Weekend Highlights

Since we are so overly exhausted from this weekend, we will give you all a brief overview of the things we did and saw: (side note - this was intended to be much more brief than it ended up being, sorry!)

Saturday: 1. Gym Membership - we met a guy on our walk home from work on Thursday who was advertising for a local gym. We didn't know where it was located, so we used our phone app to ask "where?" He spoke okay English so we were able to communicate enough for him to tell us that it is down the street and that he would show us when we were free. We decided to meet him Saturday at 11am for a tour of the gym. It is really nice - has more classes than gyms back home (we'll keep you posted on what they're like... yoga in Chinese??) and your regular treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, weight training, and a pool. The locker room is very interesting, aside from the many Chinese women walking around naked, there is a lot of construction remnants as if it's not finished. We're hoping this changes quickly since it wasn't too comfortable or clean. They have one bathroom which isn't a western toilet (meaning it's basically a hole in the ground) without toilet paper. We'll have to get used to this! We signed up for a year long membership because it was much cheaper per month than to just do the 6 months so we'll see what happens- we haven't committed to the whole year for work yet! We're glad to have this membership to check out some classes and burn off some steam after a busy day at work!

We had to take out cash to pay for our gym membership upfront! 

2. Wanshoulu Stop Mall - we heard about a mall only a few subway stops away from us so we decided to check it out Saturday afternoon. It felt like home! There were many English words, stores we recognized, and most importantly, food we were craving. First stop: Let's Fries. French fries at a small shop - yum. While we were sitting eating our fries we spotted an American supermarket. We walked through and excitedly pointed out some of our favorites - "pesto!" "pasta!" "Smirnoff!" The best part: they were playing country music. After that we walked through some stores, looked at prices and practiced our currency conversions in our heads. We had some more time to spare before meeting up with friends for dinner so we treated ourselves to manicures. We felt like princesses!

Funny sign at "Let's Fries"

Getting our nails done!

3. Met Friends for Dinner and Drinks - We hopped back on the subway further into the center of Beijing to meet some people we had been in contact with who have been living here for about a year. They met us at the subway stop and we all introduced ourselves and all 8 of us were on our way to get some dumplings. It was so nice to chat and meet new people - in our neighborhood we haven't met any English speakers yet. The dumplings were amazing - they ordered an assortment for the table. We only had chopsticks to work with this time, and we were both successful enough to eat a full dinner! The room was so loud with very bad acoustics but we were able to talk with these new friends and tell them about our first week and job. Everyone was from all over the world. They were all so nice! 

With our new friends, Zan and Julia. Very special shout out to Madeline Zappala for introducing us!

4. DazeFeast Music Festival - When we made plans to meet for dumplings, they also invited us to come with them to a free music festival with local bands. We took cabs to the venue, got drinks, and started our night of dancing. Inside was so unbearably hot, but one of the bluegrass bands was so much fun that we stuck it out. When it was just too hot to be inside, we found our way to the grass outside where they DJ was playing 80's music. There were continued our dancing and meeting new friends. We were so genuinely happy - we didn't want the night to end! But we were also so exhausted from such a long day that we finally made our way back home. It was so cool to see some Beijing nightlife and how fun and laid back it was. 

The entrance to where the festival was held--pretty incredible!

With our new friend, Li.

Dancing!

Sunday
5. Worked out for the first time - We planned to go to a 10:30 AM yoga class, but after our long Saturday and late night out we decided (or rather, our internal clocks decided) that we should sleep in. We stopped for some breakfast (a sweet cheese pastry and mango smoothie) before we headed to the gym for some relaxed weight lifting (it was difficult to get into the high-intensity workout mood as the gym playlist consisted of songs like Sarah Mclachlan's "Angel" and Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years"). After braving the locker room to freshen up, we ventured to our subway stop and headed towards the Silk Street Market. 

Interesting signs at the gym.

6. Silk Street Market - After a 45 minute subway ride (yes, we are far from the center of the city!) we arrived at the notorious Silk Street Market. The market houses over 1,700 retail vendors and is famous for its wide variety of "fake" designer bags, clothing, shoes, etc. The market connects to the subway station so before we knew it we were being lured into small shops by women shouting things like: "Friend, you like bag?!" "Best price!" "You want Gucci?" It was overwhelming to say the least. We found ourselves in one of the first little shops wanting just to look around...but that was nearly impossible as the stubborn saleswomen were hounding us to buy something. We both eventually got a bag after we haggled the price down from 900 RMB to 210 RMB (equal to about $30). Who knew we were so good at this bargaining thing? 

