Home sick strikes...

Ugh- I'm having another moment of home sickness. And not- even that I want to go home- I just miss my family and friends. I more am having a "I wish people would come to China" sickness.

But I'm even missing my ex-students and my co-workers. I've been having crazy dreams every night and you wouldn't believe who has been popping up in them. It's crazy that is is almost August- and this is the time that I would be looking at my calendar and starting to mentally prepare for the coming year. I would start figuring out what the over arching theme and what projects I was wanting to attempt....

So in honor of feeling a little down and out here are some pictures more for my sake of the past year....

BEHIND

I am behind on my updates. I really truly am.

So let me try and do this succinctly as possible. This week has been relatively uneventful compared to the last couple weeks. Romp N Roll is having a quiet week compared to our pretty busy week last week. We had a lot of students enroll last week- but this week has just been sluggish.

And I haven't really minded- I've been feeling sluggish myself. The weeks are starting to bleed together and I had to really sit here and think if it was last week that I was so sick- or the week before.

Jill and I stumbled upon the most amazing park on Monday. We got sort of lost- we knew where we were going- but we headed south instead of east. And just kept walking. But it was a fortunate discovery because we found a the public park. It has a huge lake filled with gold fish and little pagodas. There were SO MANY goldfish. One of the pictures is of a family feeding the fish and you can see the FRENZY. It was crazy and beautiful. In the center of the park is an actual factual water park- which looks perfect since we've been having PAINFULLY hot weather. At one point we stumbled upon an old man singing his heart out and I got a great video- and I CAN post it to the site- I just have to get PUFF going on my mac. Which actually- if anybody finds a safe version of PUFF for Mac I would greatly appreciate it. It generates an American IP address and is the way I circumvent the great firewall of China and on to Facebook. But back to the park...

It has little hills and paths to explore. I took a picture of a no spitting sign. Which is one nasty habit that the Beijingers needs to break. The like to hock a loogey like nobody's business. Or is it HACKaloogey? As Jill appropriately put it- it's like they are hacking from the bottom depths of their souls. I may carry that little sign around with me- as a general warning. Not around the American Princess!!!!!

The park was such a little gem!

Now we are just anxiously awaiting the arrival of Jill's boyfriend, Danny. He will be arriving here on Sunday and all of RnR is going out to celebrate his arrival- AND all of the August Birthday's! About 7 employees are born in August- so time to par-tay! The big debate is whether to go to a bar, club, or karaoke bar. I'm not too picky. I just want to go out and have a fun night. It will be on Sunday- after my marathon day of teaching. We are doing our SECOND preview of English class- and we have 7 kids PREVIEWing! Eek! Only 1 member is coming. Geez. Talk about pressure.

When Danny get's here we are also beginning our SUPER touristy whirl-wind tour of China. Great Wall, Summer Palace, Tianamen Square, Food Street, Forbidden City, Birds Nest! Here we come!!!!! We also have a music festival!

OH and finally we have internet at our house! Which is amazing news. So skyping will be much easier. Much. Much. Much easier. So do the cool thing that all the other kids are doing- and SKYPE! DO IT! PEER PRESSURE!

On that note- I'm leaving! Of course with LOVE LOVE LOVE!

CELL-Y PHONE

Guess what y'all????

I have a cell phone! That's right- I got the chinese digits! And I only have 4 contacts- I gave my number to all my coworkers even though half of them don't speak English. Hilarious! I can't wait for that awkward conversation.
It's 11 numbers- and if you want it you can e-mail me- and I'll give you the digits. Just be prepared to pay for it- because surprise surprise it's expensive to call China.

Most exciting things about my cell phone: It's a Nokia so it has SNAKE on it. Remember snake? Hours of fun and I have only had it for a few hours. It also has a flash light on it. Super sweet! The hilarious awkward thing is that since the cell phone number is so long I took a piece of masking tape and wrote my numbers on it and taped it to the back of my cell phone. I may officially be an old lady.

I need to do a longer update- BUT I'm feeling lazy. So- I have a phone. And I miss everybody! And I spent way too long on Facebook today!

Love! Love! Love!

The Celery Stir Fries Flesh

This post some how got lost in cyberworld. It is from Monday, July 26th.

So- what has transpired since I last sat at these keys? Well- we had a very successful Sunday. I taught my first tumble tunes class ever- and had 3 kids enroll out of 3 non-members. Thats 100% conversion rate! Woot woot! :) Jill also got 2 or 3 kids to enroll- which is a definitely up-tick in business. One of the BEST selling points for RnR is that we've had people go out and try other kids gyms- and surprise surprise- they always come back to RnR!

After Tumble Tunes most of my day was sitting around waiting for the Birthday Bash Event. I caught up with a few people via Skype. Read some Washington Post. Hacked China Internet and browsed Facebook. Kind of boring. While Jill and I were waiting for our lunch to arrive one of the new sales girls came and tried to talk to us. Now- this is a pretty typical. Even though most of the sales/marketing people don't speak English we manage to communicate and cut-up quite a bit. We're all becoming better and better at charades. The new girl spoke very little English and did manage to say that she wants to learn English. Jill and I try to be the most helpful, nice, obliging people we can be. She offered us pigs feet. We smiled and politely said no. So she gave us jasmine tea- which was quite good. And then she wouldn't leave us alone. Even worse she kept on demanding that our friend Nana interpret for us. She really didn't have much to say- she has a son. She has lived in Beijing for awhile. And she kept doing the thing where she would repeat what she wanted to say in Chinese but say it slower and over and over again. Sorry lady. Still not getting it. Sometimes she would grab Nana and shake her to interpret, even though Nana was trying to enjoy her lunch break by watching something. She was being plain rude and not getting the social cues of 'we don't want to talk any more!!' At that point I politely excused myself, went to the restroom, and went to take a nap in the gym. I even grabbed the parachute as a blanket....I'm very resourceful. But she has earned herself a nickname: Tea girl. Later that afternoon Tea girl got in a SCREAMING match with one of the other sales girls, Cici. Now Cici is just about the cutest thing you have ever met. She always dresses SO super cute and gives hugs and kisses to everybody. It was very fight dramatic- and one of the managers couldn't get the girls to stop yelling at each other. Apparently Cici had told the new girl to stop complaining and the Tea girl responded by telling her to shut up. Finally, another manager came in and told Cici to leave and cool down. We later found out that none of the sales people like Tea girl. She's only been here a week and has been over stepping her bounds with everybody.

