So I see that I have not talked about going to Hong Kong yet. It was a really amazing place. Obviously, it's totally geared towards tourists, but that made it so easy to navigate around. It was so nice being able to take the subway everywhere since you don't have to wait nearly as long as when you take the bus (Beijing has a nice subway too, and even nicer is that in China you only pay 2 yuan per ticket; Hong Kong was priced by how long of a ride it was). Things are much more expensive there- housing is phenominally higher there. I stayed in the tiniest room imaginable and got a thorough understanding of how Harry Potter felt growing up in a broom cupboard. Despite the higher expense, or maybe because of it, they seemed to have really good community programs like free demonstrations of kung fu at the park and a swimming pool park that was very cheap (but very nice looking). It was also extremely nice having access to western items that we just don't have here in China. There was a lot of different style restaurants; I even got some greek food there. Most people are able to speak enough English to make yourself understood. The weather was perfect: sunny during the day and rainy at night. I stayed in the very commercial area of Tsim Sha Tsui where so much shopping and bargaining takes place. I made sure to get out and visit the more quiet areas, especially the beach and some of the temples. All in all, I loved visiting there and it may just be where we go next year.

I started my new job teaching at a high school. I work with a program called ACES (America China Exchange Society) which prepares high school students to transfer to a community college in America. It's much more enjoyable for me to teach because I am able to talk about more complex topics and get more input from my students. In my ACES classes, I have 15 students; I also teach some regular high school and middle school classes which have around 50 students! Thankfully I don't have to worry about those classes as much; the ACES classes are my main focus. I'm really excited for all of the holidays coming up, especially Halloween since they don't celebrate that here (surprisingly they do celebrate Thanksgiving.... maybe that will change when I teach them about its origins...). They are all really eager to learn about American culture and most of them are highly motivated. There are about 3 students whose abilities are far below the average of the class and that has been the only hard thing about teaching. Well, that and the fact that my translating assistant can barely speak English and is constantly giving me unasked-for-advice to teach only in the Chinese method of teaching (which from his example seems to be lecturing the entire time in Chinese, rather than English). Oh well, other than him, I have a great time with my other co-workers and office mates.

It's National Week in China and we get a whole week off from work. One of the parents of Dave's students invited us to go with them to a city called Cheng De for two days. This is in the mountains and has a very famous summer palace used by former emperors. It's supposed to be very beautiful right now with the trees changing colors. We will finally get to use the video camera I bought in Hong Kong! And we'll take lots of pictures too!

So I've been terrible about updating the blog lately but that's probably because we haven't really gone anywhere. The summer months are the busiest for us since we don't work at a regular school and they want to capitalize on any time that the kids are not in regular school. But the 4th of July is coming up and we're so hoping to have a party for it. It's not a big deal to get fireworks anyway because they go off pretty much all the time here, even during the day. My co-workers told me that they are often used for weddings and business openings. And besides, all of our friends want to taste our good ol' American cooking!

So we haven't gone anywhere outside of Tianjin, but we've been able to explore a bit more of our city. Our friends took us after work recently to what's called 'Italian Style Town'. Apparently Tianjin has a history of colonization by Europeans, and so some parts of town show very European style architecture. In general the place does have a fairly Italian look to it, but the shops are a modgepodge of German, Italian, French, and even Thai. It's basically just Foreign Town. And there are so many foreigners there! Usually when I walk around town, I don't see a single foreigner, but when you go to the tourist places, you'll see them everywhere. Hate to say it, but particularly at this place, I see a lot of older white men with young Asian girls...

But it's a really cool place and I got around to going again on one of my free days to take some pictures.

Doesn't this look like jolly ol' London? This is the architecture on a bridge, it reminded me so much of Paris. I like how even though it looks like a European style of statue, it retains its Chinese subject. Italiano street. Beautiful clock tower. This is a garden with a lot of statues of European composers. More pictures of the bridge. Clock tower. There was a big group of Chinese people and they were deaf! I was very tempted to talk to them, but I wasn't sure if they were signing Chinese sign language. Flower garden. Sign for Bulgaria! Unfortunately, it's just a sign. :(  Alleyway that looks rather Italian. The hanging star lights are lit up at night and it looks really pretty. Fountain.

The weather for awhile there was really unbearable to me. Not only was it extremely hot and humid, but there was no sun for like two weeks. Now I can take hot and humid so long as the sun can shine down on me, but to have it be overcast and gloomy? That's just horrible messed up weather. But the sun is finally out again and I am happy. Although now I would really like to find a swimming pool, but most of the people we talk to say they can't swim so it's not really a big thing here. Sigh....

