blogging from Beijing 北京

Happy April Fools Day!

Have I mentioned on here how sweet my schedule is this term? I don't teach for a full 48 hours in the middle of my week - from Tuesday afternoon to Thursday afternoon. Life is pretty great with two weekends in each week. It's going to be painful next term when I have to teach more than two days in a row!

It being the first Wednesday of the month, we had a lunch meeting at Shi Yi middle school. Tacos were on the menu and our school was supplying the tomatoes and the lettuce. I took the elevator to the ground floor on my way out to buy the produce from the fresh market around the corner. When I stepped out of my building I almost got knocked out by a soccer ball that escaped the fence. If I had been two inches to my left I would have gotten smacked in the head, and that ball wasn't moving slowly, but the Korean students apologized profusely and I gave them their ball back. When I got to the market an old woman approached me as I was locking my bike. The elderly hang out in this area earlier in the day and there's an outside exercise park that many of them use. She stroked my jacket, pointed to my shoes, and touched my hair while telling me over and over that my clothes and hair were so beautiful. Such is the life of a laowai in China.

Michelle and I were in a meeting with two junior students when circumcision came up in discussion (chapter seventeen of the first book). Whoa boy was that awkward. One girl explained to the other what it was in Chinese, then the situation became funny when she fell over on the floor upon realizing what it was. A-w-k-w-a-r-d!

Have you seen Gmail Autopilot by CADIE? It will revolutionize your Google communication!

I teach my history classes in an extra classroom. When I arrived for class I discovered two students there before me. One of them was changing - taking off his long underwear. I guess he was too warm? I can't ever remember wearing long underwear when I was a kid, and certainly never three or four layers of pants. The Chinese do, however! They'll probably wear more than one layer into May, even when spring is well underway. They think I'm crazy for wearing one layer all winter!

That student should have kept his long underwear on, because while temperatures hit hit the upper 70's two weeks ago, they're back down to the 40's or 50's during the day. The only problem is that the government turned the heat off on March 15 so us laowai need to pile on the layers at home because our apartments are cold! I've been sleeping under five blankets at night and the forecast for tomorrow says snow.

Here are a few happenings of late.

• I helped out at a new English corner on Tuesday night. It's held in a dental clinic for the employees to better communicate with their foreign patients. We practiced scheduling appointments, accepting new patients, and calling and leaving reminder messages. I love my students, but it was a nice treat to work with adults. The facilities are really nice and we should get some free or discounted cleanings at some point.
• I studied Noah during a meeting this week and then saw a rainbow splayed across the wall the very next day.
• The McDonald's on our corner has a new walk-up ice cream window that serves chocolate soft-serve and four flavor twists: mocha, green apple, strawberry, and grape. Mountain Dew is now available at your favorite corner drink shop for the same price as a Coke. You left Beijing too soon, Mark!
• Up until this point I've learned Chinese by listening, studying a little on my own, and using language CDs but Anna and Andrew and I are going to begin taking Chinese lessons soon. Soon = when we stop procrastinating and go take our language placement exam.
• Beijing met it's blue skies target for 2008 on November 30. Beijing has a big pirating problem, and I don't just mean DVDs, fOakleys, and North Fa(r)ce. Government statistics should be taken with a healthy dose of MSG, if you know what I mean. Even so, I think I've seen more blue skies lately than when I first arrived. We haven't seen any sandstorms yet this spring, either.
• We are beginning plans for our massive annual Easter egg hunt. Last year we hid somewhere in the range of 3500 plastic eggs that the students could redeem for candy and money.
  
• Anna and I are excited to visit Sichuan Province with the Joel, Mary, and baby Jacob at the end of April. We'll be visiting Mary's parents in Chengdu and her hometown of Nanchong for five days.
  

It looked for a little while that Anna and I would be moving to teach at Renmin University for the 09-10 school year, but things have changed since my last post. Anna and I and our qualifications were initially okay-ed by the Foreign Experts Bureau to go to the University, but we forgot that nothing is final in China until it's a completed action. Ren Da changed their minds on two accounts.