Last night was Rompy's Birthday Bash. A premiere event for our parents to see how the Birthday's run. This has been one thing that culturally we have been warned will not really be successful. Here in China birthday parties are generally just the family, maybe a close friend or two, and not as near as extravagant. No big gifts or decorations. And it did end up being a bit of a struggle. It was A LOT of adults who really did NOT want to listen. I'm not sure I've mentioned this- but here in Beijing there is no such thing as a stay at home Mom/Dad. Both parents work during the day and the grandparents stay home and raise the kids. In RnR America usually one, maybe both of the parents, will come to class. Here is Beijing both parents come and at least one, if not both of the grandparents. Sometimes a nanny or an aunt will also come along. What results is that for every child you have 3-5 adults in attendance. We had about 8 kids yesterday and 35-40 adults. I was hoarse by the end of the party and we only did an abbreviated version. It was exhausting- and it did not end with that satisfied feeling of 'Phew! That was awesome!' It was more like "OMG- THAT WAS STRESSFUL!"

One cool thing is that we did order a two tier cake for all of our guests. Luyin had been telling me that Chinese cake SOOO good- so much better then American cake. I was hoping that the guests weren't going to demolish the cake and THANKFULLY we had almost half of the second tier left over. I grabbed a big slice ASAP. It had whipped cream frosting with pineapple mixed into it on yellow pound-ish cake. But- it wasn't mind-blowing or anything. Luyin didn't know that I came from RVA and I have been eating the world famous Ukrops To Die For Buttercream Dream of DEATH! haha. After that I stretched out on the couch to unwind from the stressful event and, honestly, to pout a little. All of a sudden I saw Nana and one of the Sales girls running full speed to the gym. I sort of noticed but went back to moping. Then CiCi came over and gave me the biggest smile. I smiled back. Then she whacked me in the face with two hold hands of whipped cream frosting. And it was on!!! I ran to the cake and scooped up some frosting. I immediately got one of the boys, Shoo. But to be fair he got me first. It was an all out war with all of us just smearing icing in each others faces. It was the BEST de-stresser. I think all of us needed to decompress after the past week. It has been crazy with hospitals, events, crazy customers, crazy workers, and just plain craziness. It went on for about 15 minutes. We took a group picture- and once I get it from Nana I will post it. It was HILARIOUS. After that we cleaned up. And realized our dear boss Luyin had been absent from these goings on. So I cleaned up- scooped up the last of the icing and waited. He poked his head out of his office and saw somebody else coming from him (rookie mistake) so he slammed the door. I just kept waiting. Finally he came out when the coast was clear- and I started walking towards him, but staring past him. Right when I got to him another girl grabbed his hands and I got him right across the face! Jill came in from behind and got him in the ear and neck. It was perfect!

After work we all went out to have some Mongolian food. Luyin treated everybody and the food was good. Although there are always weird things. Most places also have an English menu- and it is not always the best translation. That is where I stole the name for this post from. They offered at the restaurant a dish titled 'The Celery Stir Fries Flesh.' Sounds appetizing, right? They also had a huge variety of Sorps. Corn Sorp. Tomato Sorp. Chicken Noodle Sorp. HILARIOUS. One gross thing was the petrified egg on top of weird tofu. Petrified egg is black- why in god's name would you eat that? Also they had a fish soup-with the entire fish in there. It was like an episode of Bizarre Food with Andrew Zimmern The best part was most deft. sweat potatoes that are sugar glazed. I could have eaten that whole fricken plate. They served us at a round table with a HUGE lazy susan in the center. It's nice family style dining and everybody gets a little bit of everything. Also- when you order a lot of food they provided free beer. Now- this was something I had yet to experience- Chinese drinking rituals. Everybody gets a small glass- like the size of a juice glass. They kept bring in the 22's of some Chinese beer. When you toast you don't just sip off the glass. You drink the whole thing. And then they immediately refill your glass. Apparently we had a lot to Toast last night. We toasted to the business, we toasted the beautiful women, we toasted the handsome boys, we toasted more money for Luyin, we toasted that we hope Cici gets a boyfriend, we toasted just all that could be toasted- except bread (har har...) Then we began races to see who could empty the glass fastest. These people were on a mission. By the time we left I counted something near 32 empty 22' s of beer. Our dear Nana was drinking a lot. And I have learned that she get's very bossy when she has had a few. She came back with up to our apartment and spent the night. It was nice having our third musketeer here.

Today we lazy monday'd it up! Naps before noon. Slow to do anything. But we did venture halfway across the city to Jenny Lou's: The Import Grocer. It was nice to browse the aisles and recognize a lot of things. They have lots of pasta and pasta sauces, cheeses, cereals, and good looking produce. Also their candy section is to die for. It is pricey so we were very picky. I got Salt & Pepper: FINALLY! And it was only 23 yuan for the set- compared to the 23 it costs at Carrefour for just sea salt. Very exciting. Oh and snapple. I treated myself to one snapple.

Quick Pics

Pictures of:
The Icing Fight
Jill and I- acting out how we feel most of the time in China
Me with one of my students- terrified of the blonde haired girl
Finally- sticky sticky bubble gum face! Ew! Bubblegum!

Beware! Giant Dove's Attacking Beijing!

Another crazy advertisement from China. This is for a bank- I guess instilling trust in their customer by showing that one day your city may be under attack by the scariest peace dove you've ever seen. And who do you want protecting your money? Bank of China. Bird Proof Banking.

Eat it!

Yesterday was an exciting day for a few reason. First and foremost- Learn English with Rompy debuted! Secondly- my appetite came back!

