Recap of the Last Week...birthday, food, visas, and partays

It's been about a week since I last posted.  I'm sorry for being slow!  There has been a lot going on, and I've been trying to do it all while also exploring still.

The visa process is slow.  I think I mentioned last time that I am not able to leave Beijing during National Holiday (this will be the first week in October) because my visa process is not complete. This isn't the end of the world, except we had to cancel our last class this past Friday (our boss fought for us so that we would get paid for it because this is visa stuff and not personal stuff).  Three of us who needed to do our visa work went to the office.  We were numbers 425-427 and they were on number 91-92....Thankfully Jing, one of the women at the school do does a lot of the visa stuff, had connections so we ended up only having to wait about an hourish or so.  So now I have a permanent resident card and I'm just waiting for my passport to get done.  I can go and pick it up on October 11. xD

Our department celebrated mine and another coworker's birthdays last week, which was lovely.  They got a cake and sang happy birthday. Hah, it was nice. I didn't do anything for my actual birthday, which is fine...because I spent awhile at the visa office, but the four of us (three teachers and our boss) went to a really good vegan restaurant.  It was delicious.  Also, Starbucks in China is the same except they have some slightly different drinks and snacks to choose from!

Yesterday was awesome.    A group of us, 7 to be exact, got together with our boss and had a video game and board game day.  Four of us had switches so we brought those along so we had a bunch of controllers. <3  We played Kirby, Mario Kart, and Poketekken. Some people had to leave, but we ended up also playing Cards Against Humanity.  Talk about getting to know the people you work with! <3  We also ordered Poppa Johns, which taste just like Poppa Johns at home.  And, of course we had a lot of snacks.  Honestly, it was a really nice day.  

This just means that I am behind in getting prepared for this week...but the good thing is I don't work tomorrow...sooo.

There's been a mixup with my pay.  I was supposed to get paid on Friday...everyone else did...but I didn't.  The cash office says I did, but chances are there is a mixup in some numbers, so hopefully that will get worked out soon!  I have 40RMB left. xD

Still having issues with my computer, so the pictures are on facebook. 

Food:

I went out with some people for dinner at a local mall...apparently Beijing is the land of malls.  But, anyway, we ended up at this Cantonese restaurant.  I tried congree for the first time, and it was surprisingly good.  It's like a rice porridge and mine had some beef and a raw egg in it.  We also got roast pork and some dumpling things.  Oh, and I had a plum tea, which was also amazing.

I now have a reward card for the tea I always get at school, and I realized that Happy Lemon is also in a mall near me, so guess who is drinking all the tea?! I also tried a Lychee Rose Green Tea from another place that was good...I have a thing with fruity teas.

Work:

Classes are going well.  I'm excited about break because it will be lovely...I'll be able to explore some of Beijing in depth. Yay!

RMB:

I've spent a bit...mostly on things I need. Some on things I don't need.  I needed more Drain-O, for instance.  But I've also bought some soda and nutella, things I don't need. I've been writing down everything I spend.  I really want to see what an average month is, so once I get paid I'm going to have to add it all up and see.

Dumpling update:

I've had the beef and onion ones again at work, and I had left overs. Yay!  I also had some at the Cantonese restaurant..they had a shrimp on top xD

So much stuff including trying new food and fostering a cat

It's been a week since I last posted....well, not quite a week, but close.  I didn't want to go this long between posts, but this week has been busy in so many ways.

First of all, I am now the proud foster mommy to an adorable little cat named Zongzi.  She's a cutie, and she has no teeth.  Apparently she has this disease that has been taken care of with her, but she can give it to other cats, so my boss runs an animal rescue and they will be getting kittens so she needed to be away from the other cats.  I don't know how long I will have her, but I'm excited.  Granted, she hasn't really come out of hiding...last night she wandered up to the door of my room and looked at me and cried, but she wouldn't come in.  Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I can get her to let me pet her.  Apparently she is really playful and lovable, so I hope I can coax her out.

Also, I found out that during October break I cannot leave Beijing, which sucks.  It has to do with the visas laws while they are switching my temporary visa to a permanent resident visa.  This means that my plans to go to Shanghai are off, but it also means I will be able to explore some more of Beijing, and Clark is also stuck here so we figured we might hit up a few things together.  It also means my first paycheck will allow me to save a bit more money than I had anticipated. <3  Which is good. xD

Work

Week 2 went okay.  I LOVE MY LIT CLASS.  These girls are amazing.  We read the first chapter of The Hobbit, and they talked and discussed and I even had them do a small creative writing assigning (we were focusing on setting and world building).  They are creative and talented and ~gushes profusely~

Also, in our meeting on Thursday, we celebrated mine and another teacher's birthdays...Cormac got a cake and everyone sang.  It was really  nice, actually. =]

Food

I've been cooking a little.  Last week I made curry and this week I made some meat sauce. This has saved me a little bit of money, which I'm happy about, but overall, it is nice to eat without having to go out.  Also, it makes sure I get enough protein.

