Day 734 New year, New school!!!

I really hate to brag, but my first day back at
school, at our NEW building on campus, I was
greeted by a talking robot- that actually engaged
in conversation!  (It was a little bit freaky!)

Our newbies, Leah, Noel & Sophie were quite taken by him/her :)

My new school has a coffee shop on the 7th floor, does yours?!

And it has a gorgeous atrium on the 7th & 8th floors- with water features...

...and beautiful lounging places...

And windows with retractable shades as the
sun moves across the sky during the day.
(On the days you can actually SEE the sun)

It is filled with beautiful live plants...

...and it even has palm trees.  This FL gal is in heaven!

Every floor of our building is filled with beautiful lounging places
for students and staff...newbie Chris was working on his laptop.
Each floor is color coded- 2nd is red for the National School,
3rd is blue for math and computer science, 4th is green for
English and foreign languages, 5th is teal for the sciences,
6th is orange for psychology, business, and humanities,
7th is violet for the performing arts, 8th is simply
cavernous space with room to grow.  It's impressive!

  

We have our own cinema at our disposal.
Faculty are getting together for Blazing Saddles
next week!   We can bring our own movies in
on flash drive to show on the big screen- wow.

We also have a 500 seat theater for the performing arts,
complete with an orchestra pit and all the stage lights
and huge dressing and make up rooms.
They spent MILLIONS on our new building!

Every science classroom, for biology, chemistry, physics, and
physiology and anatomy, has it's own lab in the room.
No more scheduling and sharing facilities.

Our first day of orientation for this year began
with the faculty photo in front of the new building.
Represented in this photo I see the USA, Honduras,
Scotland, Ireland, Thailand, India, UK, and China.

I am blessed to work with people from all over the
world.  Our three diploma programs (IB/AP/ AL)
have grown to 77 International teachers and
50 Chinese teachers- amazing :)  I see New Zealand,
Belgium, Korea, Ireland, USA, and Croatia here.

Just look at all of us!  To think they started the International
Department just 10 years ago with nine students and three teachers.
We now have 650+ students grades 10-12, and 127 teachers.

I am on the 6th floor, and I love the energy of the bright orange.
The lounging spaces, and the 'window seats' built in to the
hallway walls, all have outlets and ports for charging electronics.

I am room 601, right by the bathrooms (they know
me well, lol) and next to the Grand Hall where students
do their self study.  It is very quiet on my end and I love it.

The Grand Hall is a huge, and the kids work diligently and quietly.

This is my new room and I freaking LOVE IT.  I have the
smartboard, two wipe off boards, tons of space (my largest
class is 28) and each room was given lots of plants.  The
foliage, coupled with the new state-of-the-art air filtration
system keeps things smelling fresh.  I am a happy girl :-)

The wall of windows in my room looks out
to another atrium, a cavernous gathering
space for receptions, college fairs, etc. I love
all of the natural light.  We have had mostly
beautiful blue sky days since I returned.

My students need reminded to use their words-
in English only!  My first two units I teach
are the history and paradigms of psychology and
the research methods used in psychology.

Today was "Teacher Appreciation Day" and I was shocked to
receive a text that I had a delivery at the security gate.  I went
down to see what it was all about, and there stood my family
doctor, Dr. Bei Dong, who came all the way across town to
deliver a bouquet of roses for me to share with the other
international teachers.  She went to med school at U of K, so
her English is quite good.  I was so surprised to see her
that I started crying!  What doctor gives up her lunch hour
to come all the way across town to thank teachers?!

For Teacher Appreciation Day, we each received
a case of kiwis, and a case of mangoes.  OMG.
The margaritas I could make- if only Len was here...

...like the many mango margaritas we had when
I was home this summer- with fruit from our
neighbor's tree. Sooooo tasty.

Or mango jam! :)  Sadly, I have none of the supplies
or means to make either of these here in the 'jing.

I just have a case of mangoes from Taiwan as
big as a toddler's head!

Opening day of school last week was the usual
extravaganza on the soccer field.

It was complete with a number of student performances,
speeches, fun & games, and of course, the flag raising ceremony.

I still get a bit nostalgic for my own country's

national anthem...but I appreciate their patriotism.

You don't see anyone sitting down in protest here!

To cap off the end of the first full week of school, the
students organized a reception for the teachers to celebrate
Teacher Appreciation Day. We had a buffet of snacks :)

Kids spoke, and shared hand-written letters to their teachers.

I passed out the bouquet of roses from Dr. Dong.

Teachers were asked questions from the students,
like trying to get Mr. Hurt from the UK to sing :-)
(I think they're crushing on his British accent!)