So- like I said- Learn English with Rompy stormed onto the kids scene yesterday. I had 6 students age 3-6 show up at 6:30PM for an hour and a half class. I was SO painfully nervous before. I am not an ESL teacher and was really questioning getting myself involved in this class. I sat with my own plans and read them over and over and over. I felt as if I was having a mental block and could not remember my own timing or order. But before I knew it, it was 6:30. Lights, Camera, ACTION!

The class went AMAZINGLY. My calms were very quickly calmed because the kids were SO in to it! Another thing was that at the beginning of class I prefaced it and REALLY encouraged parent participation- and they LISTENED! That has been a bit of a problem here in China- parents aren't naturally inclined to act utterly and completely goofy. But these parents sure did! With in no time I had the kids saying RUN, JUMP, SIT DOWN, STAND UP & FLY all in English! They could recognize what they were doing and saying it as they did it. Double high fives to all the kids- seriously! The coolest part was at the end we played a matching game where we had our RnR Flash Cards against a wall- and I had printed out pictures of other things (a frog, a plane, eating dinner) and the kids had to shout out which one it matched too. This was a part I was dreading- it was going to either be the BEST part proving that the kids could APPLY their knowledge to something outside of the RnR context. OR it was going to be a worst part proving that the kids were just parroting what I said/did without getting the concept. I held up the first picture- an airplane- and immediately a little girl yelled out 'FLY!' Phew! They got it! I went through a stack of about 20 pictures and they figured all of them out! And by the end they were so excited they had squished me into a corner so they could see the picture first! Hurrah!

The other thing I mentioned was my appetite came back. After my 'incident' at the hospital I really haven't been eating much. I would MENTALLY really want to eat a big lunch and it would get there, I would take one look at it and eat a little rice instead. I threw away so much good food. Also, my nose has been really off. Or really sensitive I should say. Everything smelled SO strongly to the point that most of it would make me sick. To make matters worse one of our sales girls came back from her home town- the fishing port capitol of china- with all these weird fish items on Friday. The items seemed to pretty much be Fish Jerky and Squid Jerky. People were eating it progressively through out the day and that strong fish jerky scent was making me want to yak. Ugh! But then yesterday we went out to lunch and tried this Italian place that did not look super promising. I hate to say it- but I wasn't sure that Chinese people could quite do Italian food justice. They brought out our meals- Jill and I both got Penne Alfredo- and we both WOLFED it down in 5 minutes. It would have been faster but it came straight out of the oven and I was not about to send myself back to the hospital with a burned mouth. It felt so good to eat an entire meal. After that my whole outlook on life pretty much changed.

Today is my last day of work for the week! We have a birthday bash demo for our members and I get to run it! So excited! I'm also teaching a Tumble Tunes class but other then that today is smooth sailing. If you are on Skype late this evening today would be a good day to catch me.

Quick Note- poor Nana got sick this week and even though Jill is hating to admit it- she has a cold. Send some good vibes their way- especially since they took such good care of me when I was down and out!

Jill and I don't quite know what to do yet this weekend. I think we are going to go to the Art Gallery as intended last Tuesday. We are also going to go to a store called Jenny Lous. According to the Alaskan Ex-Pat we bumped into Jenny Lous in the IMPORT grocery store for us. They've got all the good things- Cheese, Pasta, high quality produce, BAGELS. This may be a dangerous trip- in that I may spend entirely way too much. But who care's? Entirely WAY too much here is all together NOTHING back in the U.S.

Alright! Love! Love! LOVE!

Truckin' Along

So the Washington Post had an article about how Summer is half over- and I thought to myself- wait what REALLY? But- it is almost the end of July.

Life has continued on since the drama of the early week. I returned back to work on Thursday- to a butt load of work. Today(Saturday) we're previewing 'Learn English with Rompy!' This class is sort of like a stray dog my friend found- that I'm now being forced to take care of. I didn't really want it to start out with- but now that I have it I look at it with some affection and frustration. Curriculum development is a huge over taking and I signed up originally to help with the development. And all of a sudden the cheese stands alone. I guess I like it better that way. It's mine to do with as I please- almost. But here are one of the things I've been hard at work at. This week we are learning action words! So I've been hand drawing some flash cards of VERBS. Here are a sample of two. I also posed with the flash cards to prove to everybody I am alive and well. And no longer in a hospital!

We're on our way to work- and I'll update more later. Just wanted to drop a short hello!

A big thanks for all the kind words from everybody, btw. It has been nice to feel loved half way around the globe!

Pics from the past couple days...

There should be 6 pictures. #1 Nana and Jill eating Papa Johns Pizza. #2 Me eating corn and getting a pedicure. #3 Me sick in the first hospital bed #4 Jill being my IV/Poddy assistant #5 My collection of IV fluids #6 A vitamin water advertisement that make absolutely no sense. If you can decipher it- please let me know. Just warning you though- the more you study it- the less sense it makes :)

Sicko Part II

Man- did that last post sound optimistic about being sick. If only I could go back to and warn past-self about what was about to happen.

So. I didn't get back to sleep that night- or that morning. I actually watched the sun rise on what was a beautiful day here in Beijing. We had our first sky blue day-free of smog- in about two weeks. I laid on the couch. And then back in my bed. And progressively got sicker and sicker and sicker. I kept vomiting and I won't even go into the gruesome details about what else was coming out of me. I was able to keep down very small amounts of liquid- but eventually most of it came back up. So around 1 o'clock Jill and I took my temperature and I had a low fever 99.0. We decided to call our co-workers and figure out how I would go about seeing a doctor. Turns out that you don't really just go see a doctor- you have to go to the hospital. So Nana came and scooped Jill and I up in cab. At this point I couldn't walk very far and had severe stomach pains. Jill and I were hopefully optimistic being that 'someone' told us that Chinese hospitals are very clean and modern.

