Goodbye...hello

Two and a half days.
In two and a half days I will be boarding a plane for warmer weather.
In two and a half days I will begin the adventure of fulfilling a dream.

For the past week packing has been chased out of my head everytime it begins to cross my mind. (I will need to come to terms with that here eventually...maybe tomorrow).


This weekend I attended one of my favorite winter events, the annual IceFest in my hometown. My best friend is came for the weekend which was very fun, what better way to spend some of my final days Stateside. Sad part...I had to say goodbye to her today...I also had to say goodbye to my brother Nate and his girlfriend Danielle. It is a very sobering thought to say goodbye to someone and realize it may be a very long time til you see them again. At the same time I have been reminded that even though the goodbyes here are hard, in a week I will begin to say just as many, if not more, hellos. I am looking forward to some long awaited hellos...I've been in contact via Facebook and Skype with my future roommates and cannot wait to see them in person. Friends at Espana...HELLO!



Oh PS...I look forward to sharing many more photos with you thanks to my parents who purchased for me a new DSLR camera. The IceFest pictures were from my practice run. If anyone has advice for websites to visit so I can learn how to better use my camera, let me know!

For now, hasta luego...I will write again when I am in Argentina safe and sound.
-kait

And soon it will be summer.

I've tried to sit down and write this entry several times already and have failed. Let's give it another whirl.

A lot of you are aware that something big is going on in my life right now or know that I was on the verge of making a huge decision and have been ever so patiently waiting to hear the outcome. Thank you for your patience.

Since my return to the States from China I have been trying to figure out if I should go back to China or stay in the US to find a teaching job. Honestly, I wasn't sure I wanted to do either. But if I didn't want to do either, where was I supposed to go? "The world is at your fingertips, Kaitlin," a friend told me not even a week after my homecoming. So, I decided to apply elsewhere and see what came up. Three days later I received a phone call asking if I was interested in teaching at a school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have always wanted to go to Argentina, it's my response to the popular questions, "if you could visit any country in the world, what would it be?" So my obvious response was yes, I am definitely interested.

Then came Christmas. Everything was put on hold for a week and I heard nothing. Nothing from Argentina, nothing from another possible job in China. Anticipation sometimes can be the worst!

After Christmas I heard back from the director in Argentina, he was going to move the availablity of the position from February to August. I was quite disappointed. An hour later he changed his mind and wanted to interview me that same week.

Within hours of completing the interview I was offered the job and emailed a contract the next day.

Now came my problem. The job was starting in a month and I really wanted to take it, but I did not have the finances to get there to start my job. I was confident this was all arranged by God and knew that he would take care of things. Which he did, my plane ticket has been provided for and now the contract has been signed and submitted. I leave in less than a month to start teaching 5th grade at an international school. I have to be there by February 6th. I can't wait, so many more adventures await. Life is more exciting when all you can do is trust God.

So for now, that's the story, but there will be more to come, and the plan is to keep them posted on my blog. Stay in touch!

-kaitlin

The Angel in the Train Station

My last week in Chengdu was a good one, but boring stuff compared to the last 24 hours. Upon arrival to the airport, I was not sure if I would be able to take all of my luggage. I was scheduled to stay a few days with friends outside Beijing, so techinically my flight would be considered domestic. Domestic flights have lower weight limits than international flights and I was packed for international travel. Thankfully when I got to the counter they took both of my bags no questions asked! I boarded the plane and was off to Beijing. Farewell Chengdu!

Their had been an arrangement for someone to meet me at the airport and accompany me to the train where my friends would meet up with me. Let's just say that having 2 large bags in the public subway system in downtown Beijing (with all the people) is not the most easy way to travel. It was a blessing to have someone help me with my luggage on the 3 different subways and trains.

And here lies my problem. I had to get my bags off the train alone and then down a lonnng flight of steps. I thought I saw an escalator, but there were so many people on it that it looked just like another flight of stairs, so instead of fighting the masses I took the first set I came to. Five steps down I realized it WAS an escalator next to me and that there was NO way I was getting these suitcases down the steps in this mob alone. So there I stopped. And waited. The plan was to wait for the masses to die down, but I quickly realized that it was not going to happen any time soon.

And then it happened. I saw a guy walking UP the steps in my general direction. My first thought was how is he going to get around me?! I turned to watch the people coming down the steps when my thoughts were interrupted by "Can I help you?" I looked to see the young man who had trekked up the steps standing before me offering to carry one of my suitcases down the stairs. When we got to the bottom he insisted on helping me take it the rest of the way until I met up with my friends on the other side of the gate. As soon as we reached my friends, he passed off my bag, I thanked him and he was on his way.

More little stories like that have been happening during my stay in Tianjin, I would love to share them with you in person at a later time. For now, dinner has arrived and tomorrow I embark on an adventure to see The Great Wall of China! And finally, I'll be home for Christmas!

See you all soon,
Kaitlin
(and Kung Fu)

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