Excuses, Excuses

(Okay, I have to admit....I wrote this blog a long time ago.  I was unable to post it for a long time, and then once I was able to.....well, I just didn't post it for a long time.  So here it is for those of you who read my random, unpredictable, infrequent blogs.)

I know it’s been far too long since I have written on my blog.  Honestly, I had no idea I would be this bad about keeping you updated with life here.  I do have a number of excuses:

1. Sickness: We get sick here so much more than we ever did in the States.  It’s like being a first year teacher when you catch all the latest bugs, except worse because not only do we face new viruses, we are in a totally different country.  So after four solid years of building up immunity to the diseases children bring into school in the States, we now are starting all over.  Plus the pollution here makes things much worse.  We often battle breathing problems and head aches due to it. 

2. Bad Internet:  A while back our internet just stopped working.  Of course it had to stop when Jason was out of town.  I sought help and was told that my internet probably ran out.  So I went to pay the bill….twice. The first time I thought maybe I didn’t pay enough – I can’t read the receipt! I thought maybe I was in the negative…I don’t know how much RMB I need to pay to last a month. Anyway, that wasn’t it.  Our router was broken.  That was a painful week.  Jason was out of town and I had no internet.  The internet is my only connection to the world.  It’s how I make phone calls home, watch tv, check FB, send emails, etc….  Well I’ve probably paid for enough internet to get us through the school year. 

3. No VPN: I’ve been without a VPN now for two weeks. This is painfully long.  I might as well not have internet.  A VPN allows me to access all the American websites, like FB, blogspot, hulu, Netflix… you name it. It’s actually still out.  I’m writing this blog on Word, hoping that I’ll have access to my blog soon. 

4. Busyness: Life here is much busier than I anticipated.  Now that I’m here, I totally understand why life is busy.  I thought life was busy in the States.  It wasn’t.  Here, our jobs are really the purpose in life here.  Everything is about furthering our purpose in being here.  Yes, we still get to go out and have fun time to time, but the way of life just feels busy.  Even to head to Pizza Hut (which, by the way, is a very classy restaurant here – they serve much more than pizza, things like mashed potatoes) entails catching a taxi or hopping on the bus. Traffic here is intense, so it takes a long time to get anywhere.  A trip out to the mall becomes a day trip.

Jason has a pretty heavy class load.  He is teaching some heavy-duty high school classes.  He teaches an AP class.  He teaches MUN and he led a group of the students by himself to Singapore for a conference. He put in so many hours getting ready for that trip.  It’s not like in the States where you can just hire a tour company to handle all the details for you.  No. He handled it all.  He booked the flights, the hotel, the transportation…All of it.  I’m very amazed.  He could be a travel agent.  I think I would have dropped under that pressure, but he soared.  As far as my busyness….well, I love the two English classes I’m teaching.  I don’t feel like the load is heavy, but just right.  It’s Yearbook class that bogs me down.  It, too, is not like in the States.  I was a part of a Yearbook class in my middle school years, high school years, college years, and teaching years in the States, and the Yearbook was always organized by a third party company like Jostens or Walstead.  Now that I’m without it, I realize how amazing these companies are!  They do so much of the organizing – the ladder, the spreads, the pictures, etc…. all neatly organized on an online site.  Here, it’s all up to me.  I am that third party company.  There is no company to hold us accountable to deadlines.  No company to organize the photos. No company to organize the ladder.  I do it all.  It’s just a totally different type of yearbook.  I think I’m getting the hang of it, but it is certainly time consuming.  Working with high school students as apposed to middle school students in yearbook is also quite different.  Okay, on to the next excuse…

5. Tiredness: When I’m not busy, I just crash.  (Well even when I am busy, I often crash.) It’s 3:20 in the afternoon right now, and I feel like I could go to bed for the night.  I think with the sickness and busyness, my body just gets tired quicker.  So in those moments when I have time, I think about blogging, and then I quickly give up the idea for something better like…mindless tv watching.  (Of course, without reliable internet, that’s getting more difficult.)  I was in a very good routine of going to the gym after school and working out, but a number of things caused me to fall out of this rhythm.  I definitely feel like I have it more together when I am able to work out consistently.  New Year’s resolution: get back my workout routine! 

