Hello from Zhengzhou!

Well, I have officially been in China for two weeks and have completed my first week of teaching.  It's been a whirlwind of activity so far and I'm only just now settling in.  Thank you to everyone who kept me in your thoughts and prayers as I have set out on this adventure!

I am working at Maple Bear Canadian Preschool - Zhengzhou.  I have two nursery classes and I spend a half day with each.  I have several Chinese staff members in each class that work with the children all day and keep things running as smoothly as you can with 18 squirrelly three and four year olds.

One of my classrooms.

School yard fashion in China.

dance break

The other foreign teachers at Maple Bear are amazing and have helped make the transition here so much easier.  They have been showing me around and taking me out to eat.  The food here is really awesome and really cheap so I'm trying lots of local dishes.

Cigarettes in a claw machine?

The school provided me with an apartment that is about a twenty minute walk from the school.  I could almost feel like I'm back in the States when I'm here, aside from the shower situation.

On the upside, I'm cleaning the floor every time I shower.

I have a laundry machine but no dryer so my laundry dries from the racks on the ceiling of my screened in balcony.

During a national holiday last weekend the school invited all the staff on a trip.  We took buses to Qufu and Taishan mountain in Shandong Province. In Qufu, we visited Kongfu, Kongmiao, and Konglin, which was where Confucius lived, worshipped, taught, and was buried, along with his descendants.

The following day we were in Tai'an and climbed up Taishan Mountain, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  With it being a national holiday, we weren't the only ones who decided to climb up the mountain.  Thousands of people hiked up the thousands of steps to reach the top.  I can guarantee thousands of calves were sore the next day.

The foreign teachers on the trip.

Dongyue Temple at the top of Mount Tai.

About 7,000 steps up.

Stray thoughts:

• I knew living in China would be different but culture shock is a real thing and I struggle with it each day.  Oreos, peanut butter, and Netflix have been helping.  I never knew I could miss cheese so much.
• The roads, sidewalks and everywhere you can imagine are overrun by scooters, e-bikes carts, and bikes.  Cars will even occasionally hop the curb and drive along sidewalks to avoid traffic.  Despite the motor madness, the roads (and sidewalks) are relatively safe and largely accident free.  I plan to be part of the honking commute with the purchase of an e-bike in the near future. (Thanks Grandpa!)
• I am what I like to call "China famous."  There is little to no diversity in Zhengzhou, with the only foreigners being teachers at various schools and universities in the area.  So whenever and wherever I go, I am constantly being stared at.  People are also not very discreet about taking pictures.  When a group of us go out, we can cause quite a scene.  Babies are handed to us and lots of group photos are taken.
• I'll try to write an entry every week or so but will probably be posting pictures to my Instagram more often if you want to check that out.  https://instagram.com/jackielae/
• If you have an iPhone, you can send me iMessages like normal.  Otherwise people can download the app WeChat.  My id is jackielaesch and we can chat that way!