Luggage Found

Yesterday early afternoon a man comes to deliver my luggage!!! I was sooo happy!! : )

Soon after that knock at the door I get a call from the baggage customer service line and the guy informs me that they have located my luggage. I said yes I know because its sitting in my living room ahha

Now I have to unpack everything..something I am not looking forward to but since I am ussually up around 5am unable to fall back to sleep I guess I could find some time to do it.

Thanks again for everyone who followed my blog!! It was great to get feedback and hear that people enjoyed reading it.

I look forward to sharing stories and pictures with people in person over the holidays!

IM BACKKKK!!!

We had a van come and pick Kim and I up at the school around 3pm on Tuesday and we headed off to the airport. When we got there we were both praying that our luggage wasn't going to be too heavy so that is all that I had on my mind. Luckily they made it with no problems but then I go to check my tickets and see where I am sitting and I was at a window seat. I really wanted an aisle seat because on a 13 hour flight it is nice to be able to get up when you want and not have to bug the person next to you. I was pretty upset that I forgot to ask but was hoping that I had nice people sitting next to me.

Kim and I then went to go and grab a little bite to eat so that we weren't hungry for our flight and tried to find some books or magazines to read. We finally go to our gate and wait for them to start boarding but sadly they don't seem to be announcing much in English. All of a sudden a bunch of people start lining up and we are like oh maybe its time to line up? haha so we go and jump in line and kim shows her ticket and passport to someone and they let her through and I go right after her and they turn me away. She did this to me twice and I was so confused because we were in the same row and she was speaking Chinese so I had no idea what she meant. Luckily my third try she let me in. Turns out that Kim has the aisle seat in my row and then there is one seat in between us. We were both hoping that there would be someone friendly sitting in between us. We we nervous as each person walked by looking at the numbers but no one was coming into our seat and we started to get excited thinking that maybe we would have an empty seat in between us.

andddd luckily NO ONE came to sit there so we had an empty seat in between us for the whole 13 hour flight. We were so happy. It gave us more room to put our feet up and be comfortable. Couldn't have been happier about that.

Then we land in Toronto CANADA and we have to go in this long line for security and then we have to go pick up our luggage and then go through customs. We look at the line and realize it is so long and we aren't going to make our flight. We hop in the line and it starts moving kinda fast and finally we make it through but realize that we have like no time to make it to our gate. We start walking very fast to put our luggage on the right track to head to Moncton with us. After we do that we see on the screen that it says that our flight is delayed and we are happy because now we just might make it. Then we get in a line for security and it is going so slow but we finally make it through and run (amazing race style) to our gate. We get there sit down and are like yes we made it. Then someone comes on to announce that because of the weather in Moncton we might not be able to land there and we might be landing in Fredericton. I was so upset, after all that I just wanted to get home. We ended up sitting waiting for a while to get on our plane. Finally a while passes and we get on and sit down. Now we are excited and see the light at the end of the tunnel, but sadly we end up sitting on the plane for an hour before we leave.

Then we leave and are up in the air! Yay Moncton bound we were!! When we started landing it was bumpy and I am not going to lie I was very nervous haha but we landed safely and I ran out to meet my parents.

We start talking and waiting for our luggage. More and more luggage keeps coming out but not mine, or Kims. After about an hour of waiting to find my luggage I hear that it didn't make it on the plane so it will arrive on the plane tomorrow morning.

The morning comes and no call about my luggage arriving. So i call and try and find out where it is and the customer service guy tells me that he can't tell me where it is but it should land in Moncton shortly. After a while talking to this guy and he gives me no information I decide to drive to the airport to find out what is going on. I get there and one of my peices of luggage is there yay! but no word on my other one. I come back home and wait but still no call, but online it says that it's in its way to the destination. It is almsot 10 and still no word and then I hear from Kim that her luggage arrived and was delivered to her door. I get in the car and drive to the airport but no word on my luggage and I come home and find out that my dad has been on the phone trying to find out what is going on and he tells me that apparently they do not know where my luggage is.  : (

I am very happy to be home!! : ) But no luggage : (
Fingers crossed that tomorrow it arrives.

