2 Thanksgivings and the Poet Historian

This past week was probably my hardest week in China so far - mostly because it was a holiday week. On Tuesday we took the 1st and 2nd graders to an aquarium for a field trip. The trip was a success, I was proud of the kids, they did a great job in the aquarium.


Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we still had a half day of school. I taught the kids about Squanto, which was really fun. We listened to a Radio Theater version of Squanto and they really enjoyed it - even though I had to stop it a lot to explain what was going on. Most of the kids are not American, so they don't have the background knowledge of the American Indians and the First Thanksgiving that a lot of Americans have. After they participated in field games, we had a big celebration and every student brought a food dish to share. 1st-3rd grades shared our food, it was a lot of fun, mostly because there was food from America, Korea and China on our buffet.

Friday was spent in Chengdu visiting the cottage of a famous Chinese poet, Du Fu. He is known as the "Poet Historian" in China. His cottage is on the grounds of the most beautiful garden, I've heard that it is even more breathe-taking in the springtime. I wished that I could read and understand Chinese so that I could read his poems and really understand their beauty. He had a wonderful place to find inspiration. I made this adventure with Kimberly, my trusty travel companion, and her dad who is a businessman in China and came for the holiday weekend. After the cottage, we went to this place called the River Market where we heard we could make great deals with the vendors. Well, 3 Americans with limited English do not advertise "good deals" to the vendors, it advertises..."they have money". Needless to say, we didn't get many good bargains at the River Market...a few, but not many.

And despite being away from home for this particular holiday, I was able to enjoy 2 Thanksgiving dinners! So even though whis week was a hard one, it ended up not as badly as I thought it could have.

One more week of student teaching left!
-kait

Power Outages Save Energy

This week was my coldest one yet. We got my down comforter just in time for the bitter cold. I may have mentioned before that even though it does not get below freezing here, the houses are not insulated and do not have central heating, that means we bundle in blankets and huddle around space heaters and drink lots of warm drinks. Unfortunately the cold cold weather (which came on fast and earlier than usual...no global warming here) was the cause for much sickness. One day we only had 10 out of 15 kids in my class, it fluctuated from that to 14 of 15. My roommate got sick midweek with the flu and Bethany, the other roommate and I tried to steer clear. Catie missed 2.5 days of school this week and a few last week. As much as I resisted, I'm now laying in bed failing at my attempt to nap and suffering from a terrible sinus cold. It started as a sore throat Thursday and just progressed from there. I blame it on the kids coming back to school not completely better and spewing their germs with every uncovered cough and sneeze. There's only so much one can do before falling prey to the icky germs. =(

On a different note, I woke up at 7:30am on Saturday morning to the power going out. I quickly learned that it was scheduled to be out until 7pm. Wonderful. No heat, hot water, internet, you know, the essentials. I finally dragged myself out of my warm bed around 9:30 and made my way to school around 10:30 because there was power there. In China, the government schedules these power outages to save energy and unfortunately those of us who can't read the notices on the front door of the complex have no idea when or how long the outage will take place.

After lunch I met up with a friend and we got massages - so good! (except I'm a little sore today)Then we got her husband and kids and took a bus into the city to a really neat coffee shop where we happened to meet another foreigner and his little girl. We all chatted for quite some time before I left with my friends for high dining at....Pizza Hut. Yes, I kid you not, in China, Pizza Hut is marketed as higher dining than in the States. By the time we made it home again the power had returned.

It was an interesting weekend, sorry no pictures this week. I survived my first full week of teaching everything and this coming week is our field trip to the local aquarium! Definitely will have pictures of that one.

Trying not to think of missing Thanksgiving at home this year. Love and miss you all!
kaitlin

Pandas and Hotpots

This week started out beautifully weatherwise. Not too cold and sunny! (A rare occurrance in Chengdu) However suddenly on Thursday it decided to get very cold without warning. Then on Friday we had our first power outage since I've been here. It's the government's way of conserving energy.

