Around the World and Back: 2015

Hi! We just got back from a great six day train trip around the Shandong Province. We took the bullet train which is so comfortable and travels at 300 km/hr! The cause for a week-long break from work was the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which is celebrated according to the lunar cycle - to give thanks to the moon for the changing seasons and the harvest. Really lovely! Then October 1st was National Day, so the week in between those two days is considered the Mid-Autumn Holiday. Here are some photos and stories from our trip:

Day 1 - Jinan. This well says something like "drink tea, forget your problems," in ancient Chinese script.

Just had to sneak a pic of this dude in his little shorts. He was hanging out his grandaughter's clothes in the sun on the rocks as she had gotten wet playing in the pond :)

Baotu Spring in Jinan - 天下第一泉
which means "Number One Spring Under the Heaven"

Kids can buy rubber boots, water toys and water guns to play in all these little ponds around the spring. I'm surprised we didn't get sprayed! There aren't as many foreigners in Jinan as Qingdao, so we got a lot more attention there.

Streetside bbq in Jinan. We were invited by Brian's friend Dohar, who lives in Jinan and guided us around the city and showed us culinary specialties for a few days. BBQ is the thing in Jinan, the way seafood and beer are the thing of Qingdao. So Brian was happy :)

Here's a pic of the crew enjoying bbq! We had so much fun and met some really great folks. Thanks for the kind hospitality, Dohar!!

Day 2 - Jinan. We went to 1000 Buddha Mountain on the day of the full moon. It was really peaceful inside the park, despite there being so many people visiting for the holiday.

offerings

reclining Buddha stutue

Brian and Devil (his English name!), who we met at Dohar's dinner the night before. He offered to be our tour guide at the mountain that day which was so generous! According to a plaque at the park, this is the tallest sitting Buddha statue north of the Yangtze River.

Just driving my tank around in front of the Buddha! These little carparks for kids are such a thing in Asia - little cars, animals with wheels, tanks, etc are available for kids to ride around on.

These photos were taken inside a very impressive cave inside the park (which I have since learned is artificial). The statues and paintings inside the cave were extremely beautiful - one of the highlights of the trip.

When we first arrived in Jinan, Dohar tried to take us to a Love Hotel for our accommodations! hahaha :) He didn't seem to understand why we didn't want to stay there... but we eventually found this other cheapo and despite the creepy appearance of this bathroom pod, the room was actually ok (and the bed was much more comfortable than our bed in our apartment, which is a rock) :)

Day 3 - Qufu. This city houses the Temple and Cemetery of Confucius, and the Kong Family Mansion.

Brian enjoying a snack in snack alley (our term). Plastic bag around the bowl = less dishes to clean

Turtles represent wisdom and longevity

Confucius' Tomb. This cemetery is the largest (known) family cemetery in the world!

Flags are up everywhere for the holiday

Evening in Qufu. After walking all day long, we were able to meet up with Dohar for dinner again, as he was in town for work (he's a journalist).

Day 4 - Tai'an. We treated ourselves to a nice hotel and spent most of the day napping and recovering from a lot of walking, and since our hotel was a bit further away from the main part of the city, we didn't venture out for a walk until late afternoon.

After dinner we enjoyed a tea ceremony, where we tried two different kinds of teas and tried to chat with the tea attendant :)

Grape and peach Oreos! (we didn't try them)

Day 5 - This photo was taken right outside our hotel before we embarked on our hike of Taishan (Mount Tai)

Taishan is a sacred mountain in China and is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal. The mountain is 7200 stairs on a paved path, with an option to take a gondola and bus part of the way. These photos were all taken during our hike.

It was VERY busy on the mountain!

gondolas (we took one part of the way back down from the top)

SO MANY STAIRS! It was really funny by the time we made it to the top - everyone was so haggard (including us). Lots of crying children being carried and people who were practically walking on all fours :)

This was at the top!