Last Night in Beijing

My bags are packed and im ready to go.... haha

Tonight is my last night in Beijing. We went out for dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant and took some pictures infront of the school with all the pretty Christmas decorations.

I can't believe that my time here is all done. I remember when we first arrived here and I was thinking to myself...what did I get myself into haha and now I am shocked that it is all over.
I am very excited to be getting back home to see all my friends and family but I am very sad to be saying bye to my students and my friends I have made while I have been here.

I am so happy that I got to have this experience and it will be something that I will never forget!!

I am planning on writing one more post when I get back home to comment on the flights...the longgg flights ahah

but I do want to say thanks to everyone who read my blog and commented on it. It was great to hear that people were enjoying it : )

And I also want to say thank you to all my friends and family who wrote me emails all the time. It was great to hear from everyone and it really helped me get through some of the days where I was really missing home. so thank you! : )

Radio

When we get into cabs here I always hope to hear an English song playing but of course it never happens. Sometimes when we get into cabs the radio they are listening to sound so intense and like they are yelling or something. The first few times we heard it we joked that they were brainwashing us haha

But the other day Kim and I were going out and we got into the cab and who comes on the radio but….50 cent! Hahaha we couldn’t stop laughing and we of course sang along. I was shocked but it made the cab ride feel a little like home.

Tipping

I am not sure if you knew this but people don’t tip here in Beijing. I am surprised by this because the way that people treat us at restaurants is just so unbelievably nice. Even though some struggle to speak English they try their best and are always ready to make sure that we have everything we need. The other day when Kim and I went out to eat Kim wasn’t even able to finish her last gulp of water before they filled it right back up. They always come up and ask us if we need anything else and they are just all so polite. I feel like I want to tip here more than back home sometimes.

The people working at the restaurants all help each other. I think the other night when we were eating we had one person take our order, a different person bring us our water to drink, a different person brought us our pop, another one brought our appetizer, and another person our food. They are all so nice and each one is willing to help out. I guess it would be hard to tip too because by the time they split it between each of them there wouldn’t be much for each of them to have haha

I also remember when we were at the hotel that night a while back. The people there were sooo nice! Every time they brought you something and you said thank you, they would reply with “my pleasure”. When we were at the buffet as soon as you put your last bite from your plate they were there taking your plate away so you were ready to go and get some more. They made sure our water was always filled and kept coming up to ask us if we needed anything. It makes eating out so nice here.

There are sometimes they are almost too eager to help you out though. They ask us if we are ready for them to take our order and we say just a few more minutes and they take a few steps back and just stand there. It makes you feel rushed and like they are just getting mad waiting haha and then if you make eye contact with them they think you need something and come rushing over. Haha

Also they don’t just bring you your bills when you are finished eating. You have to ask for your bill when you are ready to leave. The first few times we were eating out here we sat for a little while wondering how come they weren’t giving us the bills and then we remembered we had to ask. They don’t split your bills for you usually either. It all comes on one bill and then we all split it ourselves (helps us with our math skills!).

Chinese Pancakes

This past week a little girl brought in a treat for everyone on the class. They looked very yummy and I thought it was going to be a bit like a tea biscuit but when I picked it up it was very heavy so I was wondering what was in it. I opened it to see what was inside and I wasn’t sure what anything was. I took a bite and it did not taste good to me. I am not sure what it was. I asked the TA that was from China and she said it is sort of a Chinese pancake and are special in this one place in China and that is where she got them from for the class.

They looked similar to the ones on the left.

Chaoyang Park

There is a park right next to the school that is huge. Kim and I have been saying we are going to go over there and walk since we got here but since it was so close we kept putting it off to go to other places haha so finally we walked over to check it out. It is beautiful.

Here are a few pictures I took while we were walking around.

There we lots of people just sitting on the grass hanging out and people walking around. There were also people flying kites. Kim and I stood and watched for a while. There were also little children running with their kites being pulled behind them. It was so cute.

