Day 419 Well THAT was interesting.

School field trips are SOOOO different here at BNDS.  We ride in chartered coaches. Check!  We are not assigned a group of kids to chaperon all day. Check!  The administration gives us cash to pay for lunch, souvenirs, or whatever else our heart desires. Check and Check!  You read that right; we get paid additional money for attending the 'required' field trip.  There are so many, many reasons I love my job here in China.

Our trip this past Friday was to a car museum in the morning, then to Beijing Forestry Park in the afternoon.  The Lord saw fit to bless us with a beautiful blue sky, clean air, autumn day- perfect for spending the day out of the regular classroom. I was the happiest girl in China.

So, while an auto museum may not exactly be 'my thing', it turned out to be a pretty interesting day...

This 1925 Citroen 5HP was made in France.  It was bought by
a couple who then drove it 16,000km across nine countries to
recreate the Beijing-Paris Car Rally of 1907.  After the
centennial of the rally, Peugeot-Citroen bought back the
car and donated it to Beijing for display in their museum.

How about the Bugatti?

Or this Lincoln Town Car?

DongFeng was the first state owned Chinese auto manufacturer
which began in 1969 under Chairman Mao Zedong as part of
his "Third Front" strategy.  Given that the Party had its hand
all over it, it was naturally painted red and had a golden
Chinese dragon for a hood ornament. It's the Chinese way.

My favorite car of the day was a silver 1985 Grand Jeep Cherokee; one of the first American cars to roll off the assembly line in China for the Chinese markets.  I remember what a stink this caused for the UAW, "We're losing our jobs to the Chinese."  "The automakers have gotten greedy by producing car parts in China." Well, China now represents the largest Jeep market outside of the United States. Interestingly, the first completely locally produced and assembled Jeep Cherokee rolled off the assembly line at the Changsha plant here in China just this past Monday, October 19th.  While the US produced about 798,000 Jeeps two years ago, Fiat-Chrysler (who partnered with Guangzhou Automobile Group in China) is planning to build 1.9 million Jeeps by 2018 in ten plants throughout China, India, Italy, Brazil and the United States- proving it really has become a global economy.  It seems to me that it really doesn't play to take up your ball and go home- nobody wins.

But I'm no economist; I just teach psychology.

And I probably just stepped into a pile of poo right there :/

The second half of the day was equally interesting.  I say that because we went to a beautiful park in western Beijing.  You know I love the outdoors; I am a country girl at heart.  Any time I can stretch my legs, put my face to the sun, and enjoy nature, well, that makes me the happiest girl in China. What made it 'interesting' is that, like much of China, it is a bit of an illusion.  Parks are built here. Lakes are made. Trees and flowers are planted. Waterfalls are not real.  Even the rocks themselves are usually not real.

At least not in the parks.

Which is why I love going on hikes with the Beijing Hikers Club.  It gets me away from the tourist traps and the 'restored' sections of the Wall, and out in the far reaches where it's wild and woolly, and the only other people I see are the few that happen to be hiking with me.  More on that topic in tomorrow's blog, as I hiked another new (to me) section of the Wall on Saturday.

My friends and I looked for a sunny spot to have our picnic
lunch then we set out exploring the park.  It was a gorgeous day.

We kept seeing arrows pointing to "Water Gurgling from Rocky Cliff".  You also know
this girlie loves to stick her head in a waterfall, so I was bound and determined to find them.
As we arrived to the first of many "waterfalls", we were greeted by this explanation.
Now, Westerners remark all the time about things here being "fake", to which the
Chinese often reply, "Oh, no, it's very beautiful!  I give you good price!"
Surprisingly, they didn't save face over the "waterfalls."
They admitted on a park sign that the waterfalls were, indeed, fake.

 

Yep, they were fake. And odiferous.
I refuse to put my head in a fake waterfall. smh.

What was this? A hot springs? It looked interesting.

Until the 'steam' cleared. Then started up again a few minutes
later.  Yep.  Even the 'steam' was FAKE.

Well this was a pretty water wheel.  Except it wasn't powered
by free flowing water. The 'fake' waterfall was too far away.
So the little school kids would randomly spin it as they walked by.