7. PIZZA - After such a long morning we were ready for lunch! We found ourselves just outside the market with a variety of "western" food options to choose from. We decided on pizza and beer (and Charlotte finally got some seltzer water that she's been craving). It ended up being a good choice--the pizza was much better than the pizza we found in our neighborhood last weekend! We enjoyed people watching as we ate, the diversity of the people walking in and out of the market and eating at the nearby restaurants was striking. Very different from our neighborhood where we are among the only foreigners!

Enjoying our pizza, beer and seltzer water!

What a wonderful first "real" weekend in Beijing! We hope that our weekends to come are similarly filled with new friends and adventures. We are feeling so grateful! Time to continue lesson planning--back to school tomorrow! We hope that all of you enjoyed your weekend!

A Friday Update

Hi everyone! Just writing a quick post today to share what's going on in our world. Charlotte woke up feeling really sick today :( Sore throat, head ache, etc. I can only imagine that this is from all of the students coughing, sneezing and spitting all the time without properly covering their mouths or cleaning up after. Yuck! She decided to stay home to rest rather than worsen anything. The teachers understood and were concerned about her when I spoke to them. She's sleeping soundly now (I'm home right now for our break time). Send some love for her to get better soon!

My morning was pretty hectic and during my morning lesson with my first class I felt more frustrated than I have yet here. Teaching back home - especially this young age - classroom management is so important. Gaining control over the students, teaching them what is okay and not okay in the classroom...and teaching them respect for others is absolutely necessary. I feel like it is just not taught or stressed enough here. I can't do it because I can't speak their language! So when I'm teaching a lesson, so far the only way that I've been able to stop any bad behavior is by saying the student's name and trying to re-engage them in my lesson. When one child does something "silly" (which I don't think would be tolerated in a school back home), they ALL do! This is so frustrating!! Usually I get to walk home with Charlotte and we vent to each other.. but since she wasn't there on my walk today, I thought to myself about how I'll vent to you all! 

The kids still melt my heart, and when we went for a walk after snack, things were much better. I have 2 more hours of break until I go back for my afternoon half - and then the weekend! Finally!!

Alan Holding Tiger's Hand - & Tiger was holding mine!

In the Classroom

Today was our third day in the classroom. There are 4 classes total at the school - divided up by age (ranging from 2-5 years old). Jacky has the two younger classes - PreK 1 and 2 - and Charlotte has the two older classes - PreK 3 and Kindergarten. We spend half our day in each of our respective classrooms. Our day is broken up by a break from 11:30 - 2:30 (much needed!) We have our lunch with the morning class and dinner with the afternoon class. The food is grown organically in the garden in the back of the school. It's very good - but they usually serve us too much! We feel bad wasting since it seems to be very looked down upon here. The kids all finish all of the meals and drinks each day. I think they are realizing to serve us less than they have been so that we can actually try to finish it! Tonight we had dumplings and we ate them all!

Typical daily schedule:

