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Published: August 13th 2007
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7 Dollars each
We found this great restaurant, with our own private room. The massive spread cost us about $7.00 Canadian Each Its incredible how quickly one can adapt. Had you asked me a month ago if I would feel comfortable in a taxi cab whose driver spoke no english, which was driving on the wrong side of the road while I was not wearing a seatbelt- I would have said absolutely not, it would never happen. Not even a week later, I forget to check if a seatbelt is even an option. Driving in China has little relation to the driving we know in Canada. There is little regard for lanes, lights or usual rules of the road. In fact, the intersection next to the school, which is 8 lanes wide, has only had the traffic lights working 1 day since we've been here. Bicycles and pedestrians weave about as well. But generally the cars drive fairly slowly and they honk for lots of reasons. You get to know the different honks. For instance:
1. Do you want a taxi cause here I am!
2. I'm driving slowly right behind you please move
3. Traffic needs to start moving again
4. I'm about to come through an intersection with no lights and big hedges so you may not see me...
5.
Subway
After our health checks, they took us to something familiar to comfort us - SUBWAY. It was close, but not exactly the same. Green Apple Pop??? These are our new friends, Rosemary and Rafa. (our personal favourite, a very long sustained honk) heh! I see my friend, and I'm waving madly and not really watching the road at all.
You get the idea. The honking is rarely angry.
I am quickly learning survival mandarin. For instance this morning, I stopped at the corner store and successfully asked for two bottles of water - they were not displayed so the usual pointing was not an option.
I have also learned how to successfully use a squat toilet (hole in the floor), unwillingly but nothing like no choice.
Let me think of all the adventures since my last blog entry which wasn't long ago.
The Police Interview. We all had to go to the police station to swear we would not disceminate religious propaganda. They also reviewed the laws we must abide, such as keeping our passports on us at all times. It was a little odd, but Amy, our school handler got us through it.
Tuesday we had our health checks. This was just plain bizarre. All the new teachers were taken to this center where we went through a series of rooms and were poked and proded. The
3rd Avenue at Night
For the most part, we stick to 3rd avenue right now. It has everything you could imagine. Its pretty bustling. Stores stay open until 10pm. technology ranged from ancient to very high tech. They had a very neat machine which both weighed and measured you at the same time. However, the ECG machine was antiquated to say the least. The x-ray was hilarious, we had to take off our shoes and wear slippers. However no one was asked to remove anything else, like jewelry / metal etc. We were all wary of having the bloodwork done and watched carefully to make sure a new needle was used. It was bizarre, but we got through it.
There is a group of 7 new teachers (us included) who have been having dining adventures together. It seems we rarely get served what we expected, even when they have a picture menu and we point. The nicest place seated us in a private room with a huge plasma screen TV. We had two waiters constantly serving us. It ended up costing $15.00 Canadian for both Craig and I. We went more fast food another night. Somehow we ended up ordering a pile of deep fried corn kernels (individual corn kernels) It was really good but they only gave us chopsticks. It was hard to pick them up more
UFO on a Stick
One of the first landmarks we used to navigate ourselves. You can see it from a distance, so you can keep track of where you are. Basically, go up 3rd ave. until the UFO on a stick, turn left and you are at Hymall( the shopping mall where you don't have to haggle). than one at a time. Most of us gave up after about 10 kernels. Our new friend Rosemary commented we are all going on a chopstick diet. Turns out we could have requested spoons (so we've looked that phrase up in the dictionary).
I think I already mentioned we get a lot of stares. Its not rude, more curiosity. One evening at dinner a little boy wanted a better look at us. He actually got his head stuck between the booth and the wall. It took three adults to extracate him from the situation.
Friday was our first trip into Beijing. It was mostly organized for us new teachers, and the first stop was IKEA to outfit our apartments. It looks like a regular IKEA, but for the most part, prices are much much cheaper. Our purchase would likely have cost over $500 Canadian back home, but was barely $200.
We then went to a little shopping district. We bought DVDs and CDs. There was a clothing market, they want you to haggle and we really didn't feel up to it, so we are saving that fun for the next time. There was also a little western grocery store. This is funny because its the equivalent of the Chinese Grocer in Canada. We bought some cheese and cereal. We didn't go too crazy, its only been a week, and we aren't going crazy for our regular food yet. We finished off with a Starbucks coffee.
All in all, our trip to Beijing was odd in that at no point did we need a word of Mandarin. I guess everyone is trying hard to learn English in order to accommodate the Olympics next year. It was also a cooler day, and we had blue sky!!! (Apparently they were doing a test run of their air clean-up plan for the olympics). The last strange thing was that nobody stared at us. There are so many more white foreigners there than in TEDA. Craig commented that I am going to have ego issues when I come back to Canada. "Why aren't all the men tripping over themselves to stare at me???"
We have a really great landlord. He got us a DVD player for the apartment, and even bought us the newest Harry Potter movie - Order of the Phoenix, on DVD (Teehee). We are learning to communicate with each other. His english is equivalent to our Mandarin. But we get by.
Anyway, our teacher friends back home will be happy to know we had to work this weekend. Students return Wednesday, and all staff worked through the weekend. So we don't get a break until next Saturday. Also, I feel right at home here. They have a new computer program for attendance and lesson planning (we have to submit them here!!!), so people are feeling a little flustered, and timetables keep changing...so just like home.
Anyway, every day is an adventure. And we'll keep you posted.
Beth and Craig
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Brandy
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It all sounds so exciting guys! I have to say I'm a bit envious of your adventures as you settle into a new culture - so fun! Thanks for the updates, keep 'em comin!