Oh well, we're having fun. We got a Wii while in Beijing renewing our visas, and it came with 200 games all on a iPod looking thingy. The Wii itself was a bit more expensive than what we would have paid in America, but I think with the 200 games it all balances out. They are a mix of English, Chinese, and Japanese games though, and it seems the ones that Dave particularly wanted are all in Chinese or Japanese, so that's a bummer. I have my MarioKart though, and that's fine with me. :)

We went to the zoo!

I've been bad about writing here, but I think it's because we haven't really done much on our days off. We have two different classes each. I teach 3 year-olds for 3 hours on Wednesdays and 6 years olds on Saturday. Dave teaches 4-5 year-olds on Tuesday and 3 year olds on Friday. We both agree that teaching 3 year olds for 3 hours straight is the most ridiculously hard thing ever, but it's only for this month. We've also had a change up in our days off slightly in that I had Tuesdays and Thursdays off, and Dave had Wednesdays and Thursdays. And somehow my Tuesdays off, in which I had always hoped and planned to spend all day at a park reading in the sun, were always rainy. :(

The weather has been a bit cloudy and rainy lately. I swear we had more clear sunny days in winter. It's starting to get hot but muggy and the sky is overcast. We had a big thunderstorm the other day, and a huge downpour of rain the day after. The streets were totally flooded.

But the past two days were sunny and warm and so we decided to venture out again. Firstly, the zoo is set in a huge park called Shuishang. It has an amusement park with roller coasters and a giant ferris wheel, as well as large sprawling lakes, pagodas, and bridges. It's very beautiful and free so we will definitely be coming back just to have a picnic or some reading time. The zoo cost 20 yuan, but for an extra 10 you get access to the monkey area, reptile building, herbivore garden, and birds area. We were glad we did since the monkey area was the highlight of the trip. It is a big grassy place with tall rock structures for them to climb, with a swingset and play area as well. There are no cages or fences though, and you can walk through a pathway where the monkeys freely run across. There is also a seating area where you can sit and the men who works there entices the monkeys to come close. Dave had one sit next to him, and one tried climbing the pole next to me then pulled at my hair. As we were watching the one sitting next to Dave, another came up and quickly stole the water bottle we had set down at our feet, and we are thinking that this was a plot hatched between the two. ;) You can pay to feed them slices of corn on the cob and things they like to eat, and they will jump for the food or even take it from your hand. It was such a cool experience and we will definitely do it again. We think that the herbivore and possibly bird areas will also have a similar structure in that you can walk around them and interact with the animals.

We didn't get to see all of the animals they had there either so we will definitely be back for the summer. There weren't many people there today and we're kind of interested in seeing it when it's packed.

We have Memorial Day coming up and will hopefully have a 3 day weekend. If we can, we will hopefully make the trek up to the Great Wall. I have been trying to research other places we should visit while in China, and Heaven's Gate mountain is another place we'd love to go to. We also heard that Shanghai is beautiful. We are trying to make a list of things we need to see while we're here. :)

Whew! We have been so busy lately preparing our lessons for our classes. They are 12 lessons spread over 3 months. Dave is teaching generally 4-5 year olds and mine will be a little younger. And because we are native English speakers, they are charging more for our classes, so they keep telling us they hope they will be very good... which puts us under a bit of pressure. ;)

Other than that, spring has finally sprung! We had one snow day while we were here, which I was extremely grateful for (though I wish it could have been on a day we had off so we could actually enjoy it), but I'm ready for it to be warmer now. Blossoms are slowly popping out on the cherry trees, and I even saw a patch of grass today by our apartments. We've also been preparing for a big Easter party at school. I'm pretty sure the kids will go crazy for the egg hunt, bunny hop dance, and cookies.

So we have been trying to learn more Chinese, although we're pretty lazy about it. Most important was learning the numbers obviously for when we have to buy things, but you also have to learn the hand signs that go with it. In America we just count by adding another finger, which is generally the same for the Chinese for numbers one through five. But then it gets a little tricky. Here's some pictures to illustrate.