1. They will allow the first-year teachers to return to teach their second year, so they don't have to leave the school as originally thought.
2. They have told Anna and I that we cannot teach at the University without two years of university teaching experience or a masters degree - our experience at the high school and middle school level don't qualify. They're looking for foreign teachers who can bring more prestige to their school, but this is the school's rule and not the fault of government regulation.
   

After a few weeks of not knowing exactly what next year would look like, we are staying where we're at. Nate and Jess, the couple I mentioned in the last post, are still going to Ren Da next year so the University team will number six. Our overall team is growing again - Shi Yi asked for ten teachers and RDFZ (my school) wants 22 teachers among its three campuses. Teachers and spouses bring the grand total to 40, plus three children under the age of two!

I said above that we're staying where we're at. We'll keep the same teaching positions, but we're moving into a new apartment building . . . sometime. Sometime could mean anytime between tomorrow and August. Since the school promised us we would move by September 1, 2008 I will only believe we're actually moving after my stuff is over there. :) The overall space is somewhat smaller than what we have now, but it has a few things I'm excited about. There is a lot of storage and closet space, cabinets under the sink in the bathroom (we have a pedestal sink right now), a big shared walk-in closet (if that sounds weird, it's because it is), washing machines in each apartment, central heating/air (no more radiators!), and a small glassed-in balcony/clothes drying room off each bedroom. The living room has several functions - the walk-in closet is on one side with sliding doors (I told you this was weird), the kitchen counters and cabinets are built in along one corner, and the rest of the space is occupied by the couch area and dining room table/chairs.

Yesterdays temperatures made it almost to 80 degrees. Spring is in the air! Well, it better be because the government turned off our heat on March 15.

I began teaching about the Roman Empire this week. We were discussing the origins of the phrases "all roads lead to Rome" and "Rome wasn't built in a day." When I asked the class about the meaning of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do," a kid responded "when in China, buy pirated DVDs!"

Anna and I have been approved to teach at Renmin University next year. Even better news is that Nate and Jess Smith have decided to stay on a fourth year and move to Ren Da! This brings the count at Ren Da next year up to five team members. What the adversary meant for harm, our father is turning into good.

If you've been following my tales in China, you know the visa troubles that have plagued the other schools in our program (Shi Yi and Ren Da) in recent years. China's Foreign Experts Bureau (FEB) has a law on the books that says that all foreign teachers need to have some combination of a bachelors degree, two years teaching experience, and/or ESL certifcation. A new Renmin University VP decided that beginning next school year all foreign teachers must have two years teaching experience or a masters degree. The University has gone before the FEB in years past to petition for an exception for Cedarville teachers, but they will no longer do that.

With the exception of one, all of the teachers who were planning to return to Ren Da next school year have one year of teaching experience, which means they are unable to return. This leaves one position filled and seven empty. While it's probably a step in the right direction for China to start obeying its laws (hello Sanlu-melamine-milk scandal, lead-toy scandal, poisoned-medicine scandal, etc.), it leaves our program at Ren Da in a lurch.

I have two years teaching experience (clearly this qualifies me to teach at one of China's top universities*) so I may be changing schools and going to Renmin University next school year with Anna. Our small team of three next year is only five minutes by bike from where I teach right now, so I'm not moving far. I'll be sad to leave my school and my students, but I'm up for a new challenge. I'm also okay with fuwuyuan at the new school cleaning my bathroom and changing my sheets. I'm pretty sure I won't miss doing that. :)

*sarcasm

"I like history books about humanism. They can teach me to be a great human."

"Many classmates of mine think that I am the most handsome person and I have a better quality than all of my classmates. As for personality, I am a shy and I don't like show off although I have a lot of advantages which are uncountable . . . I like watching beautiful girls like other boys in my class."

Here are some belated pictures of the track (what the students call the "playground") after it snowed the other day. Noticeably absent are the obscenities that appeared after the first and only time it snowed last winter. These are taken from the building I live in (8th floor), which is also home to the international students (6th & 7th floor). The British A-level program and Junior 1 students are on floors 1-5. This taken from the south side of the field.


