"T" in Tennessee!

A Day at Hope!

Today, a group of 15 staff members from EF's BJ1 Kid's School traveled by hired bus to the Shun Yi District on the outskirts of Beijing to Hope Healing Home as a way to give back to our community.  As you know from the previous blog, we took some needed supplies and many also made a cash donation to the Home.  For those who would like to know more than I will tell you in this blog entry, please go to www.hopefosterhome.com and look around.  If your heart tells you to make a donation to this very worthy cause, that would be especially great.

We were met by Robin Hill.  Robin and his wife, Dr. Joyce Hill, started Hope in 2000.  Robin gave our group a tour of all their facilities and provided wonderful information and history about the work he and his wife do for orphaned babies who need special medical care and surgeries.  After our tour, we spent over two hours playing with the children and holding babies, giving the Nannies a little break as they were able to relax a bit and watch us love on the children.

Robin gives us an introduction to Hope in the foyer of their large facility.  You can see all the blue slip covers on our shoes as there weren't enough slippers to go around and we needed to keep the floors clean from our "street shoes."

Hope.  A very powerful word.

Robin shows us some of the incredible before and after photos of babies that have been cared for at Hope and had successful corrective surgeries.  Many babies have cleft lip/palate, congenital heart defects that need repairing, growths on the spine, spina bifida, etc.  Once the children receive surgery they are adopted or cared for in a foster home.  Most are adopted.  Incidentally, Steven Curtis Chapman, well known Christian singer in Nashville, Tennessee, is a big supporter of Hope. 

 In the hallway you can see many photos of children that have come through Hope's Home.  You can also see a menorah on the window sill.  One of our teachers is Jewish, so this was nice to see at the Home.

The facility is very modern and clean.

This is the cafeteria.

There are three large yurts behind the Home which can house larger groups of volunteers, if needed.  There's a couple of sleeping yurts and a meeting yurt.  There are also communal bathrooms and showers in an adjacent building.  You can also see snow on the ground.  This part of Beijing received snow last week.  My area of town did not.  Boo!  Beijing is VERY big.

You see how large their facility is in the background.

We are viewing one of the many color-coded bedrooms.  This is the pink room.  A Nannie sleeps in the room with the infants/children at night.  During the day, there is one Nannie for every 2 children.  These bedrooms are very organized.  All clothing is color-coded and returned after laundering to each bedroom where the Nannie sorts for each child.

A parking garage for strollers.  Lots of strollers.  Another item that is constantly in need.

There is a kindergarten room for the older children.  They are taught in English by a volunteer.

 This little girl had a very large growth on her spine and has had complicated surgery to remove it.  Unfortunately, the growth was so severe that her legs are now paralyzed.  She is a happy girl and gets around wonderfully despite her disability.

Our Center Manager, Cathy, was very taken with her and enjoyed lots of quality time with her.

We enjoyed seeing "snack time."  The kids were fed bread and apple slices.  I don't think I heard one child crying the entire time of our visit.

All the ladies in the red sweaters are the Nannies.

Tamara, with a cute little one, in the Winnie-the-Pooh playroom.

James and his little special friend.

Seven enjoys floor time with this little girl.

Alisa, in the Nemo playroom.

Christina and her special friend.

Lest you think all I did was photograph our day....I spent quite a lot of time with this special little boy.  He was born with spina bifida and has not yet had corrective surgery.  He can walk in his own way and gets around remarkably well.  When I first came into the playroom, he ran over and threw his arms up to me to be picked up.  And that was that! ha  Whenever I tried to put him down, he would hold his legs up high! ha  I played patty cake with him and "ride little horsey" on my knees with him.  He has an infectious laugh and was a joy to spend time with.

Life back in the Pooh playroom.

I was able to pass off my little special boy to William for some male bonding time.

I think Alan will definitely be visiting Hope again.....soon!  Many had such a wonderful time that they plan to return for time with the children in the future.

Simone fell in love with this little girl who will be getting corrective surgery in the future.  She held her until she fell asleep and didn't want to leave.

On the bus heading back to our Center.  We stopped and had a wonderful dinner together with lots of great discussion about our visit to Hope.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the dinner but we had some delicious food, including my favorite, Beijing duck.

A wonderful day.  We bonded with the children and babies and we bonded with each other as a group.  This is what team-building is all about; coming together as a team with a common purpose.  It was a positive experience for everyone.  LL, T.

Shopping Trip!

Every so often, all the folks at the EF Center where I work have a team-building event.  It's usually a nice dinner out or a festive time singing at a KTV joint.  This time, I was in charge of coming up with something for our team-building event.  Knowing about a medical foster home here in Beijing, I suggested that we all go there, spend our team-building budget on needed supplies, and play with the children.  It was well received and we're going tomorrow! :)  For those who have been reading my blog prior to arriving in China (www.lovelucyblue.blogspot.com) then you know that the Hope foster home (www.hopefosterhome.com) is the first place I visited upon my arrival in Beijing for the first time in 2005.  I went straight there from the airport with my friend, Liyin, to deliver two suitcase loads of pediatric medical supplies that were donated by doctors in Nashville, Tennessee.  I will never forget that visit and being able to interact with the amazing children there.  Hope takes in babies and toddlers who are very ill and need complex surgeries.  They do wonderful work and many of these children get needed corrective surgery and go on to be adopted by loving families both in and outside of China.  Sometimes, however, the condition of a child is terminal.  Hope loves and takes care of that child until they pass.  Hope relies on the generosity of many folks around the world to help these kids get the surgery they need.  I am very excited about being able to see all the children tomorrow and to be able to share the experience with my wonderful co-workers.  Here's some pics of our trip to Carrefour (a French retailer here in Beijing) to get diapers, oil, rice, and other needed supplies.

Cathy and Simon as we head down the escalator to Carrefour!

Yep, that's Dairy Queen! ha  There's many DQ's here and I've enjoyed a few Blizzards over the past 16 months!  The employees are instructed to turn the Blizzard cup upside-down before giving it to you to prove it's delicious thickness! ha

Becky, Ivy and Wishing.  And that's BreakTalk in the background, a wonderful bakery!

Stocking up on oil and bags of rice!  Ivy appears to be amazed at how heavy that package of chips was, but actually I think she was just yawning! ha ha

That cart was getting heavy for Simon to push through the store!

