If you have not seen Inside Out- you must watch it- TODAY.  There's great psychology in it; and the creative thought that went in to writing the screenplay is phenomenal. 

So that killed two weeks time....since my Chinese babies in Grade 10 were doing their best to get a grasp of the brain and neuropsychology, I decided to do a final "Brain Project" with my AP kids.  We had all been instructed to do a final research paper or project with our seniors.  I was not about to grade 50+ research papers near the end of the school year, so a project it was!

They were tasked with two items- build a model of the brain
illustrating twenty required structures, then come up with a
creative presentation to explain at least fifteen structures
(like the hippocampus, occipital lobe, medulla, etc.)
This group was developing a board game, kind of
like Candyland, only different :)

I love this girl and her enthusiasm for learning.  She is
just a junior so she is enrolled in my Advanced Psychology
class next year.  First semester I will be teaching
Psychopathology (the study of mental illness) and the
second semester I will teach Health Psychology.

This group was building a jigsaw puzzle of the parts of the
brain out of layered foam board.  

These boys tried to build a diorama box to show the
interior of the brain. They were working on the cerebral cortex.

These girls were trying to work out how to get the
reticular formation coming up through the midbrain region.

Miss Christy is also a junior that will be staying with me next
year. She has an interest in being a Rehabilitation Psychologist.

These girls bought foam-like clay to build their brain model :)

This 3D model had 'lids' they would lift to reveal the inner
workings of various brain structures...kind of like a
pop up birthday card, only different!

Such a pretty brain, made by a pretty girl.

This senior boy had fun 'making snakes' for his
partner's brain model. He said to me, "This is so
fun to make snakes, I never did this before. I bet
I don't get to do this fun stuff in college."  I
assured him he would have lots of fun things
to look forward to in college, lol.

And then came the creative presentations....the only rule was
NO POWER POINTS ALLOWED! (The Chinese love to
make a PPT for everything!)  While these kids are normally
quite introverted and shy, let them put together some sort
of play and they come out of their shell in a hysterical
and overly dramatic way!  

Ginger was killing me; I was in tears from laughing!

These girls simulated a brain operation where an 'electrode'
(ear buds) were stimulating various parts of the brain and
the 'doctor' would describe it's function as the 'patient' acted it out.

One group did make a movie- ok, I'll allow it ;-)

The aliens trying to capture a human brain
also had me in stitches!  They made masks
from aluminum foil- but they had to have
their glasses on to read their scripts :-D
Too funny- I swear 90% of the Chinese
wear glasses- their eyesight is terrible.

While we got a lesson on the brain from Miss
Yvonne, the jockey was having trouble with
managing his horse who suffered from a
traumatic brain injury- too funny!

It was great for the kids that I got the AP principal and

some science teachers to come in and help judge their presentations.

They were so happy to perform for their teachers and principal.

I love that about the Chinese kids; they are childlike in that regard...

anything you throw at them, they just dive right in and give it 

their all- no whining, no complaining, no 'too cool for school.'

What a fun way to end the school year....

except I have graduation party plans in the making!!!

Stay tuned....

G'nite, y'all!

China 625 Psychology can be difficult to make the translation

For those of you unfamiliar with International education, there is a steep learning curve from the American educational system.  At Beijing National Day School, we offer three diploma programs which are recognized world wide.  The first is the International Baccalaureate, or IB program.  It is a holistic, interconnected curriculum across all disciplines.  It is very demanding, but produces life long learners who are fluent in at least two languages, who have completed community service projects, a research project and extended essay, and a challenging 'Theory of Knowledge' course which is similar to philosophy.  It is a different way of teaching and learning, that demands IB training specific to your content area.  Having this certification is typically the 'golden ticket' to teaching anywhere in the world.  If I were 20 years younger, I would pursue this certification, as I believe in the program.