Speaking of which, the park had busloads of elementary
kids spending the afternoon there.  If I said "Hello" once,
I said it at least a hundred times.  As soon as a little
Chinese kid spotted a laowai, the whole lot of them
would file by waving and saying, "Hello!" "Hello!"
"Hello!" "Hello!" "Hello!" "Hello!" If I waved
and said back to them, "Hello!  How are you?"
They got all wild eyed and would start giggling.
I get it kids; I get stuck after "Ni hao", too!
At least a dozen of the more brave Chinese
littles asked if they could take a photo with
me, like this little cutie patootie above :)

Ok, at least the flower was real.

And Jade, my Scottish lass is real; the boulders, however, are fake.

The pond?  Fake, too.

You could even see the buckets holding the lily pads in the water.
Everything you see in the photo was built or planted- except
for the Westerlies mountains in the distance.  Those or real.
Or maybe they're nothing more than a giant landfill from Beijing?

 

So, we traversed across fake ponds on fake rocks.

And we climbed on fake rocks to fake that we were
planning to jump to our death into a fake pond.

And we admired the fake "Water Gurgling
From Rocky Cliff"

As we meandered through the beautiful fake
park, we came upon a fake pagoda.

As for Douglas the Fall Fairy? He's totally real.

One of the few real things of the day was Enrique, the
praying mantis that Carlos found walking along a fake tree branch.

  

Isn't he cute?

As we exited the park, a number of street vendors were
selling their wares. Chestnuts and walnuts are being harvested
now, and several teachers bought sacks of them.  I found a
guy making homemade sweet potato chips and they were REAL,
as well as realllllyyyy good.  I bought two bags, with the real
money that was given to me on the bus that morning :)
However, the soup above was a little too real for my liking- pig's
stomachs, brains, intestines, lungs, and other unidentifiable
parts mixed in with steamed dough for good measure.
Um, no thank you. Much too REAL for me.

After a long day of kids, and hiking, and being
in the great outdoors, I was pooped when I got
home.  I promptly fell in bed for a late afternoon
nap.  It's the Chinese way.  I was startled awake
to hear scratching on my bedroom window.
What on earth?! You see, I live on the ninth floor.
I threw back the bedroom curtain to come
face to face with a grinning Chinese man
waving excitedly and shouting, "Hello!"

Well, hello to you, too, sir!

Could the day get any more weird?!?!

Thank God I was fully dressed, lol.

 

G'nite, y'all

Day 418 It's a small world, afterall!

Often times, I am struck by how small the world really is.  I frequently meet people here in China from the Midwest.  Several of my BNDS teacher friends hail from my home state of Indiana, though we did not become acquainted until we moved here.  There are three of us on staff at BNDS that are from the Florida Keys, which is really unusual.  As I meet other Westerners on the subway or the other side of town, I often am able to form a connection to my home state, Florida, or my college alma mater(s). 

So I now find myself living 12,000 miles from Indiana, which has been my home nearly all my life. If you were to dig a very deep hole from what was once my backyard on Mechanicsburg Road in Middletown, Indiana, you would pop out very near to Beijing where I currently live!  While it feels as if I am a world apart from 'home', (it is sooooo very different here) there is comfort in the familiarity of plants and trees and flowers that grow here in China- due to the fact that both of my 'homes' (previous and current) are close to the same latitude.   

Truth be told, I actually had two homes on Mechanicsburg Road.  The first one was a five bedroom Cape Cod style home that I designed, and Donnie and I had built, soon after we were married.  It was a wonderful home with acreage in the country for our blended family of seven; perfect for raising all five kids. As the three older ones all graduated high school and left for college, it was becoming far too much house to maintain for a family of four.  We made the decision to move further up into the woods, and build a smaller log cabin (my dream home).  

We spent the next few weeks getting the Cape Cod home and property in 'open house' form.  I then put an ad in the local paper, put a sign out on the road with some balloons, baked a tray of cookies and had an open house.  It sold that very weekend.

The new owners, George and Stephanie Wilson, were not new to Henry County or Middletown. They had two small girls, and were looking to live in our school district. They wanted a place for their growing family, a place for hayrides, bonfires and family get togethers, and our home suited them perfectly. I had known Stephanie for several years.  Back in the day, I was the guidance counselor at Shenandoah Elementary where she still is a second grade teacher to this day.  My daughter, Ellen, was in her class.  Our paths had crossed many times before, and now they were crossing again.  We were next door neighbors for nearly thirteen years, until my move to China in August of 2014.