Remember folks, all those prices are in RMB.  Every 10 RMB is about $1.50!  Lots of folks, right?  And the store wasn't even crowded! ha

See that man in front of the boxes?  Those are boxes of small bags of milk! :)

The guy behind the white bottles is hawking yogurt.  In Chinese supermarkets, many times employees are instructed to yell out (VERY frequently) the deals on certain items.

So here we are, in the underground car park (parking garage) of Carrefour, waiting for a taxi at the taxi lane.  A taxi came along........

.....but the taxi driver got out, locked all his doors, and then proceeded to walk into the supermarket.  I was irate.  I yelled out, "Hey! You can't just park your taxi there, blocking other taxi's, and then leave" and for some American emphasis, I threw my hands up in the air as I spoke.  He looked back at me and yelled out some words.  I said to Cathy, "What did he say?  Did he call me a rude American?"  She said, "No, he said he has to pee!" ha ha ha  He came back and ended up transporting most of us and our purchases back to our Center.  You can be sure that I told him "thank you, thank you" in Chinese many times! ha  Americans can certainly learn a few lessons in patience from Chinese folks! ha

We will leave our Center by bus at noon tomorrow to travel to the Hope foster home.  I plan to take lots of photos of our visit with the children! :)  LL, T.

My favorite Tea House, Students, Tree and Card!

On the floor below where I work, there's a small tea house.  They make great ju roe bao zi (pork dumplings) which I've enjoyed countless times!  Sometimes I head down there for some tea and a few minutes of relaxation from work.  The girls know I enjoy "cold" tea and drinks so I head into the kitchen and survey what's in their fridge! ha  Everyone is really nice and I'm lucky to have this small refuge just a few steps from where I work.

Here's where I usually sit.  Folks come to tea houses for many reasons but a big one is to play games such as mah jong, chinese checkers, etc., while sipping on delicious tea.  There are also private rooms with card tables to play mah jong.

These are some of my younger students, ages 7-10.  From the foreground, Tracy, Cherry, Rebecca, Tina and Rose!  Interesting story about Rebecca:  she and her parents were standing by their car one day when I had taken my older students outside to buy them ice cream last summer (it was a hot day and we just needed a little "happy").  Apparently, Rebecca's parents were impressed that I was speaking English with a bunch of Chinese teenagers and started asking questions about me to my students.  Long story short, Rebecca is now one of my students and her English is really improving!  It's pretty unusual to see a group of Chinese kids freely speaking English with a foreigner so it does attract a lot of attention when I take my students for a little "field trip," which is something I LOVE to do.

This is Peter (who's full of mischief! ha), Amy (who was camera shy), Grace and Eric!  I've enjoyed teaching Peter for over a year now and he is definitely a "people person!" ha

Here's my little Christmas tree and some Christmasy red carnations that a friend brought to me at the party!  I acquired this little tree from someone who moved back to the States.  I'll be passing it along to a worthy friend next year when I leave. :)

I promised photos of the great card one of my students, Sophia, made for me so here ya go:

The front!

The inside.  Such talent!

The back of the card!  You know....let me just say:  I have so much more respect and admiration for teachers in this world than I've ever had before.  It's true I'm not a "real" teacher by training (having  majored in History in University) but I have my certificate to teach English as a Second Language and it has brought me more than a little insight into the world of teaching.  I understand so much more now about the life of a teacher.  I understand why they spend their hard-earned money buying supplies for their students that their school system won't or can't supply and why they continue engaging in a job that truly goes home with them each and every day.  It's all about the students.  The kids.  So here's to every teacher who taught me, the sacrifices they made, the care shown and all the hours they spent planning lessons and grading papers at home, etc., etc., etc.  The rewards of such a job are indeed great.  You can easily be dead-tired after a day of teaching but remembering a comment or smile from a student or being fortunate enough to see the exact moment when a student really "gets it"?  Well, it's just priceless.  LL,T.

Interesting Day!

Today, my first class was my TB4A students.  These are fairly advanced students and we're able to converse easily in English.  Today was our "fun day."  This is a day at the end of a level (they will progress to TB4B next week) when we can just have fun!  I've had many days like this with my students and we usually leave the Center and go do something fun that my students suggest.  Today, we went to a HUGE shopping mall near our Center which has a big cineplex and they chose the movie that we were to see!  They chose "Christmas Story" which is a Finnish movie.  I had my doubts! ha  But it turned out to be great (because it was dubbed in English with Chinese subtitles).  My students were able to buy me a "student" ticket (half price and STILL the equivalent of $7.50 US!).  Unlike America, when you go to see a movie in China, you have an "assigned" seat.  SO different!  The seats were like recliners! ha  They had little tables next to them.  We bought popcorn (no butter but hey...this isn't America) and the popcorn was multi-colored and I swear the "pink" kernals tasted like fish popcorn! ha  The movie was great!  All about how Santa Claus came to be Santa Claus by telling his life as a young boy.  It was the top grossing Finnish movie in 2007 and I can see why.  Here's the movie poster:

Don't know if this movie is playing around town in America (if so, probably at the movie theaters which show foreign flicks) but it's well worth seeing! :)

Jumping to my last class today, from 4:20 to 6:40, my TB5A students, I had forgotten that my assigned homework last week was for each student to MAKE me a Christmas card! ha  Several students gave me store-bought cards (which was nice) but one student actually made me an incredible card which I will take photos of soon!  She is a talented young artist and it's definitely going in my China scrapbook at some future date! :) 

Can I just say again.....I adore my EF English students!  They are all so wonderful....each in their own individual way!  I feel so lucky to be able to help these wonderful young students with their English and I hope to keep in touch with all of them as they progress through school and on to University!  I suspect several will eventually study in the U.S. and I will always be available to offer them a room if they want to visit Nashville! :)

Hope everyone had great holidays!  LL, T.

Christmas Eve in Beijing, 2008!

My second annual Christmas Eve party was a big success!  About 25 folks attended and everyone had a great time.  Last year, I bought WAY too much beer.  This year, I bought WAY too much food (and much, much less beer).

See what I mean?  And there was tons more food just waiting in the kitchen.  The Ayi's, Jean and Ling, bought some wonderful snacks, including Jean's wonderful homemade fish balls (which you can see in the bowl next to the bowl of Oreos in the back).  I have LOTS of food leftover to take to work tomorrow!