The second diploma is the AP program of which I am familiar, as it is run by the College Board.  I teach AP Psychology here for BNDS; my brother, Kent, teaches AP Chemistry back in Lafayette, IN. Students who pass the AP exam (typically scoring a 4 or 5) can earn college credits while still in high school. In some ways, it is similar to being enrolled in dual credit courses, and many of these Chinese kids, (like three of my own children) will have a jump start on their college credits before ever setting foot on campus.  The course I teach here at BNDS is the very same content and pace as when I taught PSYC 101 at the college in IN before my move to Beijing.  It is both a marathon and a sprint to get these Chinese kids through a 746 page book and prepared for the exam by May 1st- but by golly almost ALL of them rise to the occasion!  The Chinese are incredible test takers :) 

The third diploma is the Cambridge International AS & A level program, based on the UK educational system.  It is an entirely different breed of animal, and I was hired to teach Psychology for this program, too.  Typically it is just a two year program (grades 11 & 12), but some AS courses are spread over grades 10 & 11.  Thankfully, Psychology is one of them taught over two years. It would be impossible to cover all of the content in just one school year. Psychology in and of itself is a foreign and often misconstrued subject here in China, yet the content of this curriculum is WAY BEYOND what any 15 or 16 year old kid can digest- even if they were a native English speaker. The kind of work they are expected to do in AS Psychology would be typical of a third year college student in a BS/BA Psychology program- I kid you not.  

In a nutshell, these kids are expected to read, comprehend and regurgitate 20 pieces of published research ("core studies") in Psychology, while simultaneously trying to learn a foundation to psychological terms and concepts.  It's beyond nuts.  Some of these studies are the more popular experiments that were conducted and published in the professional journals, like Milgram's (1963) experiment on obedience, Zimbardo's (1973) Prison Experiment, Freud's (1909) Little Hans case study, Rosenhan's (1973) On Being Sane in Insane Places.  But then there are those more obscure ones they must try to comprehend and memorize the minutest of details like Held & Hein's (1963) Movement-Produced Stimulation of Visually Guided Behavior, more commonly known as the kitten carousel experiment. Their exams are all in essay format, and they literally must recall every aspect of the experiment from the sample type, the research methodology, hypotheses tested, IVs and DVs, the procedure of the experiment, the results (which requires knowledge of statistical formulas) and whether the hypotheses were supported. Furthermore, they must offer supporting arguments for different types of reliability and validity, and the experiment's usefulness and application to real world experience. Ugh. These are my grade 10's, my "Chinese babies" as I call them, who have yet to develop a strong command of the English language.  Honestly, I feel sorry for them with this Psychology curriculum. It's ridiculous. There are college students who have a hard time reading and understanding published psychological research. 

Thankfully, I have two years to get through 20 core studies, which may sound reasonable enough, but I often have weeks of teaching the 'back story' to the research, giving lessons in psychoanalytic, cognitive or physiological psychology while simultaneously teaching statistics, critical thinking and the like.  It is very much like a Research Methodologies and Design course at the university level.  I do my best to take it at a pace they can handle, often front loading lessons with 50 new vocabulary words or more.  I feel like I am apologizing to them much of the time for how difficult the curriculum is....but some days, I change it up and try to make learning FUN instead of the drudgery of rote memorization of s**t they really don't understand!  Sadly, they memorize components for constructing their essays and I would venture to say that many of them have little clue of what it is they are memorizing- to them it would be like asking American students to memorize the Declaration of Independence, verbatim, without really 'knowing' what they are reciting.  That is the Alevel curriculum. Ugh. It makes MY brain hurt.

Before I could introduce Dematte's (2007) on Olfactory Cues
Modulating Facial Attractiveness, they had to have a foundation
on the human brain, neural activity, sensation and perception.
Mind you, I had to define and explain what 'olfactory' and
'modulating facial attractiveness' meant at the start.
Remember, these are ESL kids, and young ones at that,
so often when I am defining terms, I have to also define
the words that are used in the definition- kapish?!
Also, these kids study physics and chemistry, so they don't
even have a foundation in biology for me to work with.

In addition developing games with the 90+ flashcards they
had to make to get through the structures of the brain,
the parts of the neuron, different types of brain imaging, etc.,
we had 'art class' one day to diagram the parts of a neuron.
They loved it; and they sketched some impressive neurons! 

These kids got the field trip to the bathroom to illustrate
depolarization and action potentials of neurons firing
(more vocab words!)  The bathroom field trip is always a hit.

I then took them outside for a class period to play synaptic
tag- several versions of it- to illustrate antagonists, the
synaptic gap, enzymes and the reuptake process.
(even more vocab words!)

My Chinese babies had a grand time, and I would venture
 to say they won't soon forget all those vocabulary terms!

And just to be sure to lock in their understanding of their

olfactory and gustatory senses, for a lab I fed them Starbursts and

Warhead candies that I smuggled in my suitcase from home :)

Is it any wonder these kids love Psychology?!

(Seriously, the 'breaks' in teaching are more for me than them!)

G'nite, y'all!

