Day 736 Physical Touch

Those who know me, (and my Chinese babies are now accustomed to this) I am a toucher and a hugger.  It's just who I am; always have been, always will be.  I believe there can be great comfort and healing in touch.  There can also be pain, so we must be mindful of how we touch.

I have been dealing with a toothache from hell.  It started weeks before I returned to the 'jing.  By the time I landed back in China, I was pretty sure I was in for some major dental work.  I was right.

I was so crazy busy the minute I landed, tending to the newbies, I just kept popping Tylenol and kept on with things.  As it turned out, the first time I could get in to the dentist was also the first day of students at school.  Terrific.  I had a couple hours free before my first class, just enough time to get a root canal.  They opened the clinic 20 minutes early to be sure I wouldn't be late for my student's first day. The Chinese really are SO NICE.

So, off I went, butts to nuts on the subway with all the other
early morning commuters at the height of morning rush hour.
While some of my friends have chosen to live in the hutongs,
you could not pay me enough money to make this commute-
twice a day, no less.  Did I mention my whole face was throbbing?!

Fortunately the Dental Clinic is straight up Line 1, in the
middle of the Financial District and near the Second Ring Road.
I don't know what this statue is about, but amidst all the banks
and such is a lovely green space.  Beijing has beautiful green spaces.

As I walked along to the dentist, at nearly every
crossroad, there were these green ceramic things
on the sidewalks.  Curiosity finally got the best of
me and I stopped to have a look. YIKES! Rat poison!!
(I hate to admit, I have seen two rats already in the
two weeks I have been back.)  I had only seen one
in the previous two years, but Beijing had record
rainfall and flooding in the month of July.
It must have flushed all the vermin out- ewww.

Surrounded by modern glass buildings is an
ancient temple that has been beautifully restored.

And on the temple's courtyard, some old folks were
practicing tai chi forms with swords- very cool :)
It was a lovely morning walk on the way to the dentist chair.
(Have I mentioned I strongly dislike going to the dentist?)

The root canal was as expected; I've been through one before.  She offered pain medicine, and I respectfully declined. (I lived to regret that decision about 8 hours later, and on in to the next three days- OUCH) True to her word, though, she got me back on my way to school in exactly an hour. Still worried that I might be late for my first class of the school year, I rushed all the way back to BNDS from the Yuquanlu subway stop.

I must have looked a bit frazzled, and in pain, when I jumped on the elevator.  There stood the ayi who cleaned the floor my classroom was on last school year.  I had not seen her yet this year as we are in a new building, and I am up on the sixth floor.  She knows my Mandarin is terrible, as I basically get stuck after the typical greetings and pleasantries.  Nonetheless, we would smile, and chitter away, her in Mandarin, me in English.  Often she could compliment me about my green eyes, or my hair, or the clothes I was wearing that day.  Such a sweetheart.  Again, the Chinese are SO NICE.

Well I must have had a different look on my face when I got in the elevator.  Though it was the first we had seen each other in nearly two months, after the welcome back hugs, she looked at me and smiled...and then something funny happened...

She stopped the usual chittering, and grabbed my hand.  She patted it, and stroked it, and tightly held on to it.  I was in pain, and I was stressed, and she chose to stay with me and ride all the way up. She closed the door where she was to get off, and continued up to my floor.  Just her and I, and her holding and patting my hand. Something transcended the usual language barrier that morning.  It reduced me to tears..

...because it was just the physical touch I so desperately needed, right at that very moment.

There are angels everywhere.

I met one this morning.

G'nite y'all!

Next week, when I return to the dentist for Round Two, you can damn well bet I'm taking the pain medicine this time- geesh.

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!