Jean and Ling.

The party gets rolling with James pulling a "Pulp Fiction" Travolta move! ha

This is Nyah, our newest local teacher, and her boyfriend, who was visiting and is from California.

Alisa, with Wendy and Christina.  Unfortunately, they're sitting in front of my little decorated Christmas tree.

Becky and Rachel.

Colin is crazy, and apparently has crazy friends.  He brought a friend who is visiting Beijing for a while with him.  Charlie, who's Canadian, picked Colin up when I wanted a photo and out came their tongues! ha ha

Canadian Charlie won the prize for being the tallest at the party!  What a lovely smile, too.

The snacks table was a popular place! :)

Like last year, everyone brought a fun, small gift for the gift exchange game where folks can steal each others gifts if they want.  Wishing is opening the gift she chose which was wrapped in multiple layers of paper and had everyone laughing.

Becky checks out the cleaning products she received! ha ha

Colin gets some Chinese tea.  Last year, his cute little "Year of the Rat" mouse was stolen by someone else.  This year, he gets to keep his tea.

Seven is jumping for joy with her hand still in the bag, which contained a pair of Garfield house slippers!  She LOVES Garfield and Seven can be counted on for a great shot displaying her joy! ha  No one dared steal them from her because of this joyous display of happiness! ha

James steals a pair of "holiday undies" from Christina, but then gives them back at the end of the party! ha  He got lots of weird stares when he took them from her! ha

Alan got a really neat carrying case with traveling chopsticks in it!  He was lucky!

You can see Seven embracing her Garfield slippers. :)

Canadian Charlie poses with Jean and Ling before they leave.

It's after midnight and lots of party-goers have left. 

As can be seen by the clock on the wall, the last folks left just after 1:00 am.  We all had a great time laughing and talking and eating!  It was a great evening with most all my friends here. 

Special message to Joan Carol:  Merry Christmas Mom!  Hope you're enjoying all the great food.  I had a nice Christmas buffet dinner tonight at the Holiday Inn!  It cost $23 but was worth it.  I did the same thing last year and the food is really good.  Have a wonderful day today!  I love you!

Only an hour and a half left of Christmas Day here in Beijing.  It's back to work tomorrow for me. 

Wishing everyone peace!  Teresa

I'm a Blog-Posting Queen! ha

Three posts in the last 24 hours!  I have WAY too much time on my hands, right?  If only....

Tonight I had the pleasure of delivering some Christmas cards to some special folks.  I took Seven along to translate and had a nice visit with two special lady friends who are the Ayi's (we would call them "custodial engineers" in the States) at our Center!  I also spent a few special minutes with our Nightwatchman, Hua Shi Fu, who watches out for our Center during the night!  These 3 folks don't speak English but we "converse" in other ways, with facial expressions and animated hand movements and in a strange way....that can sometimes convey much more than spoken words!

This is"Ling" (my English-ized name for her based on her Chinese name) with her cute pooch! :)  I learned how to say her name and she actually looked at me and trotted over for a pet when I said it!  So cool!  I can speak "chinese dogspeak!" ha

You can see "Jean" (also my English name for her which seems to have stuck among us foreign teachers) making a point with her hands but take note of Seven in her striped hat! ha  She looks like she hasn't moved since....

 

....this photo! ha It was so great to enjoy a few minutes in the homes of these ladies (unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of my time in Jean's home).

Ling and her husband.  The door to the right is their daughter's bedroom (now a college student).  They had a unique apartment in that it was two floors.  Bedrooms, bathroom and living room on one floor and kitchen and dining room on the upper floor.  So neat!

After leaving Ling's apartment, Seven, Jean, and I walked back toward our Center and I took pics of some Christmas displays along the street.  My camera is not great with "night" photos but these Chinese characters say "Merry Christmas"!  See the decorated trees!  Warms my heart....

And sometimes....when your camera doesn't take great "night" photos......you get a really cool photo, such as this one!  Love it!

Now, the next two photos are for a very special "cyber" friend of mine that I've never met in a physical sense but have been connecting with for a few years now.  She lives in Arizona with her husband and two adorable daughters and though we've never personally met, she's very special to me!  So these 2 photos are for you, BTG, with love from Beijing! :)

Maybe there's some karma shouting out to you in Beijing! :)

And BTG? This is a photo of the storefront just underneath and beside that sign! :)  I can see it in Beijing now....a big colorful neon sign that says, "BTG Designs!" :)

Sake Saturday!

Woo hoo!  It's a "two post" night! ha  Last night, my Director, James, and I decided to discuss "business" over dinner after work.  He treated me to a wonderful dinner at a Japanese restaurant just next to our Center.  Man!  How could I have worked next to this restaurant for almost a year and a half without trying it out!  You can pay about the equivalent of $23.00 and literally order whatever you want.....as often as you want!  I had steak, shrimp, lamb, bacon wrapped around asparagus, bean sprouts, grilled sweet potatoes, delicious fresh fruit and a a fried banana topped with cinnamon and vanilla ice cream!  Wow!  And....oh yeah.....sake.....lots of sake!  ha  Here's a couple of photos but they truly don't do the evening justice!  We also had great conversation with a Chinese couple sitting next to us!  James and the girl, who was fairly fluent in Japanese, enjoyed speaking a lot in Japanese! ha  I was thrilled to be able to tell her (from my undergrad study of Japanese) in Japanese that I was an American and I loved television! ha  Literally, it's all I remember from taking a year of Japanese language! ha  It was a delicious evening!

So now I'm gearing up (translation: lots of apartment cleaning and preparations) for my annual Christmas Eve party here in Beijing for everyone I work with and then some!  I'm expecting a larger crowd than last year.  It's gonna be great fun!  (for all you non-southern American readers, "gonna" means "going to" ha ha).  So there may be no new posts until Christmas Day.  I'll be posting tidbits on my facebook page, however, so if you're on facebook....check it out!  Today, I learned how to say "Merry Christmas" in Chinese.  So, of course, I yelled it out loud and often today to the laughter of lots of Chinese students and parents as I surely got the tones all wrong!  But they knew what I meant and were very appreciative of my effort!  LL, T.

Christmas Party for EF Students!