China Day 621 #laowaistrong

I have several more blogs 'in the can' from when the grandchildren visited.  I will get to them in the coming days, as I have a 'light teaching week' ahead as the school year is beginning to wind down.

For those who follow me on facebook, you know that the minute Stephanie, Ava, and Eli left, I went to the hospital to get my problematic knee attended to.  I injured it hiking the Great Wall in the pouring rain, slipping and sliding for 6.5km, though I never did fall down.  In hindsight, it probably would have been better to have fallen down than to repeatedly 'jerk' myself into staying upright.  A full week of touring and traveling in and around Beijing following the initial injury made matters worse, as 'ain't nobody got time for (that)'; to simply rest and let the knee heal on its own. I tweaked my knee repeatedly, continued walking 20k steps or more daily, which in the end left me with a Grade 2 sprained lateral collatoral ligament (LCL).  Thankfully, there were no tears (Grade 3), and the MCL and ACL were still intact. I just had a significant amount of pain and swelling.  I was given crutches, and instructions to PRICE; Protect, Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevate.

I have followed those instructions to the letter, much to my chagrin, as I am not a person who likes to be incapacitated in any way.  I can tell you this much, our school campus, and Beijing itself, has never felt so BIG.  My armpits are in the twilight zone, but my knee is much better already.  The swelling is all but gone, and I nearly have full range of motion.  I am cheating a bit, and began to bear some weight on it around my apartment in the last day or two. It definitely is getting stronger. I was to be on crutches for two weeks, and I will reach that goal by this Wednesday.

Len arrives Friday morning :-)

I won't be running any marathons by next weekend, but I hope that I will be able to ride my bike to school once again, and to enjoy the simple pleasures of going to the grocery and running errands for myself.  I have received a tremendous amount of support from many of my teacher friends.  It has been overwhelming, really.  In fact, it moves me to tears as I type this.

In my adult life, I have always been the caregiver, the nurturer, the helper.  I know many of you, women especially, can relate to this. That has been my role in both my personal and professional life. It is my comfort zone, for sure, to be of help and service to others. It has been humbling for me to accept the offers of help, and to be courageous enough to ask for help these last two weeks.  These are more of the life lessons that I will take with me when I one day leave China.

When I returned to school on crutches, I was still in the "I can do it my own big self" mentality.  It's a damn long trip down the hallway (on slippery marble floors) to get coffee, fill my water bottle, make copies, run an errand, or to use the bathroom.  I brought an extra bag with me to carry on my back, and like the old days of waitressing, I wouldn't make a trip down the hall until I could take care of many tasks at once, in order to save steps. Well, I can't always time when I have to pee, lol, so in spite of my best efforts, I was schlepping down the hallway on crutches at least 8-10 times a day. By day's end I was completely worn out.  I would get home from school, throw something together for dinner (lots of Ramen noodles in the last week), grab an ice pack, and I was in bed by 6pm. I just couldn't take another step.

In spite of many teachers offering to help, I didn't take them up on their offer.  It's not my nature, but I thanked them for their kindness.  Deanna brought me super cold icepacks to use at school, Rob brought me cookies, and others dropped by my classroom to check on me or simply say 'hello'.  It wasn't until the third day, that my friend Ale, got through to me. In the words of Ale, she was feeling mad (at me) that I wouldn't allow her to help.  I hadn't considered that before; I simply didn't want to 'bother' anyone. She would hear me schlepping down the hall, passing by her room, and she popped up from her desk and came running in to the hall to confront me.  Her gentle way of saying 'stop it, Karyn'- let me help you- finally broke through.

Tom also came to my class to check on me, and he told my students, 'if Miss Karyn needs something, it is your responsibility to get it for her while she is on crutches.' While it was uncomfortable at first to accept their offers, slowly I did. I was eventually able to ask them without feeling embarrassed or ashamed. Students filled my water bottle, others got my much needed morning coffee, teachers or others students picked up my copies from the copy machine, and Kathy made a run to the 'free store' on campus to get me some much needed groceries and toilet paper!

As I have laid on the couch, or in bed, with my knee iced and elevated, it has given me lots of time for reflection.  Some of that has been good...I have prayed more, thought deep thoughts, and simply tried to find peace in the moment.  Too much time in one's own head, though, can also be that- just too much. I have had dark thoughts, too, fraught with anxiety and worry over things I can do nothing about, namely things in my past, but some have been about my present long distance relationship with a man I love who lives halfway across the world.

