Duke vs China Game

Coach K brought the Duke basketball team to Beijing for a friendly match against the Chinese National team.  We have teacher friends at WAB who are also from North Carolina, so we decided this was an event we couldn't miss. To avoid terrible traffic heading to the MasterCard Stadium, one of the former Olympic venues, we decided to take the subway. As there is virtually no crime whatsoever in Beijing, it was totally safe--just a wee bit crowded. 
We had a great time at the game and had fabulous seats.  Yao Ming made a guest appearance, and we were just a few rows above the Chinese team bench, so we had an unobstructed view of him.  He even went out on the court during halftime to be greeted by Coach K.
     As it was getting fairly late, we decided to leave at the end of the third quarter and make our way home. Duke was up 47 to 49.  Pretty fun outing for a school night!  
    

St. David's Connection

     Last Spring, when we made the decision to move to China, I discovered that one of my former students was going to be in Beijing this fall on a foreign study semester.  Caitlin Andrews was one of my favorite students from my first year at St. David's.  This past week, Joergen and I had to be at school for a teacher work week. Our kids were going to be on their own, so we asked Caitlin to come be our nanny for the week, as her classes have not started yet.  She moved in, and immediately became part of the family.

     While we were at school, Caitlin, Anne-Katrine, and Lars set out to explore Beijing.  On Monday they decided to check out the subway, taking it to one of the big city parks. There, people were fascinated by seeing two blond children, many wanting to take pictures with them.  Fortunately, Caitlin speaks some Mandarin and was able to fend off the curious crowd.   To cool down, they decided to get ice cream, and soon discovered several new flavors--corn and green pea to name a few!  Katrine says corn is not her favorite ice cream flavor!

eewww, corn flavored ice-cream!

Lars is going to be in this guy's photo album!

     On another day, the threesome went to the Blue Zoo,  a well known Beijing aquarium. Afterwards they hit Ya-show market, a fabulous indoor market selling knock offs of name brand items.  You can buy anything and everything there. Lars has his eye on sunglasses, while AK is going to go crazy over fake Ugg boots and designer bags.
      Caitlin has been so wonderful with the kids--we don't know what we would have done with out her. Anne-Katrine has felt like she has a big sister for a week. Lars might not have survived Beijing traffic without Caitlin's watchful eye--just trying to cross the street can be a harrowing experience.  Lars has also kept Caitlin entertained with his goofy dance moves and  general silliness--likewise, she has impressed him with stories of spearfishing and her knowledge of baseball.  We are sad that Caitlin will soon leave to move into her dorm at the university, but we know we will continue to see her while she is here over the next several months. Mostly we are sad to lose someone who can actually convince Lars to brush his teeth!

The Great Wall of China

Hunter, Joergen, and AK

Our trusty tour guide and Chinese teacher, Hunter, took us out of Beijing on our first excursion today. We took a one and a half hour bus ride to The Great Wall.  The wall actually stretches 6,500 km in length, but we went to the closest access from Beijing. The city of Beijing is extremely flat, being basically desert terrain. As we traveled down the highway, we left the city and crossed lush farmland, and finally entered some mountainous terrain.  I was surprised to discover that we would need to take a chair lift up the mountain to get to the wall--it is a rocky, wild, and undeveloped landscape.  Apparently, it is also possible to hike up a trail, but it is a hefty climb.  As today was hot, muggy, and humid, not to mention being a heavy, smoggy day, the group opted for the chair lifts. 

The ticket booths and entrance to the chair lifts were a complete tourist trap--a  beehive of shops and stalls hawking souvenirs, fruit, and drinks.  I was delighted to discover that as we started climbing up in the chair lift, we left the tourism behind and seemed to enter a completely different world. For miles around us, as far as we could see, we were surrounded by mountainous forests. At the top of the mountain and snaking over the ridge, loomed The Great Wall.  Once at the top, we could wander freely along the wall, climbing up in the battlements and stopping to take photographs. It is truly an amazing feat of architecture, and awe inspiring  to realize that we were standing on a structure that was completed around 221 BC.

It's a Small World

   We have traveled half way around the world to Beijing. There are 1.3 billion people in China--what are the chances that I would run into someone that I know?  This morning, as we were riding the chair lift up to The Great Wall, we passed people riding down in the opposite direction, most of whom were Chinese.  Joergen and Lars were riding one chair lift ahead of AK and me.  Suddenly, I hear someone shouting out Joergen's name--in one of the chair lifts going down the mountain was a blond woman, waving and laughing. It was Jolene Brister, who taught with us at Lincoln School in Argentina!  She has just moved to Beijing as well, to teach at the other international school, ISB (International School of Beijing).  I knew she was in Bejing, but we had not yet had a chance to get together. Unbelievable!