When we first got there we went to the main hospital building. And they sent us to this other building about three buildings over that is specially for gastrointestinal problems. I was in full blown misery at this point- and hiking any more distance in 90 degree weather sounded like misery. But we got there- slowly- and then the doctor saw us very quickly. It's hard to see a doctor through a translator- and she didn't seem like she had much time for me. They asked me my temperature- which I of course gave to them in Fahrenheit. They seemed surprised when I told them 99.0. Then Nana reminded us that it is Celsius. They took my temperature and I had a 38 degree fever AKA 100.4. They pricked my finger to take blood and I immediately started crying. Everything- big or small- had turned into a huge trial. They decided that it was food poisoning and that they would give me some saline to rehydrate and send me on my way. One nice thing about being a westerner is you do get some special treatment. For example- they gave me my own room to take the IV in. Everybody else was crammed into a room that had 8 chairs in it- each with a hook for an IV bag. So I got to lay down- which was a bonus. But as time went on and my IV dripped on, I was still not getting better. I still was going to the bathroom pretty frequently and much to my dismay- they only has squat toilets. Also, poor Jill has to stand outside my bathroom holding my IV bag since they didn't have the rolly-IV carts. I have to be quite honest about the building that we were in. It looked like a late 50's third-world country shack that had not been scrubbed in the past twenty years. There was no A/C- and my room came equipped with its own fly swatter. Also another weird thing is that the nurses don't wear gloves. All of my medical equipment did come in pre-packaged individual sterilized packs and that made me feel better. Towards the end of my I.V. bag I started vomiting again and my stomach pain got much worse. After a lot of running around Nana & Jill were able to get the doctor back in to see me and she poked and prodded and concluded that I needed to go have an ultrasound immediately to rule out appendicitis. Right about now is when I went into full blown panic mood. I was crying like a baby and all these horrible images of getting surgery in a foreign country popped into my head. They still weren't giving us all of the answers and God Bless Jill- she was my voice when I was too sick or too hysteric to speak on my own accord.

So they sent me over to the main hospital building. Did I mention that you only get a wheel chair if you rented one? So- you better believe it- we walked back over to main building. This is when my boss Luyin and another manager Leena showed up. My ultrasound came back all clear- my appendix was A-OK! But they still didn't know what was wrong with me. So BACK over to the gastrointestinal doctor. Yup- I got to walk AGAIN! Which was actually a mistake on Luyin's part. They had already told me that if the ultrasound came back clear then I was to go to the Surgery doctor. Now this is one of those weird translation issues- but a surgery doctor really just means internal medicine- I think. Luckily Luyin rented me a wheel chair and I didn't have to walk back to the main hospital building. I got to see Dr. Ma (which means horse) and he poked and prodded and even karate chopped me in the back. I was sick he concluded- and needed to be checked in. They got me a bed and a new IV in the other hand. And they started PUSHING fluids. These bags had sucrose in them- and they REALLY made me feel better. I fell asleep soon after getting settled in. They also gave me some pain killers which made me feel over all a whole lot better. When I woke up again, the education manager from Romp N Roll Claire had come to check on me. I felt very cared for and safe. I kept telling them that they were my Chinese family- looking after me. They started doing swing shifts- it was about 8 PM at this point- to go get dinner. A few people would go and come back. I still hadn't been able to drink water- but was feeling better. After my 5th bag of various fluids they said that I would be able to go home. I was so excited. And then they came to take my temperature again. This time is registered at 39.2 AKA 102.5. That quickly put the keilbash(sp?) on me going home. They got one of Nana's friends to come stay the night with me. Her name is Sarah and she is a very pretty, smart girl. We had already met on World Cup Night. You can always tell how sick you are by the expression on people faces when they see you. And her face quickly dropped once she saw me. I must have looked rough. Everybody else went home and she stayed with me through the night. We talked a lot when I wasn't sleeping. They came and gave me a shot in my butt to bring my temperture down and in true Chinese fashion two strangers stopped to watch the blonde girl get a shot.

Around 4:30 this morning they came and took my temperture again. I was on to my 9th bag of IV fluids/medicine at this point. Low and behold I was down to 37 AKA 98.6! I was free to go!!!!! I came home via cab and ran up into my apartment. Jill was asleep and I jumped on Skype to let my very worried family know that I was OK. I ate about 1/4 of a cup of rice too!

Around 10 AM Nana called to say that we had to go back to the hospital for a follow up visit: make sure that I didn't have a fever. Around 11 we got in cab. Much to my dismay Dr. Ma had gone home and we had to go back to the mean gastrointestinal doctor. They took my temperture- holding steady at 37- and then quickly informed me that I would need one more bag of IV fluids. My heart sank. Jill and I had convinced ourselves that it would be an in & out appointment, but instead another 3-hour salt water drip. Even worse they put it in the same spot I had the IV yesterday and it hurt so bad. I yelled at them in English telling them that I hated them and how could they be so evil. I probably looked like a mean old cat spitting and hissing. I took a nap and Nana and Jill got lunch. Around 3pm Jill and I metro'd home and here I sit. I ate another 1/2 cup of rice and took some of my pills.My appetite is slowly creeping back and all I have been craving is bread! I have two prescriptions and I don't remember which is which. I know one of them in an antibiotic- and I have no idea what the other one is. I think its a pill filled with live bacteria- the good stuff- so that my tummy will feel right again.

Another little funny side note. Here in China they are very very very very against ice water. It does not exist here. The water cooler at work has Hot and Warm water. Dr. Ma yelled at me when he saw that Jill has slipped me a bottle of ice cold water, he exclaimed it was bad for me! Then Claire kept telling me that I probably got sick because I had something VERY HOT and then something VERY COLD. I tried to nod and listen but in my head I was yelling 'I'm sick because somebody or something gave me a virus/bacteria! Not some hot/cold water combo!'

So conclusion: 24 hours later I am doing OK. My energy is still wonky and I'm still a little sore. But I am ok. I know that when I left for China I said I wanted to experience EVERYTHING I possibly could. Next time I need to add except for the hospital system. I love love love you guys!

sick-o

Well- todays blog was going to be a triumphant recalling of what I would consider a good day off. But things have taken a terrible turn.

It started out really well. Jill and I went to get pedicures...although it was a little later then we intended. We went to this really cute salon nestled in an ally way that has to be at least 100 years old. It's right over near Lama Temple- which is huge to say the least. I could only see the roofs peaking out from behind a 12 foot wall. What I could see looked amazing.

