It's been too long!

Yikes it’s been way tooo long! I’m sorry about that. Hopefully, I’ll do better in the New Year. The New Year that is already a month and a half in…time flies!! The problem with not writing regularly is that I then write long long long posts. I apologize.

Well this week is crazy. First, it’s extremely cold and I can’t seem to get my apartment warm. I’ve given up on worrying about the heating bill, because I just want so badly to be warm, but it seems that the lack of insulation and ventilation and the fact I have large full windows  are working against me. I might invest in a space heater soon, but man Shanghai winters are no joke. It snowed a little on and off earlier in the week. It never stuck and really wasn’t much of anything compared to what my family and friends are experiencing in Oregon, but nevertheless we had snow (Hope you guys are all staying safe and warm!).  The cold is especially hard to deal with after spending a week on the most beautiful island that had weather in the 80s everyday and it was so warm and wonderful.

It’s the first week back from vacation is always rough. However, it was made a little better by an amazing concert by The Lumineers  on Monday.  Oh.my.goodness. I love the band so I knew it would be good, but I had  no idea it would that good! The venue was on the smaller side and the band was just soo good. They came into the middle of the audience to perform a couple of songs and I was so close. It was a very fun experience. I love all the concerts here in Shanghai. It’s the thing to do here. I’m seeing The Rolling Stones next month.

I’m really enjoying my job right now. I have a really great group of kids and I have the time to enjoy them. Their English is slowly improving and they get so excited when they can communicate with me, often repeating the sentence or words again and again, because they know I can actually understand them. I don’t really have any behavior issues and just makes the job so much easier.  I’m still learning and sometimes I get stressed because I’m not completely familiar with certain things at the school, but I don’t get stressed in the classroom and that’s a welcomed change.

Boracay was awesome! There’s really not much to say, besides it’s a beautiful island with friendly wonderful people. It’s a pretty touristy island and I definitely took on the role of tourtist vacationer, which was new. I’ve been a lot of places, but I’ve done very little vacationing.  I realized I like vacationing. Sitting in a beach chair, walking the beach,  swimming, watching the sunset, eating dinner by the ocean with the sand between my feet- It was just all amazing.  Outside of the things I just mentioned, I didn’t do much else. It was pretty great. Hope to write more soon! 

30 Things to be Thankful for Here

So my Facebook feed is exploding with "thankful" posts. It's great. I love this time of year.  I've been thinking about all the things that I have to be thankful for in this new life I'm living. Since I'm horrible at remembering to do things each day, I decided to post my top 30 things all together! These are in no particular order :-)

1. I'm so thankful for Skype and the internet and how it helps me keep in touch with so many wonderful people.

2. I'm thankful that I'm starting to truly settle into this new life. I feel like I'm getting a handle on things. It's taken a while and I still have a ways to go, but I'm getting there.

3. I'm thankful for the opportunity to exercise and get in shape. I've been really enjoying kick-boxing, spinning, and hot yoga. I want to start aqua aerobics soon as well. In the past, I haven't been one to "enjoy" exercise. It's always been something I should do or I make myself do, but I'm getting past this. I don't always want to go, but it only takes a couple minutes after I'm there for my body to kick in and just take over and do it. Exercise is really hard when your completely out of shape. It's awesome to get to a point where exercise isn't complete torture and you can actually think of it as fun.

4. I'm thankful that I can see and feel how my body is changing. I'm stronger and I have more endurance. My kicks at kick-boxing are so much stronger than they were my first class.  It's encouraging and gives me motivation to keep going.

5. I'm thankful for an apartment to call home. I'm starting to settle in. I've been such a nomad the past few years, only living in one place for six months or a year with no "long term" plans in mind. It's hard to switch from that mind set. I'm not much of a  decorator to begin with (I did do lots plastering of bedroom walls with band posters back in the back, but I'm not sure that counts) so it's been a process. Of course Ikea has been a huge help and it's feeling more and more permanent as time goes on.

6. Dumplings. I love them.

7. The metro and it's close proximity to my apartment. Makes life easier when it only takes 15 minutes to get to work.

8. My Ayi. I would be living in filth if not for her.  I did feel a little weird about having a house keeper, but I got over it. I'm so busy here. Most days I leave my house at 6:55am and get home at 6:00pm. There is simply no time to clean. It is the most amazing thing in the world to come home to a clean apartment three days a week. I'm so thankful for her and I appreciate her so much.