Several months ago, I was beyond thrilled to discover on Facebook that Stephanie had been one of twelve teachers selected across the State of Indiana to participate in a cultural/educational exchange with China. The purpose of the trip is to look at how China built its public education program on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) over a decade ago.  The United States could stand to engage in some educational reform.  I see SAT scores in nearly every Chinese student here that I very seldom saw in all my years as a high school guidance director.  China has been doing something right, as many of their students are little soldiers of academia. Students here are disappointed if they do not score a perfect 800 on the math portion of the SAT.  It is simply expected.

Well, Stephanie is THAT good of a teacher, and just an overall quality individual, so I was so excited that she had been bestowed such an honor from the State level.  We immediately reconnected, and said that we must get together when she passed through Beijing.  Today was the day! 

They arrived to Beijing from Indianapolis late last evening,
and they hit the ground running today.  Their first introduction to
Chinese history and culture was a trip to the Great Wall of China.
My friend Stephanie is pictured on the right :)

This section of the Wall is called Mutianyu, and I hiked
it with the group of Harvard students that visited BNDS
last school year.  To see more pics of that trip Click Here.

  

The colors are just beginning to change here
 in the 'jing- so beautiful.  The Wall never gets old!

After their Great Wall excursion, they visited a primary school
here in Beijing.  Soon my school day was over, and I was
hopping the subway across town to meet up with her.
They had a free couple of hours for some shopping at the
Silk Market, and to get dinner on their own.  I'm not going
to lie, it was surreal to see her step off the bus in the
middle of Beijing, China!  Though she was severely jet
lagged, she was running on pure excitement and adrenaline.
I remember my early days here in China; I was just the same.
I was on sensory overload from all the new sights, smells,
tastes, and sounds.  Beijing is NOTHING like little ol'
Middletown, in rural east central Indiana.  She felt it, too!

As we sat down to dinner at Texas Tim's BBQ, I was struck
again at how small the world really can be.  Nancy, who is
sitting to my left, is a teacher at Parker Elementary on
South Main St., in New Castle, Indiana.  This school was
just down the street from a home I owned with my girl's
father who was born and raised in New Castle.  In fact, Nancy
and Todd were in the same graduating class, and he has been
her insurance agent for years.  She knows my daughters, Emily
and Ellen, and we knew many of the same people in town.  Wow.

It really is a small world, afterall!

G'nite, y'all :)

Day 417 School Daze

You never know what you will find in the Sunlitun village on
the northeast side of Beijing.  This is where we Westerners go
for a taste of home, a good margarita, or shopping in some
of our favorite stores.  This month, it's giant M & M's;
next month it's likely to be dancing pink poodles.

This year I am challenged by my "Chinese babies."  I am
teaching 10th graders for the first time here in the 'jing. While
a few have exceptional English skills, the majority are really
struggling to get up to speed with being fully immersed and learning
all core subjects in English.  Consequently, I have had to slow it
waaaaayyyyy down, and to find other creative ways for
psychological terms to make sense.  This last unit was on
research methods used in Psychology, and to help them review
terms to prepare for their test, we did a fun lab.

Earlier we talked about the two ways experiments can be conducted;
single blind or double blind.  I looked up from helping another
group, and found Geronimo quite literally, trying to "blind" his
lab partner, so that he engaged in 'random selection' of the colorful
beads in his cup. These kids take things so literally All. The. Time.
I have to choose my words carefully, for when I often speak using
metaphors, slang, or euphemisms, they get thoroughly confused!
On another note, I just love yelling GERONIMO's name when I
call attendance! Yep, that is the English name he chose for himself, lol.

The kids participated in a "bead" lab to help them
 review the meaning of terms such as population, sample,
biased sample, representative sample, and such.