At the nail salon I just got a pedicure- but they treated us so well there. They served us fresh watermelon and roasted corn on the cob. We were running late for our dinner date- and it really hit the spot. This- I am presuming is where my evening took a turn.

We went out to Papa Johns which is very similar but not exactly the same. I was really excited. But towards the end of the meal I felt.....funny.

I came home and laid down.

Around 2 in the morning it hit. I'm running a low temperature- which I can only assume by the fact that I am wrapped up and feel freezing. I have had to go to the bathroom a lot and on the last trip I threw up. Pepto Bismal does not seem to be helping. And I officially have hit a low point here in Beijing. Nobody seems to be online- and I'm really wanting somebody to talk too. Every time I lay down I start feeling worse. But I'm feeling pretty exhausted. Ugh. To say the least. Luckily tomorrow is another day off- and hopefully whatever I ate (I'm looking at you corn!) that is making me ill will pass. Don't worry too much. I'm drinking lots of BOTTLED water and staying hydrated. But just send me a good thought or two. My tummy needs it.

Love you guys. Love. Love! Love!

It's the Weekend! Well sort of....

It's actually Monday here. But in the world of RnR Beijing that means that Jill and I finally have off! We take off Monday/Tuesday. So it really is Saturday- if you catch my drift.

Do we have any big plans? Yes! Manicures/Pedicures! And massages! I don't know if I am going to get a massage- even though for an hour it is only $10USD. That is one crazy thing here: Labor is painfully cheap. No wonder businesses have shipped production here. It's hard to compete with! I'm not even sure how much a cleaning lady costs in the US- but here we pay here about 10 yuan an hour. That's almost $1.50.

Last two days have been pretty crazy. We held 3 outside events- even though the weather has been GROSS and hot. Luckily they held Jill and I back at the store to teach class, and only poor Nana had to swelter in the unbearable heat. Work is long and has a lot of down time. Which I think is worse then being busy. Also- there have been lots of miscommunications lately and kids have ended up where they shouldn't be. Or haven't showed up at all. It's frustrating to say the least. Although- I have been slightly busy typing away on this Rompy Learns English class. I should be working on it more then I have- but I am taking my time and want to hear back from RnR Corporate HQ before I go ahead and write 12 weeks of stuff that is going to be scrapped.

I haven't really talked much about the naming process here in China. Your parents obviously name you at birth here- in a traditional Chinese name. Then you usually get a childhood nickname. They are short and repetitive GouGou or MungMung and usually mean something adorable. GouGou means chinese princess for example. Then you ALSO get an American name. Now here is the funny thing- sometimes they are proper names: Lily, Sean, Levi. And sometimes they are just straight up nouns: Sky, Puppy or Tiger. I teach Puppy. He's a great kid. Also- as an adult you can pick/choose and and change your American name at will. Turns out my good friend Nana was just recently Emma- but changed it at RnR because she thought it would be easier for kids to say. Her real name is ShuYoung. Which I think is nicer then both of those names.

Jill and I have been going to the gym pretty consistently. It's on the way home from work and I can't justify not going. They have dance classes- which I can't wait to take advantage of next week. This week we've just been running on the treadmill, crunches and using the machines. Great thing about working out at a Chinese gym in the dead of summer is they don't really have what I would classify as 'air conditioning.' It's sort of like a/c's weaker, not as worth while, cousin. Also- since the humidity has been WAY over a 100% recently it sort of is like working out in a sauna. You've never sweat so much from a 20 minute run. Well- only Jill and I really sweat, everybody else seems to just glow. You feel very accomplished- you probably lose 5lbs water weight from an hour sitting in the gym. Another great thing our gym has is the infamous floor toilet. Yes ladies and gentlemen- there is no actual pot. No porcelain glory to lay your cheeks upon. Just a hole in the ground. It still flushes- oddly enough. Although nobody told me. It's hard to explain. I'll take pictures next time- maybe do some diagraming for you.

One big to-do for Jill and I yesterday was our rented movie: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I read the first two books in the series at the beach and have been craving for the third one. I tried to take it with me at the airport- but really had run out of room and weight limit. It got left behind. ::sigh:: I regret it. So to make myself feel better I rented the movie via iTunes. It's a little expensive to do so- but it was SO worth it. The movie was an EXCELLENT adaptation of the book. A few things were changed to make it flow more- but really good. Highly recommend it. The movie was made in Sweden so the whole thing was in subtitles. But Swedish is a lot like English. Although- there were points that sounded a bit too much like the Muppet's Swedish Chef. Flurgen Burgen Jeurgen.
That's a really typical night time activity for Jill and I. We plop down on our huge red velvet couch, snuggle in with our pillows and blankies, and sit in front of the warm glow of my mac. Unfortunately though- we've run out of TV shows that I have downloaded. I think its going to make me really desperate here soon- and I may be downloading entire seasons of American Television. Hulu doesn't work here. Neither does Netflix. We have a lame youtube replacement called youqu. But it doesn't have QUITE the selection.

Hmm...what else what else what else??

I can't stress how glad I am that Jill is here. We are having a blast together! Also- for being around each other 24/7 we get along splendidly. We were making plans about what we're going to do together when we got back to US- but then had to laugh for a minute. That's right- after 1 year of being around each other 24/7 we suddenly wouldn't be able to survive without the other. We'll have to make late night phone calls just to hear the other one sleeping.

I can't think of much else to report. Smog is still in place. Media is still repressed. We still don't know Chinese.

So signing off! Till next time! Love! Love! LOVE!!!!!!!!!

SMOG

SO- one of the well known facts about Beijing is that it is one of the smoggiest cities in the world. Which- I actually dismissed at first because we had TONS of bright blue sunny days. But the last 6 days or so we wake every day to a thick haze over the city. At first I thought it was just fog- we are at the base of a mountain range. But- the longer it lingers the quicker I am coming to the conclusion that THIS my friends IS smog. I was wondering why it was never burning off.

