Exploring

Soooo, here is the first video update! Just a peek of what us girls do when we are bored. We were trying desperately hard to find a window to watch the sunset over Beijing from the 25th floor of our hotel.

A Lovely Sunday Morning

Guess who came to visit again on Sunday?

Yep. Blue skies and sunshine. My heart was happy. One of my host teachers (Geetika) and her husband (Gary) invited Alicia, Kenzie, and myself to church with them and it is just a short walk from the school and an even shorter walk from the hotel we are staying in. We arrived at church and I was so happy to be greeted with English and familiar worship music.

Me, Alicia, and Kenzie taking elevator pics before church because we're cool like that.

It was a really good service and I felt so encouraged to have found a church. You may be wondering how this kind of thing is allowed in China. Well, the church is called Beijing International Christian Fellowship and in order to attend you have to have a foreign passport and show it at the front door. Chinese cannot attend because of government regulations. Because it's an international church, there are naturally people from all over the world but the chosen language of this service is English; there are other services during the week in other foreign languages.

We are surrounded my international communities - school, church, and at home. It's fascinating to be learning about everyone's backgrounds and stories. At the grocery store yesterday we met a gentleman from Canada who was travelling through China with his Chinese daughter and gave us suggestions of their favourite places they visited.

After church, Geetika and Gary invited us back to their apartment for lunch (and internet hehe). We had a mix of Indian and Chinese food; Geetika is an incredible cook and we've actually been invited there again for supper tonight. It sure beats the peanut butter sandwiches we've been feasting on.

After we ate, we were sitting in the living room talking about where we'd like to travel and listening to Gary and Geetika's stories from their travels. They have some very interesting stories that help put our own experience in perspective. I mentioned that we hadn't had the opportunity to really experience anything authentically Chinese yet and to feel like we are actually in a Chinese city. We could easily trick ourselves into thinking that we're in a North American city.

Geetika excitedly suggested we go to Houhai and see the Hu Tongs. She said that we'd not have many beautiful days like that day so we should go before life gets even crazier and more hectic. Without hesitation, we agreed.

This story is for the next post though :)

Kettle of Worms

Kenzie, the pro photo bomber :)

I'm not going to ramble on about that kettle of worms I alluded to in my last post. In a nutshell, our apartments weren't ready yet so they put us at the hotel next door to the school. We get a nice little walk under the willow every morning on our way to work. We also get our daily dose of air toxins as well.

The first day in Beijing was hazy and so icky outside. You were covered in sweat after just being outdoors for five minutes. We met Alicia's host teacher who was a little Godsend for those first couple days. She gave us breakfast. And coffee. And tea. It was grand.

We went to the school and the head of the school gave us a tour and then we went for lunch at Subway. Our first "full" meal in China! You'd think that it would be hard to get by without much knowledge of the language but in this district people are fairly understanding and we just have to put all pride aside as we gesture frantically for what we need.

Then Pauline took us out for supper at Matsuko which is a Japanese restaurant not far from the school. I am becoming accustomed to sushi slowly, very slowly.

Front gate (on one of the icky days)

The next day I got up and went to the window, preparing myself for a wall of hazy grey. I was preparing myself for disappointment. I was ready for it. I looked out: BLUE SKIES. I was in awe. I had always heard and read that you just had to get used to not seeing blue skies or the sun in Beijing. Later we found out that this kind of day is a rarity but it definitely lifted our spirits. We went to Carrefour (groceries) and then to the largest Ikea in the world.

Here in China people don't just shop at Ikea. They treat it like home. There were families lounging around watching TV, couples fast asleep on the couches, parents changing their children. It was odd to see this. Shopping at Ikea in Beijing on one of the nicest days in August was ridiculous. I felt like at any given moment I could get tossed into a bin by a rushed shopper. It was overwhelming. We picked up a few things for our apartment-to-be and then got out of there.

That evening we went for supper at Matsuko again with a bunch of the new teachers. You'll find that I'm going to write a lot about food in the next couple posts because our down-time revolves around where we'll get food next and how to get more bottled water. We're living very simply.

On Sunday, we got up and I pulled back the curtains with trepidation. Blue skies and sunshine again. Sunday was such a good day that I want to give it the proper attention so that will have to be later in my next post.

This is the Midde/High library. There is an entire other library for Elementary. Do you think I was excited?

Will I Ever See the Moon Again?

 Where were we? Right, running through the crazy psychedelic tunnel  with blinking strobe lights in

the Detroit airport with terrifyingly epic music pounding in our ears as we try and find gate 36 in terminal C. We were still in B.

Somehow we made it and I still had time to spare to buy one of those donut pillows for the neck before boarding. My butt and tailbone were thankful.
Then came the 12-hour flight from Detroit to Tokyo. Once we were in air, an announcement came on explaining our flight path. We’d be flying over friggin’ Alaska. Because of this, I was too nervous to sleep because of my fear that I’d miss seeing the Yukon and Alaska. (the photos of this are on my phone and I haven't figured out my phone situation yet)

We didn’t see nighttime for a full 24 hours because of the many time zones that we passed through so the flight attendants had all the window screens shut so that everyone could sleep should they choose to.

(Not Alaska, obviously)

I did fall asleep and then woke up in a panic, worried that I had missed Alaska. The plane was dark but I lifted my screen and was met with a stunning view. It was Alaska. I checked the moving map (courtesy of Delta’s sweet technology) and saw that we were flying over the Alaska range. The snow-capped peaks were so breathtaking; and as tired as I was, I just could not stop staring.

I sprained my ankle a week and a half before we were set to fly so this long flight was pretty uncomfortable at times. But with a little medication, I was finally able to sleep and woke up close to Tokyo.

Finally, after 26 hours of travelling we were flying over China and we were seeing night for the first time. However, we could hardly see below through the pollution and smog. We couldn’t help but wonder why we had come to the most polluted city in the world. My feeling of relief at finally arriving with very few flying obstacles was much stronger than any other emotion at this point.

Five airports later. After about 31 hours of travel. With many nerves. We were in Beijing.

We were greeted by two things at the airport. 1. A quiet Chinese man from CISB who spoke no English. 2. A wall of humid, smelly, stale air.

Keep checking, I’ll be updating you on our past couple days really soon. Please forgive our gross state in that last picture, this is at midnight in our sad little rooms at CISB. That is a whole other kettle of worms for the next post.

Flight Craziness

I just got internet access that is good enough for me to blog but a week of sheer craziness has passed and I really have no idea where to start. So I might try and break this up into a few separate posts so that your butt doesn't get sore from sitting here reading this for so long.

First things first. Travelling to China. To use the words of a close friend of mine: What a gong show. It was Tuesday night when my parents and I got to Halifax. This is where we would be flying out the following morning at 7:25am. That night around 2am, my mom woke up worried and decided to check the flight. I woke up a little later to frazzled muffled voices. Guess what? Flight was cancelled. So several hours before I was supposed to board a plane to China, I found out that my flight was cancelled completely.

It finally got sorted out. But not until we were all standing in the airport ready to fly. So we ended up with: Halifax-Toronto-Detroit-Tokyo-Beijing. Yeah, no big deal. Clearly we are pro at flying by now.

When we got into Detroit at Terminal A, we found out that our flight to Tokyo was in Terminal C. And it was boarding. Actually, it was the final boarding call.

So, we ran.

More later. Have to go! I'll just leave you hanging.