I really wish I had a scale.  I can't tell what my weight is doing.  I'm not eating a lot, but it's still difficult to tell, and I get anxious about it.  I'm sure walmart sells scales but I don't know if I really want to spend the money.  However, I have not bought nutella again and I only had one soda with dinner tonight...I haven't actually bought any more soda.

I ate really interesting food the other day.  I was invited out to two with a fellow teacher and our boss, and the place we were going to go eat at was closed, so we tried the place next door.  Basically it is one of those places where you share a few dishes.  Cormac ordered and we ended up with a sweet and sour pork, a weird cabbage in soup broth  with  tiny shrimps and century egg dish, and this pork belly with carrot dish that tasted carmelized.  I didn't like the sweet and sour, but the other two dishes were amazing!  The cabbage had a nice flavor because of the broth.  Century egg is weird, but it wasn't bad at all.  A bit fishy tasting, but not bad. =]  And, the pork belly was amazing.  If you don't like fat (and generally I don't), you wouldn't like this dish, because it was absurdly fatty, but the flavor was magnificent.

I also found an amazing tea place at school.  I figured I will get one on Tuesdays and Fridays when I am teaching...it's a mango and orange green tea with QQ jellies. So tasty!

Money:

Money is a weird thing to balance here.  I withdrew just under 100 US dollars, and I still have some of that left.  I'm trying to make it last until I get paid...which should be next week?  I've had to purchase some more kitchen items, so some of my expenses were living expenses, so it's difficult to tell.

Dumplings:

I still need more of these. xD

Cooking, school, random things around China

Long time, no post!

This week has been long, and my computer and I are really  not getting along. It is lagging at literally everything I do, which sucks, but know that there will be no pictures on this post.  However, I will be posting a bunch to Facebook  via my phone, so that should make life a bit easier.

Work

My first week of classes went pretty well, overall. At our meeting on Tursday I began feeling very overwhelmed.  I didn't think I was up to par with the other teachers, especially those who have been doing it awhile.  And, honestly, I still feel that way.  I have always suffered from imposter syndrome. However,on Friday, my boss sat in on one of my classes, and he said I was doing well.  He gave me a pointer, but it was for something small.  I appreciated the feedback, and it did make me feel a little bit better.

I've got plans for this week, and my lessons are all set, so hopefully it runs smoothly.  I'm excited about my British and American Lit class...we will be discussing the first chapter of The Hobbit. =]

Adventures in cooking

I decided that I needed to cook. Eating out is great and all, but so is saving money and going on trips, sooooo.  Cooking.  This was an...um....adventure, to put it mildly. I went to Walmart on Friday at around 5:30.  I needed some things for the apartment and I also needed food to cook.  I decided on making curry, as I saw the curry blocks when I was there several days before.

I was not able to find a kitchen knife, so I got scissors. Well, I also needed a potato and an onion....So, once home, I made rice first (because I only have one pot).  I don't have measuring cups, but I was able to use a paper cup to do a 2:1 ratio.  While that was cooking I cut up the chicken and then proceeded to use a regular butter knife to cut onions and potatoes!  A butter knife. ~headdesk~  I managed to, amazingly. xD

Either way, the curry turned out amazing.  I've since eaten it on Saturday night, Sunday day, and Sunday night.  I have enough to eat tomorrow, probably for dinner, because I think some of us are grabbing lunch during the afternoon.

I'll be cooking again...probably more curry, because it's easy and tasty, but I did also see a lot of different sauces so if I can figure out what they are, I might end up making noodles or something.

Board Games

Our weekly board game meetup  was today.  Super fun.  I really like that street it is on...I need to get there before the gaming one weekend or just go on a different day, because there are some pretty cool stores I'd like to go into.  Sure, a lot of them are touristy, but there are so many people, including Chinese people, wandering around that street, it is just fun.

We played Betrayal at House on Haunted Hill today...twice...I ended up dying both times (one time I was the bad guy xD ) Still, though, it was a lot of fun playing with people.  It feels nice to be social. Hah.

Next weekend is actually a board game convention which our group might go to, which would be cool!

Random Things

I found out where there is a nice park near me.  I might go take a walk over there on Wednesday.  Apparently it is about a 25 minute walk from me in the only direction I haven't gone yet.  I'm excited.  There is a surprising a mount of greenery here, despite everything. I will be posting some pictures, and if I computer decides to work, I'll put some in the next post.

Spitting.  This really creeps me out.  Spitting has always creeped me out, but EVERYONE does it here.  Like, EVERYONE.  I was walking behind this really smartly dressed young business woman.  Super fashionable.  Next thing I know she turns her head and spits. Eh.  Definitely one of the harder things to get used to.

Apparently there is a restaurant not far from me that our boss calls the dog restaurant...apparently they sell dog meat?  I really don't like thinking about it, and I definitely won't go because if they even might do that, I couldn't bear it. Nope.