9. The cheddar cheese my friend told me about at City Shop. The cheese situation here is different. They have all this imported cheese here, but I barely recognize any of it. I'm not into fancy cheese. I grew up in a American-chedder-maybe-a-little-mozzarella-or parmesan-here-or-there cheese household. Anyway, my friend said she found some cheddar cheese at City Shop which is a popular ex-pat grocery store, however they were all out last week when we went and said they would never have it again! So I assumed I would just go on in my cheese-less existence, BUT I checked yesterday and they had it! It tastes like home. I made myself the best cheese quesadilla ever for dinner tonight. So good.

10. My blender. Love my smoothies.

11. New friendships. I'm meeting some really great people and I'm excited to get to know them more this year.

12. Only six weeks until I get to see my family. I'm thankful for a job where I get off three weeks for Christmas (paid) and I have enough money to go home and not be broke. So so thankful!!!!

13. My Chiropractor. I've started seeing a chiropractor for my back and neck pain and it's really making a difference. I'm all out of whack and she's helping me get things back on track. I'm seeing an American Chiropractor and it's a little expensive, but I'm thankful I have the funds to afford it right now and happy it's making a difference.

14. Health Insurance (completely paid for by my school). I've only had to use it a couple times, but I'm so thankful it's there and I'm not paying bunches of money for it.

15. My good health as of late. Knock on wood, but I've been breathing well lately despite the horrible air. I'm hoping and praying it keeps up. China stomach has also gone away completely and I haven't had any issues with that which is amazing!

16. They have plain chocolate M&M's here. I eat them.

17. There is always something interesting to see here. Life is never boring on the streets of China. Today I saw a three legged dog. He was a happy well taken of care cute dog.

18. My internet is usually fast enough to watch stuff on Hulu. Keeping up on all my shows!

19. I'm thankful for best friends that are still best friends even when they are millions of miles away.

20. My wonderful toddler class. I really do have a good class. I have a couple kids that are a little challenging, but overall I'm super lucky. They are such cute kids!

21. Awesome new kids. I've had two new kids start in the past couple weeks and they have both been amazing. Minimal crying, easy adjustments, and good behavior. I'm a little nervous that my luck will run out soon.

22. I can have anything and everything delivered to my door here.

23. I found almond butter! Haven't brought it yet, but I know where to get it.

24. Strictly Cookies. I'll write a whole blog post some time about the amazingness that is Strictly Cookies.

25. Mail from the USA. (Hint Hint!) Thanks Becca and Nicole!

26. I'm thankful for time to read and write here. I'm just really thankful for the time I have to invest in me. It might sound selfish, but it's been a long time since I've had time to just focus on myself without a family crisis or school or other things going on.

27. I'm constantly learning new things about Chinese culture and life.

28. I'm thankful for "small victories." For those little moments when I think, "I got this" or "Maybe this isn't so hard" or "Wow I am actually teaching these kids something" I can be really hard on myself, but those moments of victory keep me moving forward.

29. I'm thankful for an amazing support system at home. For people that are interested in my life here and continue to encourage me. I have felt so much support from friends and family and it truly makes it easier being so far away.

30. I'm thankful for a God that loves me and is constantly showing me things while giving me unending grace.

A Day In the Life

Soooo I was thinking a "A Day in the Life" post would be fun. I've had a hard time figuring out what to write here...However, a post about my day should be fairly easy to write about. The day wasn't particularly exciting, but this way you can have a real idea of what my life is like in China on a random monday. When I originally had the idea weeks ago, I envisioned having pictures in the post...I have no pictures. I left my camera card at home today sadly.

So here we go....

6am- Alarm goes off and I ignore it and think "There is no way it's time to get up yet" [Mondays are so hard!]

6:15am- Alarm again, if I don't get up now I won't make it to meet Nichola (another teacher and friend that lives in one building over...we usually walk to the metro together). I decide that getting out of bed is actually impossible.

6:30am- Alarm again. I wake myself up enough to text Nichola and say I won't make it. I somehow get out of bed. I don't know how.

7:10am- Leave my apartment...I usually leave at 6:55, but today was different since getting out of bed was nearly impossible.

7:15-Metro time. The metro is only a couple blocks away. Sadly I missed a train by seconds and have to wait a whole 6 minutes for the next one. The metro wasn't super crowded and I ended up seeing another teacher from my school. We chatted and the ride went by quick.