I made them count their beads in English for the extra practice.
Some got lots of practice, as they had to keep starting over!
When we combined all of our data, suddenly the message
 became clear- "the larger the sample size, the more the results
are representative of the whole population."  We'll run a
similar lab in a few weeks, with fun size packets of
M & M's that I brought back from home earlier this month.
That lab is always a big hit :)

This week I am challenged in trying to explain psychoanalytic psychology
 as was developed by Sigmund Freud.  Freud suggested that much of our
behavior is motivated and influenced by our unconscious thought. They
had a hard time wrapping their minds around this idea. If we're not
even aware of the thought, how can that influence our behavior???
Freud talked about 'levels of awareness', and this concept is illustrated
repeatedly in psychology textbooks using the 'iceburg analogy.' From
there, I moved on to discussing the three structures of personality-
the id, ego, and superego. It was a long, hard slog all period long.
 It wasn't until the bell rang signalling that it was time for lunch 
that we finally had a break through!  Geronimo went running out
 the classroom in a rush to beat the crowd in the cafeteria.  As he
 pushed past his peers and exited the room, Antonia said, "Miss,
was that his id running to the lunch room to be fed first in line?!

Hallelujah! Praise Baby Jesus! We have success!!!

And so, we currently have Sig watching over our classroom :)
In another recent lab with my seniors in AP Psychology, the
 students made their our own Rorschach inkblot projective test.
So tell me, what images do you see in their inkblots?
Droopy flowers? Seahorses? Children reading books?
Butterflies?  Kidneys? Scary monsters!  A penis?!
Oh wait, save that thought for next week's lecture- the 
five stages of personality development:
Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, and Genital stages.

See?!  Psychology nerds can have fun, too :)))

G'nite, y'all!

Golden Week- What a difference a year makes

Golden Week is the first week in October, which is a national holiday marking the founding of the People's Republic of China.  What it really means is 1.3 billion people get eight days of vacation.  It means 86 MILLION cars are on the road, nearly 8 MILLION took to the skies, and 61 MILLION traveled on the trains.  In short, Golden Week is a mass of Chinese humanity on the move.  My beloved desire for exploring the great outdoors by hiking on the Great Wall is ruined for the gridlock on the highways to take me there, and the gridlock on the wall once I am there.  If you want to get a feel for what 1.3 billion vacationers can do to a country, Click Here.  It is just plain nuts, y'all.

Which is why I waited until the day after the holiday week started to fly myself far, far away from China.  I went back home- to Florida this time.  On my 18 hour sojourn in the skies, I had plenty of time to reflect...and what a difference a year makes.

Last year over Golden Week, I was a few months in to a new relationship, and my 'man' was flying to China to spend nearly two months with me.  We went to Thailand together last October, and then to the Philippines together last November.  I flew home to see him in February; he flew back to China for May and June.  I flew home again for the summer months, and in that time we bought a house together in south Florida and started renovations.  Seriously, what a difference a year makes.

Life is good :)

So once again, I was taking to the skies, albeit for a very brief stay (only five nights in the US). Quite literally, with only my backpack on my back- have backpack, will travel!

Though I would only be home for five nights, Len and I had big plans to continue with our home renovation projects.  My teacher friends thought I was nuts to fly 13,000 miles to go work on a house.  "Some vacation", they said to me.

Actually, I was looking forward to it :)

While laying in a beach hut in Thailand is quite the vacation, simply being with the ones you love, no matter what you are doing, can be a vacation in itself.  For me, vacation is about getting your batteries recharged.  The opportunity to be creative, to work with my hands, to spend time with the person I love, and to celebrate our accomplishments at the end of the day is more than good enough for me.  Boy, did we accomplish a lot in a few days' time, and we managed to squeeze in a vacation within a vacation.  Winning!

I love flying in and out of PEK- Beijing Int'l
Airport. Although it is HUGE, it is easy to navigate :)

It was a GORGEOUS day to be flying, as a beautiful blue
sky can sometimes be hard to come by in the 'jing.  

I did not land in Ft. Lauderdale until late Thursday night, on October 1st.  It was well after midnight before we got back to our house.  In spite of the long trip, I couldn't help but grin to pull in to the driveway and to walk in the front door.  *sigh*

It felt good to be home.