I teach all of my senior students (10th grade) in this building on the 3rd floor. It's on the east side of the field.


This shot looks north at the stands and west at the new dormitory building, which rumor reports we'll be moving into in the next month. Rumor has also had it that we'd be living there by September 1, 2008, then it shifted to October, then there was a possibility we'd move in February before the new term started. I am basically hoping that these are further lies and I don't have to move all my stuff down eight floors and then up nine more floors... multiple times until all it's all transferred. I arrived with three suitcases but now it's amazing to see how much stuff Anna and I have accumulated after 18 months!

Something I should do which I haven't yet is take pictures of the rest of our campus. There are four academic buildings, an administrative building, cafeteria/auditorium, pool/art building, library/orchestra hall/art studio, a dormitory, the post office, and teacher housing. There are also badminton, volleyball, basketball, and tennis courts. Someday... I will take pictures or maybe video.

I parked my Giant ATX660 next to a Maserati Quattroporte tonight. We left the Aston Martin at home in favor of biking to Fridays since it was a balmy 3 degrees centigrade. Spring is practically upon us.

17 Chinese citizens are imprisoned at Guantanamo. They are Uighurs from China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang province. Read about it here: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/02/lawyer-for-guantanamo-bay-uighurs-vows-to-fight/

Sometimes I hear interesting things below my window, even though I'm eight floors up. It's not unusual to be woken up by cats fighting, which sounds eerily close to crying babies. Right now two men are having some kind of competition to see who can yell louder than the other. If I understood more Mandarin I would tell you what they're yelling about.

It's been a good week back at work. We've had snow, sunny blue skies, amazing meetings with Chinese friends, new baby news, 24 catch-up, and good conversations in the office. I learned a new song by Sovereign Grace that you should check out: Hide Away in the Love of *esus. I also figured out how to circumvent our school's firewall (because apparently the Great Firewall of China isn't good enough for RDFZ - they needed their own) and download songs through iTunes. One of the great things about living in the East is that I get to celebrate my Friday before all of you in the West. One of the worst is that you are still on your weekend while I'm ending mine! But then again, I just had six weeks of vacation in the dead of winter.

I remember when I was a kid and we went on vacation. Someone forgot to take out the trash before we left and there was an unfortunate piece of meat in the kitchen garbage. We came home to a nice swarm of maggots. I always swore I'd never do that, but so far it has happened to me twice. The first time was in college. My aunt and uncle visited me with a birthday cake at school and and my roommate and I forgot to clean the plate. There wasn't enough time to get the platter washed before room checks, so Kim put it in the refrigerator to hide it. Then we left for break. And you can guess the rest.

The second time is more recent. Anna and I backpacked through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore for five weeks and just got back last week. Right before we left I did a last-minute garbage can/refrigerator check just to make sure we weren't coming home to any surprises. I found a pot of old spaghetti sauce that I had been meaning to dump. We were literally walking out the door and I had my pack on so I put it in the freezer. I can't exactly remember how long it had been in the fridge before I put it in the freezer, but after we got back things were really REALLY hectic (we returned on Thursday and started work again on Monday). I took the pot out of the freezer and left it on the counter to thaw, meaning to clean it ASAP. It was out of sight and got forgotten about and in only two days there were mounds of nasty mold all over the sauce. I'm talking seven different colored molds. Disgusting. The latent homeschooler in me thought it would be cool to watch it grow and Anna sort of agreed that it'd be neat to see when the molds finished their food supply and died. Well that was a bad idea because even with the lid on in the kitchen, you could smell it from the front door. The whole apartment smelled funky. I did everything on my to-do list today, dragging my feet the entire time, before I mustered up the courage to approach the pot on the kitchen counter. When I turned it upside down in the hallway trashcan, the stuff inside - which was mostly reduced to a powder - came out and a mold cloud (I kid you not) went up while I high-tailed it back to our door. Gladly, the stank is now gone from us. It lives in the hallway until our fuwuyuan takes out the garbage tomorrow.

