An Anniversary Post

This weekend marks one month that we have lived here in Beijing. We wanted to reflect and recap things we've learned and accomplished in the past month!

We have learned:

• how to count to ten, how to say hello, goodbye, thank you, I love you - and a few other very basic Chinese words and phrases.
• how much we love tofu.
• how "flexible" Chinese people can be when making plans - sometimes you only get one day's notice! We were given a list of weekend dates we have to work and the first one on the list was the next day. We had an interesting conversation with our boss about how crazy he thought it was that in America people plan so far in advance (his examples were weddings and dentist appointments...)
• how rarely Chinese people give or receive compliments.
• that the sidewalks and bushes are fair game for children to go to the bathroom.
• that lines (at a grocery store, at the Forbidden City, etc) don't exist. You have to be basically touching the person you're behind or else someone will cut you off.
• that pedestrians don't have the right of way - ever.
• how different our concepts of "beautiful skin" are. In the summer, we tan to get darker. Here, they use umbrellas and arm sleeves to block the sun. (Yet we've never seen sunscreen...)
• how much fruits and vegetables vary in cost - we recently bought 4 oranges for 50 yuan (almost $10) but some tomatoes and edamame for .61 yuan (10 cents!)
• how common it is for people wear to the same outfits everyday. 
• how if there is a holiday during the week, it is expected to work a weekend day to make up for it.
• how the person who sits farthest from the door at the restaurant is the "guest of honor" and the person who sits closest usually pays.
• how there is no dramatic play (dress-up) or free play at school even though these kids are so young and it's considered one of the most important learning activities in classrooms back home.
• that we are the only foreigners we know of in our neighborhood. We definitely though it would be easier to get around and do things without knowing Chinese!
• how crowded and big Beijing is - it could take us around two hours to get somewhere on the subway - which leads us to our next point...
• how cheap taxis are!
• how to use chopsticks.
• how we have a love/hate relationship with our VPNs. We have to use a Virtual Private Network to get around the many American sites that are blocked by the Chinese government. Sometimes it works great and other times not so much...
• how much we miss the beach and our summers back home.
• how good we feel after great workout.
• how much closer we feel to home with social media.
• how bad the pollution can be (sometimes it prevents our daily walks to the park with the children - other days it's gorgeous).
• how to bargain at stands and shops.
• how to use a non-western toilet (our school doesn't even have a "real toilet").
• how challenging our job has been and will be this year. We're realizing that this isn't studying abroad but rather a 6 days a week full time job! But we also are realizing that this is an invaluable experience where we're learning a lot about teaching! 
• how anything as small as hearing a familiar song (typically Taylor Swift) will cheer us up!
• that good smelling bug spray exists.
• that the students don't use pencils or crayons but marker pens and oil pastels (both so messy!)
• how strong we are and how far our positive attitudes will take us. We know this blog typically highlights our fun and exciting experiences but we want everyone to know that this month has been full of surprises, challenges, and obstacles that we could have never foreseen coming into it. We knew it would be challenging and we know that it will be worth it, but we'd be fooling you if we didn't admit that we've faced some serious challenges that have made us doubt our ability to stay. Luckily we both share a positive attitude and are able to find the humor in the seemingly unbearable situations we've faced. That being said, we have been able to sort out many of the miscommunications and we are happy to say that we're coming back to finish out the year until June after a 3 week Christmas vacation. Since making this decision we've found ourselves getting more comfortable in our apartment, neighborhood and classrooms. 
• how much we've appreciated everyone who has reached out to us since we've been across the world. It's always so nice to hear from all of you who we miss everyday! You can never contact us too much!

"Gan Bei" - "Cheers!" to 11 more months of teaching and learning in BJ!