Chinese words and phrases learned so far:

One- iy head- toh knee- si gai no- mei yo

Two- ar hair- toh fa ear- ir dwah yes- dwei

Three- san hand- shou eyebrow- mei mau wo bu dong- I don't know

Four- tse finger- shou juh chest- xiong hello- nihao

Five- wo arm- guobua pants- koo zah hu diye- butterfly

Six- liu elbow- guobua juh America- mei guo

seven- chi nose- bizuh China- Jung guo

eight- ba throat- bwazuh thank you- shye shye

nine- jiu foot- jiao you're welcome- buh cuh jyi

ten- shur toes- jiao juh subway- di tiye

Did I mention the girls at work gave us Chinese names too? Dave's is da shiong which means big hero. Mine is shon shian which means fairy (they dig my curly hair over here). Not that people really call us these names, but it's still nice to have. :)

Recently on our way back from work we've seen piles of flowers burning in the middle of streets- sometimes rather busy traffic streets too. We had no idea what was going on until we asked and were told that it is to honor people who have died in those spots. One night we saw the whole ceremony as we waited to get food from a street vendor. About 15-20 people walked into the middle of the street with flowers and three tall wooden cases. They placed the flowers in and all around the wooden cases, then lit them on fire. As they burnt, everyone knelt on the floor and started to bow and pray to the pyres. It was a bit strange to watch, but at the same time I could feel the need for respect for the situation. Right now we have a three day weekend because of a holiday which sounds rather similar in that families are supposed to honor their dead ancestors.

We have recently discovered the awesomeness of outdoor markets, which are huge and sprawling and practically everywhere in China. We were a bit hesitant to try buying things at them at the risk of being jipped, but today we thought we would venture out to the one just off the corner of our street. Half of these markets are dedicated to fruits and vegetables and the other half has hot and ready food you can buy for snacks or a meal. We got some really tasty fried chicken there tonight, and tomorrow we'll probably get a roast duck. We also got super delicious vegetables and noodles that we later cooked in the wok, and it tasted just like at Mongolian BBQ. I think I will definitely do more shopping at these places because it's much cheaper than at the supermarket. If my camera had audio capabilities for its movie taking, I would just show you our street myself, but since it doesn't, here's a video to give you a sense of the outdoor market in China.

Other than that, things are great and we will hopefully take a trip up to the Great Wall after we get our paycheck. There is a closer way to get there through Tianjin than the more typical route through Beijing, and apparently it is less crowded that way too. :)

Oh, we also found out about QQ which is China's version of facebook. Everyone here has one and since we've gotten an account we've been able to connect with our co-workers more (and help them with their English typing skills). They sent me some pictures they had taken of me at school teaching lessons. :) Pic 1 pic 2 pic 3 pic 4 pic 5 pic 6

Last week I got to make cookies for one of the centers of our school in Nankai. They had the flour, salt, butter, sugar and eggs all ready, but I had to tell them about the very much needed ingredients of baking soda and baking powder. Luckily they were able to find them in the regular Chinese grocery stores (strangely they're not in the big "Wal-Mart" type stores we usually go to). I didn't have any measuring cups so I had to eyeball most of it, and also I had only a toaster oven to use (with only a timer- no different settings for temperature and no idea what the set temperature is). It took a few tries, but we eventually got it to work alright and the cookies turned out pretty good. I also taught a class about it for the kids and all of the old grandmothers were asking how to make them at home apparently. :)

After that was our day off and we got together with some friends from work to go shopping. It was a big outside market-like place with lots of foods, clothes, and basically everything. They have these kind of places all over, though usually mainly with food. I got some new pants, shoes, and yarn, and all for much cheaper prices than at the main stores.

We had to go back to Beijing for a day to get our visas renewed. We got to take the train so it would only take 30 minutes to get there, and I was very impressed by the train station. It was so modern-looking and clean, and the atmosphere was just the same as an airport. Chinese people don't travel by plane too much it seems, so I suppose trains are a much bigger deal to them. While we waited, we kept hearing this loud buzzing sound and had no idea what it was. A man sat down near us and pulled out a wooden tube. Inside was a big cricket! The man took out the stopper for the wood and let the cricket out to play a bit. Now I think I want one. ;)

Once we arrived, we explored for a bit before meeting our friend. There was a beautiful park just down the street from the subway and we took lots of pictures. pic 1 pic 2 pic 3 pic 4 pic 5 pic 6 pic 7 pic 8

We got to go through some of our old stomping grounds in Beijing, and saw some of the scenic areas there too. pic 1 pic 2 While we were in that spot, a lady was singing to a crowd and a guy in a costume was walking around so of course we had to take a picture with him.

We got our papers in to get our visas renewed and went back to Tianjin the next day. Our schools were waiting for us! Lately everyone has been talking about how spring is coming and it's going to get warmer, but lately it's been super foggy and cold, and tonight the weather forecast says it will snow!!!! I for one am excited. :)

The wonderful world of Tianjin!