We were having a nice walk (no cars honking at us or bikes zooming by) and it was very peaceful but then we spoke too soon because coming up behind us was a van. Can’t even walk in a park without having to watch your back for vehicles. haha

At this park you can also get a bike built for two or four to travel around the park. It was cute to watch couples biking around on them.

When we were walking past this part of the park...

...it looked so nice. It almost looked like someone had placed each of the leaves on the grass because they seemed spread out perfectly. It was very nice!

Some Short Stories

#1: One of the little girls in my class came up to me the other morning and told me that she was jumping on her bed and had fallen off and hurt herself the night before. I told her she had to be careful. I asked her if she was ok and she said that it still hurt and she rubbed her backside haha
Then she proceeded to tell me that her grandmother told her that it would be five years before it would feel better. Ahah

I am not sure if she was trying to make her not want to go jump on her bed again or the little girl just got mixed up on her words.

#2: One day last week my teacher had to tutor so she said I could go home right at the end of the day. Some of the students have after school activities so they were still outside the classroom when I was leaving. They were asking me where I was going and I said I was going back to my place where I live. They looked at me a little funny and then one little girl asked me why? And I told her that is where I live and I was going to make dinner. Then a few of the students started to call me a baby. I asked why and they said because I was going home. I guess students really do think that teachers live at the school? Haha

#3: I sat down at the table with a group of students and I was talking with them as they were working . One little girl leaned over to another little girl and said, “You are my friend?” and the other little girl said, “Yes”. And they were talking about getting together outside of school to play and the little girl said that she should call her and the other little girl asked her if she had her mom’s number and the little girl said yes my mom does. She then leans over to me and kind of whispers in my ear,  “I know everything because my mom tells me”. I was sort of shocked ahah but the way she said it was just too cute, leaning in like she didn’t want anyone to hear her and she said it because she knew that her mom would have the number. Haha I’m not really sure but it was still cute!

#4: There is a little boy in my class that does not speak much English but he tries and had been learning. He usually says “OK” when he finishes something and I think he thinks that it means he is done. So the other day I am walking by and he had his hand up and he is just yelling out “ok, OK” louder and louder until one of the teachers or TA walked over.

We have a box for finished work and unfinished work. I was sitting down working with a small group and the teacher was helping another student and the room wasn’t silent and I could hear someone say something and then I hear an “OK TEACHER” really loud and I turn around and there is the little boy standing next to the finished box getting ready to put his paper in. haha I think he was unsure if that was what he was suppose to do so he was letting us know he was finished.  The teacher and TAs and I all had a little giggle and then told him not to yell and yes he could put his finished work in there.

Acrobatic Show

This past week we went to go and see an acrobatic show. It was so awesome and I could have watched them all night. The things that they can do were just amazing. Some of the people in the show looked as if they were very young.

There was a group of girls that were bending their bodies and lifting each other up and making towers with themselves. They were also stacking each other up on bikes. I think at one point there were 12 girls on one bike going around the stage.

There was also a group of guys that were jumping through hoops and flipping each other. Then they were jumping on this board and flying each other up in the air and stacking themselves. One guy balanced himself on a board that was on top of a tube and flinging bowls on his head. There was two guys who got into this thing that looked like a double hamster wheel that was hanging from the ceiling and they started running and it starts spinning and they were juggling and skipping while spinning and running up in the air. It was just crazy. I had to hold my breath a few times haha

I really enjoyed the show and definitely wanted an encore!

Sadly we weren’t allowed to take any pictures : (

1001 Nights Restaurant

The other night we went out to eat at this restaurant called 1001 Nights. It was so pretty inside and the food was yummy. Some of it was a little but spicy so I stuck with the good non spicy food.

Here is a picture of the ceiling.

There were also some belly dancers that would come out on stage every half hour or so. It was pretty cool to see. We were sitting kind of far from the table so I didn’t get any good pictures though.

