Day 390 Found a gem!

On Friday afternoon I took one of the newbie teachers to see my family doctor. She has gotten Beijing sick, and was just needing some care and reassurance from Dr. Bei Dong, who is an incredible physician. I may have shared previously that she calls herself a "Chinese redneck" as she did her residency training in Kentucky.  

I love her.

But I have to say, she is MORE than thorough. She saw my new friend, and got her all fixed up, then she held me captive for an hour.  See, I haven't really been to a family doc in nearly two years. By the time I left, she had checked ALL fluids imaginable, ordered a mammogram, bone density scan, eye exam, and a dental exam.  The dentist appointment was across town in the financial district, and it was for 5:00pm that day.  It was a LONG afternoon.

I got my new friend on the right subway headed back to our
side of town, then I turned and went on to find the clinic where
 the dentist was located.  Luckily, this was a good day for
me to be navigating may way around the city.
As I was walking through the Financial District, I stumbled
across this beautiful temple right in the middle of the CBD.

Marble carvings 700+ years old. Incredible.

The Temple of the God of the Capital

This is the rear chamber (the sleeping shrine) that was first
built in 1270 in the Yuan Dynasty. 

Originally there were several buildings and three courtyards,
but the rear chamber is all that remains. 

It has been beautifully restored :)

The beautiful temple was surrounded by one
bank or securities company after another, hence,
the 'Financial District'.  These beautiful marble
lion statues were outside the China Galaxy
Financial Holding Company Limited. The bases
of the statues read, "A groundswell of wisdom
and a galaxy of wealth."  Hmmmmm.....

As I left the dentist, (more appointments are
scheduled to replace fillings, smh) I sadly hit
Friday afternoon rush hour in the CBD.  This
was the mass of Chinese humanity waiting in
line to enter in to the subway station.  Oh, boy.
There is no way in the world I could make that
kind of commute in the 'jing, day in and day out.

After peeling off the stress of the day, between doctors and traffic, I was so excited to get back to my cozy apartment and begin packing my backpack for a most awesome weekend- camping overnight on the Great Wall of China!  Stay tuned :)

G'nite, y'all!

Day 388 Warhorse

At the end of the school day, as is every day, students are assigned to come to the classrooms to clean.  We have no school janitors, per se, unless you count the woman who pushes around a piss soaked sour mop in the ladies bathroom.  The Chinese apparently don't believe in using Lysol or bleach, though she does burn incense when she's finished, so that's a plus.

Which reminds me...

I finally got the word on the broken potty- while we are off school for Golden Week, they are tearing in to the Western toilet on my floor.  Apparently it is an even bigger problem than I suspected- one that involves jackhammers.

Back to the kids....

Though our rooms are far from 'professionally cleaned', coming from a mom who had a chore chart for her five kids, I appreciate the life lessons one learns in cleaning up after others.  The majority of our kids are 'privileged' as their parents and grandparents pay big money for them to attend school at BNDS. Now, I don't have the issues some of my colleagues are having in their rooms.  My kids are great about staying on top of the mess, but perhaps it's because they like the positive reinforcement from Momma K :)  Nevertheless, I love their attitude about sweeping up the mounds of silky black hair that accumulates on the tile floors in just one day.  I tell them what a good job they are doing, I thank them, and almost without fail, the student, in turn, thanks me- for being their teacher, that it is an honor to have me here, they want me to be happy, and that they take their responsibilities seriously.

Seriously?!

Seriously, these are the responses I have received this year from 15 and 16 year old kids, about having to clean my classroom. The funny thing is, not one of the kids who has cleaned my room is one of my psychology students- my room just happens to be their home room. Some days I love China.

Occasionally I leave chocolates for my Chinese babies to show my gratitude.

If it worked for Skinner's rats, it can work for me, too :)

So, after school today, I pedaled my big self to the grocery store.  I am becoming quite agile on a bicycle, dodging in and out of rush hour traffic.  I say that, but I had a close encounter with a city bus just yesterday that made me shout bad words as I slammed the brakes and jumped off my bike in a near miss.

Today was a new day...'get back up on that horse and ride it'...or something like that.

Real quick, though, back at the grocery store...I was coming out of the grocery  which is a good 10-15 minute walk from campus.  I had my back pack on all loaded up, and I had a bag of groceries hanging from each handle bar.  A BNDS boy came up behind me and said, "Teacher, I am surprised to see you here. Please let me carry your groceries home for you, it would be my honor."  I replied, "Heavens, no! That is so kind of you, but I can make it home on my bicycle just fine :)"  This boy is not one of my students either; his homeroom just happens to be my classroom.  What a sweet boy.

