Kindergarten Fiend

Please see my new blog location for all future updates: http://globallynomadic.wordpress.com/

Today we went to a restaurant that we had all to ourselves.  It was strange how abandoned it was.  We had to order our lamb in advance, and that was all the restaurant served.  I think the idea was that you were supposed to eat the roasted lamb and then eat the innards in hot pot.  We didn’t do the hot pot.  I’m sure the restaurant workers enjoyed a feast in the kitchen and laughed at all the dumb foreigners who passed up the best part.  But we loved our lamb and we even talked them into making us a few plates of veggies to go along with the meat.  And our Turkish friend had brought along a couple loaves of french bread which went amazingly well with our spiced roasted lamb on a spit.  We had gloves and knives and forks and we just went at it.  Ok, there were a couple girls who managed to keep neat and clean and didn’t use their fingers. . .we all know that I was not one of them.  Cleanliness is not my strong point.

This week we had swimming lessons with our students.  The female locker rooms at the swimming pool are not really what I would find ideal.  The doors to the 3 shower stalls (and even the toilet!) were almost completely see-through!  In fact, there was nowhere to have any privacy in the whole locker room.  So, body issues aside, I was there with my students.  In my world (and I think most worlds) it’s really not ok for my students to see me naked.  The Chinese teachers did not really seem to have any problem with it and just took it in stride.  But even my little students were like. . . but you’ll see me naked!  And I was like. . .well, I guess we just have to deal with it, we’re in China.  I did not deal with it, because though I’m in China, I changed at home instead.  Some things I just won’t do.

I’ve actually had to deal with this same issue in other places in China as well, so it’s not limited to just this locker room.  The locker rooms in the pool I used to go in Kunming were similar, except there weren’t even see-through doors.  The bathroom in the room I stayed in with my brothers in a hotel in Yangshuo had a fairly see-through door.  I hear the gym bathroom/locker rooms are the same, but again, I’ve never felt the need to use those.  But the most significant time that I can remember was last October when me and a few friends went to some hot springs and I saw more naked women that day than I have in the rest of my life.  And they saw me too.  They wouldn’t even give us towels if we still had our bathing suits on when we came out of the shower. . .weirdest thing.  But I was ok with that, because I didn’t know anyone there except for my really close friends that went through the exact same thing.  And it was all strangers.  Not coworkers and students.  My relationship with them is neither close enough, nor anonymous enough to allow nudity.

I’ve been teaching my students about ancient civilizations.  This is something I am LOVING.  Older kids have so much better social studies than kindergarten.  I mean, I’m sorry, but I can only teach about community and community helpers a couple times before I get bored.  Anyways, lately we’ve been studying Ancient India.  And we learned about how the nomads came in, but didn’t want to just settle the cities, but they wanted to be able to freely wander around.  Obviously they eventually settled there, but my kids didn’t know what the word nomad was.  So I explained it to them, and then I decided to teach them about modern-day nomads.  And not just the Beduin.  Like me.  I’m a modern day global nomad.  I travel around from place to place.  I like the places I’ve been, but I don’t really belong in any one of them.  I don’t care where I live, as long as I have friends and family.  I’d rather be with people than in a place.  That’s not to say I don’t like certain places, and I like being in familiar environments.  But if I could just gather all the people I love and move into the same city, that’d be perfect.  Then we could all move from place to place together, like a giant tribe!!  PARTAY!!

I also finally watched Up in the Air last night.  George Clooney plays a solitary nomad.  He loves airplanes, airports, the organization.  But he realizes in the end that that life is not quite as fulfilling as he thought it was.  There’s something missing.  That movie would’ve been a lot more depressing for me to watch had I not realized that that could never be me.  I have too many awesome friends. I have an incredible family who I couldn’t get rid of even if I wanted to (which I don’t. yet )  I don’t ever have to be alone for very long.  I have a God who takes care of me and has a plan for my life that brings Him glory.  Nothing else matters.  I can be nomadic.  Or settled.

So, friends.  Where are we going to pick???

