Hi everybody, this page is used to answer FAQ as well as provide you with a journal of my adventures =).
January 2002:
Email me at [email protected], which is pretty much the only way you can contact me. I will provide other means of contact in the near future!
Change of plans: Originally I was supposed to go to Shanghai, but will be going to Beijing instead and will be teaching English there while taking classes to learn Chinese.
February 2002:
BBQ at Tim's place at 5pm, E-street, and El Cotixan on Saturday February 2; Dinner at Joe's Crab Shack in SD on Monday February 4.
Leaving for China at 1pm on February 8th from LAX and will be landing in Shanghai at 9pm on February 9th. Then I will stay there for a week or so and take off to Beijing.
2/10/02: I've landed safely and I'm ok. The flight was definitely long and tiring. Luckily I got to sit near this English speaking Christian lady from Torrance =). Ok, so real quick - things here are ok but it's going to take me some time to adjust. If anything my culture shock is mainly because I don't speak the language yet and that I won't be able to settle in until I get to Beijing.
2/11/02: I got to have dinner with Victor's family and his two friends for Chinese New Year at Pu Dong Restaurant. Then we watched fireworks from his grandparents apartment. It was incredibly beautiful with non-stop fireworks for hours along with all the firecrackers that just go on forever - even till 3am and on.
HAPPY NEW YEAR =)
2/12/02: So the streets are all cleaned up from yesterday - they work so fast here. I would have thought that the streets would be empty because of the New Year, but surprisingly enough everyone is still out and about.
2/13/02: The traffic here is ridiculous with people crossing the streets as they please then they stand midway with cars zooming past them from all directions and when it's all clear they just keep going on their way. My number one complaint here so far is the smog, it is really bad and it feels like you can't even breathe - the pollution is horrible here.
2/16/02: Well, on Valentine's Day we went to an indoor Go-Kart place and stayed there for most of the day. On Friday I didn't do too much during the day but ended up going clubbing at night. We went to Pegasus and Rojam which were both nice and mostly played electronica music along with some funky hip hop =P. Then on Saturday we met up with Victor's other friends and went to Cashbox which is this really big and nice karaoke place. After that they wanted to go check out some bars so we went to Buddha Bar and Judy's.
2/18/02: I landed in Beijing yesterday and met most of my coworkers and moved into my apartment. Today I went sightseeing a little bit around Beijing but didn't go to any of the main tourists sites yet. I don't start teaching until next week the 25th, but I've trained a little bit already. Haven't really been up to much except trying to settle in and get used to things here. My Co-Workers are really nice and the people here are friendly and helpful so I should be fine.
2/25/02: Not much has happened in the past few days. I went bar hopping a little bit over the weekend - there weren't very many people but I'm assuming because it's still holiday season here that students should be returning this weekend and hopefully next weekend will be better then =). I do a lot of walking here - so it's really different not having the convenience of a car =P. I even saw my car twice =( they call it IS200 here. To answer people's questions about the girls here in Beijing - it's hard to say if they are better looking here than in Shanghai. I would say that they are but then there is about a 90% chance that they are hookers anyways.
3/2/02: So I started teaching and I have a really small class of about 4 girls because I teach at night so there aren't as many people around. I like it though because it makes teaching more fun and easier to do. I also started my mandarin classes on Thursday. There are about 14 students in my class all of which except for me and another are Korean. It's kind of good though because if I want any kind of communication with them then I have to use Chinese. So I go to class from 8am to 12pm and then teach from 6:30 - 8:30pm. On Wed and Fri, I also have English Corner from 4:30 - 5:30pm where random students can come in and talk about almost anything. Everything is going well so far and I like it - I'm actually glad I decided to come to Beijing instead.
3/11/02: Just to let everyone know, I've decided to stop taking my Chinese classes and just have a tutor for now. Taking on 4 hours of class and 4 hours of teaching EVERYDAY was draining me out and it was hard for me to find time to study, adjust to Beijing, and just have time to myself. If I feel like I haven't picked up enough Chinese later then maybe I will start the classes next semester. I should be starting to teach more classes next week - so I'll be working from 4:30 - 8:30pm (maybe). Anyways, this past weekend I went to a house party and met some really cool people. I've met a lot of new friends and so should hopefully be learning more about the city. I can't believe I've been here for a month already - still getting used to things, but things are going well. =) Oh yes, I forgot to mention that last weekend - I ended up getting a small fish tank with three fish and four little shrimp =)
3/23/02: Well, I finally moved into my new apartment. I'm still settling in so I don't have pictures just yet - but continue to check because it should be posted shortly. So I started teaching my other English class which is from 1:30 to 3:20pm and I have 14 students (6 boys and 8 girls). Most of them are from Inner-Mongolia but speak Chinese and Mongolian as well. All of my students are about 18 - 20 years of age. Everything is going well and I'm glad that I stopped my Chinese classes because I have time to take care of other things now especially with me working more. I get tutored by one of the Chinese staff members about 30min M - F and then maybe about 2 hours on Sat. There's another girl that tutors me also for about 2 hours twice a week. I'm slowly picking things up, so hopefully I will have some sign of improvement soon. Oh ya, for those who care - I've had two casualties in my fish tank. One of the shrimps committed suicide and I found him on the floor and the Beta died today =(. Guess what, I might be getting a bike next week. One of the Chinese staff members has two bikes so he's going to let me and my coworker borrow them while we're here. Next week we have to travel across the city to go get them and ride them back - that'll be an adventure in China traffic =P.
