三年级 (Year Three)
As I sit here eating banana walnut pancakes (gluten free, of course), it is confirmed that China is becoming a more civilized country. Or, at least that's what the government wants to happen. It sent out a memo listing things that its citizens should do to make China more civilized. If only memos could change an entire population. However, I do have to give Guangzhou a huge gold star. The asian games are coming here in November, so they are kicking the clean up of the city into high gear. I was happily surprised to find an actual refridgerated meat section in my supermarket (with the animals already butchered), a clean fruit/veggie stand, and a movie theatre five minutes away that's clean (an actual surprise) and shows English movies. On top of all that, the biggest improvement has been the pollution. We've actually see the blue of the sky more than the offical "white" sky of Guangzhou. Knock on wood... I hope it lasts.
The Chinese have a saying about traveling to North America. The saying goes "Only a strong dragon can cross the big pond". I wonder what they say about an American coming back to China. I can't believe that it's my third year! Time sure flies. I have learned an incredible amount and have had so much fun words can't describe.
So, here's some stories to start off year number three...
First Stop: Beijing
**Sidenote: my luggage decided it loved LA so much that it wanted to stay a few extra days while I flew my way to China. So a big THANKS to Jen for letting me borrow her clothes for our trip to Beijing.**
The Great Wall- Mantianyu
This says "We Love Chairman Mao"
Beijing Zoo-
True to Chinese style :)
Where the zoo tour boat left us on the side of the river. Jen had asked "Does the boat go back to the zoo?" She was told "yes". So, we got on and headed out. When we came to a stop, we were asked to kindly get off because "while to boat came back" our tickets didn't allow us to. Thus began a journey!
The small room where luckily someone spoke A LITTLE english and pointed us to the side of a back road to catch a city bus that would take us into the city to get the metro. It was pretty funny, and we were completely lost. But like I tell Jen, you can always find your way home :)
Forbidden City-
The last time we were there, we were the only ones (because it was FREEZING). This time however, there were thousands of people and umbrellas (it was a very sunny day).
Around the Hotel-
They were still moving!
Beautiful sunset from our hotel window. Yes, that's a cathedral in the distance.
Second Stop: Guangzhou & Clifford School
"See ID"-
Well, as some of you know, I had both of my external drives die on me on the same day. A very big, very bad fluke. Most of my pictures were saved on them, so it was a huge loss. So, I did some research and found that one of the brands has an office in Guangzhou (amazing) and does data recovery. So, Jen and I travel to a building that would be condemned in North America and go to the 13th floor. There is a room that's as big as my apartment that have computer screens from the 80's. No clean/dust free room like I was expecting. I hand over my drives to the engineer (who thankfully speaks some english) and he goes to work his magic. Jen and I wait in the waiting room for the news. Then he comes out and says he did his best, but the new one is a lost cause. Then he tries the other one (my old one) and says that he can help me! YAY! I'm then told to come back the next weekend to get my data.
Obviously I'm in need of a new drive, so we head to Justco (a wonderful store that sells name brand merchandise that might actually last). We find the hard drives and after much debate, I decide on one. I'm paying with my home debit card that has "see id" written on the back. After several minutes of the cashier figuring out how to work a foreign card, I sign my name on the slip and start chatting with Jen. The cashier looks at the back of my card to make sure the names match, and is confused. So, I show her my id, but she shoos it away with her hand and points to the "see id" and then
points to the receipt. Jen, was cracking up by this time, and I went ahead and signed my name as "see id". The cashier was completely satisfied and we left...laughing.
"Moths are Evil"- this is the truth and no one will convince me otherwise.
I have a unjustifiable fear of moths. I have never had an unusually bad experience with them, but for as long as I can remember I have been unusually afraid of them. Ask my family. They can tell you stories.
Jen will come to my rescue if there is a moth in my apartment (there is a video of this and it is quite funny), but my latest moth drama happened in my classroom...where I'm supposed to be the grown up. Now, usually, if I'm in my classroom with my kids, I can put on a brave face. I can kill spiders or cockroaches (maybe), and act as if it is no big deal, even though I'm squirming on the inside. But moths, nope. There is no brave face when it comes to moths. Trust me, I tried. This past week, a moth flew into my room. I can't believe it had the nerve to do that, first of all. My kids are on the carpet, and I'm in front of them standing up showing them a book. Then I see it. It flies over a few of their unaware heads and my heart starts to beat a little faster. Silently I try to calm myself down and tell myself that I can handle it...as long as it doesn't come near me. At that instant it made a bee line for my face. I hate things flying at my face! I swat, thinking, I hope don't actually touch it. But I did touch it and then it just gave me the heebie jeebies! My kids see my face. The girls start shrieking, the boys start at swatting it. The next moment, no one knows where it went. So, things settle down for literally a minute and I start teaching again. Pretty proud of myself for not running and hiding while shrieking (which I have been known to do). A minute later, it comes back with a vengence. Again, I'm the first one to see it. Then, some of the kids see it. Then, the kids lose sight of it, but I know exactly where it went. That moth flew right up a Luchy's shorts while he was sitting down with his legs crossed. I was stunned silent. Within a second my brain was thinking of way to tell this poor boy that he had an evil creature up his pants while still maintaining some sense of control in the classroom. However, while I was stunnned silent, the boy next to him figured it out and told him. Well, let's just say, I've never seen a kid move like that before. Obviously chaos ensued, which I completely understood, and the moth finally flew away. We settled down and move to their tables to do some other work. I was in the middle of a lesson a few minutes later when Buffett, bravely gets up, and runs across the room and stomps on the moths. The whole class cheered and we were all thankful to our hero, Buffett...apparently the only one with some sense :)