So here's a photo-diary of the party!  The kids had a great time, the food was delicious, and some great singing was exhibited by our staff!  ha

Hotel staff are anxious to start bringing out all the food!  They even put up balloons in pink and blue (EF's colors).  So nice; and all the hotel staff were very patient and kind with a ballroom full of children! :)

 

Some of my lovely colleagues in their party dresses!

Three beautiful teachers.....Seven, Simone and Nyah!

Total cuteness!  We had a professional photographer taking photos but I snapped a couple of my own when I just couldn't resist such cute faces!

Kids line up and prepare the enter the party room.

The waitstaff brought out all the desserts first!  A big temptation for the kids!

Some of the handsome men at my table.

Little Jessie got it right!  Start the night off with desserts! ha

I prefered to start with food! ha  How did I pick up that pork cutlet with my chopsticks, you ask?  Easy.  First, you jab it/stab it with a chopstick and just eat all around it on the chopstick! ha  The food really was delicious even though my dinner was interrupted by having to participate in the "group sing" of Twelve Days of Christmas with all my colleages.....a song I had orchestrated myself and it was rather funny with 12 of us standing on stage!  I was the "Five Golden Rings" person and I had five golden rings (ha) and dragged it out for all it was worth! ha  The young crowd seemed to enjoy our song and that was the goal. :)

Crowd reaction to our singing abilities!

Our Center Manager, Cathy, with her husband and their adorable baby boy!

Cathy's son is pointing to himself as if to say, "You talkin' to me?" ha ha

The kids play some games on stage.

Wendy, in her beautiful dress with faux fur wrap.

Simone showing her gorgeous smile!

My adorable "little man," Horace.  He's my long-time VIP student (one on one teaching) and I just love him to bits!  Such a cute "orange drink" mustache!  His two front teeth, having recently been lost, are now re-appearing. :)

This is Jane and Ryan, also my VIP students.  They are dressed in Chinese and Cinderella fashion and were so cute. 

Everyone had a great time and as for the teachers......well, we ended the evening just as we prepared for it (see earlier blog entry)! ha  A nice evening for sure!

Chocolate Mint Heaven!

I was intending to blog all sorts of photos from last night's big Christmas party for our students tonight.  However, time has gotten away from me and if I don't go to bed soon I'll be yawning very 3 minutes in front of my students tomorrow!  So let's just deal with the chocolate!  My dear friend, Lynne, in Boston, sent me a wonderful box of goodies today!  Never before have I ever received such a box of all my favorites!  Here's a photo:

Just look at all I received!  Hershey's kisses, Hershey's candy cane kisses, York peppermint patties (my absolute favorite), Junior mints, M&Ms, cool fruit flavored gum, a great pair of holiday earrings, Christmas peeps (gotta be an American to know about that), and just so many other wonderful things.  And yes, that's 2 boxes of tampons at the top! ha  Facts are facts, folks, and you just can't get tampons here!  (I can hear my son now.....Aw, Mom, WAY too much information! ha).  I had the absolute best time tonight pulling out one delectable goodie after another!  Do I have the absolute best friends, or what?  I feel so very lucky!  So again....here's to weight loss! ha  I'm having a Christmas party on Christmas Eve and I'm afraid I'm going to be very cautious about what I share with folks! ha

I promise to post party pics soon but here's a couple:

The academic staff arrived at the hotel (near Peking University) where we would be hosting the Christmas party two hours before it was to begin so we engaged in some necessary preparations!

James and William dressed in their finest!

The "party room" before the partiers arrived!

This photo of Alan and one of our young ones?  Well, it's just priceless and really needs no explanation.

Promising to post the rest of the party pics soon.....I'm heading to bed now! :) LL (Loving Life), T.

Random Things Here in Beijing!

Yesterday  evening (after watching many episodes of this year's season of Gossip Girl! ha), I met up with James and we hopped on board the Line 1 subway and headed to Xidan for a great steak dinner at "Sizzler." :)  We walked around and found it (on the basement floor of a large department store).  SO good!  I had a New York strip steak (James had a ribeye), a couple of trips to the salad bar (man, I love it when I can enjoy real salad here with bacon bits, cheese, and ranch dressing!), including great soups and fruits.  We walked around a bit and then returned by subway to our neck of the woods.  The outside of the department was all decorated in purple! ha  The theme was "Swan Lake" with lots of purple decorated Christmas trees! ha  Not sure why the whole "Swan Lake" theme but one just can't try to figure those things out here. :)  Lots of folks were posing for photos in front of the huge display.

The swans were really big! :)

Today, at work, I received a package from my friend, Tammy, in Tennessee!  I was instructed to open the box and then read the instructions! ha

Merry Christmas to me! :)  Tammy knows my weakness for chocolate mint anything so you can see the big bag of "Andes mints" she sent me! :)  I'm gonna save them for my Christmas party next week and share with my colleagues.  Well, maybe! ha  At least, that's the plan.  She also sent 2 wonderful Christmas music CDs and we're going to play one during our Christmas party tomorrow night!  Thank you SO MUCH, Tammy!  The card says that I must wait until Christmas Day to open the package and THEN open the card! ha  So I'll do as instructed.  It's SO NICE to have something to open on Christmas Day.  Last year, I also had several presents from my Mom but since I was just in the States, she bought me some new shoes and a couple of other things I needed and won't be sending a box this Christmas.  I fully support that since it's very expensive to send a package to Beijing!  Now.....if I can just wait until Christmas Day to open the present! ha  Tammy and her husband own a jewelry store so hey.....small box?  ha  I will do my best to wait! ha  (No worries, Tammy!  I will wait, I will wait! ha).

Lately, I have been very blessed with receiving gifts from some of my students.  I've received some great chocolates and interesting foods from areas where some of my students' parents have visited.  One student, Nicole, and her mother, Jeanette, recently took me to a great restaurant for lunch which was famous for "Peking duck" which I absolutely love!  The duck was delicious and the skin was thin and crispy and oh my....you'd just have to live here to appreciate duck the way I now appreciate it.  It'll be the dish I miss most when I return to the States.  They also gave me a bag that had chocolate in it and four packages of famous beef from a region where Nicole's father works.  I'm saving those for the party!  They also gave me a HUGE stuffed elephant!  It's big and so very soft!  I just love it!  Nicole's mother explained that the Chinese word for "elephant" is very similar to the word for "luck" so they consider the elephant to be lucky.  So, of course, I named my new roommate "Lucky."  Lucky is currently hanging out in my guest bedroom!  I may be 47 but one never gets too old to own a great stuffed elephant.  It really made me very happy and, just like a kid, I LOVE hugging Lucky! :)

 

I  just love "Lucky" and you can be sure that he'll be shipped home to live in America next year!