I have thought back to the 50+ years I have tried to be 'super woman'- super mom, super wife, super counselor, super teacher, super daughter, super sister, super aunt, super friend, super housekeeper, super cook, super team mom, super school club sponsor, super holiday planner, super vacation planner, super gardener, super birthday party host, and the list goes on and on.  I wore myself out, many, many times.  In my fatigue, I would lose my temper over the stupid little things, ("Pick your damn stuff up off the staircase and take it to your room, NOW!) simply because I was exhausted from trying to do it all...

...because I wasn't asking for the much needed help.  How many times did I go about it all the wrong way?  More than I care to admit.  It has broken me several times over in the last week to think back on these times.

I kept this pace up all my adult life, living on the promise of "a new day to start over" as my grandma taught me.  I would try the next day all over again to be the super mom, wife, professional, etc., and to do it perfectly. I was always driven by the need for perfection, when I should have been driven by love.  Why, I ask myself now?  The need for perfection was the driving force in my life, and it was fueled by a need for control.  These were deeply ingrained wounds and sickening motivations learned as a child who grew up in an alcoholic home. Being a perfect daughter still did not stop dad's drinking or abuse.  Trying to keep order in my world, to gain some semblance of control- for a situation (alcoholism) that was completely beyond my control- has motivated me all my life.

Even now, when my stress reaches a peak, in a fit of anxiety and despair, the first thing I do is tear in to my home.  In an effort to 'get control' I begin with scrubbing, cleaning, and doing laundry like a mad woman.  My kids learned to stay away from me then I was in a cleaning frenzy. Once my physical environment is under control, I can begin to relax, problem solve, and cope with whatever stressors I am facing.  This has been my M.O. all my life.  It has been exhausting; and sickening really.

Why couldn't I simply ask for help in those times of need?

I could have worked my way back to happy much more easily if I had simply asked for help.  I would have had more time for the enjoyable family pleasures. Instead, my dark moods and cleaning frenzies would distance me from the ones I loved and cherished the most. I lost myself, and lost my way so many times.  I have lost two marriages, in part, because of it.

Sometimes I simply have to stop myself in looking back.

So then I turn my thoughts toward the future.

I have another year of living abroad.  Some days I think I don't have it in me to do it.  I hate being apart from friends and family.  Being in a long distance relationships can really suck.  But I remind myself that I am strong, I am brave, I am courageous, and I can do anything I set my mind to.  I have proven that to myself over and over in my life.

Deep down, I know this experience of living in China is changing me.  I feel it.

So, I remain a work in progress. I hope some of the lessons I take with me is I don't have to do it all, I don't have to be perfect, and it really is okay to ask for help.  Those who love you feel somewhat cheated when you don't allow them to help you.  It's what love does; it both gives and takes.

Thank you Ale, and all of my friends here, for showing me that.

Thank you God, for putting this stubborn woman flat on her back so she can have her eyes opened to the lessons You need for her to learn.

In the words of my friend Carlos, who has faithfully taken me to and from school on his electric scooter every day, even when it means leaving early and staying late, our small community of expat teachers is #laowaistrong.  Thank God for #laowaistrong, because when you are stripped of friends, family, and familiarity in choosing a life abroad, you discover your faith and what you really are made of- the good, bad, and ugly.  While I have had to face my ugly, and am trying to make peace with it once again, I realize I am surrounded by much good in the world....

...right here in China...in Beijing...just little ol' me, from rural Indiana, now in a city of 23+million.

#laowaistrong

I am getting stronger every day.

G'nite, y'all!

China Day 610 ...and then there was none.

It has been a whirlwind two weeks here in the 'jing.  As you know from Facebook posts, my grandchildren, Ava & Eli, have been here visiting, along with my friend, Stephanie, who was their travel companion.  It is safe to say they are all world travelers now!  I am so proud of all of them, and how they adjusted and managed to a life that is so incredibly different (and at times difficult) from what they know back home in the United States.  China can be overwhelming, and at times she can break you, but each of them took it in stride.  I was so proud that they all kept their eyes and ears, and thoughts and hearts, wide open to this strange new world around them.  I know they all learned so much in their stay here, lessons that will hopefully reveal themselves even months and years to come.

They were incredible travel buddies, and we crammed as much as humanly possible into their 12 day stay here. In fact, it nearly broke Mimi down!

I'm still standing.

but barely.

on crutches, that is.

So bear with me as I attempt to catch up on blogs of the last few weeks.  I want to remember all the funny stories, crazy new experiences, and the very touching moments of these last two weeks while they are still fresh in my mind.  I will likely be working my way backwards through the photos!

