National Day

October 1st is National Day, which is the anniversary of the People's Republic of China.  October 1-7 is called "golden week" because basically everyone has off work and the result is the biggest week of tourism as people travel to see family.  A group of us teachers will be taking advantage of the 7 days off of work and flying to Malaysia.  So expect there to be blog silence while I'm away but future entries will include beaches, jungles, and Kuala Lumpur.

At school today we celebrated the holiday with singing, games, and other things I didn't really understand because everything was in Mandarin.  Then the students had a special lunch outside.  In the afternoon we kept it pretty chill since everyone was already in vacation mode with extended free play and then watching some Winnie the Pooh in the gym.

Marching out the flag.

Singing the national anthem?

I've said previously that the students are warming up to me more and that is truer each day.  Despite my foreign appearance and the language barrier, I am now one of them.  They will come running up to me to tell me something super exciting that I don't understand or will crawl in my lap to give me a big hug.  Working and living somewhere so different can be frustrating and exhausting but children's energy and excitement is universal and can make everything feel better.

Stray thoughts:

• If you are feeling adventurous then look up Chinese squatting toilets.  Also, toilet paper is not provided.
• We tried out drying some of our apples.  We sliced, dipped in lemon, and then strung up on my laundry line.  So far they are looking good!

After 1 night of drying.

• Since I don't use my tv, I have turned it into a big picture frame.  My cable box is a stand for my other frame, incense gift, and plant.  I'm slowly making this place my home away from home.

• Also, this big guy just celebrated his 1st birthday, so if you see him make sure to wish him a happy belated birthday.  I miss him like crazy and I think I am freaking people out with how I longingly look at their dogs.  All I want is to pet it and take it home with me to cuddle.  But don't worry, Jordy, nobody can replace you.  Especially not all these little dogs.



belated birthday boy

Mid-Autumn Festival

Happy Mid-Autumn to you!  On Mid-Autumn night the moon is supposed to be the brightest and fullest of the year, and to the Chinese the moon is a symbol of peace, prosperity, and family reunion.  Traditionally, the Chinese express their thanks to the moon and celebrate the harvest with family.  At MapleBear, we celebrated the festival with student and staff performances for the families, followed up by games, activities, music, and food.

MapleBear showed their appreciation to the staff by providing us all with apples, pomegranates, milk, and moon cakes.  Since all of my friends are teachers, we have an excess of fruit and will be having an apple baking and drying party this week.  I have the best kitchen set up so I have an extra box here for us to work with. 

We were each given a case of 24 pomegranates, so if anyone knows any recipes or ideas on how to use pomegranates, please let me know!

Milk is not refrigerated here and I am a little skeptical about it.  I have two cases of milk so I'm going to throw a couple containers in my fridge until I figure out a use for them.  They don't have cereal here and that's my main use for milk back in the States.  It's still in the 80's here so it's a little early for hot chocolate.

I've only ever heard of moon cakes before and now I have a box full of them.  They can come in different flavors and the fillings vary depending on the region.  We were given a variety box of them.  So far I have tried one with a nut filling and another with some kind of fruit paste in it.  Both were pretty good.

The fruit moon cake.

Even Starbucks does moon cakes.

The Chinese staff have been in charge of our Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations with teaching the students the history, songs, activities, and baking moon cakes.  The students have been practicing their performances for the families and it was definitely worth the work.  They sang songs, played instruments, and performed dances and skits.

Nursery 1 singing.

Nursery 2 performing.

 The students were not the only ones involved in performing for the families.  There are two female foreign teachers at my school and we got asked if we wanted to do a dance and we naively accepted.  The Chinese take their performances seriously.  Eight of us performed a ballet sort of routine in Chinese costumes while flanked by the rest of the staff who sang a song to accompany us.

For those of you who know anything about my dancing then you are probably terrified as you read this.  Luckily after the first dance practice they realized what a mistake it was involving me in the dance.  I was placed in the back row so I could hide/follow their lead.  But since they needed to showcase the foreigners, I was placed in the center for a short section.  I survived and did not injure anyone else, so I consider it a success.  Plus, everyone was loving that we got involved in the dance so hopefully they ignored my lack of grace.

After the performances students, family, and staff was able to mill around and enjoy all the activities and food.  It was super hot out and I had just finished my stressful dance routine so I'm not looking my best in these photos.  I almost didn't include them because I look blah but my kiddos look super cute so just ignore me.