There's been many "fast food" restaurants opening up just in front of my apartment building on Dacheng Lu!  Tonight, I went into the newest one to order some "take out."  It's a restaurant specializing in "shaved noodles" Shanxi province style.  SO GOOD!  I didn't know how to say anything in Chinese to order except "beef," which is "nu roe" in Chinese.  But saying "noodles" in English is understood and I knew how to say "take away" in Chinese so I effectively ordered a wonderful bowl of shaved noodles with beef to enjoy in my apartment.  The employees were very surprised to see me and they all sort of crowded around as I ordered.  The cost?  12 RMB ($1.75).  And let me tell you...it was delicious!  The beef and noodles were in a tomato broth with vegetables and I barely set down my bags inside my apt. before enjoying the goodness! :)  And another bit of good food news?  A dumpling restaurant is about to open right beside the noodle place!  I do love Chinese dumplings! :)  A year ago, the big long building in front of my apt. building was vacant.  Now....there are many businesses going in, including a huge supermarket which is where I food shop now and where everyone now knows me! ha  There's also a bakery and, of course, the Pizza Hut take-out shop (where they also know me! ha).

The shaved noodles are homemade and thick and delicious!

As you can see, I didn't even take it out of the plastic bag before digging in! ha  My first experience with Chinese shaved noodles was in Datong when I visited my friend Hua's parents three years ago.  Hua's father took us to a great local restaurant and the noodles were great!  That's where I also ate donkey for the first time and yes, donkey can be quite good!  Sometimes, folks, you just have to get beyond cultural barriers and enjoy the foods of the region within which you are present!  I now enjoy and appreciate many foods which I've never experienced in the States and enjoying foods of different world regions can be an enlightening experience and also very enjoyable!

I know I sound like a broken record....but I feel very blessed to be living right here....right now! :)  This blog is a record of my life here and I want to be sure and convey just how much I am enjoying this experience.  There are times when life here is stressful....just like living anywhere in the world can be.....but for someone who enjoys cultural experiences as much as I do....life just couldn't be better and that definitely trumps times of stress.  When I feel stress, I just have to walk out of my building into the life of my local neighborhood and realize how very fortunate I am to be experiencing what very few Americans get to experience.  Life in China....a beautiful and rich in culture country with amazing people and an incredible history that not many Americans know about.  And what's so interesting to me is that if someone had told me just five years ago that I'd spend a couple of years living and working in China, I would have said, "Are you crazy?  China"?  Never!"  My mother has, in the past, told me, "Never say never."  She was so right....although I'm not sure this current life of mine is what she meant when she said those words! ha

Sanlitun!

Today, my first of two days off, I met Tamara and Alisa and we took Line 10 to Sanlitun to visit the Bookworm!  The Bookworm is a western-style cafe that has free wireless and all new and used books.  You can join up and check out books here but for me it takes a long time to get there so I haven't signed up.  Alisa has, however, and I began reading a book by Murakami (Japanese author) titled "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" that she had checked out and was about to return.  So she re-checked it out for me to read.  I've read another novel by Murakami (South of the Border, West of the Sun) which I really enjoyed so I'm looking forward to this read.  We enjoyed some time at the Cafe and then walked around.  Alisa left us to return to meet some friends so Tamara and I walked around some more and visited April Gourmet which is a western grocery store where I picked up tortillas (yes!), some Land o' Lakes sharp cheddar cheese, 3 cans of diet A&W rootbeer and a can of Chef-Boyardee's Beefaroni! ha  It's the little pleasures! 

Cool sculpture in Sanlitun.

This chinese infant sculpture was outside a new shopping complex and it actually had a sign that said, "Don't touch me" in English but someone obviously threw a lot of dirt on it!  I had hoped to capture the little Chinese boy that you can barely see behind the sculpture on film but it didn't happen.

Ha ha!  Today was gorgeous here in Beijing!  No smog, sun shining, not too cold!  Lovely.  In Chinese, one would say, "Hao Tian Ji" (at least I think that's how you'd spell it in English and I'm probably wrong).  It means, "Good Weather!"

Tamara poses for a photo!

Oh my!  Imagine my surprise when I saw this bit of "America!" ha  So you KNOW that Tamara and I (Alisa had left to meet some friends) went inside and had some great ice cream in the middle of Beijing winter!  She had a "cookies and milk" milkshake and I had 2 scoops of ice cream.....mint and "cake batter."  I'm telling you....it tasted just like cake batter!  So good!  Here's to weight loss! :)

Tamara and I then ventured into "Yashow" which is a big "bargain mart" here frequented by tourists so the prices can be high.  I showed her where you can merely show a photo of a clothing item you'd like to have and folks can make it for you.  She ended up finding a great silver "snowflake" necklace and a pair of "Schnauzer" earrings.  I helped her bargain the price down (she's still new to Beijing! ha) but she still ended up paying more than I would have paid!  What can I say?  She was happy with her price and that's what is most important.  We waded through many Chinese vendors who called out, "Lady, lady" ha ha.  I wish someone would teach them that it'd be much more effective to yell out, "Ma'am"!  It wouldn't make us feel so old. ha  "Lady, Lady, you want a scarf? Lady, lady, you want a pearl necklace?"  I enjoyed telling them, in Chinese, "I am a Beijinger!" ha  They, of course, just look at my face and laugh!  I'll never be a true Beijinger....but I enjoy trying!

In Search of Diet (Light) Coke!