We got out of the metro today and there were literally like 20 old guys selling these little tiny bids in cages.  I've seen the birds around...they must catch them and sell them. For what, I don't even want to know, but I don't necessarily believe that everyone buying them wants tiny pet birds. =/

I found a new pastry shop today.  The one next to me shut down, but there is one near Walmart.  I had told myself that once a week I would get a pastry.  I really like them, and I know for me moderation is important.  So, I walked down to Walmart, which, by the way is a nearly 20 minute walk, and went to this Korean-owned bakery with a French name.  The pastries were expensive,  so it's definitely a once a week thing, but my muffin was delicious.  I actually ran into one of my fellow teachers, and we sat and talked while I ate and he killed time before his hair cutting appointment at Walmart. xD

Money

I've spent some money over the past several days. I had another two Walmart runs, one of which cost me a bit, mostly because I needed some cooking supplies, a cup, a cutting board, etc.  On Saturday I only did a Walmart run, so it was a cheap day.  Thursday wasn't bad except I had to put 100RMB on my metro card (it costs me 10 RMB for a round trip for work.  Apparently, though, every month we get some credit on our Metrocard if we spend over 100RMB, which will be easy because I have to go to school three times a week).

Today was a bit pricy only because I bought my pastry stuff this morning (along with an OJ) and it cost 60RMB for the gaming because we went to a much more suitable room which cost 10RMB extra.  Definitely worth it, though. And, I leant Clark 10RMB, though since he had bought me a drink before, I won't be asking for that back.

Dumpling Update

Alas, no dumplings. =[

First Day of Work

This pretty building changes colors.

I didn't post yesterday. It was a terribly long day.  I left my apartment at 6:05am and got back at about 9:40pm.

First of all, if I don't have buns o steel by the time I leave here, I am suing someone....Here's my day:

1) I  walk down five flights of stairs.
2) I was 25 minutes to the metro station. Along the way I go up and down another set of stairs.
3) At school I teach on the fourth floor where there are no elevators.  I have to walk up those stairs on three different occasions during the day, and thus I walk down them at three various times throughout the day.
4) I walk 25 minutes from the metro station to my apartment.
5) I walk up five flights of stairs.

Granted, this is only Tuesdays....My Thursdays only involve my stairs twice and two 25 minute walks, and my Fridays require my stairs, the four flights only two times, and two 25 minute walks.

And, this is all assuming that every other day of the week I just sit in my apartment.

The CDC would be proud of my exercise quota. =]

Seriously though, that's a lot of walking and stairs.  I don't have a scale here, and I forgot my measuring tape, but I'd be curious to know what my body is doing.  I *could* be eating a bit better, but I'm not worrying too much about that because, again, I'm doing a lot of moving.  However, I should fix up my eating a bit.

Oh! I did laundry today and I did not flood the apartment...I think the drain-o stuff I bought really helped...thank goodness. ^^

Work:

Yesterday was my first day of work. As I mentioned, Tuesdays are a long day.  Each class is approximately  100 minutes long, except for my one night a week night class which is like 3 hours long.  But, it's a long day.  I'm honestly exhausted by the end.

My classes are good.  I really like my one night a week class.  It's all girls, we're doing fun reading, and I think it will be a good class.

My morning classes (3 of them) are okay.  One class had like 50 students in it...which is wasn't supposed to have...some were in the wrong class, and some will probably switch around classes, but in the first two classes I ended up getting into Friday's material, so I went back today and added more to fill out that lesson a bit.  It's going to be a bit of a struggle with them...lots of group work I think.

Also...bathroms.  At school was the first time I had used public restrooms since in China...The only bathrooms at the school are the traditional kind.  I had forgotten my GoGirl at home and I actually ended up stripping from the waist down just because I was so nervous and not sure how to navigate these toilets.  And, there was no toilet paper!  Thankfully I had read this somewhere, so I did have a pack of tissues. ~sigh of relief~  I'm never leaving my GoGirl again. xD

I made a little friend on Campus.  A cute little kitty that literally flopped down on my shoes.  She was precious, and I hope that I see her tomorrow.

Money:

Yesterday I  spent 62RMB.  I had to put some money on my metro card.  It costs me a total of 10RMB to go to and from work, which means I'll have to put a larger amount on my card tomorrow, because I had only put ten on there to begin with. Oi.

Today, so far I have spent 68.5 RMB.  I bought milk and more water bottles.  On a side note, I didn't need to purchase any lunch because I had left over dumplings from lunch at school.  I think I'm going to see if I can find a container to put my leftovers in for future use because trying to ask for a bag every time is a pain.  Plus, it will seal better!  I will go grab dinner today, and I'm feeling like pizza...that's about 48RMB.

It's funny....so many of the Chinese people prefer eating non Chinese food! =] Go figure! xD

Dumplings:

I ate my leftover ones today and lemme tell you, the are great even reheated!