I did up three loads of laundry yesterday, and packed the kids suitcases last night. Over our last meal together, (the kids ate Mimi's chicken curry and naan- they became brave in trying new foods, too) we laughed like never before.  Eli and I both had to get up from the table a few times just to catch our breath.  Nobody can understand the experience of a Chinese public squatty potty unless you have lived to tell it.   I even let them say a few bad words, because you just have to in order to describe a squatty potty in all of it's nastiness. We laughed until we cried.  It felt so good, y'all, to share in the laughter with them.

And then I cried some more, but none of them knew the reason why.

My granddaughter Ava's facial expressions and her belly laugh are just like her Aunt Carissa's.  This is my second oldest (step) daughter who I am now estranged from.  Seeing and hearing Ava laugh until she cried was like watching her morph into my daughter Carissa when she was a preteenage girl. I was reminded of the thousands of meals we had together as a family with all seven of us at home.  I miss Carissa so much that it physically hurts, and tonight it got me. 

I had to remind myself that though I am apart from her at the moment, she remains in my heart forever, and seeing Miss Ava bloom and grow is like seeing a part of her Aunt Carissa once again. I always felt especially close to Carissa, particularly because I was there to see her through her own growing pains as a teenager and young adult.  In spite of those times, Carissa brought me so much joy in being her parent.  So the fact that I am still a part of Ava and Eli's lives now, I am especially grateful. I continue to pray that one day things with Carissa and Michael may change; there is always hope.  Until then, I cherish any time I get with any of my family members.

In the meantime...laughing until we all cried was the perfect ending to our perfect time together <3

I hailed a cab for the last time for them, gave
the instructions to the cabbie, and they were soon
on their way.  They got this travel thing down!

Goodbyes are the WORST.

Off they go! Thankfully it was a beautiful day
for flying.  I pray all goes well on this final leg
of their adventure.  It took me a moment to
collect myself, and then I hailed a cab to the doctor.

As many of you are already aware, I tweaked my right knee repeatedly when we hiked the Great Wall over a week ago.  It was the only day of rain we had during their stay here, and it flat poured all day long.  We were all soaking wet and cold.  Our scheduled hike was 10km, but with the rocks and loose gravel being so slippery and wet, the guides cut the hike short after 6.5km.  Unfortunately for me, the damage was already done.

If I had been able to ice my knee down and let it rest, I might have escaped a worse injury. Unfortunately, this happened at the very beginning of their stay here, and I was not going to have my bum knee get in the way of all the sightseeing and adventures that I had planned for them.  I had made a 'calendar of events' and I was determined to stick to it.  We did it all- most days over 20k steps a day, and I was hobbling before we ever left for Tianjin this past weekend.  

I knew the damage was pretty bad, as I have felt this pain before (I tore my right ACL and had reconstructive surgery about 15 years ago).  I was just holding out until I could get the kids safely on their way home.  

They left at noon, and my doctor's appointment was for 1pm.

I am very blessed to have the best insurance in China. Ping An insurance is like the BC/BS of Asia.  The 20% copay is pennies on the dollar, and I am so grateful to have this insurance.  Given my pre-existing conditions and the cost of healthcare in the US, it is one of the reasons I chose to stay on for another year next school year- I am afraid I simply cannot afford healthcare in the US :(  It's a stark reality.

I knew I would need an MRI, and unfortunately I could not get it scheduled until 9am this Friday.  In the examination, as they manipulated my knee, something popped which I know was not good.  

Not good at all.

Tears sprang to my eyes, and the pain went from a 7 to a 10.

So, the waiting game to see if it is a torn MCL, ACL, or both, is complicated by the fact that I cannot take any ant-inflammatory medications, since I only have one kidney.  I can ice it (frozen peas on the knee), stabilize it (I am in a sleeve), and elevate it (it's up on a pillow), and that is about all for now.  I was placed on crutches, and given a topical pain reliever ointment to rub on my knee.  It gives me relief for about an hour, but I can only use it three times a day.  I am on crutches and ordered to bed rest until the MRI is complete and they can assess the damage.  Given the pain level, my doctor asked if I was willing to try TCM (traditional Chinese medicine).  I figured I have nothing to lose, so why not give it a whirl.

