Chinese New Year Celebration

Last night was a great experience.  Laura and I went with Michael Matteo and our Chinese friend Nina to shoot fireworks and float heart shaped lanterns to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  The festivities in the park were great.  The celebrations went on in a huge fashion until after 1 AM.  We were tucked into our apartments by 10:30 but we could still see and here the festivities. Laura Edgerton and I wrote some wishes on a heart shaped lantern/hot air balloon and sent it floating up into the atmosphere.  It was a great experience in culture and made me think of fun times shooting fireworks when I was a kid.  Great Experience.

Friday’s activities in Beijing

Yesterday we went to an old part of Beijing looking for a specific Beijing Noodle shop but couldn’t find it so after wandering around for an hour we stopped at a wonderful little Italian restaurant.  From there we went to the Beijing Book Building where we spent a good amount of time looking at Books, DVDs and a neat collection of clocks and maps.  After leaving there we went to one of the big shopping districts that was close by and looked around.  I found the watch I had been looking for and purchased that and we had smoothies at Godiva Chocolate Cafe.  Last night, we went to a great Chinese Acrobatics show and then ate at a restaurant next door.  All and all it was not as jam packed as the previous two days but very enjoyable.  

 

 

This is a picture of Laura at the statue in front of the Beijing Book Building.

Great Wall Tour Pictures

Great Wall Tour Pictures

I created this album in facebook because it is much easier to add several pictures at once.  Please follow the link so you can see all the pictures from our Great Wall Tour.

Great Wall Tour Day

We went to the Jade Palace, The Great Wall, lunch at a enamel factory, China Silk, we stopped and viewed the outside of Olympic Stadium Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube and to a foot massage with our guide and driver. It was a very pleasurable day.

Wednesday, January 22 Itinerary

Laura and I are going to see Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden Palace for sure and probably head over to the Natural History Museum.  We actually drove by the Forbidden Palace and Tienanmen Square last night and they were beautifully lit up. Today we will tour them.

Texas Bar B Q in Beijing

We went to a restaurant last night that is run by a person who transplanted from Texas. It was like eating at home for the most part. I can’t believe we went 5 months without Bar B Q.

Waiting at the Train Station

Laura mentioned that she shouldn’t have a problem with crowds in the US after being in China.

Chongqing train station loading dock

Laura and I took advantage of a service to board early. This is the line of people heading to our train to board.

Laura in our Soft Sleeper train seats

That was my bed, Laura had to sleep on the top bunk

Happy Thanksgiving

 

 

To all of our family and friends,

Laura and I are missing all of you terribly and wish we could partake in the family gatherings and the leisure time with family and friends.  Unfortunately here we are having a normal work day.  Originally the American staff was planning to have Thanksgiving on Saturday but that fell through due to other school needs.

We love the kids we are teaching and we have seen great improvement in how well they can understand and use English in all academic areas, but the leadership team is very difficult to make understand the western ways of education.  Since the students are striving to go abroad we feel that these students need to be immersed in those teaching methods.

Some of our major concerns about teaching here is the insurance we were provided is inadequate and we are having to find an insurance provider that can help us.  We have to travel to the big city of Chongqing, an hour and a half from where we teach to see a Global doctor who provides western type medical care and can obtain the maintenance medication that we require.  This Global doctor charges between $300 and $400 US per normal visit and the medicine costs about the same as it would in the States if you don’t have insurance.  So medical care is expensive but we are handling that.

The other major problem with our working conditions is that our school building has open halls and the winds whip through the halls which causes the rooms and offices to be colder than the temperature.  Since we are averaging 50°F right now that makes things cold.  Unfortunately the Chinese leadership and owners of the building will not turn on the heat so we literally are wearing three and four layers of clothes with jackets and gloves to stay warm while we work and teach.  This is bad but I don’t know what will happen when the temperatures will reach the upper 30s.

The small conveniences are really appreciated here, for example, Laura and I received the clothes dryer we ordered and could actually put on clothes that were completely dry this morning.  When we hung our clothes to dry there was always so much moisture that the clothes never were completely dry.  Of course that increased the discomfort of the cold.

Laura and I are having an adventure, but the conditions and demands on our time are much worse than we expected.  Because of this I have been unable to keep up with this blog.  I will try to add messages as much as possible.  I am able to use Facebook so you might see some things about us there.

We love and miss all of you and hopefully we can talk to some of you in the near future.