All in all, it was a lovely reception, but it was
5pm on a Friday, afterall.  These are the faces
of some exhausted teachers badly in need
of a cold drink and the weekend, lol.
No school year begins without the typical
back-to-school stressers, and a few curve balls to boot!

So we're off and running for another year at BNDS-

a beautiful new building,

an incredible group of bright and talented teachers,

some incredibly bright and talented students,

and an administration that genuinely cares and

appreciates its faculty, staff, and students.

The school year is full of possibilities.

G'nite, y'all!

Day 731 Oh, the Chinglish

Chinglish is a REAL THING here in China....some things just do not make the translation.  I have posted about this before as I continue to find the humor in it- almost daily!

Like the bumper sticker that says, "Baby on Road"

or the sign at the fish market that says, "Fresh Crap"

And I have yet to figure out on the menu what is a "Fried Slightly Squeak".  I simply am not brave enough to order it.

This last week, I have been to the Alley Market several times, to help newbies make purchases for their homes, to get electronics taken care of (thanks, Joy! aka 'Radio Shack Guy') and to show the ladies where to buy a hair dryer that fits the outlets here, or where to get a pedi for $12.00.  

While I attended to their needs, I milled about some of the clothing stalls, and before I knew it, I had a whole slew of photos of Chinglish on Tshirts  :)

I. Can't. Even.

What?!  No really, WHAT???

Sometimes there are just random words
thrown together...so very randomly :-)

Chinese fashion includes sparkles and
sequins...lots of sparkles and sequins.

Hmmmm.....Existence as heart chose.
Again, I. Can't. Even.

This one took me back to my elementary days
and passing notes to Ricky Conrad...
Do you like me? Check Yes or Ne.
I mean, check Yes or No!

This one had a lot going on...only one word
is an actual word, but the whole front of the
shirt was covered in plastic, to contain the
red velvet lips.  I. Still. Can't. Even.

Coincidentally, while I was catching up on some local reading from my subscriptions in WeChat, I came across an article in That's BJ from July 24, 2016.  It was titled, "Why Chinese Designers Pick English Words for Tshirts." They had me at "Why"; I was captivated.

It begins, "Ah, English Tshirts in China.  Their baffling, humorous and sometimes completely inappropriate messages can make for viral gold." A Mr. Bakgwei was interviewed, and he explained that his wife is a clothing designer and wholesaler in southern China.  The reason there are English words on the shirts is because "English is cool".  As for the random words, though, he reports that "the vast majority of the people in the business are uneducated.  He knows of a 32 year old woman who quit school after 9th grade and she cannot speak a word of English, but "...she now makes 10s of millions of RMB a year on making bullshit shirts with random English words."  How does she choose the words?  Well, it seems that certain letters are considered 'more attractive' than others, such as the letters J, P, B, Y and O. On the other hand, the I and U are less 'good looking'  So this woman goes online, types a few letters to find a word or phrase she likes (how it looks), but then she changes letters to make it "look better".  Sometimes, though, it comes back to bite her in the a$$.  Thousands of shirts were returned to her that said "I'M NOT GAY"

So there you have it...Chinglish explained.

Now here's a shirt I would buy :)

And here are bathing suits I would not be caught dead in!
Chinese bathing suit fashion also leaves something to be desired.

What's even more funny than the suits themselves is that
the Chinese would not be caught in the water without a swim toy.

Whether it is fashionable, or they have a fear
of drowning, I simply do not know....
I took this when I visited Sanya Beach in South China.

While this guy was thrilled to get his photo with a laowai,
I was thrilled to get my photo with a grown a$$ man in water wings!

Oh, China, you keep me smiling most days :-)



G'nite, y'all!

Day 720 My summer at home was 'made'

My five week summer at home went all too quickly, with two
weeks spent on the road from FL-IN-MO-TN-AL-FL,
but still we managed to make the most of it.
We made a lot of music together this summer...

It felt so good to be HOME.

We made closer friendships with our new neighbors.  I am so
excited that Margie and Karen are coming to China to see
me in April 2017.  Let the good times roll!

The neighbor's mango tree was loaded...

...so we made mango margaritas...

...and mango jam...

...and more mango margaritas, lol.  Cheers, y'all!

We made memories taking the skiff out for
boat rides after a hard day's work.

I love the beauty of the Caloosahatchee River.  I feel like I
have the best of both worlds at our new home- living in rural
south Florida where I can hear cows bellowing (just like being
in Indiana!), yet I am looking out at palm trees- perfection.

