Snow and Home

Here are some pictures of the snow here in Seattle.  It's been very peaceful to be snowed in.  No pressure to go anywhere, but relax at home with the family.

One thing I love about being home is the music.  My dad playing guitar and my mom singing and playing the piano.  It's so good to have a piano in the house to play.  So healing to the soul.

My Family

I'm home for Christmas break.  It's so nice to see my family.  It has been snowing and snowing.  My sister is super pregnant and so happy.  I hope she has the baby while I'm home.  Just been baking my great grandma's  gingerbread, playing games of monopoly and going for winter walks.  Oh and decorated the tree.  My lil sister's boyfriend said the tree looks like one from a movie.  I thought that was sweet.

Beijing

On my way home for Christmas break I spent a weekend in Beijing.  It was my third time in the city.  Every time I'm in Beijing I see a different Beijing.  My first time was in 2000 as a student at Northern Jiatong University.  I was studying history.  There were so many bikers at that time.  My second time was in 2007 as a debriefing time from teaching English at a university in Qinghuangdoa.  The city had changed so much in seven years.  More skyscrapers, cars and fewer bikers.  

This time I stayed by myself in a youth hostel in old Beijing, which is what Beijing used to look like before all the skyscrapers.  It is close to the Drum Tower and Bell Tower.  A very cool place to be.  I would highly suggest staying in hostels.  They are so clean and safe.  I stayed in a 6 bed public room for girls for about 55 yuan, which is $8 a night.  The first night I was with a teacher friend who was continuing onto Russia.  I saw her off at the Beijing Train Station.  

When I was wandering around old Beijing I walked into a music store where this man was tuning Chinese cymbols.  It sounded so interesting.

Sunday I spent with a student from Qinghuangdoa, who I barely knew, but she opened her heart and home to me.  It was her birthday so she had me over to her apartment and cooked me traditional style Beijing noodles.  The tradition is to eat noodles on your birthday for a long life.  They were so yummy.  Later we walked around Beihei Park and Hohei Lake.  We had some great talks.

Monday I got to meet another student from Qinghuangdoa for lunch and she helped me make it to the airport subway transfer.  The subways are fantastic in Beijing.  They have 13 lines.  You can get anywhere you need to in the city.

Didn't see any of the Olympic sights this time, but maybe next time around.

The Performance

It has been one week since the Nutcracker performance.  It was a magical night.  The students did such a great job, their best run through of the program.  They looked so cute in their costumes that I designed.  The backdrop and set was amazing.  The art teacher did a fantastic job.  The parents' one complaint was that it was too short.  I'd rather it be short and sweet and leave them wanting them more than thinking it was too long.  One teacher who has been teaching for 30 years told me it was the best Christmas school musical she has seen.  That was a very nice compliment coming from a very critical teacher.  

The dress rehearsal that day was crazy.  We had to bus 100 students to the hotel, because we had to rent a stage to perform it.  When I arrived with the pre-schoolers nothing was set up, including the stage.  So it was alot of demanding what we needed and having it translated into Chinese.  It was crazy.  So we were late to start the rehearsal.  It was the first time combining the middle school and secondary choirs.  I thought the middle school boys were going to kill me.  They kept yelling into the microphone and trying to be all cool.  It was a hectic dress rehearsal, but the performance went amazing.  Enjoy the pics.

Nutcracker Rehearsal

We are in full swing for Nutcracker rehearsals.  It is crazy trying to practice in such a small space. It is a little intimidating trying to direct things as a first year teacher in front of all these seasoned teachers, but I'm learning alot.  The children are doing well and are having fun.  That is the most important thing.

My eight year olds are so sweet.  I feel like I've finally settled into my teaching schedule and learning how to teach Intensive English students.  My students are already talking about how they don't want to go onto the nine year old class next year.  They say they want to stay with me.  I told them we still have the whole year together.  Today something funny happened while I was gone teaching a music class.  Another teacher comes in while my 8's have study time.  This teacher apparently sat in chair and broke it.  I came back to class with a missing chair and the students told me the teacher sat down, it broke and she fell out.  I thought that was pretty funny.  Hopefully I'll have a fixed chair by tomorrow.

Playing for a Meal

The other night one of the teacher couples at my school invited me over for dinner.  They heard me play at Thanksgiving and wanted a private concert.  They are retired teachers from Colorado. I gave them a little concert after a home cooked meal and some Tequila Sunrises.  It's nice to know I can still play for a free meal. :) 

Aijen Noodle and Straight Hair

I have found my new favorite restaurant.  There is this Japanese restaurant called Aijen Noodle.  They serve great sushi.  I've been looking for a good sushi place.  The ambiance is nice, too.  I feel like I'm in some movie with the decor and techno/new age music playing in the background.  My friend Dasha introduced me to it.  

Another thing I have discovered here in China are the hair washes.  For 20 yuen you can get an amazing hair wash.  You lie down and they wash and massage your head.  Then they massage your whole body.  Then they will style your hair any way you want.  Whenever I get a hair wash I have them blow dry it straight.  It's been really fun.

