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Published: July 11th 2012
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Victor & RiAnn!
The Green Cap, Irish Pub, Beijing, China After a terrifying 30 minute cab ride, we were at Vic & Ri's compound, Quan Fen Garden. Victor & RiAnn Caban are old friends of mine. They were both teachers in Orlando and about four years ago Vic started researching about teaching opportunities in other countries. Eventually they found what they were looking for in the American International School of Egypt in Cairo. So they moved to Egypt! They lived there for about two years and now they are in China teaching for the Western Academy of Beijing (WAB). They have two kids, daughter Denali (age 8) and son Khi (age 5). The last time we saw them was 4 years ago so we were looking forward to connecting with them again!
The first days of Beijing were spent rejuvenating from Hong Kong and spending time w/ the Caban family. Raelynd got to attend school for a day at WAB with Denali. RiAnn took us on a tour of the campus, which is gigantic and beautiful! We went to the end of the year party for WAB where Vic and Ri introduced us to many of their teacher friends. What a diverse and interesting group of people! Most were from
Brock
It's not a fanny pack, it's a bum bag all over the world and have taught at different international schools globally. They hop around every 2-3 years depending on their contract. It was a few days before the last day of school, so everyone was talking about who was moving on to their next country. We met Kevin Rose from Canada taught in Beijing for I believe 8 years and in just a few days was taking off to Singapore. He's been teaching around the world for over 20 years! And it's not only the teachers who are well travelled. Most of the students hop around too b/c their parents jobs move them to different countries. They call themselves 3rd culture kids...born in one country, citizens of another and growing up all over the world. It was quite fascinating to hear the stories about where they've been and where they were going.
One night Vic & Ri took us to an Irish Pub called The Green Cap. We did not expect to go to an Irish Pub in Beijing!! The owner Patrick and his wife opened the bar 2 years ago. He's Irish and his wife is Chinese. It was interesting to hear him speak Chinese with an
Amanda
Amanda says hello by spilling beer in your lap. Must be a Canadian thing :o) Irish accent! There we met some more friends. A man named Brock from England who was hilarious and wore a fanny pack, which he informed us in England was called a "bum bag". He doesn't get most American humor and Vic said they don't usually get his British humor either! We also met Kent and Amanda from Canada. They, like Vic and Ri, are first year teachers at WAB. Amanda greeted John warmly by reaching over for a handshake and accidentally knocking over his beer in his lap. At that moment I knew I liked her!
Another unexpected thing we did was attend an amateur show of the musical "OKLAHOMA!". Seriously we did…and it was pretty cool! Don't get me wrong it was no Broadway, but you have to give credit to this amateur group. Most of them were not from the US and they were putting on a play set in the late 1800's Midwest. In my opinion they did a great job! The lead male role was played by an Israeli and he had by far the best voice, but by far the worst country accent, lol. All in all we enjoyed it very much!
I'm trying to keep my blogs short and sweet, so more to come about the first days of Beijing in Part 3.
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Kristin
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RiAnn
Just saw the pictures and realized this is the RiAnn I know!!!! Give her my best! Hope you guys are having a blast! xoxo