My Mom's probably reading this, shaking her head and remembering the Tupperware that I used to take to work in highschool and regularly forget about in my backpack. I'm a responsible adult. Really.

I decided this week to stay on another year, so Beijing 2010 here I come! There were many factors in that decision, but it was mostly leaving behind the nice bike I acquired this year. Anna and I bought the same bikes, the Giant Something-Something 1.0, when we arrived in August 2007 and Caleb appropriately dubbed them "The Tank" and "The Beast." These are apt titles because I think they weigh like 113 pounds. I was fortunate enough to pwn The Tank off to an unsuspecting newbie in the fall and I like my new bike and I'm excited for Beijing Year Three. :) (The bike didn't really rank high among the decision factors, although I did have thoughts of taking it back to the US with me.)

Soon it will be Monday. Let's live this week doing all for the glory of our Father, not men; otherwise pleasure and work are meaningless.

Xinhua, the state-run media, says that the snow Beijing has experienced over the past three days is artificially-induced. Beijing is in its worst drought in 38 years and it hasn't had natural precipitation since October 24. Last Thursday's rain was also artificially-induced with silver iodide to help ease the drought.

There's 2" of snow on the ground and it's fun to see the kids running around in it and throwing snowballs. There are big balls of snow on the track where kids attempted snowmen during their lunch period. It doesn't snow very often or with great results in Beijing and as long as I'm not riding my bike I like looking at it out my window. I'm thankful I don't have to shovel it!

Here's a picture of Chinese work groups sweeping the snow with their brooms. I've seen these brooms used for sweeping garbage, leaves, water, and now, snow.

Today was the first day back in class. I have 125 new students and I always enjoy reading their information on their notecards. From what I understand, it's not uncommon for Chinese people to say that a child turning 1 is actually turning 2, because they can count the 9 months spent in the womb as the child's first year. It's a cultural difference. In the wake of the Chinese gymnastics scandal during the Olympics where there were rampant birth date confusions and falsifications, I thought this student's interesting fact about herself was especially amusing.

In China's education politics, I should study in Junior 3. But my Mom changed my birthday and birth year to August 26, 1993. So in that way, I study in Senior 1 this year. In other words, I am 1 year younger than all other students in my class.

I did something I've never done before - finish something waaaay ahead of its due date! I was determined to have my final grades finished well ahead of their January 9th deadline so I could enjoy this last week of teaching and spending time with students, so I worked hard and finished everything on Sunday. Today was the last day of classes and it was fun to visit with students and hang out in the office without anything hanging over my head.

My MacBook has been giving me some trouble. I had the case replaced over the summer because it cracked where your palms rest and where the magnet meets the case when it's closed. Now in Beijing, it's beginning to crack again and the top case by the hinge is cracking. Fast forward a little and the external speakers died so I have to plug into the headphone jack to get sound. Last but not least, the disk drive spit CDs/DVDs back and couldn't read anything.

I'm lucky on two counts. 1) I decided to renew the AppleCare Plan, maybe one of the best decisions I've made all year. 2) Apple opened its first store in Beijing in July, ahead of the Olympics. I waited until this afternoon when classes finished for the semester to find the store and get repairs made. They're replacing the top and bottom case, keyboard, disk drive, and motherboard... and it's all included in the AppleCare Plan.

I can't say it enough: get the AppleCare Plan! They don't ask questions if something goes wrong and my experience says something will go wrong. My sister has had her case crack twice and another friend has the same problem. Hopefully the new generation of MacBooks will avoid this problem, but still. It's worth the money. :)

The repairs are going to take up to two weeks and I'm leaving on January 7 to take the backpacking trip of a lifetime through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore so I'm taking an extended absence from the blog until February. Happy New Year! Xin nian kuai le!

From BBC: China's year of tumult and triumph

Have yourself a Mao-ey little Christmas...

We had a door decorating contest and David's door won by a lot! As you can see, Mao Zedong is... everywhere. His face is on the green one yuan bill and on the one jiao coins. Incidentally, his birthday is tomorrow (12/26). Whatever you think of Chairman Mao, this is funny.