3/31/02: I went on an adventure today. This morning my coworker, Khristien, and I went to pick up bikes that a friend of ours is letting us borrow. Apparently our Chinese coworker has two bikes and is loaning them to us for the time that we're here. So Khristien and I set off to go pick them up and rode them ALL the way back home. It took us a little over an hour to finally get home because it was clear across town. It was a beautiful day to be out and about so it was great. At first we were riding along traffic which wasn't always so fun. Then somehow we started riding against traffic which was so much better. He has a bell on his bike so he kept ringing it to tell people to get out of the way (a common thing to do in China though). I was also going to get a ride home on my friend's motorcycle but unfortunately somebody messed with it so that it wouldn't start so I couldn't get a lift and just took the taxi home. Things have been good although I was a little sick this last week. We got new teachers coming in, but I haven't really hung out with them or anything yet. Other than that I'm still doing good. =)
4/22/02: Sorry, I haven't had much to update, so my site is the same for the past couple of weeks. Just to let everyone know how I'm doing though - things are okay. They could be better with work and all, but with time we'll see how that goes. A couple weeks ago my friend, Jon, was in town and we hung out a little bit (my first visitor). Kai (my boyfriend) arrived in Beijing a couple days ago, so I've been spending time with him. I haven't really been up to much though. There is a holiday coming up here (May Labor Day) so I might be traveling but haven't made any plans yet so we'll see. Anyways, just wanted to write and let those that check this know that I'm doing good. Haven't been taking my camera out much so unfortunately there aren't many updated pictures. Hopefully if I travel then there will be plenty of updated pictures.
May 2002:
5/2/02: So not too much has really been going on. I'm on vacation right now for about a week because it's Labor Day in China. I wanted to travel but everything got booked and flights were pretty expensive. So instead I'm just relaxing in Beijing. Lately things have been up and down but still manageable. My work schedule wasn't making me too happy but hopefully with time everything will pull through. I worked about 8 days straight because in order to get the next Monday and Tuesday off the country works the previous Saturday and Sunday, so we get vacation from Wednesday to Tuesday. I know it sounds weird and unusual but that's the way it's done here. A couple days ago I went to a tulip garden with two coworkers, Julie and Piper. It was next to Tianamen Square and The Forbidden City. I only took pictures of it but didn't get to really go explore it. Then the next day for May Holiday Kai and I had lunch with his distant relatives. Afterwards they took us to the Temple of Heaven. Unfortunately we forgot to bring our camera so I don't have any pictures to share. There really didn't seem to be much to it, but it was nice and kind of crowded. Tomorrow Kai and I are going to a banquet on the Great Wall that his uncle invited us to, so we'll see how that goes and it will be my first time going to the Great Wall.
