They're doing something right!

I was walking to the grocery store tonight and it hit me...how often I see parents in China with their children and how remarkably different it is than what I'm used to seeing!

I know I haven't been here long, but it seems to me that they're doing something right! I keep noticing dad's with their child, mom's with their child, grandparents with their grandchild and every time I see this...they're interacting with them and seem to be truly enjoying them! Very seldom have I seen a parent on their cell phone, not once have I seen a child on their parent's cell phone!

I'm not saying that those things aren't happening...I'm sure they are here and there. But it is clear that the lives of these parents is wrapped up in their one and only child....and they are treasuring it! I'm a little in awe.

Well done China. :)

Week 3!

First week of school is done...thank God!!!! By Thursday I was feeling ok, but I have to say...Monday was the absolute worst first day of school I've ever had!

It all started on my way to school Monday morning. I'm on my bike (which I bought about a week and a half prior), and I notice it's making a pretty funny noise. Kind of a squeal of sorts. Needless to say, this did not comfort me. However, I kept riding...figured if I could just make it to school, all would be well.

About half way to school the freakin chain comes off the bike. I'm thinking...seriously??? Yup...seriously, this happened. I scoured  through my "fixing a bike" schema from when I was a kid, apparently I didn't have a solid understanding at the time, because I failed to put the chain back on, but I did manage to get grease all over my hands. :) So..here I go in my dress, on the first day of school, grease covered hands...walking my new bike. I was pissed!!! But almost right after I started walking the bike...a cricket walked right in front of me! I knew it was a sign that my luck was going to change..it had to be a lucky cricket! I'm in China!!!! So I smiled and kept walking. About 30 seconds later...it started to sprinkle on me. Ha....really terrible start to my day!

It just got better from there. In all honesty...my class is amazingly adorable. But literally 30 minutes into the start of school I looked at the clock and could NOT believe it! I was utterly exhausted, had a terrible headache and had basically no way of communicating with these children. I thought multiple times...what have I gotten myself into??? As I previously mentioned...the week definitely progressed in a positive way. By Thursday the kids had their morning routines down...I watched them walk in and do everything they were supposed to do without being asked. It felt awesome! We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear over and over and they loved it! However...Chicka Chicka Boom Boom has become a quick favorite!

Conan and Daho. My two kiddos with the least amount of English. Seriously cute and LOVE peace signs when they get their picture taken! How can you not love them!

Julie and Isobelle...both extremely sweet girls. Isobelle is British and I have to admit, when she says, "Ms. Wakefield" with her accent...it's priceless. 

Jesse and Bosco...these boys love puzzles! 

Bosco is from Spain and about as sweet as he could be. Such a good kid. He's totally a rowdy little boy, but manages to listen so well. The perfect combination! 

Jesse is more just a rowdy little boy ;) but he is fluent in Chinese and French and his English is pretty decent too. I'm so jealous of these kids!!! 

Had to show one last photo of these cute little guys. The one in front is Teo....he kinda stole my heart. Getting ready for their first assembly as P3's....they were excited! 

By the time Friday came around...we all knew we needed, and deserved, a night out in Wuxi! :) We headed downtown to an authentic Chinese restaurant called Grandma's. I know the name doesn't sound very authentic...but it was! Family style dining which was awesome because we got to try so many different things! 

One of the canals running through Wuxi. It really is
a beautiful city! 

Daniela is originally from Slovakia but moved to the states when she was 9 and spent the rest of her "growing up" years in NY and LA. Last year she came to TIS from Saudi Arabia. Judy is from the states as well but has taught all over the world....most recently in Abu Dhabi! Lea is from the Philippines and is about as sweet as you get...bit of a firecracker! It's awesome meeting people with such varied experiences in life...I'm so lucky!                                                                                  

As it turns out...wine has a similar affect on me in China, as it does at home! I found myself taking a little rest of this nice big couch! :)


Evidently the peace signs are not just for the little ones. This is my friend Cordelia, the German teacher, and her daughter Christina.

For those of you wanting to see the area I live in...here it is! The top picture is the gate entering my little "complex",
the bottom picture is one of the pedestrian streets separating different parts of Wanke, the Glamorous City! That's actually what they call it. :) It's lined with little hole in the wall restaurants, dry cleaners, vegetable markets, mini marts, etc. Pretty much anything I need in a pinch, I can access with a 2 minute walk. It's pretty nice! 