My TB5A class consists of my most advanced students.  They're just great and we have great discussions in class.  Occasionally, I find an excuse to get them out of the classroom and we take little "adventures" together.  Tonight, we took off on a walk to a local supermarket in search of Light Coke to do our little "diet coke plus mint flavored Mentos" experiment.  The "diet" coke in China is called "Light" Coke.  In China, the word "diet" doesn't mean so much as most Chinese (although with McDonald's and KFC, Chinese are definitely getting bigger) are not overweight and don't understand why they would need to buy something that says "diet" (unlike Americans, who love foods called "diet").  So the Coca-Cola company is smart and markets diet coke as "light" coke here.  We were searching for big bottles of "light" coke to do the experiment where you drop mint Mentos into a liter of diet coke and it causes the coke to spew up out of the bottle.  So here's some pics:

We're heading down the escalator and into the supermarket.

This is one of my new students, Vincent, who I caught a little off guard with my camera!  The walk to the supermarket was about 3 blocks and I was, of course, speaking English with my students the whole way and we were all laughing a lot.  This caused a lot of curious stares as it's not a common sight to see a group of Chinese students walking down the street speaking English with a foreigner. :)

This is Jane and Yoney examining a box of coconut candies that Yoney purchased and then shared with everyone.

 

This is Yoney (pronounced Yo-nee) who will go to the States next summer as an exchange student in American high school!  I'm so excited for her.  She's a smart girl and also an accomplished flutist who hopes to continue and perfect her musical skills while in the States.  She and I will definitely be in close touch when I return the States not too many months after she arrives. 

To get this shot I had my students go up the escalator out of the supermarket and then come back down again! ha  They thought I was crazy as did many Chinese folks who were looking on! ha  Right before this, for the first time, I DROPPED my camera!  The batteries and memory card spilled out and I was momentarily stricken with fear!  But all was well and my little digital camera survived!

Because we just had to test out the whole diet coke + mentos thing right away, we did so in the parking lot outside the supermarket.  It was sort of a let down.  The coke did spew up but not near as far up as the youtube.com videos that we'd seen. ha  I think there must be some difference in the "diet" coke here and that in the States.  You see, the coating on the mint Mentos reacts with the Aspartame in the diet coke.  I think the mixture is just a little different here which might explain the difference between "diet" coke and "light" coke. Who knows.  But we had fun doing it anyway.  We actually tried with 2 liters of light coke.  The second time we included more Mentos but the result was the same.....not all that great.  The mint Mentos sold in China have a different coating (apparently) than the Mentos in the States so I brought back 3 packages of Mentos from the States.  I still have one tube of "American" Mentos so maybe we'll try again someday.

Me and Yoney!

Me and Jane!

Me and Kevin! ha ha  Photos of me with my students are absolutely priceless to me and you can be sure that I'll be creating great scrapbooks when I return to the States and have time to make them.  I have lots to look forward to here in China.  Our Center is having a fancy Christmas party next Thursday and I'll be having my second annual "American-Chinese Christmas Shingdig" at my apartment soon.  I even have a small Christmas tree this year!  I'm also working on travel plans for Chinese New Year holidays.  I'll have 7 days off and intend to spend at least 4 of those days traveling to and enjoying the sights in a Chinese city that I've never visited. Right now, I'm considering Pingyao!  Chinese New Year (CNY) is January 26th this year.  Last year I enjoyed CNY in Changchun.  This year I'd like to be here in Beijing for all the festivities so I'll probably travel to another city on January 27th to the 31st.  But of course, it all depends on whether I can actually get a train ticket.  EVERYONE usually travels by train during CNY holidays!  It can be very difficult to get train tickets as you cannot buy them until usually 4 days before your trip.  Take care and stay tuned!

Hogs in Beijing!

I was able to bring back some special T-shirts for a few folks (Kang, Colin, James and Shelagh) from Nashville.  That's right!  I bought them Harley Davidson motorcycle T-shirts from the well-known Boswell's Harley shop in Nashville.  Harley's and their riders are called "Hogs," hence the title of the post! ha  I had dinner with James and Colin and they proudly displayed their new shirts for me.

Colin, also displaying his unusually long Alice Cooper/KISS tongue! ha  Some Harley motorcycles are called "Fat Boys" and since Colin, who is from Scotland, refers to himself as "Fat Colin," he quickly claimed the "Fat Boy" T-shirt! :)  He actually, isn't a bit fat at all.  Seems it's a "Scottish" thing! ha

James tries to match Colin's facial expression but it's just not the same without the tongue! ha

I have such great friends and colleagues here....from many countries.  I feel very lucky!

Seven turned 26 last Sunday.  Monday night, I went to dinner with Seven, her husband, Joe, and Seven's mother.  We had a great meal at an Italian restaurant in Zhonguancun!  Many Chinese married couples wear matchin clothing. :)  It's kinda cute, don't you think?

I had told Seven that I brought her back something special from America. So she was trying her best to look excited about this "false" present of a bottle of shower gel! ha ha ha   But in actuality.....

I brought her back a lovely gold and diamond necklace! ha  This really surprised her. 

Seven, wearing her new necklace.  Then.....

she smelled of the shower gel and LOVED it so I told her she could have it! :)

Here's Seven's mother, with Seven and her husband!  If I haven't said it before, and I'm sure I have, let me just reiterate how dear Seven is to me.  She constantly gives up her free time on days off to help me out at the bank, the post office, shopping and many other things that require translation.  She is truly one of the reasons that my life here in China is so special.  So thank you, Seven, for all you've done for me and continue to do for me and mainly.....for being such a dear, sweet friend to me! 

My Absolutely Wonderful Students!

So I returned to my home in Beijing last Wednesday and went back to work on Thursday!  We were having the first of several parties to celebrate not only 15 years of EF's Kid's Centers in China but also the first year of our own Center! :)  We had arranged lots of games and competitions for the kids, along with prizes for everyone and also cake!

Some of our beautiful younger students! :)

Simone, our new teacher from South Africa, played an interesting game with the younger students.  They had to identify clothing on flashcards and then place them on our "live dummy" (our wonderful head course consultant, Ivy) at the place where that clothing would be worn! ha She was such a good sport!

These young students are about to compete for one of the top prizes, having been chosen by the teachers as the best in their class!  Their parents look on.  Such cute kids!

This is the beautiful cake that Cathy, our Center Manger, arranged for all the students and parents to enjoy on this evening (we'll be having more celebrations and more cakes as we can't fit all our 650 students into one evening).

This is Cathy, our great Center Manager!

I wanted to take a big bite out of the cake but was able to control myself. ha

This is James, our Director of Studies (DOS). 