The next morning as I had coffee on the balcony looking out
over the canal, I was shocked to discover that one of our trees
is a star fruit tree...and it was LOADED!  I feasted on star
fruit the whole time I was home.  They were so sweet, and
juicy, and delicious- nothing like you get at the grocery store.
They taste like a cross between an orange and an apple- yummy!

The view in my 'backyard' was often of
an alligator cruising by...We feed him leftovers :)
Correction:  We throw food in the canal, and
assume that he comes to eat it.  He never lets us
get the least bit close to him, which is just as well.

Friday was a day of getting reacquainted, buying groceries, running errands to the post office and BMV (I got my Florida driver's license), seeing new neighbors at the weekly Friday evening happy hour (I love this neighborhood!), and developing a strategic plan of attack for our house projects. How much could we accomplish in about three days of work?

My first project on Saturday was to tile the kitchen back splash.
Since I left in August, Len had painted the kitchen cabinets,
put on the knobs and pulls, and the granite counters were installed.

I love it when a plan comes together!

There are just two projects remaining in the
kitchen; getting a stainless steel counter top
for our nearly seven foot island, and finishing the
plate rack to display my Grandma's Fiestaware.
I smuggled back 30 rods of stainless steel tubing
in my backpack that Len is going to use as
dividers for the plates. That was his idea; I can't
take credit. It's going to look awesome :) Truth
be told, I had some trouble getting through security
all the way home with all of that stainless steel
in my backpack. I had some 'splainin' to do, lol.
(Stainless steel is way cheaper in China)

While I laid up the tile back splash in the kitchen,
Len put down the cement board in the guest bathroom.
It took some figuring and measuring on both of our
parts, as we are creating a bathroom out of a former
office/dining area.  He'll be in charge of installing
all of the plumbing, drain pipes, sewer pipe and
electrical work.  When I got done in the kitchen,
he was ready for me in the bathroom!

This bathroom will have a dark brown vanity
and mirror set that we purchased, and granite
sink top that is white with flecks of beige and grey.
Where Len is, will stand a corner shower unit.
I continued with the blue paint from our accent
wall in the great room and kitchen, but below the
paint there will be tongue and groove boards painted
bright white with a chair rail.  I want this room to
have a beach-y cottage vibe. The grout lines in the
tile will be dove grey, and the window treatment is the
same dark bamboo blinds that are in the guest bedroom.
In fact, over the weekend, I bought the same blinds for
the windows in the kitchen and great room, too.
When I find something I like, I stick with it, they
are now on every window in the house!

As we worked our way out of the bathroom,
it was up to me to fold myself up and lay
the last two rows of tiles.  The other half
of me is in what will become our laundry
room.  Over the weekend, we purchased the
tile for it, now Len has everything he needs
to finish that room, too.  He's going to be
a busy guy this coming winter :)

By Saturday evening, we also had put another coat of joint compound on the great room ceiling, so that it would be ready for sanding and painting the next day...which is what we did.  We got off to a very late start on Sunday, as we nearly pulled an all nighter Saturday night.  I'm not sure we fell asleep before 5am.  I was clearly still on China time; and had a rough time trying to force my body into a twelve hour time difference.  Less than a week's stay is too short of time to even begin to get over jet lag, so I just rolled with it as best as I could. By Sunday afternoon, we had finished sanding and had one coat of paint on the great room ceiling when our neighbors came over to invite us out for a boat ride.  We decided that a sunset cruise on the Caloosahatchee was just what we needed.  We dropped our paint brushes and decided to take a break!

This is Steve and Karen, who I am sure we will become fast friends.
Not only are they one of but a few couples our age, (we live in a
community of retired boaters!) they are our kind of people :)

The have a 44' Morgan motor-sailor.  I look forward
to some boating adventures with these two!

Len provided entertainment on board with
his story telling and guitar playing :)

This is my new friend Wan, from Taiwan-
small world :)  She and her husband, John, are also
boaters. They own a 48' Grand Banks trawler- nice!

And this is John and Ed.  Ed and his wife, Deb,
were among the first to welcome us to the neighborhood.
They are also our kind of people.  In fact, Len and I
think we hit the jackpot for a community of cool
people who happen to love boating as much as we do :)

Sunday, Day two, the great room ceiling was sanded and got two coats of paint, Len finished installing the can lights, and we got a sunset cruise.  Not a bad day's work!

