a Thanksgiving visit!

Thanksgiving went by almost entirely unnoticed, with the exception of a wonderful visit from Mel. I picked her up from the airport (after a couple hours of staring at the arrivals board in frustration -- damn delays!) on Friday night in Beijing. We had a great weekend, starting with dumplings for dinner, a visit to the Great Wall the next morning, and a jam packed Sunday. The wall was freezing! I may have left a couple fingers and toes there. We also crammed in a trip to the forbidden city, street food, shopping, and some hanging out at the hostel.

Monday morning it was back to the excitement of Baoding. Back to lesson planning for me, and an introduction to what I like to call "the real China" for Mel. At least part of the real China. This week has gone by fast, and mostly uneventfully. Highlights include great food like Peking Duck, Korean BBQ, donkey, and much more street food. Other than that, Mel has been sitting around in my dorm waiting for me to get out of class. =[

Now I'm finished and it's time to get back on the train to Beijing, have another busy sight-seeing weekend, and then see Mel off! I loved having her here (and I loved all the goodies she brought from my mom and sister).

I can't believe it's almost December! I can't believe how many exclamation marks I've used! I can't believe I've eaten all my candy! I can't believe Felice just called and made me give directions to the taxi driver so Mel can get back to Dongfang Shuangyu Xue Xiao (my school) -- we'll see if he understood me, I sure didn't understand him, but don't tell Mel! I can't believe how much coffee I've had today! Real coffee! From Bridgitte! made with a french press from Mel! Not instant! Woo!

payday!

The best day of the month is here -- payday. So I'm going to share some of my finances with all of you that are curious (all 2 of you reading my blog that is).

First lets talk about Chinese money. Chinese Yuan (CNY), Renminbi (RMB), Kuai 块 (slang like 'bucks'), it goes by a lot of names. and symbols: ¥ or 元. the exchange rate is about 6.35 CNY to 1 USD, which means that the 4000元 a month I receive is about $ 630 in real money. Which doesn't seem like a lot. But you forget, I'm in China.

No, I'm not living the high life, and no I'm not adding to my savings account, but I'm certainly not slumming it either. My accommodations are included, as are my electricity and water bills, which makes it a lot easier to afford some luxuries on 630 dollars a month.

Groceries:
5 gal. jug of water: 7
5 apples: 10
pack of 5 ramen: 8
veggies (green beans/broccoli/etc): 10
rice: 10
potatoes: 10
oatmeal: 20
nuts: 20
chocolate bar (import): 15
instant coffee: 15 (2-3 weeks worth is 30 or 40)
bread: 10
peanut butter: 10 (a jar is 20)
week total: 150元


eating out:
breakfast (street food -- jianbing, etc) = 5
lunch (noodles, or a plate of some dish with rice) = 10 - 15
dinner (group orders a bunch of dishes, veggies, rice dishes, meat, etc) = 20 - 40
nicer dinner (Western food, fancy restaurant, etc) = 50 -100

misc others:
bathroom scale: 60
cleaning supplies when i moved in (broom, mop, bucket, soap, etc): 200
dvds: 10 each
shampoo: 20
phone credit: 50 for a couple weeks
bike repairs: 50
comforter: 80
bath towel: 90

wireless router: 100
crappy little speakers: 20


Beijing:
round trip fast train: 100
hostel: 35 - 100 a night
eating out: 50 - 150
drinking out: 20 - 50 a drink
shopping at Yashow clothing market:
fake Longchamp bag: 30
small knock off gucci/coach purse: 100 - 200
fake D&G winter coat: 220
fake uggs: 125

During the week, I really don't spend any money. When I head to Beijing, however, all my money disappears on American luxuries. I fall into such a trap by being willing to pay out the wazoo for American comforts like familiar food. Which is why you should mail me some Whataburger. Anyone? Or some American candy?

My address is:
Kelsey Adams
+86 15830844021
中国
河北省
保定市071000
东二环路 166 号

166 Middle of the 2nd east loop RD.
Baoding, Hebei Province
071000 China

If you just copy and paste and print it with the Chinese and the English, it's more likely to arrive. Send me a Christmas present!