6. Travel: I don’t think this is really that valid of an excuse, but while I’m listing excuses for not blogging, I might as well include this.  I went to Thailand for a half week over the Thanksgiving break.  This was the same time that Jason was in Singapore.  It was glorious.  I really enjoyed the sun, although, I hardly got enough of it.  I was there for a teaching conference. Thus I was inside most of the time in teacher meetings.  The sessions were good.  The food was great.  The hotel was nice.  But the best part was being able to go out at night to the night market and going to get cheap massages.  I love Thai hand crafted items- jewelry, décor, clothing, etc.  It’s all very beautiful.  If I lived in Thailand, I would have no problem decorating my home.  Here, it is not so easy.  The night market here is rather amusing to go to, but they don’t have the same handcrafted items.  They sell socks, pirated movies, underwear, shoes, hand warmers, lint trimmers, iphone cases, among many other oddities. The night market in Thailand had beautiful jewelry, wood carved candle holders, frames, and jewelry boxes.  It had beautiful dresses and skirts. Lovely art and lanterns.  I could only bring back so much.  On our last night in Thailand, my friend Bekah and I ventured to a larger night market.  It was overwhelmingly marvelous! There were so many beautiful artifacts for such great prices. We had so much fun walking around and buying souvenirs for friends and family members.  The market was probably a mile long. That last night was definitely the best night in Thailand. We finished our night by getting foot massages.  While we were getting massages, a rainy thunderstorm started.  We were able to watch from our cozy chairs (sitting indoors) as our other foreigner friends were running back to the hotel, sopping wet from the downpour.  The power went out, which made for a relaxing evening of massage by candlelight, listening to the thunder roar.  It was quite memorable.  So, I certainly wasn’t thinking about blogging while in Thailand.

I actually think about blogging quite often.  I usually have energy and inspiration to blog when I am nowhere near a computer.  So, I blog in my head with the intent of heading back home and writing it all down.  If only I could upload directly from my brain, you would have a lot of amusing experiences of mine to read about.

Well, how is that for blogging excuses?  If only you knew how much I thought about all of you.  I am not very faithful at social media.  I try to stay connected, but I am not one to post all my thoughts on FB.  I just never have been.  I’m sure some of you have found out more about my life through the posts of my friends here.  You can always bug me for more information.  Sometimes I just need the extra push.

I’m sharing a picture of something that amused me.  I decided to stop and get some veggies the other day.  Veggies in Walmart are of horrible quality.  They are often moldy.  So, I stopped by a little store that I know has good vegetables.  This store also sells meat.  This was hanging outside of the store.  It took me a second to figure out what it was.  Do you know what it is? 

My Week Off

Last week we had a week off of school for the Chinese Moon Festival Holiday.  During this time, the moon is at it's biggest and brightest.  People will travel to be with their families.  Some families end up spending the whole week together.  A lot was happening in our little area during that week.  There were concerts and prizes given away.  Of course, with my limited Chinese, I really didn't understand anything that was happening.

Moon cakes are really popular during this week.  I think the most traditional moon cake looks like a roll on the outside, but on the inside it is filled with red bean paste - and then in the very middle is a duck egg yolk.  So when you bite into it, you see the night sky (red bean paste) and the moon (duck egg yolk).  Red beans are like a type of dessert here.  They are put inside drinks, on top of desserts, in bread, in pastries, etc.  I can handle them in small amounts, but biting into red bean paste was a little much for me.  My favorite kind of moon cake was a fruit filled one.

Anyway, during this week, Jason and I were able to rest and catch up a bit.  I went on a scooter adventure.  My friend helped to buy a new battery for my scooter - it had been stolen.  So I was excited to get back on it and scooter around.  A group of us scootered to this place called Happy Valley.  It has a bunch of stores, restaurants, and an amusement park.  I like it best because it has a Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and a sports store called Decathlon.  Pizza Hut is pretty classy here.  They serve more than just pizza. And some of their pizzas are pretty inventive.  The first time that I went to Pizza Hut, we ordered a pizza that had shrimp in the crust.  There were little shrimp and cheese bubbles all along the crust.  It was actually pretty good.