Navigating Mandarin

The new teachers at WAB, dubbed "Newbies, class of 2011" have been shepherded this week  by one of WAB's Chinese teachers. Hunter Shang teaches elementary Chinese, but he also takes on the task of introducing the new staff to Beijing.  He has toured us around the city, showing us where to buy cell phones and bicycles, and helping us navigate the grocery stores. He has given us our first round of Mandarin lessons, introducing us first and foremost to the four tones of the Chinese language. For  Western ears, this is a very complicated nuance.  Here is a list of some basic phrases I have learned this week:

Wo jiao Jenny: My name is Jenny

Wo shi lao shi: I am a teacher

Xi shou jian zai nar?: Where is the bathroom?
Ni chi shen me?: What do you want  to eat?
Tai la de: too spicy
Wo chi kuangquanshi: I want mineral water
Pian yi dian: cheap price

The problem is that I might be able to ask a question, but I am certainly not able to understand the answer yet!  Fortunately, people are very friendly and try to help us with what we need. In a market or store, a clerk who does not understand us will go try to find someone who speaks a little English.

The Accidental Nomad

 I suppose it all started when I chose to go to France on a Foreign Study semester during

Jenny, Joergen, Anne-Katrine, and Lars

my junior year in college, rather than visiting England with the other English majors.  I fell in love with language and travel, and never got it out of my system. However, I never imagined spending my life and career overseas.  A summer camp romance at Young Life’s Camp Saranac changed everything—I met Joergen, and the rest is history!  Since graduating from college in 1991, I have lived in Austria, Argentina, and Ethiopia. In 2008, we decided to return to the USA: the kids had never lived there, and we wanted them to have the opportunity to be near family, and to discover that the US was more than just McDonald’s and Disney World.  We spent three wonderful years in Raleigh, North Carolina, close to my brother’s family and to my parents. 

New phase: China

            After three years of living in North Carolina, we are returning to our careers in international schools.  In February, we accepted a job at the Western Academy of Beijing, China.  It was heart wrenching for me to leave my home State, and to pull the kids away from cousins and grandparents. However, this is a fabulous job opportunity, something we just could not turn down, and it is going to be an incredible experience for the kids.  To see info on our new school, please visit the site at www.wab.edu.

July 31, 2011

Beijing Arrival!

We landed in Beijing amidst a cloud of smog.  The whole sky seemed white, and the sun was just a pale disc, peering through the dense pollution.  We all wondered if this was going to be a regular sight, but we soon forgot the climate as walked through customs and were greeted by a team of people from WAB (Western Academy of Beijing). Our principal, director, and HR manager were there with flowers to welcome us to our new home.  As we loaded up in the van, they assured us that this was on the bad end of the scale of pollution, and that not all days would look like this one!

EAST LAKE apartments

East Lake apartment complex

            All the new teachers are being housed in temporary apartments at the East Lake complex.  There are about 20 new teachers, mostly couples, and three other families with children. We will be here in this apartment for about 6 weeks, until our shipment arrives in September and we find a new house.  We are up on the 13^th floor, and have a very spacious, lovely apartment. There are three bedrooms, wood floors, and brand new light wood Scandinavian design furniture. White walls, light wood floors, white couches.  The bathrooms are brand spanking new, and the kitchen is fully stocked with plates, cutlery, toaster, and a western stove and oven.   A nice touch was that the internet is hooked up and ready to go, and there are actually THREE  televisions  which sport several English channels, including CNN, Discovery, and a movies. It may seem silly, but arriving in a new country and having these little amenities really makes a huge difference and help us settle in quickly.

            There are four apartment towers in the complex, plus a club house with a gym, pool, tennis courts, two restaurants, and a grocery store called Jenny Lou’s, which delivers up to the apartment. It’s kind of like living in a hotel.  Lars and I checked out the gym—Lars wants to start working out with me.  There are several treadmills with tv’s at each station, plus weight machines.  The locker room is nice, with showers , sauna, and steam room.  The toilet was the defining moment:  I have always wanted to write a coffee table book called “Toilets of the World” and I just discovered a new addition to the book. The toilet in gym has a section panel on the side: you can choose from “rear wash,” “rinse,” and “powder.”  Hmmmm.  I didn’t try it out—fortunately, there is also just simple “flush.”

Day One: Friday, July 29

            We woke up to more smog—white opaque skies.  With a twelve hour time difference, it will take several days to get over the jet lag, but we got up early and were ready to begin our first real day in China. We went to the gym for a short work out—Lars and Anne-Katrine apparently are hula hoop masters (I think I sprained something….) .  We did a little shopping at Jenny Lou’s and, to our delight, found peanut butter for me and Nutella for AK, plus a few less important items such as toilet paper, juice, and milk!