My throat has been so dry and cracked in the morning- but turns out that is a symptom to smog exposure. Jill and I pulled up the wikipedia article and slowly decided that we might need protection. Below you will see a picture of our great plan. We're going to wear our shirts over our faces and carry around a plant so we get pure oxygen straight from the source. Pretty clever, eh? That's it from Beijing for now! :)

Picto-rama!

Alright. A few pictures. I don't know how well things are posting so here is a summery.

First is the sea monkey. This sea monkey is a shrimp that they hide in some delicious vegetable dishes. You really enjoy the dish until you realize his little shrimpy eyes are starring up at you. Major bummer.

Next up is the crazy double boiler I have rigged to able to make a grilled cheese. It's more or less impossible- but I want a grilled cheese darn it!

Third is the crazy stove top that we blew out. Our boss Luyin seemed shocked that we couldn't make it work- and the pictograms do help- but it only does certain stuff depending on the weight. And it's dead now. Where I think it belongs. In appliance heaven...or hell.

Last is something we should all know and love. Coca-cola!!!! Well- its Coke Zero- but I thought you might like it!

Enjoy!

Born Under A Bad Sign

Been dowwwwwn since I began to grow!

Haha- actually yesterday- was a rough day. My day started by flooding our bathroom. Which in all honesty is not a rare thing- but definitely not a good thing. Somehow- the goofball who designed the tub created a slant so that all the water runs out of the shower and on the floor. If you are careful you can sort of avoid it and not cause a total monsoon in the bathroom- but it was just a crappy way to start the day.
Then I managed to put my shorts on backwards and wear them almost to work that way. Luckily Jill caught me as we walked out of our building- so I ran in for a quick fix.
My next stroke of bad luck happened at work. I was sitting in an office chair cross legged leaning back (by now you should all know what is about to happen) and sure enough I leaned back way to far. And in a slow motion terror filled moment the legs slid forward I grasped desperately for the surrounding desks and crashed backwards to the ground. I scratched my leg up pretty bad and broke the chair. WIth my legs akimbo half the staff came rushing to help me up. So mortified. I must have smacked my head too because I had a splitting head ache for the rest of the day.

One positive thing was that afterwork I finally joined the gym here. Which is pretty hilarious considering that AmFamFitness has YET to let me out of the contract. I can't wait to fax them my lease which is entirely in Chinese and have them refuse it as proof of address change since they can't read it. Running definitely made me feel all in all much better.

Then we went home to make grilled cheese and corn on the cob. I decided to boil the corn first and in doing so I splashed some water. The water somehow got into the stove top and blew a fuse AND killed the electric stove top. Luckily we have a hot plate that was left by the previous owner. So I put the pan on it to make the grilled cheese and it somehow managed to overheat in the first 10 seconds turning my pan GLOWING red. TERRIFYING! It was so hot that it warped! Then Jill is crises threw it under running cold water- which caused it to POP loudly back into place. Conclusion? We had PB & J and corn for dinner. At that point it had been such a downward slide of events that Jill and I couldn't stop laughing- or believe how the day had gone. It made us all a little crazy!

Luckily today has seemed much better. Luyin's sister is visiting and she bought Jill and i these amazing dough balls. They are called Mah-twan- which translates to Sesame Ball. They are some sort of rice dough, with fig jam in the center. They are rolled in sesame seeds and then flash fried so the center is still all goo. MMMMMmmm. Yummy. It was so rich and filling- it kind of made me sick- but in that good full way! For my WW friends I think we're talking like 7-9 points there. Awesome :)

I had an Art Explorer's 1 class that went REALLY well :) Now back to curriculum writing. Saturday/Sunday are our busy days! So I'm excited and nervous to dive in again. It seems crazy that I have been here for 2 weeks- it does and does not feel that long. So weird.

Monday/Tuesday Jill and I have big plans of mani/pedi's and Papa Johns pizza. Really looking forward to that!

Here is your Chinese lesson for the day. Want to know how to say OMG in Chinese? AA-uh-my-uh

I also have a slightly funny story about the word they use for 'um.' But it may not be appropriate for all blog viewers....haha

Alright. Over and out! Love love love!

Fun at Romp N Roll Beijing!

And don't forget...

If you don't know China very well there is great article today in the Washington Post that talks a little bit about the government, the culture, and the socio-economic make-up.
It focuses on some budding social programs that China is starting. Great graphics! Enjoy!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071305773.html?hpid=artslot

A Delay

Alright sports fans!
I hope every body is doing very well. My past 48 hours have gone for the most part unaccounted for- and I wouldn't want you to worry out there. ;)

Well- lets see. Monday- since we stayed up the ENTIRE previous night, we slept most of the day. I slept 6:30-2pm then went back to bed from 4-8pm and then back to bed AGAIN at 10pm. Not very exciting.

Then yesterday- was chores day. Jill and I spent most of the day puttering about the apartment. I finally completely unpacked. I had been holding off- for some odd reason- and I emptied my suitcases. Luckily my Ikea bed/storage/desk unit gives me LOTS of places to stash my clothes. We snacked ALL fricken' day as we hung out around the apartment. It was glorious! :) Luyin called and informed me that I needed to get 12 2x2 passport pictures for my work visa. So off to the mall we went. Jill and I walk EVERYWHERE and it has been great exercise. Especially when we lug all of out groceries 10 or so blocks back to the apartment. I got my pictures taken at a little Kodak store- and they are rather horrid. Jill made me laugh and then for the rest of the pictures I was trying NOT to laugh. The result is some sort of half nauseous looking face. We did our grocery shopping while we waited for the pictures to print. We stocked up on snacks, drinks, yogurt, breads. Jill and I have been on a crazy cheese kick. Cheese is our over indulgent treat to ourselves and we now have swiss, sharp cheddar, mozzarella, and chive cream cheese. All of which was sampled yesterday.