This is our course representative, Wendy, and also a good friend to me.  She is standing next to a sign that eventually our students will sign.

Some of my students enjoying the Rainbow-flavored Twizzlers that I brought them from the States!  I began a penpal program with four of my classes about 3 months ago with the help of 2 great teachers in California.  Since I recently visited the U.S. I brought gifts from my students to their penpals with me and mailed them to CA from TN.  In turn, they mailed gifts to their Chinese penpals to me in TN and I brought them back in my suitcase to Beijing!  My kids had a GREAT time opening their gifts and letters from their penpals!

I also brought back lots of used books and also comic books, which my students requested. Here, they are looking at all of it.  They will be able to "check them out," read them and bring them back to the Center! :)

This is Sophia, Jane, and Yoney....my students....checking out their penpal gifts!

This is beautiful Nicole, who is the penpal to A.J. in the States!  She and her mother went with me to Guilin recently and we had a great time.  Her mother is a big fan of teddy bears so I've given her two Beanie Baby teddy bears thus far! :)

More student/Twizzler action!

ha ha!

This is my student, Linda, wearing the hat her penpal sent her with her Chinese and English named embroderied on it (she loved it) and you can see the great American flag in the background that the two teachers in California sent for me to display for all the kids.  They loved it!  It was a replica of a "tea-stained" flag so I had to explain to my students (who were wondering why the stripes weren't white! ha)  about old flags and what they look like! :)

This is my student, Payne, who just built the lego car that his penpal sent to him! :)

I just can't say enough how difficult it is going to be for me to leave my job teaching English in Beijing to these wonderful kids.  I would love to continue teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) in America, but without a degree in Education (my liberal arts degree was focused on History) my chances are slim.  So I expect that I'll have to leave my teaching career behind and resume my career in the legal world.  I won't mind that at all but I would be much happier continuing to teach English.  But hey....I still have 11 months in Beijing and you can be sure that I'm going to make the most of each and every month! :)

Tomorrow night I'll post pics of my great friend and colleague, Seven, and the gift I brought her from the States! :) 

Thanksgiving in Nashville & More

It was so nice to be back home for Thanksgiving this year!  We always have Thanksgiving dinner at my brother's home with his wife and her family.  My brother and sister-in-law now have a grandson, Austin, and that makes holidays even more fun!  We had a great time, great food and some relaxing in front of the huge television screen my brother has downstairs in his "movie room."

My brother's house in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.

This is their kitchen, which they just remodeled.  I love that you can see the American flag on the television.  It was the start of the Titan's game!  Go Titans! (and just to not offend....GO VOLS!).

Great food on the stove just waiting to be enjoyed!

Now this, my friends, is some great smoked turkey!  My brother smokes it and it's so good!

My brother performs his carving duties.

The kid's table! ha  That's Austin's father and mother, Ryan and Tammy!

Cutie pie Austin wearing his cool Inner Mongolia hat and shaking his Chinese drum toy!

Joyce, my sister-in-law, and my Mom.

The TV screen in my brother's movie room is HUGE!  He has surround sound and also theater-style seating with reclining chairs that have cup holders!  It's truly better than being in a movie theater!

This is my brother's mid-life crisis red sports car! ha ha

This is my brother's huge "travelin'" smoker which he travels around with to events to offer up the best barbeque you'll ever be fortunate enough to taste!

My brother's logo for his barbeque business!  His name is Arlie...hence the "Arlieque."  Barbeque, Arlieque....get it? :)

Austin, showing my son how to play a computer game! ha

The night before I left to come home to Beijing, we ate at the Caney Fork Fish Camp because I was craving some fried fish with no bones! ha  In China, the fish is great but it's FULL of bones!

Great fried catfish (fillets, no bones), white beans, fries and great cornbread hush puppies! :)

 

Family members throw down the victory sign! ha

Great props inside the restaurant! :)

Nick and Austin!

Another poor stuff animal inside the restaurant!  My visit to the States was very busy and hampered by a pesky cold and some unbelievable jet lag which caused me not to sleep well for over half of my stay.  Still, I had a great time seeing family and friends and reconnecting with my "roots."  I was actually a bit anxious to get back "home" toward the end of my stay so I know I'll have a lot of emotions to deal with when I return for good next October, 2009.  But when this adventure ends, I'll just have to start new ones in the States!  I've met so many wonderful folks here and I hope to return to China many, many times and also visit new friends in their home countries when they eventually return to their countries (namely Australia and South Africa).  I brought home lots of things for family and friends and filled those big suitcases with lots of things to bring back to folks here.  One big suitcase was nearly filled with gifts from my students' penpals in California.  I told their teacher to tell them to send "small" gifts but they didn't really get that and sent some huge things to me in Nashville to haul back to Beijing! ha  But my students absolutely LOVED all the things they received from their American penpals so it was worth the $100 I had to pay for overweight suitcases!  I'll post some pics of the students enjoying their gifts soon!

Seven (Qi Mei) is a very dear friend, colleague and adopted daughter to me here in China.  She is the same age as my other adopted Chinese daughter, Shelagh, and they both are enjoying their 26th birthdays this month.  Here's Seven with her husband, Joe, and all my luggage upon arriving back in Beijing!  When I came through customs I heard Seven yelling, "Teresa, Teresa!" ha  So great!  They traveled with me by cab back to my apartment and helped me get all the luggage up to my apartment.  She has truly been invaluable to me here in China and my big hope is that both Shelagh (who will marry soon) and Seven can come and visit me in the States before they have a baby! :)  So I'm trying to convince Seven especially to hold off on pregnancy until she can come to the States for a visit! ha 

More soon folks! :)

A Visit to the States!

I arrived in Nashville, after many hours wide awake inside a long silver tube high up in the sky, at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, Nov. 18th.  I left Beijing at 5:30 pm the same day, so you can only imagine the jet lag since 17 hours passed by during that time!  When I visited China 3 years ago, I only spent 2 days recovering from jet leg.  This time, however, it took me over a week to get a good night's sleep.  I was waking up at 3:00 a.m. with a terrible headache and laying in bed reading for an hour or two before finally getting back to sleep, only to have to get up a couple of hours later.  It was not pleasant....not at all.  I was also battling Cold No. 8 (yeah....I'm keeping count of all the pesky colds I've weathered since moving to China) which just added to the misery.  My son met me at the Nashville airport and took me to my mother's house.  She had prepared my "requested" meal for me! :)

A full flight!  Due to being blessed with long legs, they pretty much straddled the seat in front of me, especially when the guy in front of me let his seat back and banged into my knees!  Oh, the misery!  In the in-flight magazine there was a nice photo of the first class seats that expand into little beds.  I politely showed it to the flight attendant and asked if I could please have one of those seats.  He laughed.

