Spring is Here (and halfway over)!

I can't believe winter has already come and went and I've been doing such a "wonderful" job keeping this blog up-to-date.  Oh well…. real quickly on what has happened these last couple months in the 'Jing:

Chinese New Year was relatively low-key for us.  No fireworks blowing up at us like last year.  We had a relatively successful batch of jiaozi thanks to the cooking class I took and lots of fireworks to keep us awake at night.  Our new apartment faces into a courtyard so all the fireworks were amplified as they echoed between the buildings.  They're always cool to watch though and since our new apartment is on the 12th floor, the fireworks exploded right in front of our living room window.  As tradition we went to one of the city's many temple fairs.  I posted some pictures of what we saw.  We went to a smaller temple fair this year so it wasn't as crowded and plus it had a stage for some performances.

Our first snow finally came on February 10th, much later than the November snow we had in 2009.  I took the opportunity to go to the Summer Palace and take some pictures.  There's something beautiful about bright red buildings covered with snow.  It was during the week so I was surprised with the number of other people that were there but like me, they all had their cameras and snapped away.  The coolest part about the Summer Palace was the lake was completely frozen.  Despite the signs that said don't go on the lake, I did, and walked straight across.  There were many other Chinese people on the lake so I figured if I fell through, someone could rescue me.   

For Valentine's Day, Scott got me the biggest bouquet of roses I've ever seen with almost 100 stems.  The flower delivery service he used has their people deliver their in clown outfits.  When I first heard the doorbell I ignored it figuring it was someone trying to sell me something.  But after a few more knocks, I looked out the door and there was the clown!  100 roses is pretty heavy so I wonder how many the poor clown had to deliver that day.  In true Chinese style they make their deliveries on bike.  We saw a couple of them when we went out that night.

So that was pretty much our winter.  I've been staying in doors working on my lesson plans and Scott has been busy with work. 

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Sidenote: I had this story written up and intended to post it three weeks ago!  But since then we've had Scott's sister Sarah visit us so I'm now just putting this up.  I have pictures of Sarah's stay that I'll post soon as well as pictures of our new apartment…

Back in Beijing

In preparation for the Chinese New Year, where the traditional first meal should be jiaozi (dumplings), I took a cooking class in one of the hutong homes in Beijing (http://hutongcuisine.com).  The main cook was in Italy for vacation so her brother and sister took over her teaching duties.  Overall impression was I enjoyed learning the nuances of Chinese spices and the marketplace but their teaching techniques were sometimes brutal, although perhaps not as bad as the Tiger Mom.  Many times they would tell me and the other girl taking the class, "No, stop, you're doing it wrong! Do it like this!" and they quickly take over the task we were apparently not completing to their standards.  The other girl from the class said their sister was much nicer so I'll consider going back for a future lesson.  In the brother and sister's defense rolling out the perfect jiaozi wrapper is difficult and if not done properly can lead to filling pouring out and ruining the dish so it's not something that should be taken lightly; but a little patience would've been appreciated.  In any case, I now have a recipe in hand so I'll try my hand at my own batch this New Year's.

The girl I took the class with was nice.  She's a student from New Jersey and will be leaving Beijing in a couple of days after spending her holidays here for an internship.  The kicker though was a conversation we had on our way to the subway station after class.
Me: What year are you?
Girl: I'm a sophomore. Were you in college, like, years ago?
Me: Sure… I guess you can say it's been a few years. I graduated in 2004.
Girl: Okay yeah, because you look like you've been out of college for a while, I mean, you look the same age as my brother.
Sheesh, talking about feeling old!  The Beijing pollution must've really done a number on my skin. =P

Anyway, we're obviously back in Beijing after spending almost a month in the States.  I'm pretty sure I gained at least 10 pounds from all of the cooking my mom did and the great places we ate at while we visited Seattle. For those we didn't get to see here are some of the answers to some FAQs.
Q: When are you coming back?
A: Not sure, we're waiting for the economy to get better and wait for the right opportunity.  There's been a lot of growth and opportunities in China so it makes sense for us to be there right now.

Q: Maile, what are you doing to pass the time?
A: I found a part-time job providing voice recordings for an English school; they're sort of like sample lesson plans for non-native-English-speaking teachers to use.  I've been keeping myself busy with online accounting and Chinese classes.

Q: Maile, how is your Chinese?
A: Not very good but I think my listening skills have improved. I still rely on Scott to do the translating.

Teaching Part 2

Meeting up with people I remembered there was a story I hadn't shared on the blog about a second experience I had teaching.  Each class is divided into two 50 minute segments with a 10 minute break in the middle.  During one of the classes, the kids were already seated before the break was over so I figured I'd give them an opportunity to ask me questions.  A boy quickly rose his hand and asked, "Why are your eyes so small?"  And yes, let me remind you that I was teaching a class of Chinese children who all had small eyes.  So my response was, "Why are your eyes so small?" and I went on to the next child.

What I've learned is that for some Chinese, it boggles their mind for someone who looks like them to say they're American.  To them, Americans don't look like me and I think especially with kids it's a difficult concept to grasp.  It was a cute story though and Scott had a good laugh when I told it to him.