Jill finally got sheets big enough to fit her bed! After she made her bed, we laid in it and chatted into the evening. Then it came time for our BIG dinner date. We found an Indian restaurant a few metro stops away, the Ganges. The Metro is SOOO amazingly simple and a pleasure to ride. It is just 2Yuan per ride and the announcements are made in English and in Chinese. They also have video screens inside the metros with random assortments of clips: recipes, news stories, weather, stock market and a wonderful cartoon Leon and Leona. Leon and Leona are round, bulbous frogs. Leon is a little sleazy and Leona is a bit of a cranky B-I. Hilarity ensues. I love this one episode where they are eating dinner at a fancy restaurant together and he cannot stop farting. It is awesome to know that FARTS are hilarious in any culture.

We got to the Ganges and it was JUST what I was looking for. It had a menu that was in BOOK form and had every Indian dish I could ever dream of eating. Even better- the waitstaff spoke ENGLISH! They (of course) played Bollywood Music Videos which was the first TV Jill and I have seen since I've gotten here. Everybody who ate there was not Chinese- which was really strange to see. Jill and I gorged ourselves. We shared samosa's, naan and a desert called Kheer. I got my Muttar Paneer and Jill got garlic tandoori chicken. It was amazing. I haven't eaten that much since I got here- and it was nice to stroll back towards the metro stuffed to the brim with curry. AND leftovers for tonight!!

Today was back to work. Except- I skipped out on the first half of it for my work visa medical exam. This has been one of the most amazingly efficient things I have done here. Although- there was a bit of a hiccup when Luyin forgot to tell me that I was NOT suppose to eat breakfast. And today I had a HUGE breakfast of yogurt, apple juice, and a croissant. We begged them to let me take the medical exam and they conceded- but noted that my blood sugar would be really high. You go to 10 different rooms and in each room they do something different. There was a room for a x-ray, an ultrasound, an EKG, an eye exam, a throat & ear exam, blood pressure check, and finally a room to have your blood drawn. It was insane! I've never had an EKG before- and it was neat to have a print out of my heart beat. I'm not an expert- but it looked good to me. Also- instead of sticking the electrodes to you- they have a little vacuum seal that sucks right to your skin. It was cool-and completed under 60 seconds. The woman who drew my blood did an AMAZING job- I literally did not feel it. In a week they'll send me my results.

Luyin and I drove back through the awful Beijing traffic to our SOHO building. As soon as I sat down at RnR, Claire and I got right to work. We are putting together the beginnings of what will be the Romp N' Roll ESOL Curriculum. That's right folks, Rompy is teaching English! One bummer thing is that they want to use an outside work book- so we're aligning the books curriculum with the RnR curriculum. For those of you who know RnR we are going to run it sort of like a Rompy's Adventure class. We will work on 5-7 words/ simple sentences a week. It's really crazy writing this curriculum. My speciality is definitely not teaching languages- but with a hope and a prayer this will be successful. This is a market that Chinese parents have really been seeking out- and it will be interesting to see how it goes. They are calling it 'Romp N Roll's Oral English" It's a trip.

I'm back at home now. Waiting for Jill to arrive so we can eat dinner and watch an episode of something.

I want to say THANK YOU to everybody who has been posting comments and leaving little e-mails. I love love love it! I can't respond to any posts on my blog- but do know that I am seeing every single one of them and reading them! I have had some complaints that my gmail account is not working- but I AM receiving e-mails. Please just be considerate that the internet connection is not great here and it may be bouncing larger e-mails. Just keep hitting resend- it will eventually find it's way. Also- it looks as if my HCPS account is officially defunct. But- I love you all and miss you all! Love! Love! Love!

world cup pt 2

So apparently- it's not posting my WHOLE POSTING. SO let me try again! Here is the rest of the text from World Cup

As we were working they started singing old worker songs, which was funny. This is the group that I really hang out with at work. Haun doesn't speak much english but very well may be a world class charades player and we communicate very easily.

So back to yesterday. Nana and Jill went to an Usher concert which gave me the first chance to walk home alone. What was very exciting- was that I made it home! All by my lonesome. One thing that I am growing weary of is the staring. Every where we go we get stared at. And my blonde hair really really draws some stares. What it ends up feeling like is that we don't have a lot of anonymity with in the city. It would be crazy of me to think that I will ever blend in- but I am tired of just feeling like some sort of walking side show. It would be nice to just go out to eat and not have everybody watch me eat! I think one of the other major problems is that being in the business district there are VERY few foreigners.

So- I walked back to the apartment and sat by myself. It was lonely without Jill especially because the Internet was spotty at best and no TV. I just needed some background noise. Both the TV/Internet problem can be remedied- but I'm trying to hold on to not paying for that. Around 10 o'clock at night my boss Luyin came,we jumped in a cab and off we went to the 'Bar District.' It is close to the center of the city and was my first chance to get out of the Haidan district. Impressions: Beijing is HUGE!!!!!!!! Also, very well lit at night. It started to rain for the second time since I've been here and it was REALLY raining again. Luckily umbrellas are 20-25RMB ($3-4). We grabbed umbrellas and off to our meeting spot to catch up with Nana and Jill. We got to sit and watch the girlies coming in and out of the club. For the most part fashion here is EXACTLY the same as in the US except the high heels are much higher! The club we met at was the After Party for Usher and he would be making appearances- so it was packed. We decided to go to Vic's, sorry Usher!

The club was really nice- and expensive. But luckily Luyin was treating us since we got some students enrolled at RnR! The dancing here is much more reserved and people do NOT dance close together. I wish our middle schoolers danced that far apart! ALL of the music was US club music and it felt really good to hear non-stop English! We stayed there for a good long time- and then went it was time for World Cup we left and went to a - get this - MEXICAN FOOD place! Good gravy- I have never been so happy to have Mexican food! We ordered a place of Nachos and they were SO spicy and cheesy and delicious. This is how excited we were for Mexican food:

So- World Cup didn't start till 2:30 AM Beijing Time. And we stayed up and watched the WHOLE THING! I was rooting for Spain and Jill for Netherlands. Around 4 AM we started drifting to sleep- but the occasional screech and scream kept us awake. We met an Alaskan boy who has been living here for four years. He gave us the down low that there is a store called Jenny Lou's that sells IMPORT American stuff for cheap. Very excited to check that out also. But finally- in the 116 minutes match Spain scored s fricken' goal. By the time the match ended and we payed our bills we stepped outside 5AM. The sun was already on it's way back up.
Here is Jill and I after being up for almost 24 hours.The streets were packed with everybody who has stayed up! All of the Spaniards were running through the street- hooting and hollering. I have been fortunate enough to be abroad for two world cups and it is always an AMAZING spectacle so exhilarating to see people unite and have a good time! One thing I especially enjoyed was after the game the Netherlands supporters were cheering and high-fiving the Spaniards. Really nice.