I was escorted upstairs to a Dr. Hao, who
is an acupuncturist. My Dr. Dong swears
by him, so it was worth a try.  Soon I
had needles in my left hand, neck, left
shoulder, spine, hip, knee and right foot.
First he did the back side, then the front.
After the needles were all inserted, he
turned on a heat lamp, and I laid there
for about 15 minutes.  I think I fell asleep!

Next Dr. Hao did 'cupping' which is also TCM.  This was
a little more painful, not going to lie.  I have had some
nerve pain in my neck and radiating to my left shoulder
since I returned from break in February. He felt confident
that he could correct my problem, by pulling the 'wind' from
the tender areas in my neck, back and shoulder. Hmmmm...

Today I am bruised from the cupping (which is
essential to the treatment), but I have not had
the 'hot knife stabbing, tingling, or numbing
pain' at all today...so maybe it works afterall?

All I can say is my apartment is strangely quiet....and lonely.... today.  I do not cope well with bed rest.  Even if I am in pain, I am a girl who likes to be on the move.  The fact that this has all happened on the heels of the kids leaving China makes today seem especially.....boring..... at the moment. My friend Tom is bringing home my textbooks and some Thai food for dinner, so there is that to look forward to :)

Fingers crossed that two days of bed rest will give me a more favorable MRI result on Friday morning....until then, I see lots of movies in my future, so long as my internet connection and VPN hold out.

G'nite, y'all!

PS.  I received a text from my daughter Jennessa a bit ago, and the kids are on their way home from the airport, talking a mile a minute and talking over each other with all of their stories to tell.  I'm not surprised! 

And Jennessa, I am just going to offer a blanket apology now for the days of jet lag you have coming ahead...the kids will seriously have their days and nights completely turned around for awhile :( Hang in there!  I love y'all.  so much.  xoxoxoxo, love, Mimi

China 609 Summer Palace and climb time

I sent Stephanie and the kids to Summer Palace
on their last day here to explore on their own.
I had to work, my knee was severely swollen
and hurting, and it is an easy subway ride to
get there and back.  They had been on and off
public transport for over a week, and I was
confident in their skills to not get lost and to
find their way back home okay :)

They had a fun day exploring the beautiful buildings,
walking the long corridor, and taking a boat ride on Kumming Lake.

Again, beautiful views of Chinese architecture at every turn.

They got to see the impressive marble boat, which is
better than the one in Tianjin.

We are all water babies, so anytime there is swimming or
a boat ride involved, it's going to be a good day!

 

They had a wee blip in getting back home since
they exited from a different gate, but they
figured it out without incident- so
proud of my Beijing Explorers!

Because their new friends and classmates were all broken up
and sad over their leaving last week, they decided to stop
in for a final surprise visit and goodbye before leaving tomorrow.
They had sacks of candy to pass out to their new friends.
They were again welcomed with squeals of joy!

I am so thankful for their educational and cultural experience
at Jian Hua Experimental Primary School. It was perfect :)

After school, they had a final play date with
their new friend, Zach, and Milan- one of
our PE instructors that hails from the Czech
Republic.  He is a climbing instructor, and
BNDS has a most impressive climbing wall!

It is over five stories tall! That is Eli,
scaling his way to the top :)

Ava scurried up in no time!

My teacher friend, Alejandra got in on the action, too.

She's so fancy :)

No matter what route Milan gave them,
the kids climbed up to the challenge!

Ava was in her happy place :)  Namaste!

After the third trip up, and the most challenging yet,
Elijah was worn out and ready for a snack!

We never made it to the market place behind my
apartments, so we stopped in for a donkey
burger for an after school snack.
Eli loved the donkey burgers, which really
are not a burger at all.  It's more like a
pastrami (shaved meat) seasoned with
green peppers and served on a flat bread.

The shop keeper was very proud and pleased that
the little Western kid enjoyed his donkey burgers!

As the day came to a close, the water fountain in my apartment
complex was turned on for the first time this season. It was
the perfect backdrop for a last photo of the kids in China.
Tonight we pack, and tomorrow they fly home.
I will be in the very next cab on my way to the hospital.
They done wore Mimi out!!! lol

I have to say though, I couldn't have asked for a better time with my grandkids.

It was soothing food for an aching soul.  To be with my good friend, Stephanie,

someone from home who knows me well (and loves me anyhow) was also much

 needed. So often I am simply in 'survival mode' here in China, to have visitors

from home will buoy me for months. I look forward to next year's visitors :)

(hint, hint, people!!!)

I love you guys, from the bottom of my heart,
thank you for coming to China <3

G'nite, y'all!