On Monday, we had planned to spend the day at Ft. Myers beach for a 'vacation', and he had made reservations for a motel that evening.  However, it was cloudy and rainy off and on all day, so we decided to stay and work, with the intention that we would finish by 5pm, and be on the road by 6pm. We decided to go out for seafood, and still stay at the motel, as Tuesday was looking like much better weather.  The house project on Monday was some general clean up, I sanded and stained the window casings in the kitchen and great room, and we laid 4' x 27' of bamboo flooring in the great room.  It is now about half way complete, and Len can finish that off too, sometime later this winter ;) 

Do you see his 'honey do list' growing?!  

We had a most delicious dinner Monday night at
Ft. Myers Beach. I feasted on coconut shrimp,
and Len had calimari- soooooo good! We had
a leisurely morning on Tuesday, then we walked
to the pier with our morning coffee. We were on
a much needed vacation, lol.

I never take the view of the Gulf, or the ocean, or the sunshine,
or the beautiful blue sky for granted. We simply savored the moment.

Then we walked along the beach, I picked up seashells (of
course), we played frisbee, and frolicked in the surf...until
I saw a shark's dorsal fin surface right near us!  It sent me
screeching and heading for shore.  Len stayed for a closer
look, and said it was only a nurse shark.  If I had been on
scuba and could look him in the eye, it would have been
no problem, but I don't like sharks sneaking up on me!

No day on the beach is complete without jumping for JOY!

We left by about noon, as our vacation was already over. We had two big shopping lists for Lowe's and Home Depot.  We bought tile for the laundry room, a bathroom faucet, blinds for the kitchen, bathroom, and great room, grout for the kitchen and bath, more paint, a light for the laundry room, new door locks, and I can't even remember what all else.  All I know is our wallets were empty and the truck was full by the time we got done- whew! Shopping wears us both out.

The biggest purchase was the three french doors which will go
across the great room, facing out on to the balcony and canal.
It is going to be beautiful once they are installed- so much
light and brighter. It will change the whole appearance of the house!
Add door installation to the honey do list, too :)

We also shopped at Kohl's and Dollar Tree (I
don't have either of these guilty pleasures in China),
and we stopped in at Hobby Lobby as I wanted
some crafting stuff to keep myself occupied for
this winter, too.  As we headed toward the check
out, we stumbled upon this oil canvas that was
50% off.  It was made for our new home; the
colors match beautifully, and it reminded Len
of living on Conch Key. It is a perfect fit :)

Wednesday was my last day there, and we only
had until 1pm before I had to head back to the
airport.  I did laundry, grouted the kitchen back
splash, and worked on straightening up the
inside of the house. Len worked on putting the
workshop back together and he mowed the yard.
My time went all too quickly; but we shared a lot
of laughs, worked well together, made some
more memories and accomplished quite a lot.
Outside of never getting a decent night's sleep-
(soooo jet lagged), it was still a 'golden' week :)

Needless to say, though, I was exhausted.  Besides, saying goodbye and having to 'change gears' in my mind to return to China is exhausting in itself. So, upgrading to business class was money well spent for the long flight back to my other home.  After a four hour layover in Houston, I didn't board the plane for PEK until nearly midnight.  The good news was being in business class allowed me to hang out in the Executive Club, where I got to eat delicious food, charge all my electronics, AND watch the Cubs win!!!!  I was the first one on the plane, got served a glass of champagne, took two melatonin, and slept for the next 10 HOURS!  I tell you what, business class is the only way to fly- I was able to lay down, with a real feather pillow, a down comforter, and Bose headphones to silence all the noise.  I was shocked when I woke up and only had five hours left to go.  Another glass of wine, a snack, and another three hour nap, and I woke up just as we were beginning the descent. We landed at 4:00am, and because Golden Week was over, and I was ahead of morning rush hour, I got through customs, caught a cab, and was home taking a shower in record time. After another hour's nap, I made it work by 7:30am- Whew!  What a Golden Week!

Sadly, I have spent the last six days equally jet lagged, fitfully sleeping, waking between 3-4am, and I have since gotten sick with a head cold.  I knew it was bound to happen.

Dang it.

G'nite, y'all!