I wish it were easier...

I wish it were easier to post from China because there are so many interesting photos and stories. The adrenaline has definitely worn off and I find myself getting into a routine of waking at 5:30 (even though I can sleep until 6:30), preparing for the day, heading to breakfast and knowing what each item in the buffet is, eating with chopsticks, drinking broth rather than tea or water, then heading to the hotel desk to renew my key daily and making the 20 minute walk to school, dodging cars and motorbikes along the way. I don't jump as I'm honked at anymore, just keep moving and being aware of where I am in relation to others. We have a routine for our class now and we start with circle time, the calendar and songs.

We are covering a lot of vocabulary in the class. Students have a lot of writing and vocabulary skills but we are spending a lot of time talking and singing. I am seeing progress even after a short time. The school where we teach is huge- usually 6000 students with 70 to a classroom. The floors are crumbly concrete and the furniture is primitive with narrow tables for two and small, narrow benches (a 2" x 4" x 12" seat). The is a blackboard in the front and back of the classroom and our only supplies are the few I've requested and what we brought. I immediated rearranged the classroom making two large tables from 6 tables each and opening up area for a group space and small group areas. It makes it sound spacious but with our 25 kids in the afternoon, it's not. They range in age from 4-13 in my group. We always have parents in the roon and often other unidentified adults. I've been photographed and videotaped and observed to the point I don't even notice it anymore.

Things have changed from our original plans. The camp attendance isn't what they hoped for so the second session is canceled. We are instead spending time touring China which I am very excited about. We will be staying in the same areas we originally planned but seeing more things.

Many of us are feeling the effects from eating and drinking here, without going into many details. The heat can also be oppressive so that may be part of the problem as well. It's hard to drink enough when I have to be so careful about where I get water. I am starting to only have a hard boiled egg at the buffet, then head to my room for a banana and some International Coffee mix I brought from home. I eat a decent lunch and then I'm rarely hungry for dinner so we often pick up something at the grocery store to munch on. I haven't been sick but I have felt a bit off at times.

I appreciate your messages. It makes home feel just a little bit closer.

Have I mentioned-

Have I mentioned that I don't have wireless access in the hotel and no where nearby? Both Blogger and Facebook are blocked in China. I just learned of a way to update via email so I hope this works.

Sent from my iPad

Great Wall of China

I wish I had the words to describe the Great Wall and lots of interesting facts to share but I don't have Internet access to get the facts but I know it's about 3000 miles long. We got to our entrance later than we planned so we only had about an hour and a half at the wall. It gave us enough time walk on the wall and to get a sense of awe from the beauty of the area and the remarkableness of the structure. As you can see, we were not alone on the wall.




As you can see, it's quite a workout, especially in the heat. I think it would be even harder if those stones were wet. 
I have a lot more photos but I can't post them yet due to the Internet limitations.

Patience!

I was awake at 5:30 this morning and was at the airport by 9:30. I hadn't thought about the fact that I would see 31 hours of daylight today as I cross 13 time zones.  I'm writing this on the plane where I've been sleeping on and off all day and it's currently 12:30 am Minnesota time and who knows what time on our way to Japan. I think we still have 10 hours of travel time until we arrive in China with two and a half hours left of this flight. 

Do you have any more times I could calculate as I sit here?

I'm leaving on a jet plane

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go. (based on lyrics to a song for you young'uns) I have 110 pounds worth of luggage which pains me because I like to pack light. 35 pounds is teaching materials in one suitcase and about half of my 45 pound suitcase are either gifts or things that won't come home with me. Then I have my 25 pound carry-on with everything I need to survive should my luggage not arrive in China.

I got up and swam laps today, I'm enjoying my espresso and I'm nearly ready to leave for the airport for my 19 hours on an airplane (about 23 hours including time in the airport). I'm so excited and nervous!

See you in China!

Packing dilemma

I've been packing the past few days, focusing on gifts and teaching supplies. I'm in a bit of dilemma because my suitcase already weighs 40 pounds and there is a 50 pound limit. This may not seem like a problem but I haven't packed any clothing yet! My suitcase is nearly full with teaching supplies and gifts (along with toilet paper!). I've tried to be conservative but all of this stuff takes up space (even when I took the games out of boxes and put them in ziplocs. Good thing that we are going in the summer so clothing should be lightweight and minimal since we will have our laundry picked up every 4-5 days.

My plan is to bring one carry-on suitcase with everything I need for 2-3 days and the rest in my checked bag. Thankfully I haven't packed much in the carry-on yet so I should be able to pull this off.

Thank goodness for all the great teaching resources online. I've been putting resources together to teach the animal and food units. Any good food songs you'd like to share? Oh shoot- I just realized I still need to pack peanut butter and jelly (for a food lesson and to sing that great Peanut Butter and Jelly song). That's heavy stuff!

Oh my goodness, five more days. I'm so excited and nervous.

12 days!

It's hard to believe that time is going so quickly. After school was out, I spent three days in school myself at the Summer Literacy Institute and then went on a six day road trip to Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin (okay, we drove through Illinois and Indiana as well if you want to be specific). Now it's all about getting ready for my trip to China.

We had a meeting this week to learn more about our time in China. Here are the highlights-

* I will be staying with a Chinese family. The requirements of the hosts is that they have Internet (yeah!), a private bedroom (yeah!) and a sit-down toilet (Yeah!). I will be bringing them gifts, of course. Some of the recommendations are a Minnesota Timberwolves shirt, wild rice and multi vitamins and/or fish oil capsules. I was surprised by the vitamin and supplement recommendation but it is indeed a valued gift. What would you recommend I bring?

* We will be teaching two- two week summer camps, 12 days each. Along with the teaching will be plenty of travel and touring. We start in Beijing with the Great Wall, Tiananman Square, Forbidden City and Pearl Market.

* We will spend most of our time in Linfen, China, a smaller city of 4 million people that doesn't see a lot of tourists. The city has the unfortunate reputation of being one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world, though there has been dramatic improvement in the past few years.

* I got my passport back with my Chinese Visa. The visa is required to enter China and required a bunch of paperwork and a trip to Chicago by one of the leaders. The visa looks like a large sticker with my name and the dates I can enter the country.

* I don't have to do my own laundry in China. How cool is that? It will be very hot so it will be nice to be able to change clothes and not worry about washing them. Besides, I haven't had anyone do my laundry in years!

* We will have a long lunch break, common in China. It is common to get a massage or take a nap during lunch. When in China, do as the Chinese is what I say! I wonder if I can bring this custom back to the US?

* I am delighted to learn that although China has 220 v electrical instead of 110, all of the "gadgets" have power plugs that will work in China so I don't need to worry about bringing a power inverter. That's a big relief.

Note to students who want to send me a message- remember to use first names only! I will be screening messages before I post them and won't be able to add any that have last names. Remember the Internet Safety lesson? :-) If you don't want your message posted, just let me know in the message.

12 days!?!