So many things including nice weather and board games.

I didn't post yesterday because it was so long, which just means you get a longer post today. Yay! ~shifty eyes~ Oh, by the way, I have a huge bruise on my knee from when I fell.

So, knowing me, I go literally across the world and I find a board game group.  Hah.  My boss and his friend started up a board game group that meets once a week in this really cool place.  In China you cannot just take your boardgames to a coffee shop.  There are special board game places (this one was called The Owl Museum) where you pay to get in and then you play.  It's a pretty good deal, honestly.  It's 50 RMB ($7.33) for however long and you get unlimited drinks and snacks.  See? Good deal.  There were five of us yesterday, though some more said they would come.  It seems like the day is changing to Saturday instead of Sunday because most teach on Monday.  Thankfully I don't start teaching until Tuesday.

Fury of Dracula....Dracula won. xD

Afterwards we walked down this cool street.  So, it's an old street and apparently there aren't many like it, but it's super touristy.  Honestly, that doesn't bother me, but it was really cool.  I need to go there one day and just wander around.  A lot of the food smelled good as well.  The group of us wandered around and found this small restaurant.  We are so obsessed with eating Chinese food, but the Chinese quite like non-Chinese food...so I ended up eating pasta. xD

The rest of Sunday was pretty low key.  I did some planning.  Right now I'm a week ahead, which I like.  I don't want to spend my whole weekend planning for the week ahead, so if I can always stay a week or two ahead I'll be happy.  October holidays fall on the first week of classes, so I believe that is the first week of October, so if I can be prepared past that, I'd be happy.  I just need to put the finishing touches on this weeks' lesson plans.

Today was another low key day.  I walked down to Walk-mart.  I needed drain cleaner.  I feel like my bathroom floods every time I use the shower. The water seems to take awhile to drain, so I managed to find some.  I'll find out tonight if it works.  I also got another towel.  I've been using the moisture wick towel I brought over with me, which is amazing by the way.  However, I wanted a full bath tower, and I was able to get one reasonably cheap.  What fascinates me is it is a Better Homes and Gardens towel. xD

The weather was actually nice today.  We could see blue skies.  Granted, this isn't because the weather has been bad, but there are so many factories here.  There is a conference going on here, the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.  Apparently, when these summits happen factory hours are limited. Which, means...nice skies! I got some pictures from the walkway that goes over the road near me.

 


Classes start tomorrow, and I'm nervous.  It's a longggg day tomorrow.  Tuesdays will always be long, unfortunately.  I have class essentially from 8am to 9pm.  Well, actually 9:30, but those night classes tend to get out half an hour early, as per my boss.  Some days we will probably run until 9:30, but whatever.  The whole school has an hour long lunch and dinner break, which is nice. And I won't be teaching one two hour chunk, so that's good. But still, it'll be a long day.  The rest of the week won't be bad though....No classes on Wednesday.  One meeting on Thursday afternoon but no classes.  And, three classes on Friday morning. Then, a three day weekend!

Money:

Sunday: I only bought dinner and gaming yesterday, so it was a really cheap day! I made an egg with some leftover meat for breakfast.  Dinner was 48RMB and the gaming price was 50RMB, so overall a day that cost me less than like $16 dollars. Yay!

Monday: Granted, today isn't over yet, but all I have left is dinner, and if the place I want is open, it will be 31 RMB...if the other place is open, it will be like 48RMB...But, anyway, I withdrew just under $200 dollars today.  I don't get paid until the 20th, and while I suspect that I had would have lasted me, I have had a lot of expenses that just couldn't be avoided.  Either way, before I withdrew money I had 96RMB left.

So, my Wal-mart trip cost be 86.8RMB.  I got a towel and drain-o and a water and a bun of some sort.  I ate an egg for breakfast, so so far no food costs.  I did stop at the store and pick up some creature comforts...some milk and nutella. It came to 34.40RMG...under 7 dollars, so it wasn't too bad!  Plus, because my days are so early, I don't know if I'll have time for an egg in the morning (unless I can't sleep), so some milk will at least get me through until lunch.

Dumplings:

None today...but tomorrow you can sure bet there will be...which means there will be left overs as well! <3

Flooding the apartment. xD

So, I had  grand plans to write some probably boring post....

BUT I FLOODED MY APARTMENT.

Okay, well, I only flooded the front portion of it...but still!

How? you may ask.  Simply.  I was doing laundry, and to do that I had to move the laundry machine in front of the bathroom, hook up the hose and then lay the drainage pipe into the bathroom (remember, the    bathroom is like one giant shower stall with a toilet and a sink in it). So, I didn't realize that the hose was draining when it did the first time and I saw something glistening on the floor.  I run out of my room, slip and go sliding across the floor, hurting my knees.  I managed to get it all cleaned up but I used 2.5 rolls of toilet paper in the process. xD

In other news....
I went back to Walmart today.  I've decided that I need to cook a bit.  This is for two reasons.  One, even if I eat out and spent about 15 dollars a day, in a month that adds up to about $450 dollars, and I'd rather use that money for something else...like traveling.  Two, eating out is eating out.  It's not the best for you.

