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

 sunrise run on the beach

 Fu Shan

 our our window during a thunderstorm

 so fortunate to live a 5 minute walk away from here!

 view from Fu Shan

 hiking Fu Shan with friends

 moody beach day

 Sabrina's last day at school :(

 our apartment

 one of the most beautiful days yet

 view from our apartment

 yes, Qingdao is a beautiful place to live!

Kings of China

Well hello there! Wow, so much has happened since the last blog post... the school year ended, we moved apartments, came home for the summer for our wedding (!!!), and are now BACK in Qingdao, a day away from starting the new school year. A year ago today, we were arriving in Qingdao for the first time, with no idea whatsoever what was in store for us. Feels like a lifetime ago, and yet no time has passed... funny how that works. Because I am forever playing catch up, here is a blog post I started several months ago about our final school holiday last year!

*******

Every once in awhile, you get lucky enough to have friends who travel across the world to visit you. Despite busy work schedules and very full lives at home, our dear friends Allie and Matt have talked about wanting to visit us from the moment they found out we were moving to China! Luckily for us, they were able to coordinate their visit with what our school calls our "May holiday" (which I like to call Spring Break) at the end of April. They even came 2 days before we were officially on holiday, which meant our last 2 days at work were exponentially more fun (and didn't feel like work days at all).

They arrived on Thursday night, and on Friday they joined us at QAIS to partake in our famous lunch-tray lunch, and were wonderful sports about it! They were also there for one of my favorite QAIS moments to date, an assembly where the primary students performed little plays and musical numbers. It was the cutest thing ever :) The work day flew by, and then we began to cram all our favorite Qingdao things into a day and a half before we left for our trip! We had dinner at our favorite seafood restaurant, followed by microbrews at 138Art Bar. There we were able to display some of China's mall culture to Matt and Allie, which is often so hard to explain without being seen. The next morning we hiked Fu Shan (the mountain across the street from school), ate our favorite Xi'an noodles, walked around the clamshell sports stadium in the sun to look at the cherry blossoms, and went to the Happy Family Market to meet Mr. Song for tea. We'd invited Mr. Song and our friend Hailey to join us for dinner at the Dongbei fish restaurant that Mr. Song and his family took us to awhile back, and it was so much fun to share that with the Kings :)


hiking Fu Shan


this is an actual real "cute" pose girls like to take with flowers


Matt in our favorite little pink patch on our walk to school :)

The next morning our journey began, with a train to Jinan where we spent 2 nights. Here are some memorable moments from our first stop.


just a normal time with kids in China!


walking along a river


Baotu Springs


collecting spring water


kids' rollerblading showcase in an open square


walking around and sampling street foods


I spy a little bum


Kings on a boat on Da Ming Lake!


good ol' Dohar, touring us all around Jinan again :)


so beautiful and calm by the lake


Allie was on a quest for these lil guys... found 'em! If you want to know the story of these little dogs, you can read the Jinan local newspaper... really ;)


elderly man swimming hour! this really looked so refreshing, I totally wanted to jump in


Jinan has a lot more bikes than Qingdao


Dohar took us back to the BBQ place we went last time we were in Jinan, yummmmm


the crew at dinner


The next day, we hiked around at 1000 Buddha Mountain. Since I took so many photos last time, this time I only took a photo of this creepy scene. Who wants to ride?


Ok, so I also took this photo there


"cute girl" pose


sweet game of Mahjong going down (this is a common scene)


We visited what seemed to be a cat cafe. This ginger cat was not into it at all.

After Jinan, we traveled to Gubeikou by way of Beijing on the train. After a train, bus, and taxi, we arrived to what I quickly discovered to be paradise... a little guesthouse tucked into vegetable fields alongside part of the Great Wall. Fresh, home cooked meals for breakfast and dinner, a quiet and peaceful environment, and 7 sleepy cats on the property... it doesn't get any better than that! We spent a couple of nights there with the main highlight being an 8-hour hike along the Great Wall. The first half of the walk was a newer section of the wall that's been more recently renovated that eventually led us down a trail into a tiny village, where we had lunch and rested for a bit. After lunch, we hiked back up a trail to rejoin the old part of the wall, which you can imagine was more rustic. It was just so spectacular to be out there all day, and although the smog levels were moderately high, we were still able to get some great views.


on the patio at Great Wall Box House (cats not pictured)


walking around Gubeikou town


nearby sunset view on the first night


long wall walk










lunch stop with beers and a long-awaited cup noodle!


now you can see we are on the older part of the wall




the next day we wandered around Gubeikou town for some gorgeous views (not pictured: Brian accidentally wearing 2 different shoes)


and those are the beers we drank on the trip


met some cute new friends


saying goodbye to this cute b'n'b

After Gubeikou, it was off to Beijing by train. Beijing is such a busy, smoggy city, and it was pretty hot while we were there. Because it was spring, there was also an abundance of something that looked like cotton flying through the air all the time, so it wasn't as pleasant as our other stops on the trip. Beijing is a neat old city though, with tons to see and do. Allie and Matt hadn't been before, so they were good about seeing the important sites, like Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, while Brian and I caught up on some sleep. We got to enjoy a Beijing-style hot pot dinner (and the Kings' first hot pot experience!), and a super-touristy Peking Opera performance that I dragged everyone to :)


wandering around Beijing on the first day


around the hutong (narrow alleyways in the older parts of town)


I was in love with these trees


incense prayers at the Lama Temple



My favorite part of our trip to Beijing was to 798 Art District, which is set in an old industrial park. There are tons of gallery spaces, cafes, restaurants, clubs, and shops to wander around. We had plans to meet one of Brian's TCNJ friends (who lives in Beijing) for lunch, so we didn't have much time there, but we were able to take part in an interactive cat art exhibition (!), take lots of photos, and buy some beautiful pottery. I could have spent several days there and not seen everything! Bathrooms were weirdly elusive though. ;) The absolute best part for me was a plant cafe... plants in every nook and cranny, even inside the tables and on the ceiling! Hopefully our apartment will look like that by the end of the year.






plant cafe!!!






In this cat exhibition, you could draw a cat on your phone and submit it, so it would display on the wall. You could also draw your cat on a giant white balloon and on the wall. There was more stuff too, but we couldn't understand what it was ;)

Before we knew it, it was time for the Kings to go home. :( In classic fashion, Brian and I overslept our alarm on the day of departure, and had a frantic (hot & unshowered) dash for the airport, but made it just in time to catch our flight. All part of the adventure, but hopefully that was the last time we'll do that? Probably not though!

I don't even know how to express how special it was to have Allie and Matt here. It is really hard not to feel disconnected while living here - internet issues and difficult time differences make communication hard, and during our first year of teaching we experienced such an emotional rollercoaster that was hard to articulate to friends and family. Often it was easier to just keep to ourselves about it, which I don't think was always for the best. But there was something so validating about being able to show people we care about a bit of our day-to-day life, and to be able to laugh about everything together. We love you guys!

That being said, I am going to do my very best to stay connected this year. Brian and I have a lot to learn this year and it's going to be super challenging, so we will need lots of support and love from friends/fam at home. Don't hesitate to reach out if you feel us slipping away!!! We may need a little virtual hug :)

If you'd like to be pen pals with us, you can send us a letter or treat by way of our school:

Shannon Carney / Brian Quist
Qingdao Amerasia International School
68 Shandongtou Lu, Laoshan District
Qingdao, China 266061

If you send me a letter, I promise to write back!! This year I vow to visit the Qingdao Post Office :)

Love you all, and will update you soon with how things are shaping up here this year. XO