7:35: Clock in five minutes late. I'm usually early. The metro comes more frequently and is less crowded around 7 so I usually get to school around 7:15. I like being early and having that time in the morning to eat my breakfast, check email, and wake up a little. Today felt a little more rushed without those extra minutes.

8:00 The kids start showing up! Almost my whole class comes in on buses so they trickle in as their buses arrive.  (Yes, my two-year-olds ride the bus to and from school!). I had a new child starting today, but I met her last week and she was super easy going. So I was a little surprised when she came in hysterically screaming and crying....In fact, I heard a child crying and screaming in the hallway and actually thought to myself, "I feel bad for that teacher. What a way to start a Monday!"

Well, it turns out I was talking to myself as the loud upset little girl was brought into my classroom. I honestly felt bad for her...it has to be pretty traumatizing as a two and half-year-old to be put on a bus you've never been on before, taken to a place you've been to once and then left in the care of adults you don't know and to top it off one of those adults is speaking a language you don't understand. Talk about stress!

Luckily, she calmed down pretty quick. She just needed to realize it was a safe place where she could play and have fun. She really is a pretty easy going kid.  I'm excited to have her though cause she's pretty smart and she repeats everything I say without prompting so I'm hoping it motivates my other mandarin speakers to speak more English.

9:05: Circle time! We sang a few songs and read some books and it hit me during one of the songs, "they are all singing! and they know the words!" This is a pretty big deal for me. Back in August it was pretty discouraging leading circle time every day with a group of kids that just stared blankly at me, because they could not understand a word I said. I really had to change up a lot of the stuff I was used to doing, but it's really paid off. I had one of those, "I can do this" moments and it felt good.

10:45: My kids go to music every day for a half-hour. This is my prep time, but it's usually too short to do anything more than check emails. I treat it more as a break time knowing that I will work through nap-time and this is when I really need the down time. I don't really have a scheduled lunch since I eat with the kids so I take this time less seriously. I get coffee, use the restroom, put things away, ect. I really like having this time in my day.

11:50: Half- day kids go home! Once I hit 11:50, the day is pretty easy from there. I have 9 kids now and 4 of them are half-day kids. Lunch, nap, and then snack, sometimes a short circle and go out to the bus.

3:00: Wave goodbye to the buses! Back to my room to work, answer emails, and other stuff...usually I leave school around 3:30ish, but I had kick-boxing today so I had to stay until 4:30 for that.

4:30: Kick-boxing! One of the parents from our school comes and teaches a kick-boxing class twice a week and I've been really trying to go twice a week. It's good work out. Today was hard! She started us out jumping rope for five minutes and then we did an obstacle course and a bunch of stuff. The class goes by so quick, but I'm working super hard.

5:35: Metro home...It's always a good time when your super sweaty and gross and have to get on a crowded train.

6:45: Home...ordered some food. Way too tired to cook. Relaxed, showered, did some work, and now it's 9:45 and I'm in bed.

It was a pretty good day! Sorry it was long...you now know a little more about my life on a random monday.

Solo Suzhou Trip

Warning it's a little long :-)

This week is  Golden Week and it’s a week long Chinese holiday. No work for me! (Well I actually still need to finish reports that are due the day after we get back, but let’s not talk about that). Since my visa was not processed in time for me to get tickets out of China, Melissa and decided we would take a short trip to Suzhou, a smaller city that is only a 30 minutes away by speed train. We also decided that since we were not going somewhere exotic like Vietnam, Thailand, Instabul, or Bali (these are all places my co-workers are spending the week), we would splurge on a nice hotel. Sadly, Melissa got sick and couldn’t go. I decided to take the journey solo and I’m really glad I did.

It would have been so fun with another person, but it was really good to have something that forced me out of my comfort zone. I needed this trip to remind myself that I’m self-sufficient and I can go places and do things and have fun by myself.  I get a little too comfortable sometimes in my apartment and simple routine. China can be a little intimidating! I feel like I haven't been out and seen much yet and I'm working on changing that. It was soooo hot when I first got here and then I was so busy adjusting to a new job and everything and now I've been here two months and I still don't really know what is in my neighborhood. I remind myself that I'm spending at least two years here so there is time, but I want to do and see more and sometimes that means taking initiative and doing it on my own. 