5/21/02: Be prepared for a long book - it's been a while since I was able to update my web site because my computer has been acting weird lately. Plus I've been pretty busy traveling and taking lots of pictures. Anyways, let me keep you updated with what's been going on. The Great Wall was really fun and quite tiring. It was definitely worth it and was such a beautiful view. Unfortunately I didn't buy one of those T-shirts that say I climbed the Great Wall but trust me I did. We went to JuYongGuan - which is a part of the wall that is about an hour away from where I am. Hopefully one day I will be able to travel to other parts of the wall. I've seen pictures from when my coworkers went to SiMaTai which is another part of the wall that's a little bit further and it looks a lot more beautiful. So I went to the Great Wall on the 3rd which was still part of my May holiday. For the rest of the holiday I also went to the Purple Bamboo Garden which was really nice as well. A couple days later, Kai and I went to the Botanical Gardens with two of his friends. We forgot to take the camera and only have pictures that his friends took for us, so until I find a way to scan them I won't be able to share the memories. It was definitely nice and I had a good time. We got to feed peacocks which was weird at first but cool. Later on that same night I went to an acrobats show with Kai and some of my coworkers. I have some pictures of that and even took some movie clips of it as well. That was pretty much the end of my holiday and I just stayed in Beijing and checked things out locally. So as for the following weekend, Kai's company was going on a trip to TaiShan which is a mountain south of Beijing. Kai and I were invited to go with them so there was about 20 of us. It took us about 6 hours by bus to travel there one way. We got there pretty late at night but by early morning we were up and ready to go climbing. The mountain climbing wasn't exactly what I expected because it was paved and had stairs but it was equally tiring. It took about 4 hours to go up and 4 hours to come back down. We took a lot of pictures so check those out as well. The next day we went to Confucius' temple and what not. Then we headed back to Beijing. As for things during the week - I finished teaching one of my classes that was in the afternoon, so for the time being I only have one class to teach in the morning from 8 - 10 am which is really nice and finally relaxing at work. To top off my traveling excursions for this month, Kai and I flew to Sanya which is a city on the island of Hainan. It was about a 3 and a half hour flight and is the southern most part of China and is said to be the Hawaii of China. A coworker of his who is from this area was kind enough to show us around a little since she was going home this weekend too. I took off two days of work in order to stay here for four. We arrived late Thursday night and just relaxed. There were really heavy thunderstorms the first two nights we were there, but it was still quite hot throughout the day. The temperature was about a constant 32 degrees Celsius which comes out to about 90 Degrees Fahrenheit. So most of the time it was sticky and hot. If we wanted to visit this place we had to go now because as you can probably imagine it will be a lot hotter during the summer. The next day Kai and I just relaxed and walked around on the beach. Then at night we went to this mountain called 'Deer turning his head back' which was really pretty and we got to see the whole city from up here. Not only did I enjoy the view from here but there was also a little roller coaster ride which was fun and different. We rode this coaster up backwards in a straight line and then rode down like a regular roller coaster except with a lot less security. Then on Saturday, Kai's coworker took us to this island called West Island where we had to take a speed boat to. When we got there Kai and I decided to go scuba diving which was probably the highlight of the trip for me. We got suited up and went on another boat to a docking area where we met our trainers and went diving. I got to go about 12 meters deep and saw a lot of beautiful fish. We took pictures underwater too but obviously not with my digital camera so unfortunately I can't share those pictures till later as well. Anyways, when we were underwater I got to swim freely and it was so much fun. Then after our time was up the trainer let me take off my oxygen tank and weights and held it for me while I got to swim back to the docking boat. After playing around for a little bit on the island we went to go eat seafood which this city is known for. Then we went to some water animal park like Sea World. Here we watched a bird show, dolphin/sea lion show, and saw some guy feed a live chicken to crocodiles. We didn't stay here very long but it was a nice experience. Probably my only downfall of the trip was that I got about 20 bug bites. Some of them are pretty big and look like hickies the size of quarters while the rest are just regular bites. Anyways, we got back really late/early morning on Tuesday and only got a couple hours of sleep before the both of us had to wake up for work at 8am. So that about covers what I've been up to. Kai and I were going to travel some more this weekend but decided to take a break especially since we are planning to go to Shanghai in a couple weeks to go meet up with his parents and sister. Other than that we've just been working and studying Chinese as often as we can. I'll continue to keep you posted so check up on things =).
5/28/02: Before I forget - don't forget to check out my pictures with my students. It's under the link that says 'students' in it on the 'after FOB' page. There you will find all my work related pictures or my non-traveling photos. It was so cute because after teaching my afternoon class, each student wanted an individual picture with me. There were two other cameras and so all the students were utilizing all three in order to take pictures with me. I felt like a celebrity =). It was funny too because I would take a picture with one boy and then the next boy would take a picture with me and put his arm around my shoulders and then the first boy saw that and would want to take his photo over again. Then all the girls wanted to take pictures with just them and then wanted another one with their other friend, me, and them too. Another teacher, Julie, was also outside taking pictures with her students and some of them also got the bright idea to take pictures with both of us in it. We were outside for so long just taking pictures with different students. So enough of that, as for this last weekend Kai and I went to The Summer Palace. Our tutor, Sandra, offered to take us there along with her friend, Jonathon. We set out early in the morning and spent most of the day there. It was so hot that I ended up using an umbrella to cover the sun - never thought that I would actually use one like the rest of the Chinese people do. Anyways, the four of us also rented a boat for an hour and took turns in pairs paddling the boat. Then we had to climb a temple in order to get to the other side of it so that we could have lunch. Then we rested for a little bit and headed back towards the front and went home.