Here's a photo on our gondola ride back down. We decided to gondola/bus back down because the hike from the base to the top took about 4.5 hours and our legs were feeling wobbly from stairs :)

This photo was meant to be a "before" photo of Brian in case he got food poisoning, which I was sure he would after eating at this restaurant! I'm usually not too worried about that kind of thing, but this place really freaked me out... but Brian was fine! I was expecting a repeat of our first couple of days in Manila ;)

We hiked a bit right outside our hotel on day 6, the last day of our trip. It was a nice splurge to stay there!

Day 6 - back in Jinan, where we had a 4 hour train stop-over before returning to Qingdao. Just enough time to take a little boat ride on Daming Lake and meet Dohar for one last dinner and beers.

We were lucky to have relatively nice weather during our trip, with only a few of the days being very polluted. It was so nice to have a break from work, especially for Brian, whose schedule just doubled! He is now teaching 6 periods per day and has a much heavier workload. Right now we're sitting in a cafe while he does some planning for this week. We are looking forward to the cooling weather and Fall in Qingdao! Missing the northwest leaves right about now!

xoxo

     Hi from Qingdao!! I can't believe we've already been here almost a month. Time really does fly in the teaching world. We started school 2 days after arriving, which was a bit stressful but honestly probably helped us recover from jetlag faster. Here are a few of our observations so far...

1. Having a school inside a hotel provides some entertaining challenges! There is only one elevator, and we're not allowed to use the stairs (because then kids might go into the hotel instead of to class). So when it's time for lunch, or time to go to the library, or art class, or music class, 8-15 students and 1 teacher cram into the elevator to reach their destination. You learn quickly not to use the elevator when the tweens have just finished gym class…

2. We went for a post-dinner stroll one night last week, and stumbled upon a tranquil tea house. It was 8pm but much to our surprise, it was very much open. We popped in for a quick look around at the ornate tea sets, and after minimal conversation, a woman working there declared us her English teachers! She told us that drinking tea was free for her English teachers. The next thing we know, it's two hours later, we've had about 8 cups of tea, and she's asking us how many beers we can drink ("Ten? Twenty?"). She steps out of the room and reappears with a Tsingtao (naturally) and pours us two glasses. We left an hour later with a free bag of green tea leaves and a new friend.

3. Everyone who comes to live in China has to register at the police station. The resident taking-care-of-business lady at the school is well versed in this little police station visit. She accompanied us in a school van with our school driver, Mr. Sun, to the police station with a bag of our documents and, inexplicably, a Language Arts textbook. To prove that we're teachers? When we arrived, there was a huge crowd of people waiting outside the police station. Minutes later, the door opened (lunch break over!) and everyone just made a mad dash pushing each other and going every which way (classic). When I was told to sit down in front of an officer, the officer appeared to be inspecting someone else's passport. I sat there for a few minutes (no eye contact or conversation), and then was told to go sit down somewhere else. 20 minutes later, we were on our way back to school… but not without a unexplained stop at an unknown destination. We waited in the van, curious. No answers were given. 20 minutes later we were on our way back to school! Did everything go OK with the police registration? Who knows!

4. One of my favorite things here is the assess pants that babies wear. Who wants to deal with a diaper?! No one. If the baby needs to go to the bathroom, just hold it out over [somewhere] and let it go there. Much easier, and less mess to clean up! **Watch where you step**

5. We have found the world's greatest breakfast stand. On our 15-20 min walk to work, there are a few food vendors set up in the morning, and the one we love serves a thin tortilla-like crepe/wrap, warmed over a grill and topped with so many delicious vegetable medleys, a fried egg, and a bit of spicy sauce. It's satisfying and big enough to fill us up well until lunch time, and all for RMB 6 (less than $1 USD)! The people working there are really nice and they seem to get a kick out of us frequenting their stall (Brian gets a wrap for breakfast every morning). Sometimes they teach us the Mandarin words for the different veggie mixes and we tell them the English words. Sometimes they take pictures of us - are they loving us or making fun of us? Doesn't really matter, does it ;)

6. I LOOOOOOOOOVE living on the 18th floor. Even though our apartment is just a studio, I really feel glamorous living up so high. The apartment is clean and modern, and no sewage smell (which is a very pleasant surprise; I came prepared for the worst). We have a small view of the mountains from our "balcony" aka laundry-drying closet. Plus, when you want to take your garbage out, you just set the trash bag in the hallway next to the elevator, and someone picks them up off each floor every day! It's the little things, seriously.