So I took off Saturday morning to catch the speed train to Suzhou. The train station is huge and a little confusing at first. I spent a lot of time walking back and forth trying to figure out where I needed to go. I did eventually figure it out and made it my first class train car. I knew it was a short train ride, but I didn't realize how short. When they called "Suzhou Station" over the speakers I panicked a little and wondered if that was really my stop or if there were multiple stations in Suzhou. I did decide to get off there. 

I had my hotel written in Chinese and my original plan was to go to the hotel and then figure out places to go from there. Since I was staying at a nicer hotel I knew they could tell me what places I should visit and help me get taxi's. However, I couldn't check in til 2pm and it was 12 and when I got out of the train station it was raining and muggy and solo exploring and catching taxi's in a city I'd never been to suddenly became way less appealing. A guy from a Chinese tours company approached me and showed me their little tour pamphlet. It was like 15 dollars for a 4 hour tour and that including admission to the places and the bus ride. It sounded a lot easier then figuring it out on my own plus I figured it would make for a good cultural experience and some laughs as I was the only non-Chinese person on the bus. I think the red hat was what really sold me. 

So the tour begun and I don't know where we went. We took a boat through some canals and visited a silk museum and some other places. The pictures didn't really turn out. It was pretty cloudy and muggy out. 

It was a pretty ridiculous couple of hours. I was laughing to myself most of the time. A couple of older South African guys joined the tour later and it was nice having a couple English speaking buddies (Although they spoke mostly Afrikaans to each other). I was really glad I did it, because it did take up the whole afternoon and it was fun but I had hit my max for "cultural experiences" for the day so I was looking forward to finding my hotel. 

I got a taxi to my hotel using my paper with the hotel written on it. Luckily,  I also had the hotel number on the paper cause he didn't quite know where it was and he called the hotel. I guess I was staying on the opposite side of town from everything, but it worked out. The hotel we randomly selected was so nice! I'm not sure I've ever stayed somewhere so nice. I loved it. 

That evening I made plans to meet up with my friend Alyssa's family who lives in Suzhou.Meeting up with the Jones met taking the subway across town. I love the subway in Shanghai. I feel pretty comfortable using it so I was fairly certain I could figure it out in Suzhou. Plus Suzhou only has one line while Shanghai has 11.  I made the plans early in the day over text messages so I didn’t know where my hotel was and where the metro was, but I hoping there would be one close or the hotel people could help me get a taxi to a near by station. I paid extra attention in the taxi on the way to the hotel and I saw a metro station and it was only a couple blocks from my hotel. I went, got checked in to my AMAZING hotel, and then made my journey to meet the Jones family. I looked at a map later that night and realized that I had been all over the city that day and I didn’t get lost or even feel lost ever and it felt good.

I met Alyssa aunt and cousins for dinner and then coffee and it was so good. I had briefly met them at Alyssa’s wedding back in June. They have been in Suzhou for three years. Alyssa’s uncle is the pastor of an international church there. I'm so glad it worked out to meet up with them! 

After dinner I went back the hotel and enjoyed the fancy room. I ordered room service as a midnight snack. There were a few American TV stations, one was showing a marathon of Jimmy Falcon show so I watched that.  I felt like I was in America for the night.

The next morning I decided I would check out one of the gardens since I had time before I needed to catch my train. I also wanted to go somewhere pretty since it was actually sunny out. I went to Humble Administrator Garden since it was close to the Train Station and it was so beautiful. Man, I have missed nature. Being surrounded by trees and flowers was satisfying for my soul.  There were so many hidden areas to explore and little caves and big rocks to climb up on. I loved it here.

After spending a couple hours here I headed to the train station and went back to Shanghai. Such a fun trip! 

Busy Busy

I’ve been in Shanghai a little over a month and it’s been a crazy, overwhelming, and wonderful month.

Life is really busy at the moment. School is full swing, there are parties and events, and there’s no slowing down.

I finally got paid and it’s been so nice to have money! I finally got a dvd player, a nice mattress pad and bedding (my bed is so amazing now), more candles and pictures frames. It’s really starting to feel like home.

School is going so well. My kids are really fun. Hoping in a couple months they will be able to understand me. Haha. It’s a process. It’s fun hearing them say English words and sing the songs I’ve been teaching. We’re learning the five senses the next few weeks so we will be doing lots of fun activities! I have a classroom website. Send me a private message if you want the link.