QSI Thanksgiving

On Saturday the school staff celebrated Thanksgiving.  Everyone brought something and we ate in the activity room, the room I teach music in.  The school principal gave a very nice speech and prayed over our dinner.  It was so touching it brought tears to my eyes.  I feel so blessed to have a boss who has such a heart for people and Jesus.  Afterwards one of the Chinese staff played some beautiful guitar music and sang in Chinese to us.  Then other people shared their music, including myself.  It was a very special afternoon.  

The actual day of Thanksgiving I was working and didn't feel like I had missed anything.  But this Saturday made me really miss my family and made me think differently about family holidays.  How special and important they truly are, and how blessed I've been my whole life to have a family to share life with.

True to par with any Thanksgiving get together there was a kid table.  The kids were so cute.  I remember those days of sitting at the kid table.  Good times.

Trips to Guangzhou

A couple weeks ago I took the train to Guangzhou to try and get a visa to Russia.  The consulate was very unhelpful and rude.  After two trips he finally told me to go to Beijing.  Which of course I could not go to Beijing during the week, because of teaching.  And consulates are only open during the weekday.  Anyway on my second trip back from Guangzhou I ended up getting sick on the train.  I could barely walk of the train.  One of the guards helped me down some stairs and they brought some person who said they were a doctor.  They gave me some Chinese medicine.  It was some kind of oil rubbed on my forehead.  It actually helped me feel somewhat better, but I still could barely move.  They helped me get into a taxi home.  I'm so grateful for kind people.  Wherever you God seems to bring people into your life to help support you and sustain you.  There is some verse that says, "I am the LORD your God, the one who will support and sustain you even to your old and dying days."

The pictures are of inside the train station and a view of some apartments while I waited for the train.   The train is super fast.  It goes 200 kilometers per hour.  Very efficient and fast way to travel.  It would be nice if America had this kind of fast train.  I know they are popular in Europe.

Red Papered Wall

The street I walk down to school has this area with many papers posted on the wall.  It looks so interesting.  I'm curious what those papers say.  Maybe advertisements or warnings.

It's starting to get cold here.  It went from 34  celsius to 20 celsius.  It's still considerably warmer then Seattle, but it feels so cold to me.  

Eating on the Go

I'm getting braver about eating at little hole in the wall places and vendors on the street.  When I take the bus into work I walk through an alleyway that has lots of little places to eat.  One night coming back from work I decided to order some soup from this chinese man.  I selected my vegetables and watched him cook it.  Then ate with some other people who were watching Chinese tv.  The life story of Bruce Lee was on the set.  It was fun to sit there with all the people watching Chinese TV.  

The other picture is of a muslim man selling his bar-b-q sheep he cooks on the street.  It was so yummy.  I also tried the bread he heated up with spices.

What are those men carrying?

One of the funniest sights I have seen here in China was a group of men literally carrying a tree across a highway.  Crossing the street in China is quite the ordeal, but to cross it carrying a tree was hilarious.  When I first came here I was quite scared to cross the street and screamed when a car came zooming past me about 6 inches from me, but now I am quite accustomed to crossing the street.

QSI East Asia Teacher Conference

Last weekend I went to my first professional development in Shenzen.  It was QSI's East Asia Teacher Conference.  Teachers from all over south east Asia were at the conference.  The conference was on assessment.  I felt like I was back in college.  During the age-alike sessions I connected with other 8 year old teachers and the other music teachers.  The other music teachers were surprised I was also teaching 8 year old's.  They thought that was crazy and quite honestly I think it is too.  The music program at my school is just starting.  I am the first music teacher and that is why we are so limited with supplies.  I'm very grateful I brought my own music books and collections of songs to teach students.  There was an English book store in Shenzhen.  It was a gold mine.  I get so much more excited about English materials now.  Discovered an Oxford leveled reading program that would be great for my students.  The Rigby books are just too easy for them.  They need more challenging literature.

A Springlike Fall

Well it's starting to feel like fall here in a tropical way.  I'm so used to having all the leaves change colors and fall off, but here in Southern China fall is very different.  It does get cooler, but still in the low 70's.  Flowers are blooming on the trees.  As I walk down a street the air is filled with fragrant smells.  White, purple and pink flowers are blooming on the trees.  It seems more like spring here than fall.  The light has changed.  The days are getting shorter.  Did you know that there is no Daylight savings in China?  I found this interesting.  Well, I can still say Fall is one of my favorite seasons even without the falling leaves.  

Birthday Cake

Today was one of my students' birthdays.  His mom had a cake delivered for the class.  The cake was so cute.  They make really cute cakes here.  There was a folded up flower, with candles that I was unsure about.  When I lit the candles it opened up into a flower and rotated around playing happy birthday and some sparkler type fireworks went off.  It was so cute.  The little boy was so delighted.  There was enough cake for the class some other teachers and the guard.