Another thing I learned is that kids can also be brutally honest.  One nice girl asked me how old I was and then the last question I took was "Why are you so fat?"  Haha I guess it's a wake-up call to start that diet again especially after my trip back to the States.  I'm currently in Redlands and my mom timed her visit to "the mainland" from Hawaii at the same time so she's been cooking non-stop.  Here's our menu -
Saturday - shabu shabu (Japanese hot pot)
Sunday - sweet & sour port and long rice
Monday lunch - short ribs and inari sushi
Tuesday - lasagna
Wednesday - pot roast

I'll definitely miss her cooking when we go back to Beijing.  Cooking can be fun but usually when there's more people (for a few nights we had 7 people at home for dinner).  Maybe I'll get around to finally taking those Chinese cooking classes.

Changing address

So in case there's anyone that keeps track of addresses out there, please remove the address at Tai Yang Yuan from your book.  We're looking to move so any mail that arrives in China after mid-December might not get to us.  Scott's work address is always a reliable place to get stuff to us (well, 85% of the time).  They at least have a receptionist there that can coordinate deliveries. 

After living within 5 minutes walking distance from work for the past few years, Scott is ready for a change in scenery.  We're hoping we'll find a place in the more happening part of Beijing in Wudaokou.  It's only one subway stop away from where we're living now so it won't be that much of a change.  I'm not even sure if Scott can still consider it much of a commute when the majority of other people in this city have at least a one hour commute - his will still be under 20 minutes. 

Anyway, as soon as we have info about our new diggs, I'll post it.  Maybe I'll even post pictures but knowing me, it takes me a couple of months so maybe you can expect some by February 2010.  =)

Year One Pictures - finally!

I figured out a way to post pictures non-manually so they're loading as I type.  It only took me a few months to figure it out. =P  There's 355 pictures - one for almost every day of Year 1.  Enjoy!  I'm especially proud of the mapping I did so you can get a sense of where the pictures were taken.

Playing teacher

So the lady I do book recordings for needed a substitute for her Tuesday and Thursday classes.  At first I didn't want to but eventually I gave in.  We figured it would be good experience for me - I'd have a better idea of how her classes are run and therefore improve the quality of my recordings.  First of all, let me give a shout out to all the teachers I know.  I now fully recognize that work doesn't start and stop when the students sit in there seats.  There's alot of prep work involved.  For me, prepping for class included memorizing a story about a monkey and a crocodile, the story about King Midas and then practicing pausing and playing a movie at the right time so I can add some commentary.  Probably nothing difficult compared to teachers back home but still. 

There were a couple moments when I blanked out and forgot what I was supposed to say next or perhaps used a more complicated word than what I was supposed to but my boss seemed impressed and invited me to teach a future class during the next semester.  So we'll see.  It can be nervous though not because of the 12 or so kids I had to entertain but because the entire class was being recorded.  Evidently all the kids (and therefore their parents) get an audio copy of the class so they can play it back and review what happened.  The parents were probably also eager to find out if the substitute teacher was actually a native English speaker.  I got some funny looks when the parents dropped off their kids with the occasional "She's an American" explanation coming from my boss.  I even had a kid come up to me and ask multiple times if I was Chinese (in Chinese).  I would just respond in English that I cannot speak Chinese and that he should be using more of his English.  When the kids aren't punching each other and screaming they can be quite cute. 

The lady that runs the school though is pretty straight with me.  She recognizes that parents are very much focused on what the teacher looks like and not whether or not they're competent in English.  If asked I'm to tell them that I'm American (no need to mention the Japanese part) and that I have teaching experience.  Since I technically taught four classes, I guess I wouldn't be lying.  So we'll see, this coming Spring I might be teaching more regularly and I can add teacher to my resume.

My funny husband / Counting somewhere

So as everyone knows Scott has been here for a little more than three years and I've been here a little over one.  And as those who follow this blog or studied with me in Japan know foreign languages are not my strong suit.  So when my husband tells the census people (in Chinese, no less) to return the next day when his wife is home, I could only draw two conclusions of what was going through his head.
1) The most flattering - "My wife's Chinese language skills are much better than mine.  She'll be better suited to deal with these people."
2) The most likely - "I had a long day at work and I don't feel like dealing with you people right now.  Better to come back tomorrow - my wife has more patience for this type of stuff."
Luckily the people returned the next day with someone who spoke English but still, when he first told me that people were going to stop by the next day conveniently while he was at work, I could only laugh.

Anyway, I think it's kinda neat we're included in a census somewhere.  For obvious reasons we weren't included in the US's 2010 census but we're counted here in China.  For the first time they're including foreigners in their head count but even when they come up with an official number, people have their doubts that it'll be close to the actual figure.  The tricky part is they have large migrant population so locating them and getting their information is probably futile.  Oh, also I got a neat little collapsible laundry basket (kinda like the ones we used in college) for participating in the census.  Maybe if they handed out free stuff in the US, people would be more willing to give up all of their personal information... probably not.  For the census here, they asked us the following questions - name, birth year and month, highest level of education, purpose for being in China, and the length of time we were here.  Again, it's kinda neat to be counted somewhere with the added bonus of a souvenir to commemorate the what-turned-out-to-be uneventful visit.