Oh, I plan on eating at the local places because the food is awesome, but I plan on cooking a bit.  So, I got supplies at Walmart.  A few interesting things about produce and meat in Walmart in China.  First off, they have so many different kinds of fruit!  I almost got dragon fruit..I'll get it next time.  I ended up being safe and getting pineapple and grapes.  The meat section is fascinating.  You can buy packaged meat, but they also have literal piles of fresh meat stacked in containers. Like, you can just go over there, grab some chicken feet or whatnot and put it in a bag.  It's super cool!  Honestly, I'll probably end up going for the packaged food, but either way...amazing!  Oh yeah, and eggs are not kept cool. I bought a dozen eggs and they are just stacked in the normal store, not in a cold aisle.

Money:

Breakfast: 15.5RMB--Today was an expensive day as far as RMB goes.  I decided Saturdays are going to be my bakery days.  Sundays I will always need 50RMB for board game night, and I should cook, so Saturdays I will make bakery day.  Usually it will just be egg tarts, but today I got an egg tart and a hotdog wrapped in fresh warm bread.  My egg tart was for a snack. I ate the hotdog for breakfast.

Walmart: 197 RMB--This was expensive.  I bought a small pot, dishwashing soap, fruit, OJ, olive oil, eggs.  I ended up getting a lot.  Some of it were one time purchases such as the pot, and the olive oil and dishwashing soap will last a bit.

Dinner: 148RMB--This was an expensive meal.  I've not been eating enough protein.  I can feel it, so I went to the Italian place and got a meat and cheese plate so I could eat protein.  A lot of the Chinese dishes come with noodles, which I love.  But, yeah.

Trains:

I walked to the two train stops today again.  This time I timed them because I knew how to get there.

Train 1: It's a 25 minute walk.  However, I'll only need to be on one train line to get to work.
Train 2: It's a 21 minute walk, so a bit shorter.  The walk is a bit prettier, too.  However, I'd have to switch train lines.

I think I'm going to go with train one.  I might get off at Train 2 on my way back from work on Fridays as I'll pass the Walmart on my walk home...but we shall see.

School/Work:

I spent some time today prepping.  Honestly, I'm super excited about my American/British lit class.  We're going to start with some fantasy selections. Yay!

I've got the first week planned for both classes, so I want to start on the second week.  My English III classes are going to be a bit rougher with trying to use the books...the books are confusing.  I have my ideas for the first four weeks, and it's all about writing arguments and debating.  Should be fun.  It's what happens after October break that throws me off.

Dumplings:

No dumplings today. =[

Exhaustion

I'm exhausted.  Completely exhausted. And, it's only 9:02pm.  Oh, wait. 9:03.  In that case...

But, yeah, in reality, today was a long day.  I'm still having trouble sleeping, although it's no longer the jetlag. It seems to be a combination of several things including a super hard bed, noise from outside, and something else.  Either way, sleep has been rough.

However, I ended up wandering around for over two hours today trying to find the two metro stops that I will take most often.  One is line 1 and the other is line 14.  Line 14 means I won't have to change lines when going to work, but Line 1 is convenient because it's a tad bit closer.  It took me forever to find them, as Google Maps decided to be a bum.  However, I did find them. Yay!  I'll probably go back out tomorrow and walk to them again just to be sure.  And, I'll go again on Sunday and Monday.  I'll probably time myself.

So, I may have mentioned before, but something I love seeing is this group of old men who play cards.  Now, every day they pull their table and chairs from under the overpass walking bridge and set up IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIDEWALK.  Like, square in the middle of the sidewalk.  And, they play cards.  I want to be cool like them when I grow up. =^.^=

I had to be super sneaky getting this photo.

I spent a good chunk of today preparing lessons for the first week of class.  I've almost got my English III lessons done for the first week, but I need to do my American/British Lit lessons done.  The nice thing about the first week of classes is that we do some introductory information...which means that there isn't a ton that goes into the class.  Still, though,  I want to try to get a week done in advance, at least.  Ideally, I'd love to get through Week 5 done by the end of this first week, as Week 5 will be a break for October holidays.

I'm not going to lie.  Homesickness is hitting me hard because this weekend is DragonCon and so many of my friends will be there.  I had been looking forward to it this year.  It seems like these big events are going to be the hardest for me.  I mean with facebook and different chat services, I can keep in touch with  most of the people in my life, but these sorts of events that I tend to go to are all going to be missed...and there are two this fall pretty close together.  Oh well, there is also next year, and as my good friend said, I'm at Chinacon! xD

Money:

Like I said, I want to kind of track money here, mostly because I find the prices fascinating.  I only ate out once today.  I got beef noodle soup (again) for dinner, as I had left over dumplings that I heated up for breakfast.  However, I did get a bottle of water while walking because I was dying.  Lesson for the future? Pack my own bottle of water.