Our apartments are amazing! They're on the 23rd floor and never been lived in before. Unfortunately, there's still a lot of construction going on around us, so there's constant noise. But other than that, the apartments are really nice! Doors, Kitchen, Living Room, T.V., Plates .

Our company has been extremely good to us, the first night we were here in Tianjin they took us out to eat. I wish I had brought my camera because I would have loved to take pictures of the 15 or so different dishes they ordered. Chinese style eating is all about ordering different dishes that everyone shares, rather than one person ordering an individual plate for themselves. There was one dish that tasted like Chinese back home and that was the lo mein noodles, but other than that, everything was very different. Mostly it was all really good; the only thing I disliked was the goose liver pate, and that's not even Chinese. Both of our favorites was the dessert which was taro wrapped in some kind of crispy fried noodles shell. Mmm, it tasted like a Churro. Definitely need to find out how to make those.

During most of our first week, they took us on a tour of the different facilities. All of the rooms are very brightly decorated, and they even have a swimming facility. Swimming room, classroom, play area, company sign. Also, most of the classrooms have SmartBoards (the kind which is basically like a big, thin computer or iPad on the wall). Classroom. The kids are very smart too, but a little shy around us. I think they find Dave's tallness intimidating, so he's found it's better to just sit on the floor around them. Picture1, picture2. On most weekdays there are classes only in the early morning for the little kids and at night for the older kids. During the weekends, there are a lot more kids and classes. This is because we have to work around the kids' normal school times. Our days off are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Oh yes, and they have posters of us at the school! Poster Poster 2

Our bosses are so nice and constantly buy us things. Basically everyday we go home with a bunch of nice things to eat. They also got Dave a really nice bike to ride to school with. Unfortunately we both got sick this week, so he hasn't been able to use it yet.

Ah, the best news ever: there is cheese and butter in China! I found it at our new grocery store, Carrefour. It's not too expensive either, and now that we have a toaster oven (a gift from a co-worker), we can make bread, cookies, cakes, pizza- whatever we want! I am so happy about this. I really do want to learn Chinese style cooking, but at the same time have access at least to foods from my home. Besides, everyone at work wants us to cook American food for them, so it's just as much for them as it is for me. :)

We're moving to Tianjin tomorrow, which means I have to wrap up on our adventures in Beijing tonight.

We went to the Forbidden City on Thursday which was lots of fun. It is probably prettier in the spring or fall when it would have more color, but as it was, it was still quite intriguing and beautiful.

Like here, here, here, and here.

And we had a great time sightseeing there.

We did greatly wonder at the multiple basketball courts we saw there... is that what is so forbidden? ;)

We also found while there that as a foreigner you definitely need to be on guard while at these tourist places, because this is where scammers know to find you. We learned to be wary of anyone who immediately came up to talk to us, spoke English very well, and basically kept asking us questions non-stop. Mostly it was just to give us a card for tours to the Great Wall, but having read up on it, there are others who could do worse.

That was also the day we conquered the subway system, which was extremely daunting at first, not knowing if we'd be able to know which stop was ours and how to navigate everything. But, after the first few stops, we were much more at ease. It is extremely affordable, 4 yuan (60 cents US), for the both of us and we can go as long as we need. It's also very accommodating to English speakers because not only does it give the roman lettering underneath each stop's name but the announcement for each stop is repeated in English. Considering how little we see of other foreigners, it's very nice of them to do that.

The subway can be a little scary during rush hour, which seems to be between 5-8 PM (and I imagine in the morning as well). We found this out as we were coming back from our first training on Friday. I wish I could have taken a video of it myself, but I would have been far too likely to be trampled under the enormous hordes of people.

Beijing subway during rush hour

That video will give you an idea, and it was as hard to get out of the train as you see in there. Luckily, Dave found another route we can take so we don't have to go on the overly populated trains. Other than that, it's pretty fun, but as a foreigner you do get stared at quite a lot.

We were in search of any kind of recognizable cheese here, but alas our search has been stymied. The first one we tried looked like it was butter because it came in individual plastic pots and was spreadable, and was kind of whitish-yellow in color, but it did say it was cheese on the package. We took a chance, but it had the texture of Cheez-Wiz with the flavor of whip cream. Perhaps that doesn't sound entirely gross to you, but when you've pasted it on fried potatoes, onions, and sausage- it truly is disgusting. Then we tried what appeared to be regular ol' Kraft single slice cheese meant for sandwiches, which neither of us are fans of even back in the U.S., but we were desperate. Nope, same nastily sweet taste to it. So, we may have to give up on proper cheese for a year, which is probably the saddest sentence I could ever write. :(