Later that evening (the power returned at 4pm), I went out for Sichuan hotpot. Everyone in your party sits around a table with burner in the middle. You are brought a big pot with spicy soup/broth/base and if you don't like the spicy stuff, there is a not spicy soup in a pot in the very middle of the big pot. The group orders an assortment of things you want to put in the "soup" - shrimp dumplings, lamb, pumpkin, potato, lotus, beef, mushrooms, noodles, etc. You use your chopsticks and grab a piece of food once it has had a chance to cook in the "soup" then you dip it in an oil mixture that you put together yourself (oil with garlic and other sauces). It was a fun time and a good experience. However, I'll have to admit that the spicy part of the pot was potent...made me cough and tear up a bit, but I tried it! (more than once) And then stuck to the not spicy pot.

I visited English corner again this week and enjoyed talking to a friend that works at my school who also attends English Corner. I learned numbers and counting fingers in Chinese, I only remember 6,8,10 though.


Finally, what you've all been waiting for...I got to visit the panda reserve on Saturday! A family on staff who have a son in my class took me with them to the reserve and 2 other visitors to the area came as well. It was a beautiful place, did not feel like a zoo of sorts and the pandas seemed happy, not caged up.


I even watched one scratch its butt on a tree trunk! hahaha! My favorite part was watching a few toddler pandas up in tree tops, just chillin up there. I'm not too sure how they planned to get down without falling though. I got to see a 2 month old panda in an incubator and some other baby pandas in a big crib. SO CUTE!!!

-kaitlin

Hello 1980's!

This week was a pretty normal week. I'd say I've adjusted fairly well to life in Chengdu - as well as one can that doesn't speak more than 3 words of the language. Friday night I went to English Corner down the street from my neighborhood. It was a pleasant evening, sitting around some tables, sipping warm chinese tea, speaking English with Chinese who want to improve their skills. I enjoyed the evening, tuning my ear to a new accent. It definitely struck a chord with the ESL (English as a Second Langauge) teacher in me.

Sunday morning on the way out the door to Fellowship, Catie asked if I wanted to get my hair cut today. I had expressed interest a few weeks ago because it is so inexpensive here...less than $5.00 for hair washing and head massage (that lasts longer than my usual hair cut in the states), hair cut and style. Also, something I found interesting here, we've only seen men cutting hair - the women do the hair washing and the men cut the hair. It was the most silent hair cut I've ever had - language barrier really helps to promote that. I was able to communicate I wanted my bangs cut back in, which he did...however I think I'm going to have to make them a bit shorter still. After the cutting, he reached for the blowdryer and I smiled to myself, "He has no idea what he is getting himself into." My hair get very big when it is blow dried. Thankfully he controlled it, but he added an interesting curl to my bangs. Catie looked at my hair and said "hello 80's, hello Farrah Fawcett!" haha! Let's just say I was polite, paid my bill, less than $5.00 and as soon as we were around the corner, up went the hair! (not before the following photo that Catie insisted on taking).


-kaitlin

Birthdays and Scooter Adventures

This week culminated a month of birthday celebration festivities for my 23rd birthday. I was unsure how it was going to be with having a birthday 10 days after arriving in a new country halfway around the world. I was pleasantly surprised when my roommates remembered it was my birthday and asked about a celebration. I would have been perfectly satisfied with that, but when the important day finally came, my co-operating teacher, Amanda threw a surprise party for me at school with our class. She baked me a cake and the students sang happy birthday to me in English, Chinese and Korean. Being a language person, this was extremely exciting to me.



That night, Catie and Bethany took me out to dinner at one of their favorite restaurants they fondly refer to as the Green Chair - because of its green chairs. We ended the evening with a manicure at a place just down the street. It was one of the best birthdays ever! The next evening some of my new friends came over for brownies and a movie. It was like a normal birthday - definitely made me feel special. Thanks girls for everything you've done for me!