So, grand total for today was 34RMB. =]

Dumpling Update:

I had leftover dumplings today.  As I do not have a pot, I heated them in the microwave and they were pretty awesome. Yay!

Stuff and Things: Dumplings, Walmart, and Orientation

Today was long.  Very long.  But, it felt good to be productive all day.

Today was orientation at the campus.  My commute is kind of long, but I headed down there with Clark because we are both new teachers at the school.  We managed to navigate it just fine.

The campus has some really cool aspects.  For instance, there is this lovely pond area that has black swans! I didn't get to go there today, partially because it was raining, but it is definitely a place I can see myself spending some time.  The campus also has about four stray dogs.  My boss was telling us that most colleges in Beijing who had stray dogs "deal" with the problem, but here the students banded together to get the dogs neutered and whatnot and the school lets the dogs stay.  I am actually hoping that I run into one or two...apparently they aren't huge fans of men. xD

I also received my schedule, which is pretty sweet.  I have class on Tuesdays and Fridays with a 2 hour meeting on Thursday.  Tuesdays will be a long day for me.  Super long. I have three English 3 classes, which are all oral based, and I have a 2.5/3 hour class on British and American literature (which is also oral based and I can bring in chapters from LITERALLY ANY BOOK THAT I LIKE). So, why so long?  Basically, that class starts at 6pm so I'll be there until about 9 and then have an hour long commute. Yay.  The plus side to that is that I don't have to be up early on Wednesday.  On Fridays I will only have the first three classes, and I'll be done by 12:30.

I'm excited for classes to start.  Nervous, granted, but excited.  I'll probably spend some time tomorrow looking at the books for English 3 and planning some things out.  Then, I will work towards figuring out a schedule for my one night a week class.

Orientation Outfit...who doesn't love Harry Potter shirts?

I think my jet lag is also gone.  I'm exhausted now, but it was a long day.   I don't sleep very well at night, but that's okay. It has me waking up early, which sucks, but I did not take a nap today, so I think I've finally recovered.

Money:

I mentioned in my last post about money.  The exchange rate fascinates me, so I'm going to keep this up in future posts.  I'm also trying to see what my monthly spending is on average.  I spent a total of 138 RMBs today which equates to about 20 dollars.  With this I bought an umbrella (it was raining today, and I didn't pack one), a bowl and set of cutlery from Walmart, lunch, a drink, a small thing of chocolate, a bottle of coke, and a small bag of doritos.

Cool bag...and these are no where near as cheesy as the ones in the US

I needed the bowl and cutlery and umbrella, but I didn't need the rest.  Still, though, for a day's spending, 20 dollars is not so bad.

Walmart:

I finally made it to the Walmart here!  It's huge.  In many ways it is like the Walmarts at home.  There is a clothing section, an electronic section, a beauty and health aides section, a produce section, a meat section.  Pretty standard.

The hot bar area is extensive here, and all of it smelled delicious.  Like, seriously delicious.  This hot bar was spread out in multiple places, so anywhere you were in the store smelled good!

The meat section is huge too.  I'm going to try to get a picture next time I go, but they definitely had more meats than we do here in the US.

Dumplings:

I HAD DUMPLINGS!  Near the school there is this mall-ish area with food.  One of the places was a dumpling place, and I got beef and onion dumplings and OMG they were great.  Super flavorful.  So flavorful, in fact, that you didn't need any sauce, even though I ended up using some.  Also, I got a passionfruit drink that was pretty tasty.

Yum!

More Food Stuffs and Minor Victory

The goal is to update this every day, but I know that will A) become boring and B) sometimes be impossible.  However, it is the goal. =^.^=

This was another lazy day.  I did some more wandering down a different direction.  Truth be told, I've not gone terribly far from my apartment, but I have been exploring different areas around me.  Some areas are nicer, others are a bit rougher, but nowhere feels unsafe.  The only place that feels mildly creepy is when I have to go up the five flights of stairs to my apartment in the dark...there is no lighting in the stairwell so it's a tad bit creepy.

Orientation is tomorrow.  I'll get to find out my schedule, which I'm excited about!

Food Stuffs:

I also went and ate today by myself.  Say what?!  Up until this point I've either lived off of stuff I could get at the bakery right near me or eaten with someone else.  Even in the states I have an aversion to eating by myself.  Now, compound that with the language barrier and my anxiety spikes hard core.  Still though, I realized that egg tarts and hot dogs in amazing fresh bread were not doing it, so while wandering I grabbed lunch and tea.