We walked for a very long time and then jumped on the Beijing Metro. Which is very user friendly- everything is in characters and in English. Even the announcements are made in both languages. They have this really cool contraption that projects on the walls of the Subway tunnels and creates like flip book advertisements. It is crazy. We rolled into our apartment around 6:45 AM exhausted and flopped into bed.

I included one last picture of some of the cool architecture here in Beijing. These are actually the sister buildings to the building Romp N Roll is in. Although these are in the heart of the city- close to the second ring.

Today and tomorrow are our day off and I'm so excited. Tomorrow we are searching out one of the art museums and it is going to be SO MUCH fun!

So over and out! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

World Cup

Where to start?! Yesterday was SUPER eventful!

Work went really well. I had my first formal observation over here- and I got a really good review! Super excited that I didn't do anything silly culturally- and really offend somebody. I forgot to mention the big event that we had a few days ago- a diaper derby! I have a picture of all of us working together to get our prizes decorated. This is most of the educators and part of marketing. The two marketing boys are Haun and Shoo- or at least thats the phonetic spelling. The educators are Claire, Herby and Nana.

Worky Jerky

I've lost track of days. And I guess my last update was after the great flood of Beijing. That was some insanity
Well- let me think. What is new: We have had a good amount of art classes here at Romp N Roll. It's been by big debut. It's really interesting teaching with an interpreter. It's hard because asking a question is a 4 step process.
#1. I ask the question
#2. Nana translates the question
#3. The child answers the question
#4. Nana translates the question back to me

It makes me want to stop talking. Just let Nana talk. I was observed today- and I think it went well. Well- our education specialist doesn't speak English. And I don't speak Chinese. But Nana said the one complaint is LESS interpreting. Which means I do MORE and MORE goofy hand signals and pointing. It has to be pretty amusing.

Today I had a pang of home sickness- I don't even know what triggered it. I write that hesitantly because I'm sure my family is looking for any excuse to have me come home. And- I'm not saying that I want to come home- but I am just missing people!

I did manage to sign on to facebook- so a hack around the great firewall of china does exist! Hurrah! It only works for Window's PCs- so I only have it at work. But it feels good to know that connection is available. Skype has been great! And everyday another friend will contact me! It's awesome!

I found out that Papa John's is over here. 50RMB for a pizza- less then 10 dollars. Along with KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Burger King, FroYo, and Subway. But apparently all of them serve chinese food and few American options. Dairy Queen is HUGE over here- which is surprising to me. And they serve the blizzard upside down- or it's free! That's one of the few phrases that's in English! Pizza Hut is a high end expensive restaurant for some strange reason- and I think we may have to do that soon. One thing that is funny to me- is that in America we don't really eat a lot of 'American' food. It's really weird for me to eat Chinese food all the time. For lunch today I had a GIANT bowl of noodles in tomato and egg sauce. I'm getting better with the chop sticks- but it is hard trying to break my Western manners. Over here you lean your face really close to your food and slurp loudly. Also picking the bowl up and slurping is considered good manners.

Tonight we are going out to Bar Street- and to quote my friend it cost 30RMB for 'huge glass of cocktail.' So excited! More updates later!!!! :)

So umm....Rain!

After my last post it began to rain here in Beijing. Which I was actually excited for- it cooled things off considerably. BUT- from up on my 10th story apartment I really didn't grasp what was transpiring on the ground. I don't think Beijing was built with run-off sewers. Jill and I got dressed and went out for dumplings from her favorite restaurant. No big deal- normally. A little rain never hurt anybody, right?

Well- as soon as we stepped outside it was a torrential down pour. And that water has no where to go. In the streets and at the intersections the water was 4-5 inches deep! I lost my flip flop at one point, which resulted in a hilarious scene of me running through the streets of Beijing chasing my shoe as it floats away, Jill chasing after me with an umbrella. And then about to 10 minutes into the walk, the impossible happened, and it started raining harder. And then even harder.

Sleepy Sleepy

Ah! I'm writing this from my apartment! I'm super tired- pooped even. My bosses let me take 3 hours off because of jet lag. Actually everybody has told me that they are rather impressed with the fact that I have managed to go to 2 whole days of work.
I have to admit the jet lag is killing me. I am still waking up at 4:30-5:00AM our time. I wake up feeling as if I have been beaten- it's an awful feeling. But- I can't sleep any longer, so I check my mail and my Skype. Although- I'm warning those of you who Skype that 5:30 AM Anna is not very pretty! Because I'm not feeling rested- my days are a little fuzzy. I can especially tell that my memory is really really suffering. People have to repeat stuff and I just now seem to remember my walk to work.

Work has been good. I am in LOVE with all of my co-workers. I have a co-worker here and she is super sweet. She is one of those people who I feel like I have known for a long long time- even though we have just met. Her chinese name is ShuYoung- and her American name is Nana. I may have mentioned her already- but she is just so awesome. She translates for me when we are teaching.

I taught my first class today- Art Explorers 1. Originally 5 kids were going to come- then 0- then 1 - then 2. Those number changes happened with in like 20 minutes. I hate to generalize things- but I have noticed that punctuality isn't really a concern of people. They will tell us 10 kids are coming to class and then none show up. Or 3 show up 20 minutes late. Sometimes we get rushed rushed rushed to get somewhere- and then wait for forever. One of the other RnR employees put it best when they described it as 'hurry up and wait!' When we thought that nobody was coming I had the girls pose with my beautifully prep'ed art room.