WHY?!?!!?  I pick up a bottle of Sprite today to calm my queasy stomach (this happens more often than I’d like to admit) and I picked up one of the new bottles I’d seen.  I thought, oh look, Sprite has stepped up it’s packaging and it’s cool.  I pay for it, I step back out on the street to wait for my bus, and I open it up and take a swig.  My first thought was “What the hell is wrong with my Sprite??”  Bad taste, worse aftertaste.  After tasting it again (yes, I’m a glutton for punishment, I do this every time), I finally realized I needed to closely inspect the label on this new packaging.  Oooooohhhhhh. . .now I see.  In the corner I see the Chinese character for tea.  What?  Tea?  Why is there tea in my Sprite??  I want my lemon-limey refreshness. . .and I get some crazy carbonated citrusy green tea junk!  And it’s special because the Sprite label here has two sides, one in English and one in Chinese.  And the part where it says +tea flavor is in Chinese on BOTH sides.  So all the poor foreigners will end up being tricked into buying this.

I tried to give this drink to my friend to try, but she smelled it and REJECTED it.  Just by the smell.  Anyways, I did get a normal Sprite later, but it’s just not the same anymore.

I did google it, and found this informative article that tells me that Jay Chou apparently loves it and it makes him think of flying pandas and enabled him to give a 3-D performance.  ???  Yeah, I’m sure he got paid a lot of money to make that commercial.  Check out the article if you want to laugh:  http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=143166

I went all the way to the big supermarket down the road.  Just for tuna.  Now granted, also because there’s an excellent Japanese noodle place there.  Where my beloved coworker decided to order extra sushi, just so we could get half off of the spring rolls we wouldn’t have even ordered.  We had a lot of food.  REALLY GOOD.  But I digress.  I went all the way to this store for tuna.  The store near me has lots of stuff, but no tuna.  I saw some other things that I wanted at the store, and picked them up, and then went to look for tuna.  There was XiangLa tuna (hot and spicy) Guangdong tuna (i have no idea) Curry tuna (assuming that’s as gross as it sounds) and Spicy tuna paste (seriously, PASTE?? I’m not 5) .  But the shelf with the tuna in vegetable oil (and it was even labeled in English) was empty.  And I asked the lady nearby and she said “Meiyou, bu gou!” trans. There’s not any, not enough.

So I bought some Cranberry Bacardi’s instead.  That’s my story.

Walking up to our building after work today, I commented to my coworker that it was such a nice clear day.  She responded by saying how sad it was that I could say that when there wasn’t even a tiny bit of blue in the sky.  But it’s all about where you are.  Clear is relative.  This afternoon there wasn’t haze in front of me, it wasn’t raining, it had finished raining, and it was a relatively nice afternoon.  But a week ago, I was in Kunming, and there were actual blue skies.  If the sky there had been cloudy, I would’ve probably been grouchy and unhappy about it.

So, I can either choose to be where I am, or I can point out all the things that are better about everywhere else.  This day is nicer than yesterday, and I can choose to be grateful for that.  Or, I can complain that it’s not as clear and as warm as Kunming.  My choice.  I don’t always make the right one.  But today I choose to live and be content in the present.  Where I am, Who I am, What riches God has abundantly blessed me with.

God is awesome, my life is great, and I have more love surrounding me around the world than I certainly deserve.  It’s a clear day.

This morning, as I rode the elevator down to the basement to go to work, my elevator stopped on the 1st floor to let someone out.  Well, then this cute old man with a cane came on, and I indicated that I was going down still, but he got on anyways.  So then as the elevator doors are closing and he’s looking at the buttons and all asking me what floor I’m going to, I was trying to communicate that I was going down to the basement, and that’s why the elevator is now going down.  He got this look of surprise on his face like “oh, the B1 button is lit up, maybe that’s why we’re not going up. . .”  I wanted to be like, oh, it’s ok, don’t worry, it’s only 1 floor, now you can go up as far as you like. . .

When I’m old, I want to be Chinese.  Wear crazy clothes and sit in my courtyard playing mah-jiang and gossiping with my other old lady friends.  I guess I can do that in America too. . .but there’s just such a cool elderly culture here.  They watch their grandkids and just sort of live life all down there together.  It’s fun.