I went to the noodle place for lunch and got the beef noodle soup.  Thank goodness they had a picture menu so I was able to point.  Granted, everywhere I've been has had a picture menu.  It was similar in Japan.  I find this immensely useful.  Again that meal was  something like  5 dollars which included the bottle of water.  xD

I went to this adorable tea house. Clark had mentioned it the other day, and when walking by it the place looked super calm and lovely.  The seats were plush and the atmosphere was nice.  They had a lot of  options.  Sadly they had no mango tea, and I ended up ordering a rose tea.  It was not what I expected.  It arrived in a class and atop the hot water were a bunch of small roses.  As the roses seeped the hot water was flavored very mildly and it was surprisingly good!  Not super flavorful,    but the small amount of flavor was lovely.

Dinner was the Italian place called Annie's.  It was a slightly more comfortable experience if for no other reason then the waiters and waitresses spoke English. It wasn't always strong English, but I felt better about not having to point.  It was also comforting food.  I ended up with lasagne and a coke.  The coke cans here have great writing on them.  I really should not have ordered the coke, but I had fallen asleep my apartment for about three hours earlier in the day and figured I needed a pick me up. I maybe got through half of my meal, coke included.

And, because I can...the entire meal came to 61RMB.  That is 8.97 cents.  $8.97!  Awesome deal. xD

Budgets

I thought about setting a food budget, but even if I ate out every single day for three meals a day, I maybe spend 15 dollars a day?  Times 30 equals $459 dollars.  And, because I have like no other expenses, that isn't the end of the world.  I don't really want to spend that much in food a month, and it is generally cheaper (I  just went for a more expensive meal today), but I might get myself a pan and stuff to do a little bit of cooking.  We shall see. We shall see.

I do want to sent myself a budge because I want to travel a bit and I want to save.  Food is going to be my biggest expense in general purely because that is one of my only expenses.Two other reoccurring expenses will end up being my metro card and phone.  I'll probably do a breakdown of expenses here after my first month (after I get paid) especially because this month has had some startup costs so far, and there are still  20more days until I get paid. Hmmm.

Dumpling Update:

Again, no dumplings.  Laura and I will have to make up for it!

Adventures in Laundry and Food stuffs.

Can you tell that I'm bad with titles? In fact, when I submitted my thesis to the grad schools several years ago, the only thing my committee asked me to change was the title...

Today was largely a bland day, which was  nice.  I'm still dealing with jet lag, though I can tell that it is getting  better.  I think I'm just getting old...I've never had jet lag this badly before! 

There is definitely some homesickness.  Not the crippling type of "I need to come home right now because I'm crying myself to sleep" but more of the "Wow, I'm here all alone without any of the comforts of home and I feel out of place".  It's a sort of dull homesickness like I haven't felt before, but I am enjoying myself, and I've met some nice coworkers, which is great.

However, there were two highlights of my day. Yay!

Laundry:

I figured out how to do  laundry! Yeah, I know that sounds silly.  But, seriously, it was an undertaking.  Doing laundry here involves moving the washer to right outside of the bathroom, plugging in the power, hooking up the water valve, and making sure the drainage hose is draining into the bathroom (in case you were wondering, the bathroom is essentially a shower with a toilet and sink in it).  On this note, I also managed to find laundry detergent, something I was nervous about because bottles of detergent look an awfully lot like other cleaners.

So, now I have some clean clothes drying in various places.  It's nice.  They smell good. xD

Food Stuffs:

I had a lovely chocolate and almond bread today, but it was dinner that was  OMFG to die for.

Clark and I decided we wanted to try one of  the BBQ places near us, and when we met up he told me about one he passed called MeowMeow. Needless to say, I  didn't  have to think twice.

So, MeowMeow was this amazingly cat and art themed place.  For instance, on the menu there was a cat face in a portrait of "The Girl With the  Pearl Earring" and "Starry Starry"night was painted on the wall.  And, there were these really pretty metal cats everywhere!

We had a bit of a kerfuffle when we first got there because neither of us speak the language so we weren't sure what the hostess was saying, but we eventually got seated.  

Something I've noticed about menus here, which I greatly appreciate, is that they have dishes in English as well as Mandarin.  This system was also set up in that we wrote down the numbers of what we wanted.  

We got:

*Chicken Wings

*Beef Skewers

*Pork Belly Skewers

*Lamb Skewers

*A Whole Fish

*Garlic Skewers

*Eggplant

And, we weren't able to finish it all.  And, it was amazing.  The seasoning was spot on; everything was absurdly flavorful.