We began celebrating Christmas last night at 十一学校 (Shi Yi). All 35 of us ate great food, watched Christmas movies, and played games before heading back to our respective schools to play Santa. At Fu Zhong we hung our stockings in the hallway and snuck out to fill each others' when no one was around. This morning we each contributed something to a wonderful breakfast, including fresh-squeezed orange juice, and then we opened presents. We each drew a name to shop for and it was fun to watch everyone open their gifts.

We also had storytime. There were two good ones.

Trying to get to Shi Yi (seven miles southwest of us, a 30-minute taxi) at 7pm was especially fun in rush hour traffic on Christmas Eve. Many people couldn't find a taxi and some ended up taking a bus. One of these people was Ann. Buses are often stuffed with people, they smell bad, people are all up in your personal space, and it's possible for small children to be relieving themselves on the floor if it's an emergency. This was the situation last night and Ann started to get sick during the ride. She was so sick that she hurled... and kept it in her mouth until they got off ten minutes later. Now I don't know about you but both other options sound much better to me: swallowing or spitting it out.

Tim and Ginger were on their way back from grocery shopping and Tim had two big bags hanging on his handlebars. Tim was trying his hardest but despite his efforts a bag got sucked into the spokes of his wheel and a jug of milk got lodged in it. The top was forced off and completely sprayed two Chinese women in their long coats from head to toe who were waiting at a bus stop. He tried to apologize but they were too shocked to be angry or upset!

We had the rest of the day free to do whatever and I delivered Christmas cookies to the Chinese English teachers of my classes and then visited Ren Da (the unversity) to deliver the rest of my presents. When I got back we had visitors! Many of my students came over on Christmas and it was fun to hang out with them and give them their gifts. At one point there were quite a few students over: Jojo, Handoyo, Ellen, Jackie, Maria, Elaine, Wendy, and Anne. James also stopped by during his lunch break to see all of us.

Christmas is so much fun when you can share it with other people! It adds new meaning to the holiday and its many traditions.

Beijing doesn't see much precipitation. This year was somewhat of an anomaly because the government was seeding the clouds more than usual in a frantic effort to clear the skies for the Olympics. The Games are now over and with them, the rain is gone too.

This made last Wednesday's snow extra exciting, right before Christmas. I've seen more sand in Beijing from the Gobi desert than I've seen snow around here. Brooke and Cheryl were visiting us from Cedarville University and I volunteered to take them to the Wall, which lies about an hour outside of the city. As I was riding my bike to the Ren Da campus to meet the ladies I noticed a few flakes. The snowfall increased the further we drove from Beijing's center and started accumulating on the roads. As you can see, there were several inches at the 八达岭 Wall site. We were actually only on the Wall for 20 minutes at the most due to the temperatures and slipperyness factors, but it made for pretty pictures!




This is how we got down too... whether we intended to slide down or not!



Brooke and Cheryl being very careful on their climb up!

Guiyu, China water

Picking through piles of waste. The workers will burn the wires.


Roasting circuit boards and computer chips over medieval coal fires.


A worker swirls computer chips from circuit boards in acid to collect tiny amounts of gold. The acid mixture is called aqua regia - 5% pure nitric acid and 75% pure hydrochloric acid - and it will melt gold. This worker and others will inhale fumes all day without protection and then dump the leftover sludge into the river.

Plastic-encased metal printer and motor parts are burned in the open reduce the waste to metals.


A migrant child from Hunan province sits on top of the world's unrecyclable computer waste.

An NPO employee takes a soil sample along the river where dumped circuit boards were treated with acid and burned in the open.


Migrant workers dismantling imported computers.


This man is sweeping toner out of printer cartridges, which is made of carbon black and a carcinogen. He doesn't use any respiratory protection while the toner blows in his face all day. The cartridges will be dumped in the river.


Woman about to smash a cathode ray tube from a computer monitor in order to remove the copper at the end of the funnel. The glass is laden with lead and will later be dumped in irrigation canals and along the river where it will leach into groundwater. Groundwater in Guiyu is completely contaminated.