The highlight of my week off was our visit to the Panda Reservation. You can see some of the pictures that Jason and I took above. We went early in the morning before the crowd got there.  It ended up being so worth it, because by the time we were leaving, the crowd of people was unbearable.  

The pandas were so cute.  They look like giant teddy bears.  They just sit there, or sometimes lay there, chomping on bamboo.  They collect huge piles of bamboo. With their paws, they quickly peel the bamboo, and then they eat the insides.  Sometimes they'll get into a little tug over a piece of bamboo with another panda.  I think they are too lazy to get into a real fight though.  They just lounge around and eat. Oh the life....

Homesickness

I have not been as faithful about writing on my blog as I thought I would be.  Life here is quite busy.  Lately, the biggest challenge that is affecting me is homesickness.  I've always struggled with living in the moment.  I seem to always look to the future for the next step in life, and often times this leaves me mourning the past.  I sometimes recognize the gifts of life after they are taken away from me.  This is how homesickness feels.

I know homesickness is a normal stage of life in moving overseas.  Homesickness is like grieving the death of someone.  I am grieving the death of my former life.  I knew before moving that I would face this, but I had no idea how hard it would really be.  I'm starting to miss things I never realized I would miss.

Right now I am stuck at home because I am sick - literally sick.  I have some sort of virus - sore throat, headaches, sinus pressure.... Being sick has only heightened my awareness of my homesickness.  It's hard not having the comforts of home while I am sick.

A couple of years ago I got really really sick.  It was around the time of the H1N1 virus.  The doctor said that I didn't have the virus, but I had a hard time believing him considering the fact that I had all the same symptoms.  I think I missed work for a whole week.  What brought me the most comfort during this time were the things my family did for me.  My mom delivered new magazines and different kinds of soups to me every couple of days.

I have other memories of being sick and having my family take care of me.  Jason and I have moved around so much since the beginning of our marriage, that it was hard for us to develop a real sense of home.  Because of this, my parent's house has always been my home.  I grew up there.  I have so many memories there.  So when I am sick, it's nice to just be able to go over there for dinner.  I can't do that now.

Jason is doing a good job of taking care of me. However, there is just something about the comfort of a mom that no one can replace.  So yes, I wish I could just have my mom stop by with new magazines and some soup.  I think I would feel so much better.

While I've been facing my homesickness, I've been taking some time to think about all the things I miss.  I am no longer in denial about missing home.  It's a fact.  I miss it.  I miss the hills. Someone recently asked me what I did at home to relieve stress.  Before I moved to China, I couldn't answer that question very well.  But now that I don't have my stress reliever, it's quite clear to me what it was.  I would walk the hills.  Sometimes I would walk my parent's dogs. Sometimes I would walk with my mom or my dad and the dogs. Sometimes I walked with a friend.  And sometimes I just walked by myself.  It gave me a chance to think and clear my mind.  It gave me a chance to exercise.  It gave me a chance to breath in revitalizing fresh air.  It gave me a chance to admire the beauty of God's creation.  I also really enjoyed admiring all the beautiful homes.  I always felt better after walking.

There are no hills in the area I live in.  It's flat. I live in a big city, so it's also really congested with traffic.  I don't have the dogs to cheer me up here either.  The air is not fresh.  I live in one of the most polluted cities in the world.  When I walked the hills, I could escape people.  I can't ever escape people here.

Instead, I have joined a gym. It won't ever replace the satisfaction of my walks through the hills, but it will help me to stay healthy. It will give me a chance to exercise.  I have a friend that I work out with, so if I really need to vent, I will have that opportunity.  I think it will become my new stress reliever while I am here.