China in a nutshell

Ok I can't really put China in a nutshell. It is too big, too crazy, too varied, and I have way too small an understanding... but I can summarize my experiences thus far.

So.

FOOD
pros: It's delicious. Dumplings (Jiaozi or Baozi), Kung Pow Chicken (Gong Bao Ji Ding) and fried green beans to name a few
cons: It's delicious. And oily, fatty, grisly, and most likely filled with gutter grease and sewage. Also very weird at times. I really have a disturbing love for donkey burgers.

LIVING SITUATION
pros: It's free. It's on campus, I don't have far to walk to class (like, it's out my door).
cons: Campus is in the middle of nowhere. To get anywhere I have to bike, taxi or walk. (which takes time, money or is exhausting). There are a lot of stairs.
pros: stairs and biking means working off that gutter grease.
cons: my bike is about one second from exploding at all times

TEACHING
pros: i'm getting better. I think. the kids are so sweet. it's fun sometimes.
cons: I'm really not getting better, that was a lie.
pros: there are only two months left

CHINA ITSELF
pros: it's cheap. it's exciting. it's interesting. people are nice when they aren't pushing and shoving and cutting in line (haha what line).
cons: people are always pushing and shoving and cutting in line. it's smoggy. it smells terrible most of the time.
pros: i can put off showering for weeks and nobody notices. i can (and do) wear the same clothes for days (and days) in a row without washing them

OTHER
con: internet is super slow
pro: at least I have internet in my room

con: teaching 1000 kids is exhausting and I'm always tired because my bed is rock hard.
pro: ?

Is it really november? already? no way.

Other than the first exciting week of October, not much happened last month. No exciting halloween (in fact no halloween, period), no crazy stories, no personal revelations.

So what has happened?

I still stink at teaching. I still haven't mastered Chinese (and never will). I still crave American food like Whoa!

But I have championed the devilish washing machine. I have discovered I do in fact have heat and am kind of a moron. I have made it half way through my China misadventures!

I have been twice to the police station to plead guilty for charges of not notifying the authorities every time I leave the city. I've signed my confessions, accepted my punishments (warnings), and been fingerprinted. The government requires advance notice of any foreign movement. Every hotel, hostel, and fast train requires my passport, and then reports foreigners' whereabouts  to the po-po. If I fail to notify the police in advance again I'll have a 500 rmb per day fine. So I'll be a little more careful next time.

I've started using the electric steamer the Americans that were placed here before left, and have fresh steamed veggies that I buy from the many street vendors all the time.

I've gotten good at navigating Baoding traffic on a rickety old bike without killing myself. I've also gotten good at finding random bike repair guys on the side of the road to fix said rickety old bike.

I've been to Beijing quite a few times, and every time I've splurged on American luxuries like burgers and pizza, and in the process spent way too much money. (but I only paid about 4.50 USD a night for the hostel, so I say it evened out).

I saw Liz Hannah! and hopefully will see her many more times.

And here are some pictures of my kiddos.

the never ending saga of national week

Ok lets see I left off in Chengdu.
Thursday morning I said goodbye to the amazing bed and mom and I cabbed to the airport. Made it back to Beijing no problem, and then found a bus to take us to Beijing West train station (opposite side of the city) to continue on to Baoding. Also no problem. Got dropped off about a 15 min walk from the station, where a crowd of rickshaw drivers were waiting. Before I could say a word they had grabbed our bags and told us they were taking us to the station. We went with it.

We arrived at my school a couple hours later, introduced Mom to the gate guards, made sure everyone had signed off on her being there and we were all set. 

I worked Friday and Saturday, and Mom entertained herself on our thrilling campus. We had a few excursions into town on bikes to eat at local restaurants and see the supermarket, etc. It was a quick trip, however, and Saturday night we got back on the train once more headed for Beijing. We went straight to the hotel near the airport and once again ordered room service and called it a night. 

Sunday morning Mom took off (bummer) and I turned back around and went back to the train station, back to Baoding, back to my school. This short Beijing excursion (about 16 hours all told) resulted much later in a trip to the police station to have some fingerprinting and wrist-slapping done, but that's a story for another day. 

So Mom had left, and I was back in my room, back on my rock hard bed, and back to work.