Have I said that some days I love China?

Then I remember.....

These kids will grow up, spit on the sidewalk, cut in front of me in line at the ticket counter, and push and shove me through the subway station.

I learn to take the good with the bad :)

I no sooner got home, unloaded my groceries, and was just beginning to prepare my dinner when the phone rang.  It was my friend Rob. "How spontaneous are you?" he asked.  I replied, "I can be super spontaneous, what do you have in mind?"

In ten minutes, I was meeting them at the north gate to go see a live musical production, at the other National Theater of Beijing (not the Egg).  Another teacher friend in their group could not make the show, and his loss was a HUGE gain for me!  Rob, John, Kirsten and myself had an awesome time.

In keeping with the 'get back up on that horse and ride' theme...

A professional Chinese traveling troupe was performing Warhorse.  I was not familiar with the story line. I have not read the book, and I didn't see the movie version that Steven Spielberg directed a few years back.  In a word, it was incredible.  Though the performance was all in Mandarin, I was spell bound.  The stage was sparse, yet so creative and artistic.  The 'backdrop' which was like a cloud of smoke, is where moving black and white scenes were projected.  Much was left to the imagination, and I was captivated.  I was only able to snap a few photos, then I got 'tagged' by an usher with a laser light. I'm such a rebel sometimes, geesh.

This was one of the opening scenes with all the townspeople.
The show is set around 1914 in Europe, during the outbreak
of the First World War.  It is a story of a poor farm boy whose
father buys a colt to become a plough horse, though Albert
trains Joey to become more of a beloved pet and friend.
Later the horse is sold to the British army by Albert's father,
in order to pay the rent on the family farm.  Albert grows up,
joins the army himself...and you can figure out the rest.

The puppeteers who were the horses in the show did
an amazing job, down to the horses' ears twitching and
eyelashes blinking.  I obviously forgot they were puppets,
as the battle scenes with some horses dying had me in tears.

English soldiers encountered German soldiers, who
could not communicate with each other, yet it was all
spoken in Mandarin...my mind was blown, y'all, lol. 

And this is where I got laser tagged, so I was sorry to discover
it came out blurry.  It really was a beautiful show.  Afterward,
we couldn't stop chatting about it the whole subway ride home :)
I love watching live theater, and to see a musical
in Beijing, in Mandarin, was truly incredible.

Some days, I really love China.

G'nite, y'all!

Day 385 BaDaChu; Eight Great Temples

On Sunday, I took a few new teachers to BaDaChu, also
known as Eight Great Temples which sits against the Westerlies
mountains out my bedroom window.  I am a new 'Social Director'
of sorts, and I sucked at it.  Let's be real. I introduced them to the
Beijing bus system, got on the right bus, but headed the wrong
direction. Epic failure on my part.  My face is red as I type this,
five days after the fact. We had PLENTY of time to get acquainted
as we rode all over creation and back.  Seriously, O. M. G. :(
As you cross the bridge to the first temple, the above photo
is typically your view...

...only that wasn't my photo, as there was no blue
sky. For as beautiful as it was yesterday on the
Great Wall, the pollution was on it's way up
the following day.  You can see in the photo as
we boarded the cable car, we were in pea soup.

The good news was as we rode higher, blue sky
was beginning to emerge. The bad news is that
the haze in the valley below meant that the city
was a little under the 'weather'. The Chinese
call it 'fog'.  It's not fog; call it what it is-
you're saving no one's face. Some days the
air can really suck here in the 'jing.

We bought tickets for the luge ride down.  One teacher had
her husband and young son with her, and I think both
boys were itchin' to go sledding down the mountain.
I caught this father and daughter as they came through
the trees from my cable car up above them.

After the LONG bus ride to the park, we were all starving.
Thankfully there is a delicious snack bar on top- bowls of
spicy noodles with all the trimmings for three bucks :)
Ice cream for dessert, of course!

We visited one of two temples on top...

...where I got Zach to pose with some Chinese warriors...

...I posed by the koi pond...

...we bought some coins...

...and tried our hand at tossing them to ring the bells.  Between
Zach and Jason, they hit them all, so I think we're covered
for love, success, wealth, happiness, and a long life.
Or maybe the bells meant other things- like there's
a donkey burger in your near future. Who knows?!

I think this has something to do with reciting prayers

 as you get the bowl to 'hum'. I just thought it was

 cute watching a little boy trying to do it.

We passed through the gate to the highest temple.  Rici is a
super nice Mexican-American girl who is our new Spanish
teacher for BNDS and the National school. I adore her.