This morning as I got in my taxi to go meet my friends, I realized once again how excellently the Chinese play the game Chicken.  As we entered an intersection, I noticed a motorcycle with it’s left blinker on (unusual in and of itself, actually), and we were on a direct collision course.  We both kept going, but the motorcycle slightly hesitated which made my taxi driver speed up, and then the motorcycle was forced to stop.  WE WON!  Again.  Taxi drivers win a lot.  They play chicken all day long, they’re really good at telling when someone is faltering and then they push on through.

I can’t believe I haven’t been in a car accident this year. . .it’s probably a good thing I don’t drive.

As I was walking through a street near my house this afternoon I had another realization of the difference between China and America.  Parents were sitting on benches talking, while their 2 year olds were playing with empty boxes and squatting over nearby grates to “do their business”.

Life is different in China.

Having fun with my kids at school, being silly and crazy.

Pulling a splinter out of a 5 year old’s hand and comforting her.

Gan bian si ji dou.

Laughing with a friend.

Going for a fantastic massage.

Laughing hysterically with same friend about same massage and certain elements of it. . .

Walking out of a building, looking up at the sky and seeing. . .STARS.  Grabbing my friend’s arm and shouting excitedly about those stars!

Riding home peacefully along the river and then jumping when the taxi stops close to some strange statues that you hadn’t noticed.

Getting calls from friends and talking for a few hours.

Having a random Monday off because of a power outage.

Being loved in spite of all my faults.

Since I haven’t posted in forever, I thought I’d start with a description of my typical day.

Much like any teacher anywhere, I get up before the sun, after hitting my snooze alarm 47 times.  I like to check my computer for any new e-mails or anything exciting on facebook, then I set the water on my stove to boil while I start getting ready.  When the water is boiling I dump some frozen dumplings in to cook while I finish getting ready, and then go to fish them out and put some Thai sweet chilli sauce on them in the container so I can eat in the van.  I grab my lunch from the fridge, and usually race out the door since I’m usually running late.  Then I catch my elevator to the basement, hoping that the left elevator comes to pick me up, since it’s the one that actually goes to the basement, otherwise, I just have to take the other one down to floor one, and depending on how late I am, I’ll get the other elevator from there, or run down 4 flights of stairs.  Then I hop on our company van with the rest of the teachers at our school (all 4 of them), slide in the back seat, and put my mp3 player in (I’m not a morning person).  If it’s light enough I read my book, otherwise I listen to a sermon or a Covenant chapel talk.

About 40 minutes later, I arrive at school and 20 minutes after that my students come trailing in.  I have 7 students this year, 1 in Kindergarten, 3 in 1st Grade, 2 in 2nd, and 1 in 3rd.  It makes for an interesting day.  I have pretty good kids, and it makes life easy that it’s such a small class.  Planning is insane though, especially for subjects like science and social studies.  Fortunately I have a 2 hour planning time every afternoon while my kids go to Chinese class and PE.  The parents of my students are EXTREMELY involved in their child’s life, which can be both a blessing and a curse.  I love that they care about their kids and they usually know their kids needs pretty well, but at times that can be a little overbearing.  (For any parents reading this, please give your child’s teacher a break and assume that they know what they’re doing–they’re the ones with the degree, and the job.  Be involved, but don’t spend your time worrying about every little thing.)

Anyways, our day ends around 3:50 when we pack the kids on the bus.  The staff loads onto our van 15 or 20 minutes later, and then it takes anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours to get home.  So I get home around 5 most days.  Then I’ll go to the store if I need any veggies or any meats for supper.  (My store sells rabbits!  live or dead. . .I accidentally bought half a rabbit once and it was quite tasty!)  I haven’t found a farmer’s market near my house yet, which makes me sad, so I have to buy everything from the supermarket.  Then I’ll go home and cook my supper and watch some tv.  Or I’ll go get some take-out from a hole-in-the-wall place that makes the BEST eggplant dish ever!  Sometimes I just crave that food.  It’s pretty greasy though, so I try not to eat it more than once or twice a week.  Also, my goal every night is to have leftovers because we have to bring our own lunch to school every day.  There’s only 24 students at our school, so we don’t have a hot lunch option or anything, so if I don’t bring a lunch it’s Ramen noodles for me!  I had enough of those in college though, and I’m kind of a food snob, so I have only eaten those once or twice this year so far.