Even my apartment complex celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival.  This morning they were blasting music, and had tents and tables set up with food and games.

View from below my balcony.

Stray thoughts:

• As of last weekend, I have a Chinese SIM card, which means my old 630 American number will be inactive until I put my SIM back in my phone when I come back in August.  I am still using an iPhone so iMessages still work but my number is now different.  If you want to add my Chinese number to my contact name in your iPhone then we can iMessage like before.  My number is +86 136-4386-5512
• Some people have been asking about a postal address.  You can print this image and attach it to your package or letter because you will need the Chinese characters.  This is my school address where we have 24 hour security who can pick up anything sent to me.  That way it isn't just sitting out at my apartment.  I am by no means expecting people to send me anything, I'm just attaching the image here for those who were asking.

P.S. This blog post was powered by these snacks.

A Sunday Afternoon Run

As previously mentioned, I am adding some pictures of my running route.  I live in a newer area of Zhengzhou, which has these circular canals surrounding a large business section of the city.  My apartment complex backs up to a section of the river canals so it is super easy for me to go on runs.  (And yes, mom, it is also very safe.  There are lots of people with dogs and children, etc.)

Don't let this photo fool you, mom.  I was dodging between people and dogs the whole run.

Apparently these are more guidelines than rules...

A Little About Zhengzhou

Despite being a large city, most westerners have never heard of it.  So here is a little about Zhengzhou.  It is the capital city of the Henan province.  The population is about 9 million people and is rapidly growing.  There are cranes and construction everywhere.  It is considered an emerging Chinese megacity.  Zhengzhou is a major transportation center for central China, which will be great for me when I begin traveling around the country.  It gets hot and humid in the summer and cool and dry in the winters.  I hear that it won't be as cold as Chicago winters and has very minimal snow.

A view from the front of my apartment complex.

A view of the back of my apartment complex (with the blue and red lights) at night.

Everyday at school I am becoming more comfortable in the new setting but there is still a lot to do and learn.  The kids are becoming more familiar with me and I'm not so much of the strange foreigner in their classroom.

I think we are singing about the weather.

Oh, the irony.

These kids are too cute.

Stretching it out.

Having a zen moment during recess?

Some of the girls staring down the gardener.

Maple Bear has 6 different campuses in and around Zhengzhou, with me being at the Eastern campus.  This past Friday I was able to go out to the golf course campus, which is outside the city and about 45 minutes from my school.  It is a brand new school in a very posh suburb that is being built up right now.  There are only 18 kids in the massive school and two foreign teachers.  To put that in perspective, I have 18 students in both of my two classes.

During our lunch break we went on a walk.  The buildings and houses near the school are very nice and very new and this fancy subdivision just sprung up from the wilderness.  We walked to this beautiful little temple, which is now very out of place smashed between the mansions and construction cranes.

I need to start taking more photos of the English used around the city.  I appreciate their efforts but sometimes it can come off as wildly inappropriate or nonsensical.  I'm keeping this a family friendly blog, so no posting the picture a student with a profane shirt.  If you want to see more of what I don't post then you can message me. :)

My local grocery store.

I should probably throw this away.

I went on a trip to a store called Metro, which is kind of like a mixture of Walmart and Costco.  It's on the other side of the city and so I had to take a cab.  Side note, since nobody speaks English, you have to either be able to speak Mandarin or have your destination's address written in Chinese characters when taking a cab.  Also, I'm getting pretty good at pantomiming.

The reason I wanted to go to Metro instead of my nearby grocery store is because this place has a large selection of foreign foods and they're actually not expired.  My grocery store has some foreign food but anything that has an expiration date has been expired for at least a year.  Apparently not many Chinese people buy jelly.  When I returned home I was feeling pretty good about myself and proud of my purchases.  I decided to take a couple pictures of my foreign luxuries to brag about to the other foreign teachers.  Well, you know what they say about karma.  While arranging my purchases I knocked over my honey and made a bit of a sticky mess.

Some of the goods.

Sad times.

Aside from the broken honey container, things are going pretty well here.  Outside of school, I am spending a lot of prepping, watching Prison Break, eating out with the other teachers, and generally hanging out with them.  I went on my first run today since I have been in China and will have to take some photos of my scenic river run route.  Anyone have music suggestions for my runs?

P.S. This blog post was powered by these snacks.