I must apologize for my long hiatus but thing have been crazy/I was sick. I would like to start with prayer request; my grandmother, Kay, was in the hospital again this week with more complications with her hip. If you can, please remember her.
Let’s see, I have not posted in something like 3 weeks so there is a lot to put up. I will start with the weekends and then go into classes. I went to the Silicon Valley of Beijing, Zhongguancun, a few weekends ago. My roommate wants to get a netbook and I wanted to get an idea prices on electronics here. There are 4 huge malls 7 or 8 stories high filled with small stalls selling everything electric; cell phones, cameras, computers, computer parts, full size copier machines… I have been thinking about getting a IBM Thinkpad Tablet because of how useful the one I used in Singapore was far teaching so I started bartering with a guy for one. He started at 22,000 RMB and I talked him down to 9000 and I think I could have gotten the guy next to him even lower because his only had vista instead of 7 on it. In the end I felt really bad walking away after I had made the guy work so hard bartering. From there we went to CarreFour, basically the French version of Wal-Mart and I was able to find breakfast cereal which has basically made my every morning since then.
Last weekend I got up early Saturday to meet some other teachers (who were late) at the school and then we went downtown to the embassy area and to an expat hang-out area. I found a few DVD stores and got some great deals. Basically it is about $1 a DVD so I got the entire series of West Wing, some random movies and then Planet Earth (to show in class because the kid are studying biomes right now). We also ate brunch at an American Restaurant (kind of like eating at a Chinese Restaurant in America). I had French Toast. It was not quite the same as back home but it was still really good. We went back to one of the other teachers apartment and watched The Blind Side. Sunday, I did a bunch of planning for the week and then went downtown to where Ben (another teacher) lives and he help me to buy a bike. It is a Chinese bike but a nice one with fenders and not a fixed gear. I looked at the Giant store but they were a lot more expensive (I got mine for like $85 and they adjusted it and threw in a bike lock). I then biked it back home and it felt really good to get a really good ride in (I have not biked that far since like…last spring).
This weekend I was getting over the flu so I did not get out as much. I skyped with my parents yesterday which was really nice. I was starting to really miss home (I thing being sick contributed to that) and seeing faces (before the internet connection got bad) and hearing voices from home boasted my spirits greatly. Then I waited around for the cleaning lady to come. She had to come in the evening because of holidays this week (I will explain further down). It is really funny to be here when she is here because we barely understand each other. I am reminded of the English guy and Portuguese women from Love Actually but with out the love interest part (she is at least 20 years older then me). Once she was done, I met up with some people in Wuduoko for Korean Barbeque (well I didn’t eat the BBQ but others did). I took the bus by myself and was really proud of myself but then it got dark and started raining and I could not see my landmarks so I got off about a mile early and so I jogged the last part.
Today, I slept in and then my roommate and I went downtown to the Old Beijing area and then planned to walk over to Tien Amen but walked the wrong way, then the right way a block the wrong way and ended up in the forbidden city (don’t worry it is not forbidden anymore as long as you pay the entrance fee) anyway I walked around that and never got to Tien Amen square like I planned, maybe next week.
Classes have been going really well. Thursday I had someone give the first test in my Chemistry class (someone else because that was the day I was out sick with the flu). The average was little lower then I would have liked but I think a lot of it was problems with the English not content. I am trying to think of ways that I can overcome that. Wednesday/Thursday this week were Mid-Autumn Festival which I missed a lot of the celebration of because of being sick but I did get to eat some good and not so good moon cakes. The Chinese school we are attached to had both days off and as a result had school on Saturday and Sunday which is why the cleaning lady who cleans and the school could not come until the evening.
I feel like I have more to say but I need to get the powerpoint for tomorrow’s class done so I will end here. Hope you are all doing well.
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