Took this photo on a bike ride this morning. It was absolutely gorgeous, the sun wasn't shining but it was peaceful, a little bit cooler, and so beautiful! 

So I guess it's time for week #2 of school...hope these kids take it easy on me tomorrow. I'm feeling optimistic. ;) Ciao!

Week 2!

Another very busy week....but in a very different way! Work has begun and I can't say that it hasn't been a bit stressful. My teacher friends will understand this: learning a brand new philosophy on teaching combined with setting up a classroom in a place where you know where NOTHING is with very limited resources, plus trying to get ready for "meet the teacher" night and....oh yea....kiddos on Monday! All of this happened in just 1 week! At home, I would have spent a month off and on getting ready. Nope! Not here!

However...I made it through. "Meet the Teacher" night was much less of a big deal than they made it out to be. I did get to meet 4 of my kiddos...all adorable and so small! 1 from Britain, 1 that is 1/2 German 1/2 Chinese, 1 that is from somewhere in Africa (yikes..I know that's so bad I don't know!!!) and 1 little dude from Iowa! Almost all of the remainder of my class is Korean....so excited to meet them on Monday!

And shockingly..this new philosophy of teaching is already starting to make a little sense to me! 3 days ago I was freakin out! Today...calm, cool and relaxed...kind of.  ;)

Tuesday night was...Chinese Valentine's Day of course! Some friends from work went to the Red Lion (can't remember if I mentioned it before), a very western pub in downtown Wuxi with open mic night! As we were walking to the bar we were shocked at the amount of people out on a Tuesday night and wondered why the heck everyone was trying to sell us roses and heart shaped balloons. At this time, we didn't know about Valentine's Day. It came together quickly after that. :)

This is the same place I took the photos of the bridge over the canal before.
So beautiful at night!

I was beyond excited to see this at the pub! Had to take a photo for Nancy and Pat. :) They did the coolest thing at the pub! When there's a large crowd, instead of trying to pay attention to who ordered what as far as tabs go...they give you a bracelet with a big number on it and when you order something...it goes on the tab that matches your bracelet! Pretty ingenious I thought!

Most of my week was spent at school and while I was at home, I was preparing for school. However, today a friend took me to Shanghai...wow! I was so excited to go and it did not disappoint! It was a pretty rushed trip all in all, but she was a great tour guide and it was a beautiful day (minus the extreme heat of course). I can't attached all of the photos I took, so I'll just put up some highlights! :)

This was VERY interesting! It was an area where parents,
or sometimes a "contractor" comes to find a husband/wife
for the child. Because in the Chinese culture it is work, work, work,
it leaves little time for dating apparently!?!?! So basically it's page
after page of eligible bachelors and bachelorettes hoping to get picked!
These pages contain their age, height, how much money they make in
a month! Wow...what a trip! 

She found one she wanted!!!

Walking from the older more historic side of town, the "west side" towards the new part of town called Pudong..which I think translates into something about "the east". :) The east and west sides, new and old sides, are separated by a canal. The buildings in the center are in Pudong. 

Made it to The Bund...very popular tourist spot for taking photos of the amazing skyline of Pudong. We were so lucky...it was basically empty today! However, this actual photo was completely overexposed, so I had to play around with it a bit to show the color. It really was a beautiful day!

More views of Pudong. The unique building with the globes is really amazing...the globes are bright purple! Very cool! 

That building in the middle is referred to as "the bottle opener" :)

This is the view of Pudong as we were walking away from The Bund into a garden that led us to a much more historic and "untouched" part of town. 

Walking down this little alley/street, the smell of "stinky tofu" they call it..was out in full force! So disgusting! I saw them cooking some on the side of the road. Can't say it looked very tasty either, but the smell was enough to make me NEVER want to try it! This road was so tiny, but still the bicyclists, motorbicyclists and even motorbicyclists towing trailers buzzed right through like it was no big deal. 

Clothe lines hang everywhere and really show "life" in China. As sad as it might look, it's also so beautiful to think about this culture that has existed for SOOOOO many years and remains relatively simple, modest and safe. 

