Around the World and Back: Fall is here!

November 1, 2016

Oh, how many things I want to post about... so many pictures to share and stories to tell. But instead of playing catch up with old posts, let me just be in the present for a moment.

Fall has just arrived in Qingdao and it is beautifully cold... I can't believe how gorgeous the weather has been this school year so far! My memories of smog-filled skies during this time last year have drifted away. We have been lucky so far, smog-wise. Fingers crossed this means a better winter than last year!

This is just a short update about how things have been going here, and I can play catch-up later. Our new apartment is growing on me; being near the beach is wonderful (I somehow find myself here everywhere in the world I live), having more space has been a luxury, and we have warmed our house with friends.

This year we have lots of new staff members and they are awesome. There is a general feeling of camaraderie that formed from day one, and everyone is quite open-minded and social. Last year, making friends was slow-going, and that was really hard for me. This year has been much better and there are lots of fun things and people wanting to explore and enjoy Qingdao every weekend, which has in turn helped us to enjoy this city even more. Between ease of social life and the great weather we've had, Qingdao has been easy to enjoy! Now, I just need to work on my Chinese. I am learning lots of kid-talk though, from being in the classroom. Plus, our now sadly-infrequent visits with Mr. Song (who's not working weekends these days). He'll be coming over to our place for dinner next weekend (on his birthday! His request!!!!), so we're super excited about that.

On the work-side of things, there are ups and downs (always, I know). Our upper school (7th-12th grade) moved to the "penthouse" of the hotel this year (11th floor), so Brian was able to get out of last year's library dungeon and into a real classroom. He has a shared classroom with Michelle, a new teacher this year, and they work wonderfully together, and have decorated the room to be really cozy and fun. It seems like he's come more into his own this year, having a year of experience under his belt and way more support this year than last year in that lonely island of a library. I'm really proud of how far he's come and so glad he's having a positive experience teaching. He really loves his students! I miss being able to catch up with Brian during the day, but it is nice seeing each other at 5:00 and being able to talk about our day without already knowing everything the other was going to say (because we could hear each other teaching in the library last year). He stops by my classroom at least once a day to say hi to my kids and they adore him :)

My experience has been a bit weird this year. For anyone who doesn't know, I made the switch this year from Librarian to Montessori Teacher Assistant (3-6 year olds), a decision that came after lots of deliberation and several changed plans last school year. A few days before this school started, I was told I'd be switching classrooms, to one where I'd have less support than my previously-assigned role. That came as a shock to both me and my lead teacher, who is Chinese and was promised a native-English speaking co-lead teacher (with experience), instead of me. Long story short, it hasn't been my perfect placement but I've grown to love my class and my teaching partners. Unfortunately, the lead teacher in my class needed to take a leave of absence, and it happened quite abruptly (her last day was last Friday). So, we have a new lead teacher now and are in the transition phase with our kids, who seem to have gone backwards several steps in their ability to function in our classroom. I'm sure it will smooth out, as things always do, but right now is a bit of a rough patch for our whole class. I'm learning A LOT, I'll leave it at that for now!

Without further ado, here are some photos from the past few months. I won't forget to post about our dreamy little trip to Japan with Ry & Megan, or even some updates from last school year, or this past summer that I haven't yet included. Next time. Enjoy, and come stay in our spare room! XO