We relaxed most of the day, unpacking and organizing. The school arranged a welcome dinner for us in the evening, upstairs in the clubhouse.  We are enjoying getting to know our new colleagues who have arrived with us, and the administrative team from WAB.  The admin staff is really welcoming and friendly.

The other families with children have little kids, ages 7 and under.  Suddenly, Lars and AK are the big kids, and they are enjoying big kid status.  They have been fantastic about entertaining the little ones while the grown ups are chatting. The most fun was to discover that the baby of one the new families is turning one year old on Aug. 2, the same birthday as Anne-Katrine. Birthday twins!

Day Two: Saturday, July 30

            We went for a swim in the pool and had a generally quiet morning. At 2:00, a WAB teacher met us and took us on a walking tour of the area. We are on Dong Zhi Men boulevard in the Chaoyang District.  The avenues are tree lined and a canal runs through the area, with biking/jogging paths on either side.  As we walked down the street, Anne-Katrine kept commenting that it reminded her of Buenos Aires—to my surprise, it really does. I was not expecting the tree lined avenues. I suppose I thought Beijing would be more high rises and frenetic traffic.  This is the embassy district, and lots of ex-pats living around here. There are dozens of great little restaurants and cafes, which turns into quite a vibrant night life in the evenings. 

            Shopping, shopping, and more shopping.  I don’t think we will be spending much time at the designer stores, such as Gucci, Prada, Versace. However, there are also plenty of fun indoor markets hawking all the knock offs.  I tried out my bargaining skills, and bought a pair of fake Rayban sunglasses for Anne-Katrine’s birthday—I paid about $5.00!   AK and I also found a great little place to have a pedicure, so we treated our tired feet to some pampering before walking the 20 blocks back to the apartment!

The International Language of Sports

            At dinner on Saturday night, one of the staff members brought Lars a soccer ball to play with, as our restaurant was located beside a beautiful park.  Lars was playing with Kai, the little four year old son of one of the new families. Some little Chinese boys, probably about 8 or 9 years old, stood by, shyly watching. Lars noticed them, and through some gestures and sign language, invited them to play. Soon they had a lively game going. Lars was over the moon, just beaming as we waved goodbye and went back to the restaurant.

Ramen Noodle Aisle

Day Three: Sunday, July 31

            We exhausted, but decided to get up early and make our first solo excursion on our own to do a little necessary shopping. Carrefour is a big, French owned Supermarket, much like a Walmart.  Anything and everything is available.How many types of Ramen noodles can there possibly be?  The Chinese probably say the same thing about American Cereal aisles in our grocery stores.  We bought a dustpan, broom, and some basic food items.  It was very affordable. The kids were blown away by the variety of vegetables. We had fun picking out some strange looking fruits and veggies.  A bumpy warty looking cucumber—Gramma would love those; a white fruit with black seeds inside which we have now learned is called a dragon fruit; and something that looks like the cross between an apple and a pear.  Meat is very affordable, however I will stay away from the fish for the time being,  as it was all ALIVE! 

            Dinner  Sunday night was at a Szechuan restaurant. This was food from the province of Szechaun.  It was served family style, on lazy susans.  The waitresses just kept coming with more and more dishes to sample. Very yummy, a little spicy.  We were all so tired we could not really enjoy the meal as well as we should, so we will just have to go back again some day.

Monday, Aug 1: First Day of New Teacher Orientation

Anne-Katrine at WAB entrance

The bus picked us up at 8:00 am, and we drove 20 minutes to the WAB campus.  We entered through enormous red gates, and proceeded to be wowed for the rest of the day. This is truly an amazing school—and not just because they gave us all brand new Mac Book Pros when we arrived….

  The school is an eclectic mix between industrial, exposed architecture, contemporary design, and traditional Chinese art and décor.  The buildings are linked by lush green and flowery paths, which are dotted with little Chinese gardens, fish ponds, and sculpture at every turn.  The hallways are bright and modern, walls hung with student art and traditional Chinese designs.   Lovely wooden antiques and porcelains adorn shelves in the libraries and office spaces, blended with comfy bright chairs and sofas.  The classrooms are designed to be comfortable and inviting—no rows of desks, but instead large conference tables and movable desks create places to work and collaborate.  There are several gyms, a pool, a dance studio, a recording studio, and three auditoriums or theater spaces. It is a school whose goal is to inspire creativity and collaboration, innovation and expression.   As the mission states, students are encouraged to “Connect, Inspire, Challenge, and Make a Difference.”    This is a vibrant student centered school.   I think we are going to like it here!

Crossing the bridge from the elementary campus to the high school campus