And, here's the best part! It cost 138RMB.  What's that you say, Emily?  That sounds like a lot of money!  Hahah.  Doing the math it  came to $20 USD.  $20!!!  We had a ton of food. xD

Then we went to this Italian place  for dessert. We ordered two really lovely things to share and we each ordered a drink.  He  got  a fancy coffee and I got a fancy hot chocolate.  The desserts were lovely.  We got a fancy chocolate cake that was really dense with a ganache topping  and a fresh made apple pie slice.  And....it was 90RMB...which is $13.19! xD

Yes, I'm focusing on the money here (although the food is nothing at all to scoff at! Like seriously, that dinner was amazing!), but seriously this sort of meal would have cost probably $100 dollars or near about back home. xD

Dumpling Update:

Still no dumplings yet.=[

Adventures in Food, Medical Exams, and Bank Accounts

I few things that I have learned: 

1) Jet lag kicked my ass.  I woke up on Sunday feeling fine.  In fact, I woke up at 8am after having gone to bed around ten.  Seems like a good start, no?  Well, I went down to the store, grabbed an egg tart (THOSE THINGS ARE AMAZING, and if you live in Atlanta, Sweet Hut has ones that taste EXACTLY THE SAME), bought some toilet paper and water, and came home.  I relaxed for a bit, talked with some people and then, at around 2ish, I passed out.  Woke up, decided to go for a walk, wandered around for awhile and then grabbed some dinner (again, an egg tart because I wasn't sure what to do).  Came back.

I had to get up super early this morning.  Today was a long day (it's only 2:43 :(  ), but anyway, I could not sleep last night.  At all.  I tried.  I went to bed at about 11 to get up at 5:20.  And I maybe slept all of 1 hour total?  ~headdesk~

2) The Chinese medical exam is terrifying.  Like, it shouldn't be, but man, my blood pressure and heart rate spiked something fierce.  I mean, it shouldn't have.  And, I only had to do three of the elements of the check because they accepted my blood work, EKG, and chest x-ray, but they cycle you through these small medical rooms where everything goes very quickly.  They stamp a form that I cannot read, and then they send you on your way.  I'm guessing I passed. xD

3) The metro system is really easy to use.  The signs for the trains are also in English, and it helped that our boss gave us (Clark and me) a schedule we had to follow as far as what trains to take.  I got my metro card as well.  It cost 20RMB and the extra 30 (from the 50 dollar note I had) goes towards my rides, which are, by the way, only like 2-3 RMB a ride.  Super cheap!

Metro Card! xD

4) Opening a bank account here is much easier than opening one in America.  Granted, the line was long, but holy cow, it took my passport, a couple of signatures, and viola! I am not the proud owner of a Bank of Beijing bank account and debit card. Yeah, I know, I know.  Very cool. xD

Bank Card!

5) My boss loves boardgames and invited Clark and I to a boardgames thing on Saturday.  We both seem keen on it, which is pretty cool.  It is just starting up, but Cormac is super nerdy and so it is awesome.

6) Food.  So, I've eating a lot of egg tarts, but today Clark, Cormac, and I went out for lunch after all of our errands this morning.  Clark and I wanted Chinese food, so we ended up at this little place called Face to Face. It's quite near where I live, and I got a beef noodle soup which was to die for.  TO DIE FOR.  Seriously, it was amazing.  And, it was super duper cheap! It cost 25RMB which equates to $3.67 in US dollars.  Cheapest lunch ever, and it was a ton of food.

An exciting story:

So, for me this is exciting, and for those who know I had the VSG surgery over a year and a half ago, you may or may not find this exciting.  We were waiting in line at the Medical Examination place, and apparently my doctor put my weight in pounds instead of kilograms.  No big deal, except Cormac pointed it out.  Apparently Jing, the lady in HR, asked him about it because if it were correct my weight would be over 400lbs.  

So why is this story exciting to me? Because when Jing asked, Cormac said I was normal sized. ~squee~ Normal sized. <3<3<3

That is all.

Arrival

I've arrived in China.

After a total of about 15 hours of flying, I made it here, arriving at 3:20 pm on Saturday (China time).  And, everything is new and different.

My apartment is nice.  There are two bedrooms, a cooking area, an eating area, and a small sunporch looking place.  I look out over a street (at some point I'll give you some photos), and right near my place is this grocery story and an amazing small bakery. Oh, yeah, and a KFC. ~shifty eyes~

Adjusting is going to be difficult, but I'm sure that I'll get used to it.  I mean, I'll be here for a year, so adjusting will happen.  And, I'm going to try to learn some of the language, but it won't be easy.

Odd things:

1) The bed is as hard as a rock.  Like, literally.  I'm used to sleeping on a memory foam mattress, and while a change isn't bad, my back is not agreeing.  Thank goodness for sleeping aides?!

2) The bathroom.  This is actually kind of cool. It works like a shower stall.  Quit literally.  Which means, everything gets wet when I want to take a shower. Hah.  It amuses me.

I went to the grocery store yesterday, walked around forever, and settled on sponges and bottles of water because I couldn't read anything else.  Granted, I did find some nutella, which I almost succumbed to, but it was super expensive, so I resisted.  Still though, I couldn't read the labels on anything, although it was easy to spot the packaged ramen.  One of my fellow teachers found a walmart, so I might end up there later for some lovely toilet paper....and maybe some food? Oh yeah, and hangers.

Dumpling Update:

I have not found any yet, but I will! =]