I realized the other day that the reason I don’t really like leftovers is because I don’t like soggy food.  I don’t like it if the sauce has soaked into my noodles, or if my tuna or cashew butter sandwich has been sitting for more than a half hour and the oils have soaked into the bread.  GROSS.  So even if I pack a sandwich for lunch, I have at least 3 containers of food. . .one for the bread, one for tuna, and one for the veggies. . .  I pretty much live out of plastic containers.  I’ve heard this is unhealthy because something leeches out of the plastic in the microwave or something?  I don’t know.  Hopefully doing it for a few years won’t kill me.  :)

Anyways, I live a pretty good life.  I have a lot of time to myself, which is nice, but sometimes can be a little much.  I’m making some friends, and I usually really love my job.  I watch a lot of tv, both old and new.  I have Star Trek:DS9 when I’m feeling nerdy, House when I need something snarky and gross, Friends when I’m cooking in the other room or just want something on in the background that I don’t have to watch to know what’s going on, and of course all the shows that I download from the states every day.  Way too much tv.  But I like to cross-stitch while I watch (and I know, I just admitted too much), and I really like having peace at home after work.

And that’s about it.  I’ll be traveling some in the next few months, hooray!  Hong Kong in early November, Vietnam and Cambodia in December, and then probably an island in Thailand in February.  I’ll try to remember to keep updating.

Fast internet

Public toilets. . .get this. . .WITH TOILET PAPER!! woah. . .you mean I don’t have to bring my own??

Ordering in English at restaurants

Cookie dough ice cream

Biscuits in a can

Buying more groceries than you can put on your bike. . .and not worrying about how to juggle it home, or cart it up to the 5th floor. . .

Chatting with people online and being in the same time zone as them. . .

Naps

Driving in cars

Sunshine

My nieces

Unblocked sites like facebook, blogspot, twitter, etc

Shoes

Clothes that fit

Having a place (not even just one, but OPTIONS)  to worship on Sunday mornings

Libraries

Bookstores

Watching tv shows on the days that they actually air. . .

I started this post last June when I was in America, but saved it as a draft and forgot about it till now.   So I’ve added a few more things that I thought of.  

Guess I should make this public knowledge.  A few weeks ago, I finally sent in my application for QSI that my parents had been bugging me about since Christmas, and I actually had downloaded on my computer back then.  I also completed my DODEA application the same day.  Well, I finished both of these and sent them in, and the next morning, I heard back from Jim Gilson, the founder and director of QSI, and he wanted to know if I could meet him in Shenzhen for an interview the next week.  Well, this was the first interest I’d recieved at all, and seeing as I’d already sent my resume and letter of interest to all the schools I’d heard about or found in the Gulf, and NOBODY had responded to any of them, it was very annoying.  So of course I said yes, not just because I love Shenzhen and I was happy for any excuse to go there, and I’d love to work at either of their schools there.

Well anyways I flew down for my interview on Sunday night (missed my first flight ever that afternoon, and so 3 hours and 250 kuai later I was on the next one that airline flew that day-no big deal, I had the 4th Twilight book to read, so I was on another planet).  Spent the night hanging out with the Dewitts and the Riemens, both of whom were in Yemen oh so many years ago.  The next morning I went in to the school with Yvonne, the art teacher, and she helped me out and introduced me to one of the 5 year old teachers, and I hung out with him most of the day, which was super helpful, because I got to look at the curriculum, read the book that the schools are based on, and just get a general feel for their school environment.  My interview was that afternoon, and I was a little nervous since I’d never really had an interview before, but it was really nice.  We hung out and talked for 2 hours, and it was really great, and very comfortable, and I felt a lot better going into it because I’d actually spent the day in the school, so I had a lot less questions and felt more knowledgable about what they were going to talk about.  Also, he didn’t ask me certain questions, because, let’s be honest, he’s known me and my family since I was born.  Not really necessary, especially since 2 of my references were QSI employees that I practically consider family.  So yeah.  It ended with them telling me they wanted to hire me, but they only had a few openings left, and they’d like me to put them in order of preference.  Well, I told them Chongqing, then Kazakhstan, then Kyrgistan, but then they brought up a little country called Montenegro, and to be honest, I had NO idea where or what it was, but I instantly wanted to go.  I flew home that night, and wrote them right away to make sure they knew that was my first choice, if it opened up, which I’m not sure about the circumstances, but they thought it might or might not be available. I really really really wanted to go there.