My weeks are really busy with school and meetings. I’m also taking a kick-boxing class twice a week. One of the parents from our school comes in and teaches a class. The class is a good work out and it’s fun. I’m going to also get a yoga mat for home. 

It’s a good thing I’m doing kick-boxing, because I’ve been eating out a lot! Shanghai just has so much to offer and it’s all so good. We went to La Creperie last weekend and it was delicious. I’m sad I didn’t take a picture of the dessert one.

Yesterday we went to a restaurant called Fortune Cookie and it was so good! It's serves Americanized Chinese food and it was so good! I really like authentic Chinese food, but man was it good to have some orange chicken and sweet and sour chicken. I'll be going back for sure. 

Weekends are busy too! But a fun busy! Last weekend my friend Nichola and I went to get pedicures. The place we wanted to go was too busy to take us so we ended up at a different  place that was a little sketchy, but it worked out. Flower pedals in the water and they gave us tea with an actual flower in it! We were cracking up laughing!

Friday was my friend's Jenny's birthday and we went to a nice Mexican restaurant to celebrate. It was yummy and it was fun to spend some more time with co-workers.

Life is good!

When you can't sleep...

So I just spilled pepto bismol on my couch. I guess it's a good thing my couch is pink.

I can't sleep. My stomach is freaking out and I got the complete 4th season of One Tree Hill and I just have to watch one. more. episode. Mostly I can't sleep because of my stomach. I'll leave out the details. It's just awful.

I really should be sleeping. Tomorrow is Back to School night and I have to give a little presentation to all my parents.

I know I've been bad about updating lately. I promise I've tried. I have four unfinished blog drafts and they are all about different things. I've just been busy and it feels like there is much to report, but at the same time it feels like there is nothing really exciting going on.

School is going well. It's so different from BHE, but I'm getting used to it. I remember at BHE we used to always say that there should be someone who comes around the center putting all the beds out for us cause it was so time consuming and annoying. Well here they do! I take my kids to lunch and when we come back the beds are all set out, blinds down and lights off. It's a nice change. However, even  if I did have to put out beds it would only be FOUR beds so I wouldn't be able to complain since I used to put out 14 every day. I only have 8 kids right now and only 4 of them are full day. I'll get up to 15 kids the end of the year, but for now it's 8 kids and three teachers. It's awesome, but still a lot of work. It's just different.


I still haven't been out exploring too much yet. The last few weekends I've been either completely exhausted or really sick so it's been pretty low key. I've gone out to dinner a few times with friends and I went to see the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil which was awesome! I think my city exploring will pick up quite a bit after PAY DAY on Friday. After two months of no income I will have money again! The school gave me some relocation money, but it just wasn't quite enough.

I promise a more informative and less random blog post soon! I'll take some pictures of something soon too!

Gonna try for bed again! Goodnight!

It's 7:30pm and all I want to do is go to bed.....

If you couldn't tell by the title of this post, I'm tired. This is a busy week. I finished my classroom today, tomorrow is open house, and then kids come on Wednesday.

I'm pleased with the way my room turned out. I think all my time at Bright Horizons had an impact in terms of how I decorate a classroom. It's been overwhelming...suddenly I can put anything on the walls, the boards, wherever! However, I realized I didn't really want to put a bunch of stuff up just to put stuff up. My walls are pretty bare compared to other classrooms, but I really like putting up pictures of my kids, documentation of  learning, and showcasing art work and I have none of that right now, because there aren't any kids yet. Wall decorating will have to wait.

However, it was fun to do themed boards like these:

I have the sweetest most helpful MA's (Mandarin Assistants) in the school. They worked so hard today and this past week cutting and laminating for me. We just have a couple of small laminators at the school so laminating is more of a process here. I'm so thankful to have the help.

Tomorrow is Open House and all of the children and their parents are coming to meet me. I'm excited to put faces to these names I've been writing and typing over and over. I'm still at 8 children which is awesome. Hoping and praying the tears aren't too terrible on Wednesday when it's time to stay and play.

In other news, it's been hot, but it's cooling off a little this week and by cooling off, I mean it's 95 instead of 105. I still sweat all the way to school, but it's bearable.

I'm taking the metro to and from school and it's pretty easy! The metro here is very clean and user friendly. I think it will make exploring a little easier.

That's all I got. It's 8:04 and I'm going to go to bed. I'm so tired.