Jiu Qu Bridge...legend has it, if you cross this bridge it will bring you good luck! We...shall...see...

Really????? 

 If any of you "blogger people" would like to give me some hints as to how to format these photos so they're not in a line...I would gladly accept your help!

End of Week 1!!!

Wow! Has it really been a week already!?!?! Despite the heat I may have mentioned here or there, I am absolutely loving life in China! The people are so nice and think we're really cool (lucky us)!!! The area I'm in is beautiful; I get to walk, take the bus, take a taxi or ride my new bike wherever I go...I have always wanted to be able to do that! It may sound like a simple thing to some, but for me it's a big deal!

Of course..it has had some challenges, many of which you've read about already. Today my new friend Kayla and I found that it can present a struggle when you're attempting to navigate your way in a new place with writing you mostly can't read, people you mostly can't speak to and a phone that is almost completely no good without wifi! We were heading to a sporting goods store called Decathalon so I could purchase my bike. We were somewhat prepared...loaded the location onto my phone using google maps before we left my apartment. I felt like I had a small idea on how to get us started on our journey...haha....what a fool I am! We were planning on taking the bus. Bus 95 according to google maps. Do you think we saw a bus 95 anywhere on our journey??? Nope! Not a one! So instead we opted for walking, thinking it would take us about an hour to get there. We referred back to our map on my phone frequently and along the way found roads we were supposed to find. About an hour into our walk we thought we were all stars! So proud that we found our way...and by foot! Everyone else had either taken a taxi or a bus...we were golden!

3 hours and 45 minutes after our journey started...we finally made it to Decathalon. :( No sad face can convey the way we felt. We were exhausted, dripping with sweat, feet ached, knees ached, hips ached, backs ached....we were in rough shape. Turns out, we did a gigantic loop around God knows where! We have no idea how we did it, but we figure we logged well over 10 miles during our little stroll. However, the light at the end of this dreary tunnel, is that I now have a bike to ride to work tomorrow and I'm very excited about that! :)

When Thomas came and picked us up to take us home we told him about our day...he laughed and felt sorry for his new pathetic American friends. And as he drove us home we learned that Decathalon is a brief 10 minute ride by taxi at the most and no more than a 40 minute walk which required exactly two turns out of my apartment building. :) Another learning experience.

Work starts tomorrow and I know it will be very busy, so I'm hoping to write again at the end of the week...unless something really crazy happens! In that case, I'll share immediately! For now, here are some photos I've taken over the last three days....enjoy and thanks for traveling with me. :)

Ryan, Judy and their beautiful daughter Hannah.
She might be my new best friend. :) 

One part of downtown Wuxi

You can take the girl out of Washington, but you can't
take Washington out of the girl! 

Cobblestone Pedestrian Street in Nanchang Temple District.
Reminded me of The French Quarter in New Orleans.
French style signs, restaurant after bar after restaurant,
outdoor seating and lots of live music! 

I absolutely love this photo of the canal that separates two of the cobblestone streets in the Temple District.
Not exactly what I thought of when I thought of China. 

Zaijian (goodbye)

Day 4...Did I mention it's a little warm here?

In order for today's blog to be sufficient, you need to know where I am right now, so please allow me to paint a picture for you....

After a pretty full day of "stuff" I decided to walk to a park near the school with another new teacher. We were warned we should go straight home because of the heat, but we were like, "nahhh, we'll be fine!" She might be fine. Me...I'm not so sure. 

I got us both back to our apartment "community" you might say; that part was easy. I got to my area first and pointed her in the direction she needed to go. I thought I was fine!!!! At this point I'm absolutely exhausted, walking at a snails pace, feeling the back of my legs frying and wearing 2 toned clothes. One tone, the color they should be, the other, much more prominent tone, the color the were from my sweat. I was drenched!!! And I can tell you, this is not a typical occurrence for me unless I'm actually doing some kind of physical exercise. I could feel my face almost pulsing with heat, my head was killing me, definitely not enough food and water today. All in all, I was in rough shape. 