Greet parents and children in the morning in the courtyard at 7:30 - lots of Hellos and Good mornings! Many grandparents drop their grandchildren off at school. 
Breakfast - Usually they want us to stay outside while the children get dropped off at different times until about 8. They said it's important that the parents "see" us because we "are the reason they pay the high tuition of the school"!
Morning Meeting - Jacky's morning meeting consists of a greeting, songs, ABC's, counting, and a story. Charlotte's morning meeting consists of reading a morning note to the students, discussing the weather, the date, and the classroom rules, practicing counting by counting the children that are present, discussing the colors of the children's clothes, and usually a song and a game.
Exercises - this is hilarious. They line the children up outside to follow the teacher (soon to be our responsibility) doing simple movements to simple songs (like "Bingo") but they refer to it as "exercise"!
Walk to the park - the beautiful sculpture park that Jacky described in an earlier post is right behind the school. It's a very busy place even during weekdays. The children each hold a separate ring on a long string guided by the teacher. We walk through the park, sometimes stopping for the students to pee in the grass. That's very common here! Usually we stop to play a game or run around before lining back up and parading back through the park. We get many looks and waves because we have adorable children on a string and because we both are American! We encourage the children to wave and say "hello!" to those we pass.
Snack - usually fruit, water out of a tin cup that has their Chinese and American name on it, and sometimes yogurt - but their regular yogurt is like our "drinkable" yogurt for kids. Jacky's tried it and it tasted the same. Whenever we eat with the kids we continuously say "yummy!" and they have picked up on that. Today Charlotte successfully taught some of her students to say "I like the food!"
After snack Jacky does Music - Sometimes she takes them to a bigger room across the hall where there is more space and instruments like bells and tambourines. Today she played a Backstreet Boys song and had them dance with the bells. They loved it, but not as much as she did!
After snack Charlotte does her English Lesson - We were given a reading curriculum with very simple books to teach the students with. Charlotte reads the simple book and discusses vocabulary and sight words from the book with her children in both of her classes. She sometimes does an art or game activity that relates to the theme or the vocabulary of the book. When she can, she tries to fit in reading them some of her favorite children's books. This week she read "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" with her Kindergarteners and they loved it! Since she read it to them she hears them shout "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" over and over with huge grins on their faces! 
Lunch - Like we said, we eat with them, and encourage any English possible such as "spoon" or "food" but mostly they say "yummy!" rubbing their tummies mimicking us!
Rest Time - this is our rest time too! We get to walk home and have a few hours of a break to sleep, plan, or whatever else. Lately it's been a lot of lesson planning! Very necessary. Then we go to our other classes for the afternoon.
Snack - Always interesting with the youngest class. Very messy! Always a learning experience. "Seeds" in watermelon or "A for apple" - they know that one well as it's on every ABC poster!
In her afternoon class Charlotte basically does the same thing that she does in her morning class: An afternoon meeting, some songs and/or games, then an English lesson consisting of reading and activities. Jacky has older children who can handle more intensive lessons in the afternoon so she has a different schedule:
Music - Lots of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, ABC's, The Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, etc! If you have any fun English songs, please suggest them! Sometimes she takes this class across the hall to use the instruments, too. So cute.
Reading - Using the books that are in their curriculum, Jacky reads to them slowly with as many connections as possible. If it says something about a shirt, she'll point to hers, and then each of theirs and encourage them to repeat after her. This is usually a time that's hard to keep their attention!
Dinner - Dinner is around 4pm! So early. But they're hungry by then, so it works. Again, we eat with them - always a teaching opportunity. 
Free Time - I guess you could call it that... The parents can come anytime between 4:30 and 5:30 so we usually take out books, manipulatives and blocks to play with. Sorting object by color was a great spontaneous "lesson" that seemed to work well yesterday. This is sort of a free-for-all time, at least in the youngest class! If it is nice enough outside, we go outside to play while the parents come to pick up. This is a great time to speak with the parents and let them get to know us. They are super friendly and interested in us! Sometimes they bring fruit for their children which they often share - cherries and apples are common here. The fruit here is so juicy and fresh: "Yummy!" We leave with many Bye Byes and See you tomorrows! Then we usually hit up JianMart (WalMart!) for a beer and snack and head home. What a long and busy day! Tonight on our walk home we had the realization that tomorrow is Thursday - we've made it past the halfway point of this week!

4 of Charlotte's Cuties

Charlotte's Students Hard at Work! 

Jacky's Older Class Ready to Learn 

Jacky's Younger Class - So Young!

Our First "Real" Day

Saturday was a day of shopping for things we needed in the apartment and sleeping, so we're counting Sunday as our first "real" day since we did a lot of big things!

1. We went to our school and met the professor who hired us. He was giving a lecture in Chinese about the school to parents who were interested in enrolling their children. We we asked to come at 10am, but we weren't sure why because we sat through his entire Chinese lecture nodding and pretending we understood when in reality we had no idea. He was very nice and when he first met us he asked "Are you girls twins?!" We replied that no, no we're not even sisters. He asked us if we had our DNA checked. HA!

The Professor and the "Twins"

2. We went for a walk in the sculpture park that is right behind our school. It is a beautiful park full of art, river boats, and children with their grandparents (very common for grandparents to take care of young children here). One man came right up to us and said "America?" We eagerly responded "America!!" He asked to take a picture with us. That was the first of many requests like that we've gotten so far. More stories to come. The teacher that we were with was handing out flyers for the school and explaining (in Chinese) that our school is right next door and that we are the new teachers. We were basically a walking advertisement for them! 

3. After the tour of the park we went to the Tea Institute (we call it the tea palace because that is essentially what it is) that is between the park and the school. We were escorted to the farthest room which was through gorgeously designed Buddhist-style rooms. We were told to sit in the "VIP seats" at the table. We were with the professor, his wife and a shareholder of the school. We don't know his name so to us he is Shareholder...! In the center of the table there was a turning table where multiple dishes were places and we selected from it what we wanted. We had chopsticks and a spoon. We had to at least attempt using the chopsticks, which we both did an okay job...until we got to the noodles. That was tricky. The server kindly brought us forks, even though we were both determined to keep trying with the chopsticks. Charlotte was more successful than I was - I'm working on it! Dishes ranged from tofu, to sweet yam ice cream (served with the rest of the food) to pineapple and mushrooms. Everything was delicious! The strangest part to us was that they served us tea, water and orange juice. We sipped along as if it was normal to us. We ended the lunch with an exchange of gifts - the professor gave us vegetables that he grew in his garden (behind the school - used in meals during the day) and we gave him and his wife a few gifts from Boston. Before we left, we were asked to take pictures with the Shareholder and Professor. We were told that the Shareholder owns the tea palace and told us that we can come anytime for free. We felt like royalty.