On one of our boat rides, we stumbled upon
a waterfall in a cove not far from home :)

This summer we made a lot of berry zinger sweet tea.

This was a once-a-week chore, as we guzzled
the sweet tea working in the hot sun on our home.
South Florida in the summer can be brutal!

We made our home more energy efficient,
by adding more insulation in the attic.

Even with an early morning start- oh. my goodness. gracious.

On our way home from Branson, we stopped and bought green
coffee beans, so Len could start roasting his own coffee again.

He's so inventive- he made a coffee roaster from
a paint can drilled with holes, and using the
rotisserie on the grill!

Here he's teaching Karen the fine art of
listening for the sizzle, then the pop!
The neighbors loved the fresh roasted coffee :)

Len knows that turkey is one of my favorite meals, so he
had one stored in the freezer for when I came home.

We ate turkey every way imaginable for a week,
then we used the very last of it and made Greek
style turkey flatbread pizzas on the grill. Delish!

I was able to spend my summer making some memories with
my youngest daughter, Ellie, who is now a news reporter
for Channel 5 WINK news in Ft. Myers.  She is living so
close to my Florida home that it is a shame I have another
year of working and living in China.  

C'mon, Ellie, jump with me!!!

We made memories having a slumber party
at her new apartment, and I got to see
Willis T the sailor cat again!

He flopped for his momma.  I can't wait
to bring him home for good <3.

We made memories on the beach a couple of times...

Where somebody else made a sand alligator :)

This guy's services weren't needed this time, though a fourteen
foot bad boy was taken out of the canal behind us earlier this year!

I <3 the beach.

The beach is Ellie's 'go to' place, too, when she needs to de-stress...

We are beach babies and water babies at heart.

This summer I put the finishing touches on
the guest bathroom, like hanging the
water color painting I got in Hong Kong.

Len did a beautiful job building the shower (remember this
area was a home office before!).  I love that the shower
cubby is trimmed out in teak- to remind me of the boat.
The shower head unit was smuggled back in Len's suitcase
from China, as it is just like the one in my apartment!
The wooden picture on the wall came from Thailand.

I think the whole room turned out beautifully-
it is very 'spa like' and I dare say, 'cozy'  :)
I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to spend
some extra time in the guest bathroom, lol.

The next big project of the summer was to build
a deck.  Len poured a concrete slab before I got
home.  The plan is to enclose this area where the
house utilities will be stored.  The even bigger
project though, is a rainwater collection system.
We want to bring 'sailboat living' to our home,
so we can live more green and off the grid the
whole year through.  There is a 900 gallon
rain barrel that will go in this room. I'm so excited!

Framing up is the hardest part, but we made progress!

I am so happy we decided to spring for the composite decking.
It's so easy to install and it looks beautiful.

Man, was it a HOT job!  I can't wait to build
the boat dock with the same material- hopefully
when I go home for winter break :)

In keeping with the nautical theme of our home,
I didn't want traditional deck railing- I wanted
lifelines, like on a sailboat. Len said, "I can make that." 

So he did...

...and it was my job to run the drill press.
I love power tools :)

The deck panels turned out great!

I love the nautical look! (and him, too.)

With one panel built, Len finished the rest
by himself after I left for China.

The last project of the summer was to hang
hardiboard siding on the back of the house.
Eventually we want to cover the whole house in
hardiboard.  It will add another layer of insulation,
and is far more durable in severe weather. 

I also repainted all of the door trim.  It looks so much classier
with the lap siding, rather than the dense fiberboard panels.

It feels more like home all the time :)

This is where we left off when I flew back to China on August 17th, however, since then, Len has been hard at work....

He installed gutters on the back of the house
and built a rainwater collection system- from
scratch!  It's incredible.  I can have fresh rainwater
showers now- and the water is nearly pure.  The
water from our well measures 85 after going
through a filter system, the water from a bottle
of Aquafina measures 5, and the water from our
rain barrel measures 2!!!  So freaking cool :)

The utility room is now all enclosed, the room
next to it is an outdoor kitchen and beer brewing
 operation, and he added more landscaping rock.

Looking good :)

He also built a driveway on what was once a grass wasteland.

The next project was installing glass doors around the entire
side porch and back balcony...

Now we can open the french doors in our great room for
true indoor/outdoor living- all completely weather proof!
We have big plans for tiling the balcony, installing a wooden
 planked ceiling, ceiling fans, etc.  It's going to be great.

The latest purchase was 8 solar panels which will go between
the pergola rails of our new deck.  Many of the lights in our
home will be solar powered...

...and we're thinking of purchasing an electric car to
store power- it's the Chinese Way to travel!

G'nite, y'all!