As I basically staggered back to what I thought was my apartment building I realized....hold up! This is not where I live!!! I mean, I was definitely in the vicinity; I'd absolutely walked where I was walking before, but I had no clue how to get to my building from there!!! Finally, I popped into a dentist office that had....thank God....air conditioning. The girl was extremely nice, not great English but waaaay better than my pathetic Chinese. I showed her my address and while she sought help, she sat me down, gave me a glass of water and told me to wait for a few minutes. She could clearly see I was in rough shape as well. :( They pointed me in the correct direction (I had gone just one street too far) and I found my place quickly then. 

I had my mind made up.....the second I walked into the apartment I was going to get a big glass of water and take a cold shower. So I did that, got all ready for my shower, turned the water on and it trickled out until there was no water left to trickle. I tried the sink...nothing. Went to the other bathroom.....trickle, trickle, trickle...nothing. Kitchen....not even a trickle. Apparently the main water line to Vanke phase 1 (the part of the community I live in) burst! :) 

I tell you all of this first because I want you to know, I'm sitting on my couch...filthy dirty with dry salty sweat, head feeling not quite right, and I am...blogging. :) 

Rewind 9.5 hours......this morning 3 other new teachers and I were taken to an international medical facility close to downtown Wuxi. Today was health screening day! None of us really knew what that entailed, but we weren't allowed any food or drink this morning so that made me pretty curious since really the only other time I can remember doing that is for a procedure! Anyway, after we were registered and ready to go they herded us upstairs and asked us to go into the "locker rooms" to change. Not our clothes....just our shoes. :) We had to put slippers on. 

Once we were properly clothed for our medical exam, they started ushering us into one room after another to get to work. I thought they were going to ask me a few questions, check my blood pressure, blah blah blah. Nope! They started by taking 4 viles of blood with a much larger needle than I recall them using at home. Then I had an ultra sound of my entire abdomen, she went over the ribs and all! New experience. She didn't care too much about how neat she was about it because I left that room with that nasty jelly all over my shirt. (That ones for you Suzette :) I had an eye exam, a pathetic pathetic exam from the ENT, an X-Ray, urine sample, etc. The best though...was the EKG. I just walked into the room and she asked me to lay down on the bed (same paper was on the bed as they guy who literally walked out right as I walked in). She asked me to lift my shirt up so I did, then said, "no, the bra". So...we got really close really fast. :) 

All in all, the exam was a piece of cake, but I certainly have a new appreciation for exam robes, fresh linens, you know...the works. :) 

After the medical exams we headed to the phone store to get those sorted out, and then we were in need of food! We landed at a Chinese restaurant that the Chinese Admin. Assistant deemed safe. She had to go, but she helped us order first. We weren't necessarily feeling adventurous, it was only about 10:30am at this point. So one British lady ordered a blueberry muffin which was a waffle with a blueberry sauce, some whipped cream and a maraschino cherry on top. :) The rest of us ordered potato pancakes, thinking they sounded harmless. She got her "muffin" and about 45 minutes later we finally got our potato pancakes which were essentially a homemade hashbrown with SPRINKLES on top! Lesson learned. 

After our less than satisfying meal we headed back to school, met some new teachers and I checked out my classroom again. It's soooooo different than what I'm used to, but for my teacher friends, this photo kind of speaks for itself. 

This is about 3/4 of the classroom. It's HUGE!!!

When we were finished at school Kayla and I headed to the park...where my story begins. I won't go into too much detail but I'll tell you it was about a 3 minute walk from school and it was beautiful! We only walked through a small area; I'm excited to explore around a little more. 

Entrance to the park and water 

Bridge crossing the water 

View from the bridge 

Lily Pads! 

Day 3- Nanchang

If you look really close, you can probably see sweat dripping down my face, arms, legs, etc. etc. etc. 

Today felt like my first truly Chinese experience! I met a teacher I'll be working closely with as well as her husband and their beautiful daughter. They were venturing into Nanchang to check out some markets and let me tag along. They've been here a month, but from my perspective they seemed like seasoned professionals....I was in awe! Hopefully I picked up on a few tricks here and there, but mostly I just tried to take it all in....and there was A LOT to take in!

Bridge Crossing from an area I can't remember the name of
to Nanchang :) I'm learning!!! 