Her bf is an English teacher at a primary
school in Beijing.  They were in Venezuela
last year, but broke their contract after the
first year due to the disarray the country is in.
It all sounded pretty scary to me; I am
happy they chose to come to Beijing :)

The locals burn incense before entering
the temple to offer up their prayers.

Guanyin Hall had a Buddha on a white elephant
to the left, and a Buddha on a lion to the right-
to symbolize the infinity of Buddhism.

There was a lookout point which also had an alter...

but you could barely see the city for the 'fog' down below.

And then it was time to ride the luge- my

favorite!  You have to be sneaky with the 

camera though, as there are 'security' guards,

(smoking and playing video games on their

phones) who will holler at you in Chinese. I

just laugh and give them a "Ni hao!" as I zip by!

The key to a great ride is to be sure there is
plenty of room in front of you, and not some
grand mama who rides the brake all the way down.
Scott had the best ride of all :)

In spite of our inauspicious beginning to the day,

we ended on a fast, high note for sure. There were

more temples still to explore, but we'll save it for

a blue sky, clean air day. Besides, the park is absolutely

beautiful when the fall colors are at peak.  

G'nite, y'all!

Day 384 Zhuangdaokou Village and Great Wall hike

Miss J and I had big plans for the weekend, so I went home
to her hood in the hutong.  We pedaled to Pebbles for 2 for 1
margaritas and a king size plate of nachos- delish.
(And then I may have been a bit wobbly on the bike ride home)

We had our little slumber party, then got up early on Saturday
to meet a group of her friends to go hike the wall. While
we each took turns using a shopkeeper's potty in his own
home, (China normal, they are so helpful :), I walked
around the village snapping pics- it's what I do.

As we walked through Zhuangdaokou village,
before the ascent, I loved how this little community
makes their living in agriculture and forestry.
Some of these gourds were strapped to the arch
to keep them from falling- they were huge! 

This donkey was taking a break in the morning sun.
Generally it was his job to carry bundles of sticks or
bags of chestnuts on his back down the mountain.

The mountains were covered in chestnut orchards.  You
could see the trees moving in the distance; it was the
locals, shaking the trees and beating the branches with
sticks to knock down the chestnuts.  Our van driver
explained that they store them in the freezer to add
to soups and stews during the winter months.

The first short section as restored- after that,
the remainder of the hike was up, up, up-
on nothing more than a goat path covered
in bushes and brambles.

The day was absolutely gorgeous- low 80's, beautiful blue
sky and AQI in the low 20's. I couldn't get over the beautiful day :)

The mountain views were stunning.

Just two science nerds; chatting it up on the trail :)

We climbed All. Day. Long. Lord have mercy!

The higher we climbed, we got views above the tree line.

I loved the challenge. the clean air. the
beautiful sky. the wildflowers. the bricks.
I loved MOVING. Happiest girl in China :)

We stopped for a rest, before our final ascent. 

These Chinese ladies had ALL the gear on, too cute.

Living in China has awakened my senses. It's
difficult to explain really, but I catch myself
smiling at all that I see, sounds I hear,
scents I smell, even something like touching
bricks hundreds of years old, to pull myself up
a watchtower. There is beauty all around us.

I don't know what it says, but even the
Chinese graffiti looks beautiful to me.
(Fun fact: I just tried to use my waygo phone
app that reads and translates Chinese characters-
it said something about three white braised eggplants.
I kid you not!  Eh, it still LOOKS beautiful :)

From atop the final watchtower, we enjoyed our picnic lunch.
A group of foreign exchange college students came up behind
us with their camping gear to set up on the tower for the night.
I am so excited, as I have signed up for an overnight camping
trip on the Wall for next weekend. It's a bucket list item for me :)

This was our view, of Little West Lake.

I have been here once before, last year at about this
time. Everything about it is beautiful from up here.

It was a quick rough descent, after climbing for several hours.
We all took turns slipping and sliding our way down.  I
would rather climb and be winded, rather than fall on my
hind end grabbing at tree branches and rocks! As soon as
we hit the parking lot (almost literally) I turned back to
look up at where we had just come from.  And I took
a moment to savor a picture perfect day one more time.

I love that for all her complexities, China
does have some things going for her- like
an entire bank of electric charging stations
for cars.  It made me miss the 'green living'
of a sailboat....one day I'll get back there.
Part of living in China is replenishing the boat
fund, and planning for an early retirement.

Once I got back to town, Jeanette and I hurriedly got ready
 and attended a birthday gathering of BNDS friends on the

east side. It was all I could do to drag my sore sorry self

home by 10pm.  Another big day was planned for Sunday,

and I needed some serious rest!

G'nite, y'all!