     So far, so good. I had a slightly rough adjustment to my job here, but things have smoothed out over time. I am notorious for freaking out when I have a new job, so that was pretty normal. :) It's a little different than I expected - I am a school librarian! I do get to work with preschoolers - 5th graders in the library through read-alouds and small lessons each week, which is fun and challenging. Although I was expecting/hoping to be assisting in a Montessori classroom, I have come to like the library work. I have A LOT to learn, but I am getting faster at cataloging books and more knowledgeable each day. I never really considered working in a library, but now I am thinking more about what this experience might mean for me in our future in the international school system. I'm still keeping my options open, but why not see where this takes me for a year?
     Life here is really comfortable. I like the area where we live - there are beaches, parks, and mountains to climb all within walking distance of our apartment, and the school is only a ~15 min walk away. We haven't had any troubles yet getting around or finding things we want without speaking Chinese - although we really want to learn! We got contact information for a Chinese tutor who we plan to set up sessions with soon, hopefully a couple days per week. So far I can count to 100! :) Yesterday a coworker from school (who also happens to have lived in Seattle!) introduced us to the most AMAZING market that's only a ten minute walk from home. They sell all kinds of fruits, veg, plants, grains, spices, tofu, housewares, breads, dumpling wrappers, seafood, meats, and even fresh-ground peanut butter and personalized wellness blends made from Chinese herbs. So yeah, it's basically my dream come true. We will never have to go to a normal grocery store again! We also joined a gym about 5 minutes from our house where we do yoga twice a week (good exercise and slightly weird/entertaining with a Chinese twist!).
     The pollution has been surprisingly low, but just 2 days ago it took a turn for the worse. I am mentally preparing for the Fall/Winter when you can't go outside at all. Coal burning is no joke!

Ok, I better get started on some work for this upcoming week. Only one more week of school and then we have a week off for Mid-Autumn break! We will travel to the nearby city of Jinan and also Tai'an to hike Mount Tai. Keep posted for more stories and photos! Below are some photos from the last few weeks. Love to you all, I hope this finds you well!

climbing Fushan the day after we arrived

it was a little hot!

mall culture is really big here - lots of malls have ice rinks inside!

walking to school

sunrise view from our laundry balcony

this was my first Montessori read-aloud session, totally losing control of the kids haha

busy day at the beach

I think this is a museum

it's so beautiful by the sea!

There's a sculpture park at the beach

a less crowded and beautiful area to swim

can you zoom in on this pic and see what's going on? this is inside "Sprofessional Coffee" hahaha

this is the construction pit next to the school with a rainbow :)

Lotus flowers at the Botanical Gardens

Brian and his Asian carny games ;)

I wanted to save these turtles

Brian got to ring this giant bell

in the Buddhist quarters of the garden

nice and serene

garden meets city

Walking around downtown right before an enormous rainstorm we got caught in!

Having tea with our "English student" at the tea house :)

apartment view

Thai-style meal that Brian cooked us YUMMM. The Chinese wine was pretty good too!

Another amazing dinner by Brian - we went to a seafood market early on a Sunday morning and bought 1.5 kilos of freshly-caught clams and paid just over $2 USD for them :))))

Yesterday we went to Almon and Vivian's (coworkers) house for their son Yi Fan's 100 Day Celebration. There are a LOT of cute teacher's kids at QAIS :)