One of the main modes of transportation around here are scooters. Many of the teachers here have them. My roommates each have one and I've gotten to ride on the back multiple times. Last weekend while composing my previous blog, I got the brilliant idea, maybe I could get one too! Well friends, after talking with someone at school who pulled a few strings, I am borrowing a scooter from someone on staff that doesn't use theirs much. The first night after obtaining the keys took some getting used to but I was pleased to be able to ride the scooter home the next day with no problem - AND it was on my birthday! I wish scootering was more popular in the States, it's a lot of fun. However, should I move back to Philadelphia, a scooter may be a little too dangerous!

Well, that's all for now. I'm getting excited for dinner in the night market again tonight!

-kaitlin

The Market

This has been quite the weekend. Saturday I ventured to the market behind our house for the afternoon with Kimberly, one of the other teachers. We wandered around and saw ducks, chickens, and rabbits skinned and hanging from hooks on carts. We saw colorful vegetables, and miniature mandarin oranges. People were selling their wares on crowded streets or filling tea houses to play an addicting version of Mahjong.

Kimberly and I stopped for milk tea, a warm drink that was actually quite tasty. Kimberly says its the best milk tea in the market. We had an enjoyable time walking and wandering and being stared at unashamedly.



Upon returning home I got the code backwards to the apartment building front door. My apartment is on the 3rd floor. All the signs were in chinese characters. No one could hear my loud knocking on the door, or at least they didn't respond. The construction guy I tried asking for help from just stared at me. I had no way of getting back in. After about 15 minutes a security guard from the complex drove by on his scooter, he may have been coming to our door anyway since I kept putting the wrong code in. I motioned to him my problem and he let me in. When I burst into the apartment I informed Catie I needed to find a cell phone ASAP. Thanks to a friend, I have one now! =)

Today we spent the day in Chengdu, had Indian food for lunch, then walked to a Korean program to support some students and had Korean food for dinner. We had to get back home so we took our food "to go" and took it on the taxi with us. Well, at one point the driver slammed the brakes and my foil roll of kimbop (fishless sushi) rolled off my plate and under the driver's seat...we never found it. I hope his taxi doesn't wreak tomorrow!

-kait and kung fu

Chengdu, I Have Arrived

It has been quite the emotional day so far. After leaving my parents at the airport in Newark, I was on my own and found my way to my gate…no problem, it was still in the US. I met a young banker from New York, originally from Mongolia who was traveling to Beijing on my flight. We talked briefly in line waiting to board, I was grateful to have made a potential contact who would help me when I got to Beijing. I was also blessed to have 2 middle aged women sit next to me on the plane – we all kinda bonded because we were all traveling alone. The lady in the middle lived in China for 4 years and was going back to visit.

The flight seemed like it would never end. I was ready to turn around and come home after hour 7, I had almost 7 hours left to go. We landed in Beijing and I made it by myself through the health check point – didn’t get quarantined, thank goodness! I saw my banker friend and we ended up next to each other on the train to the other part of the airport to get our bags. I was again thankful to have met him but was careful not to give out any personal information. We chatted some more while waiting to get our luggage. His came first and we went our separate ways. Well, so I thought. Since mine came so shortly after his arrived, I saw him again in the huge lobby. I must have looked confused because he asked if I knew where I was going, I said “sort of”. He told me where to go. This was his 3rd trip to Beijing in 2 months! I would not want to make this trip that often.

After I left my new friend for the final time, I had to find my way around the check-in area. That was another emotional experience and I felt very alone, I didn’t even know how to ask for help. I finally found my way and arrived at my destination where I was welcomed by my 2 roommates, my co-operating teacher and another lady from the school. It felt so good to see some friendly faces again.

I went to school today and stayed all day. It was hard, but I'm trying to not let myself give in to jet lag. I'll write more about school later, this has been long enough.

All is well, I'm here safe and sound.
-kait and kung fu