Long and short is, by Friday they e-mailed me asking me to take the 5 year old class in Chongqing, which is a little north of Kunming and has about 30 million people in it.  Also, there is lots of spicy food there, which everyone, and I mean everyone here has told me.  I took the job on Monday and now I’m getting ready to move there.  Well not really physically getting ready, just mentally preparing.  It’ll be really nice to be close to Kunming so I can still come back and hang out with the people I’m close to here.  I’m really looking forward to those long weekends. 

If you don’t know anything about Chongqing, you can search for it on Wikipedia where it tells you lots of information, and you may even be able to find it on a map.  Of course, most of you still have no idea where Kunming is, so maybe you don’t care. . . Mostly what I know about Chongqing is that they eat a lot of spicy food, there are lots of hills so not many bikers, and the weather is atrocious.  And that’s my knowledge base.  Oh, apparently women from there are supposed to be super beautiful because all the hills make sure they have fabulous legs. . .

In other news, a bike ran over my foot last Thursday on my way to school and I seem to have a small fracture in a bone on the top of my foot.  I didn’t really think anything was seriously wrong, so for a week I kept my schedule of doing everything I normally do, dance and kickboxing classes at the gym for example, but then I realized the discoloration had spread far beyond normal and it was hurting as much or even more than it did that day.  So I finally showed it to a doctor this Thursday morning, because he happened to drop his kids off at school (I teach his youngest) and he said yeah, probably broken, stay off it as much as possible, no jumping, etc, for at least the next 5 weeks.  Sigh.  There goes my finally healthy fun gym routine.  I can still do weights.  :-P  Anyways, I’m trying to remember to stay off it as much as possible, so hopefully it will heal quickly.

I have almost come to the end of my 2 week vacation.  Since I didn’t go anywhere, I had lots of time to myself to think, sleep, watch tv, do puzzles, cook, and I even went to the gym 4 times(it was closed the first week).  I also of course listened to about a MILLION explosions, since it’s Chinese New Year, and I’m convinced they use more gunpowder in the fireworks that they set off just in my neigborhood this month than they use in all the 4th of July fireworks statewide.  Chinese New Year day was actually 2 weeks ago now, but we still get the occasional fireworks just to remind us that all the kids are still on vacation.

I also enjoyed hanging out with some friends over break.  We watched movies, stayed up till the wee hours of the morning doing such things as playing Nerts, eating crepes, laughing at each other hysterically, playing the Train Game, and other such things.  I got home at 4am the other night, because we were just having too much fun.

Besides the fun though, there were the sobering moments.  I realized one night, while in the shower (I don’t know why, but these things always come to me in the shower), that I was leaving China.  And I know, I know, I made that decision months ago but I suddenly realized I’ve never done this before.  I thought this would be just another move.  But I’ve never left a place and not known if or when I’d be coming back.  I moved away from Yemen–but I’ve been back like 5 times, and I have my family there to send me stuff that I want from there.  I moved away from America–but I’ve been back twice so far, and I know when I am next returning, and I know that that will always be a place I’ll return to in some manner.  And I also have family and friends there to send me stuff I really want.  So it’s not as if as I’ve ever really had to say a permanent goodbye.  Also, I have no clear connection here in my passport.  Yemen is my birth country.  America is where my passport is issued.  China. . .fills up a few pages with visas.  But what does that say?  Yemen fills up pages, and I haven’t lived there in 7 years.  Indonesia even has an entire page, and I was there for like 5 hours.  And I know that my passport isn’t THAT important. . .but at the same time, in 20 years, when I look back through my passports (and you know I will, if I can still find them), what will those China visas mean to me?  How has my 3 years here in China shaped my life?  How am I a different person?  What will I take away with me as I leave?  These are the questions I have to answer in the next 4 months before I leave.  Because once I’m gone. . .it’s over.  I probably won’t be coming back to reanalyze my life here like I’ve been able to do with both Yemen and the US.  Soooo. . .I have to learn how to leave and say goodbye.  And I thought that that was something I already knew.  That kind of sucks.  I’d appreciate anybody’s advice, thoughts, prayers, as I carry on figuring this out.