Another thing that I really miss is the freedom of driving a car.  I honestly didn't think I would miss this.  I am always content to let another person drive.  But I miss the ability to hop in the car and go where I want to go.  It's not that simple here.  I can get the basics by walking across the street to Walmart (which, by the way, is not like Walmart in the States).  I can walk to a fruit or veggie market to get my produce.  But aside from that, all of the other places I need to get to require a form of transportation. I have yet to take the bus here.  Buses here are a cheap way to get around, but they are very crowded and take a long time.  I can catch a taxi, but this requires the basic knowledge to tell the driver where you want to go - my Chinese is still very limited.  So sometimes, I just feel trapped.  Right now, Jason and I are in great need for a trip to Ikea.  Ikea is the place to get everything you need here.  Back at home, I would have had a number of stores to choose from, but here - it is just Ikea.  Winter is coming, and the weather is getting cold, so I really need to get over there so I can load up on more blankets and such.  But taking the bus is a two hour trip - one way! So we will most likely take a taxi, but going to Ikea becomes a whole day trip.  It's not like I can just hop in my car and stop by Fred Meyers after work.

We were told in our training before moving here that doing basic everyday things - like grocery shopping, paying bills, etc. - would take seven times longer here.  It is so true! Everything we do takes longer.  I miss the simplicity of life back home!

There are many other things I miss; perhaps I will write about them another day. Of course, the greatest source of homesickness is missing my family and my friends.  So please forgive my inconsistent communication.  Sometimes it's painful to communicate because it is a reminder of what I am missing.  I am working on it though.  I can't promise how consistent I will be at blogging either.

I know that all that I am feeling is a stage in life.  I don't know how long it will last, but I know that I am not alone in this.

My New Life

It's been awhile since my last blog post.  Life here has been really busy.  We have officially made it through two weeks of school.  We're starting to get the hang of things around here.  Doing normal everyday things tends to take quite a bit longer here because we still are learning our way around, and we don't speak the language yet.  I have so much to share, but it's hard to write about everything.  So I am going to show you some pictures that may give you a little glimpse of our life here.

Soon after we arrived, we decided we needed scooters.  With Jason's injured foot, it was hard for him to get around.  So we went ahead and purchased our scooters.  In this picture, Jason is getting ready for a test drive.

This is us after we purchased our scooters! I am on the left, Jason in the middle, and our friend Bekah is on the right.

Jason and I have discovered this great little restaurant, Bodhi Tree, very close to where we live.  We go there a little too often.  They serve Western food - or at least their version of Western food.

This is the bacon pizza we like to order at Bodhi Tree.

This is the area in front of Walmart.  Every night people gather to dance to Tibetan music.  They are very faithful to dance every single night.  We can hear the music from our apartment.  Someday maybe we'll join in :)

This is part of our school campus.  Blue skies are rare in Chengdu, but we have been fortunate to have quite a few since we have been here.  We just soak in these days.  When winter sets in, we will just see gray.

This is the front of our school on that beautiful blue day.

Beautiful sunset.

This was taken from Bekah and Sarah's apartment. They live on the 15th floor.

There are many beautiful mansion villas - but it seems that many of them are empty.

Sunset pictures taken from our balcony.

   

This is the view from the top of our building.  We can see Walmart and an arcade.  We live on the 4th floor and in order to get to the top we have to walk up the stairs past the 11th floor.

We recently got set up with a bank account here.  It is funny that the Construction Bank was under construction.

Today I had the opportunity to go to the fruit, veggie, and meat market.  Do you see the feet?

Chickens, ducks, doves, pigeons - here is another way to buy meat.

This boy was taking a nap on the rice sacks.

Today I purchased a bag full of fresh vegetables and a bag full of fruit for less than $7 (US dollars).  It was great! 

This is the bus I rode home on today from the market.

Here are some things we love about where we leave:

-bubble tea smoothies

-the convenience of Walmart and restaurants right across the street

-getting around on scooters

-beautiful surroundings

-our apartment

Here are some things we miss:

-fresh Oregon air

-organized traffic (traffic rules are optional here)

-Pizza delivery, Cornucopia (our favorite restaurant in Eugene), and Jason also misses diet Pepsi

Of course we really miss our family and friends!