The wonderful meal my Mom had ready for me and Nick!  A delicious chicken casserole (I SO miss casseroles), broccoli with cheese, green beans and potatoes and pistachio salad!  Fabulous!

Suitcases chock full of all kinds of Chinese goodies! :)

The day after I arrived in Nashville, I had arranged dental visits (cleanings) for both me and Nick.  I've had the same dentist for years and even during my 8 years in Knoxville, I always returned to Nashville for dental visits.  My dentist now enjoys telling his patients that he has a patient that likes him so much she returns from China to get her teeth cleaned! ha  After the dentist, Nick and I drove by the first home I bought.  The couple that bought it 9 years ago still lives there so I knocked on the door to let her know that I was going to take photos of the house (lest she think some strange stalker was outside).  She invited us in to see the changes they had made! :)  They enclosed the carport into a garage and also added some yard ornaments.  It was great seeing the house and Nick, who was only 14 when we left this house, enjoyed looking around.

I took this photo to show my students my big ole' long American car! ha  It's a '93 Buick Roadmaster and it's a great ride (my great uncle gave it to me about a year before he died and although at time it was 13 years old, it only had 12,000 miles on it!).  My son is now driving it and if he treats it well, I'll be once again driving it when I return to the States for good next fall.  This means, of course, that my son needs to be saving up his money to buy his own used car.

On Friday morning, Nov. 21st, I drove to Knoxville to move furniture that friends were using into a storage unit.  I had lunch with some great folks that I worked with at the University of Tennessee!

As Tom looks on skeptically, Ron Leadbetter holds up the "UT orange" Chinese knot I gave folks. :)  Tom was a great "boss" and I miss working for him.  I'm not sure if he'd say the same thing! ha

While in Knoxville, I visited the jewelry store that my life-long friend, Tammy, and her husband, Barry, owns.  This is their "jewelry store attack dog." ha  Poor thing.  He was so freaked out by the flash of my camera that he retreated to the back the store and was still shaking when I left.  I felt really bad about this and will never do that again to him.

He's like, "What the heck are you doing to me?" ha

This is Tammy, in front of all the great jewelry that they sell at Barry's Jewelry!

The next day, in Knoxville, I rented this truck to move lots of furniture into storage.  I have great friends in Knoxville and some of them are international students at UT.  A couple of them that were using my furniture will be leaving Knoxville soon (and in one case, a friend will be getting married) so I had to "reclaim" my furniture and put it into storage.  The blue house in the background is where I used to live and the yellow house is where all of my furniture was (in three different apartments in that house).

 

The blue and yellow houses were built in 1899 so they are 109 years old.  The blue house, where I lived for four years, is a 4 bedroom house, 2 bathrooms, and wonderfully big inside.  I loved living there and had many wonderful times there.  The yellow house is divided up into 4 apartments.  They were originally built for 2 sisters who wanted to live next to each other (you can see the similarities in the architecture at the top of the houses).  The blue has not been rented since I left over a year ago and remains empty.  The man who owns it is not interested in renting to students who might not take care of it and I totally understand why.  It'd make a great "party" house! ha  Inside, there are 4 fireplaces (in the living room, dining room, and 2 of the bedrooms) but none are "working" fireplaces for obvious reasons (just too old).  I have always wanted to live in a big, old house so living here for four years enabled me to cross that off my "life list."

This is the view "down the street" from my former residence.  You can see the gold Sunsphere which was the centerpiece of the 1982 World's Fair, where I worked during my undergraduate years.  Such good times I had during the World's Fair.  Now, we progress to my "ladies only" dinner with all my best girlfriends in Knoxville.  We range in age from 39 to 89 and I am very blessed to know such a great group of women! :)

In true Chinese style, they're all throwing down the peace/victory sign! :) Man...I just love these women so much!  We try to get together a couple of times a year at my favorite Italian restaurant, Altruda's, in Knoxville.  We always have a great time. On this occasion, we were celebrating not only my return for a visit, but also 2 birthdays and a recent promotion for one of the gals! :) So from front left back and around the table you have Rhonda, Dolly, Dolly's Mom Hazel, Nana, Mary Jo, Charlotte, and across and back, Tammy, her Mom Betty, Aunt Millie (whom I absolutely adore and is the young 89 year old in our group), me, Priscilla and Peggy (Priscilla's good friend).  What's the true measure of a person?  Perhaps it's the friends they have.  If true, then I am definitely very wealthy and every single one of these women makes me very proud to call them "friend."

This is Mildred, who I proudly claim as my "Aunt Millie."  She is big sister to Charlotte, who is Tammy's mother-in-law.  She is a true inspiration to me and I want to be just like her if I am lucky enough to live as long.  She is a world traveler and tells me often that if she could, she'd come to Beijing and we would "party" together! ha Aunt Millie is currently battling some health issues but her faith and her spirit serve her well and are a true testament to the power of her faith in God.  I am blessed to know her.

I've been dining at Altruda's for many years.  On my first visit, I ordered the Salcaccia Melanzanie (sp?) which is sausage eggplant dish.  It was so good that I have honestly never ordered anything else and I've eaten here many, many times! :)  So I just had to post a pic of this great dish!  Soooooo good!

So here's my big face (ha) saying goodbye for now but stay tuned because I have lots of great Thanksgiving Day photos to post soon! :)  TTFN, (Ta Ta For Now, as Tigger from Winnie-the-Pooh says) my blog buddies! Hope you're enjoying the entries and pics! :) 

Back Home (in Beijing!)

I arrived in Beijing yesterday around 4:30 pm.  The flight back from America was just like the flight to America...devoid of any sleep! :(  I'm pretty tired so no big entry tonight.  Soon, however, I'll write about my visit in the U.S. and post lots of photos regarding my time there.  For now....here's a photo of me and my son, Nick.