With the Shareholder

4. After having such a satisfying meal, we felt like we could take on a trip just the two of us on the subway to Tiananmen Square. This was the first time on the subway and the first time we left our neighborhood. We are getting used to many people staring at us, but being on the subway was a whole new experience. One guy standing next to us took a picture with his phone very obviously. A few other people pointed at us, and most just looked at us. It's a strange feeling. Once we got to the stop for Tiananmen Square, we walked up the steps and it was SO hot outside. We walked and took a few pictures of Mao - then crossed the street (by going underground to cross the highway) to Tiananmen Square. Two older women and a photographer came up to us and gestured to take a picture with them. We said no because we assumed they wanted us to pay or somehow get money from us. But instead, they wanted to take a picture with us and pay the photographer to print it for them. After taking a few pictures, the woman held our hands and genuinely thanked us as if we had just done her a huge favor. We walked away laughing and one or two more people asked us for pictures, too. It was unlike anything we had ever experienced! We had assumed it would be a touristy place, yet we were the only tourists...but they wanted pictures of us! A pretty twisted concept. When we were leaving the square, we saw the two older women again and asked "Good picture?" with a thumbs up. She nodded eagerly and ran to us showing the picture. Charlotte got a quick snap of the picture from her camera before the photographer started asking us to get one! We kept refusing and walked quickly until he gave up on us. We made our way back to the subway and to our stop and then a 15 minute walk back to our apartment. It was an overwhelmingly wonderful day.

Mao at the entrance to the Forbidden City

The picture that these two women paid for!

30+ Hours of Traveling Later...

Ni hao everyone! We made it! We left Needham at 4am on Thursday, June 20th, flew from Logan to New York, had our last American meal consisting of nachos, french fries and quesadillas, and took off at 12:30pm. Before we left, we bought matching Brookstone neck pillows, which we can thank for any of the sleep we did get. We landed in Tokyo 13.5 hours later for a quick lay-over and then were off to our final stop: Beijing International Airport. We breezed through customs and our bags were a few of the first ones off the plane. We were greeted by Ann, a fellow teacher at our new school, who was holding a sign that said "Jacky and Charlotte." We got into a minivan that was bumping loud pop music and we headed to our apartment. It is a lovely, bright and currently smelly place (we're working on the last part - need a new mop and some more scented candles!) There is a bright orange couch in the living room, bright orange cabinets in the kitchen, and two bedrooms - one larger than the other, but neither bed is comfortable. We flipped for the bigger of the two rooms, and Charlotte won the coin toss. We did agree, however, that if I come back for another 6 months after Christmas, we would switch. I see what she did there... 

Before the long journey began...

When we touched town in our new city!

First sign at the airport

We slept through the night, both woke at 5:15am but were able to fall back asleep until about 9am. Ann came to our apartment to walk with us to the grocery store where we got some food and things we needed for the apartment. It was surprising to see how many familiar lables we saw, but with brands names written in Chinese. When we came back to the apartment, we couldn't get the door open. Side note: we had an issue last night and this morning as well, but not as bad as this time. We tried for about 10 minutes until Ann called another teacher we will be working with, Julie. In the meantime, our neighbor came to help, with two of her friends. It was quite a site to see these three Chinese girls (our age) trying to open the door. When they still couldn't get it, they called the landlord and invited us in to the apartment next door. Julie had the best English out of all of them, so when she left to talk to the landlord, we were on our own trying to talk to these girls. One of them was brave and used her English skills to string together enough words for us to have a conversation. She said the three of them were sisters, but then said that they don't have the same parents but same grandmother. We looked up the word cousin and we are pretty sure that is what she meant. They all seemed eager to learn English and we told them that we would love to help them if they would help with our Chinese! We exchanged numbers and are hoping to see them later on for some food, drinks, and language practice. 

Helping us with our door.. 

The door was finally opened for us so we settled in, unpacked our new things and put away groceries. We were finally successful with the wifi, and I feel like I'm a million miles closer to home than I felt last night. All is good over here on this side of the world - much love to you all!

Zai Jian (goodbye)!
Jacky and Charlotte