Theater 

Taking it all in: Babies, for example, don't wear diapers. Nope! In fact, much of the time they wear....nothing at all, except for an occasional smock/apron style thing. So there they were, babies all over the place, naked from the waist down and when they needed to "go potty", they were held over a garbage can, or if they were lucky enough to make it in time, a hole in the ground otherwise known as a toilet. :) I am thinking the Chinese might be onto something here...much more cost effective! Some babies, I suppose the really fortunate ones, got to wear pants with a huge slit right up the back. Easy access, or I suppose easy disposal. I so badly wanted to take a photo of this, but it's not exactly an easy thing to photograph on the go. Perhaps next time I'll be more prepared.

I ate out for the first time since having been here at.....you guessed it! An Indian restaurant. :) The food was excellent and I was happy to know there is a place I can get my hookah fix, as well as a wide assortment of beer and wine from all around the globe. Joking about the hookah, not about the beer and wine. :) It was at this Indian restaurant where I was lucky enough to encounter one of these. I want to say....this is a nice one? I was fortunate today however, and there was 1 stall that had a traditional western toilet in it. Saved...for one more day!

While walking all around Wuxi the cicadas are amazingly loud! Took me by surprise at first, but it's starting to become quite beautiful! Evidently cicadas are captured, "caged up" and sold for good luck. I can't say that I'll be partaking in this Chinese tradition, (I find it a little sad) but it was very cool to see it first hand.

Day 1

What a day!

You know how airline bathrooms have a lever to slide which takes the green ‘vacant’ sign to a red ‘occupied’ sign? Well guess what? China Eastern Airlines has those same exact locks and signs!!! So far so good right??? I guess the thing is, in order for a bathroom to look as though it’s occupied…you actually need to slide the lock to the locked position. 3 out of the 4 times I used the restroom on the plane, I walked in on someone in the bathroom. And NOT because I was stupid and not paying attention….because they didn’t lock the door!!!! I have to admit…it made me wonder what I was in for when I actually arrived in China. L

I did arrive…safe and sound. All of my bags arrived with me; small victory for Molly. J My driver Thomas was a little late picking me up because my flight arrived early, but that was alright. He could not have been nicer. As he picked up the car and I waited with my luggage I started thinking about driving in China and what this experience was going to be like! I had heard the drivers here are terrible, there’s lots of accidents, etc. so part of me was slightly nervous, but mostly I was curious. As I waited in the parking garage that was well over 100 degree heat with 100% humidity, greasy and sweating, I started watching the cars drive by to exit the garage. Their parking garage didn’t appear to be much different from what I’m used to, but the drivers inside the garage gave me a good glimpse into what driving in China is really like. Car after car zoomed past me in this small, confined area. One lady sitting in the passenger’s seat had a small baby, around 6 months or so, just sitting on her lap. Horns were blaring left and right, cars that were merging looked like they were inches away from hitting each other but….it worked! As I watched this I smiled and laughed to myself a little….what a trip!

When we finally got going on the road I VERY QUICKLY realized that staying in between the lines defining the lanes was not an expectation so much as it was a suggestion. Cars literally appeared to me as if they were floating from one place to another; sometimes that place was in between the lines of an actual lane, sometimes it was in the middle of two lanes…it didn’t appear to matter! Cars drove fast and close to one another as they floated around and during the hour or so that I was awake I counted 3, yes….THREE signal lights that were used!!! I mean…I totally get not using a signal to change lanes when no one is around you, but there were cars EVERYWHERE!!!!! Yet NO ONE signaled!!! At this point I decided two things: 1. My mom would be having a heart attack right now if she were here. 2. I need to close my eyes to keep from having one myself. J

I got to my apartment at about 8pm and it was completely dark. I later learned that it gets dark here in the summer at 6:30 and about 5:30 in the winter. L That will take some adjusting. Somehow I had some energy so I unpacked my suitcases as well as my 3 boxes that arrived prior to me and I opened a bottle of wine they had here…anticipating my arrival. I wonder….did I mention that I’m a wine-o on my resume??? J I was told by the head of my school that this was about the best wine you could get here, unless you wanted to spend big money. He also said it is better chilled J So I chilled my cabernet and opened the bottle to have a glass before bed. All I can say is…it will have to do. 

Red Luggage and a Bottle of Wine

It's been a whirlwind of a few weeks; filled with lots of love, laughter and wonderful people. But I can honestly say, I am so excited to start this adventure!

I hope China is ready for this girl because I am ready for China!!!