Thanks for reading!

The Apartment

We really love our apartment!  It is on the 4th floor and has a lovely view.  We have 3 bedrooms all furnished with beds!  We have room for many guests to come and stay with us.  So if you are planning a trip to China, let us know.  Here are some pictures.  These are the "before" pictures - before we have personalized our home and purchased our own belongings.

Here is our living room.  The couch is really comfortable!  The couch faces a TV, surrounded by two large bookcases.

 Here is the view from our living room.  We have a ton of large windows in every room - tons of light!

 This is our kitchen. We bought a toaster oven so we can bake.  

The rack above is a dish sanitizer to be used after hand washing the dishes - I haven't figured it out yet.

Here is our washer - it's outside on the balcony.  Above it is a line for hang drying clothes.

All of this was in our welcome basket!

Instant coffee :)

Guest bedroom #1

Guest bedroom #2



Window seat in bedroom #2.  I really like it! I am making this room my office.

We have a bath tub!


Our bathroom in the master bedroom.

Our bedroom

Our teammates are so generous - they lent us towels and bedding. We were able to purchase new bedding from Ikea! I'll put up photos sometime later when I have everything decorated. 

This is the sunrise view from our bedroom.  Beautiful.

We have a shopping street right across the street from our complex.  There are so many cute stores and restaurants.  I can't wait to explore them all.  We have a Walmart directly across from us, and I have already been there many times.  It is super convenient! 

What do you see in this picture? Jason's favorite place.  It's right across from us!


More pictures and stories to come. Stay tuned! 
(Sorry for the funky layout of this blog - I am still learning the blogging program.)

The Fast Pass

Wow! We've been in China a whole week, and I have so much to tell.  This is really the first time I have been able to just sit down and be... and I really should be working on something right now considering the fact that I still haven't found a place for every item from our suitcases and school starts on Tuesday.
Anyway, I thought I would tell you about our flight experience.  As you can see in the picture, Jason has a bum leg right now.  His injury came at the worst time ever! However, we have found some benefits.  People who can't walk get their own assistance (plus lots of sympathy) in an airport.  From the get go, Jason somehow charmed the lady checking us in, and she gave us a discount for checking our luggage and didn't even bother to weigh them.  She saved us quite a bit of money! Jason was given a wheel chair and someone to push the wheel chair at each airport.  We got to cut in front of everybody for security and never had to wait in a line.  Plus, we never had to get lost.  The wheel chair assistant always took us exactly to the right place in the fastest manner!  We certainly would've gotten lost on our own in Hong Kong.  So if you ever want to get through a large airport quickly - take an injured person with you :) It's like Disney's fast pass!
For some reason, the airlines always chose the smallest woman to push Jason (around 4'8" tall).  They would have to push him up hill and put all their strength into it, and it was really funny to watch.  I did feel bad for them, and so did Jason.  Overall, traveling to Chengdu went well. All of our suitcases came through! Yay! And we were greeted by a large cheering group from our school.

This is what Jason had to deal with on his screen during our 13 hour flight.  This girl kept flipping her hair over his screen.  Then Jason would slowly push it off, and she would just flip it right back.  It was hilarious!  Who does that?

Packing!

The packing has begun! Jason and I are gearing up for our big move to China. We were originally supposed to fly out on July 24th, but our date has been pushed back to August 3rd. It took awhile for us to get our Letter of Invitations (LOI) from China. But they arrived in the mail yesterday, and we shipped off our applications for our visas! If everything goes well, we will get our our visas in the mail sometime next week, and then we will fly out Friday or Saturday.


However, packing has been quite the chore. A week ago Jason rolled his ankle pretty badly, and now he is on crutches....all of that to say, the work is left to me :)  I have tapped into my inner superwoman and have gotten most of it done. However, lugging all 8 or 9 or 10 suitcases (however many we end up with when I am all done packing) through the airport by myself is going to be quite the comical show.


We appreciate all the support and encouragement from everyone. We want to share our adventure with you, so stay posted for more updates!