Different Foods

For one of the lessons in my class we were talking about traditions. Last week we spent the class time talking about food traditions and what are the students favourite foods from their countries were. One of the days we were having a lesson and the students were allowed to bring in food to share with the class from their country. Sadly I was in another classroom for the afternoon and missed the lesson but the teacher saved some of the food for me. I didn’t get a chance to get pictures of the food I tried but I found pictures on the Internet.

I got to try samosa, these were delicious!!  They were filled with meat.

German cheesecake This was very yummy and tasted lemony.

Seafood Dumplings again very yummy!!

Another dessert from Saudi Arabia but the student couldn’t remember what it was called.

Short Story

The other day in class one of the little kids raises his hand and calls me over. I walk over and I ask him what he needs. He is holding his arm and says that it hurts. I asked him if he hurt it during lunch time (they had just come in from their lunch break). He told me that he didn’t. Then he proceeds to tell me that it is laughing. I was confused at first and just looked at him to try and figure out what he meant. Then I clued in and asked him if he hit his funny bone and he smiled and said yes. I thought it was so cute that he said his bone was laughing! hahaha

More Info

I asked the Teacher Assistant in my class, who is from China, about the paintings on the ground. (In one of my other posts I put up a picture of a guy who was painting with water on the ground at the park). I asked her what he was painting and she said that people usually paint famous poems. The writing that they use is the old Chinese writing so it is very hard to learn and she said that she doesn’t know how to write it. She said that people do this as an exercise. They usually hold the paint brush in a different way than a pencil so it is like an exercise especially with it being bigger then a pencil.

I also asked her about the singing. (In one of my older posts I put a video of a group of people singing). She told me that they sing about their times and the things that happened when they were younger. She also said that people do this because sometime they get asked to be on television. She said people do this all the time and it is like their exercise. They do it a lot in the morning time.

She also told me that at night there are bands that play and people dance. The girls use fans as well. She told me it looks very pretty and that I should try and see it!

The things I miss

Some days when we are out walking or just sitting around talking we try and think of the things that we miss the most from back home, or the things we will miss the most while we are back in Canada.

Some of the things that I think about that I miss the most from back home are the obvious main one friends and family. I also miss my comfy bed and being able to cook. I never thought I would miss it so much. Or even the fact that I haven’t had toast in months. haha I also miss the nice fresh air we have back home. It is frustrating sometimes when it is smoggy and we feel like we should stay inside so we don’t have to breathe in the pollution.

One of the other things that I miss the most and struggle with the most while being here is the language barrier. I don’t like not being able to talk to people, like my cab driver, or the waitress or the guard who lets us into the school grounds every day. I also don’t like the fact that people could be talking about me right in front of me and I would have no idea. We get stared at a lot while we are out walking and I can hear them say things and I am always curious what they are saying.

Some of the things that I am going to miss from China are how inexpensive a lot of things are. Getting food delivered to our rooms is great. We don’t have to pay for delivery and the food can be decently cheap. Although I feel bad because I think that they go through more trouble to get us our food than people back home. They ride a bike in the freezing cold to deliver our food. Shopping for food is also inexpensive, especially the fruits and vegetables. Also the cab rides, it is shocking how cheap it is to get around.  I will also miss the city life, living so close to such exciting spots and places with such nice scenery. I will also miss the Chinese food here. There is one restaurant we go to that is soo delicious!!

I think I will also be a shock when we get back home and realize how small everything looks. When we are out driving around in our cabs there are always such tall buildings everywhere around us. I think when I get home it will be very different seeing houses everywhere.

BeiHai Park

Since the day was very cold it was hard to enjoy walking through this park especially because it was right near the water so the breeze was very chilly. But we did stop and take some pictures.

One part that I really liked in this park was there was a guy who was painting with water on the ground. It was cool to watch but it was too bad that we didn’t understand what he was writing.

Jingshan Park

 

We ended up finding out that it is called Jingshan Park. We had to climb up all these stairs but when we got to the top the view was awesome! It was so pretty.

This is the view looking over the Forbidden City.

This is the view looking over the rest of the park.

FYI: The reason the pictures with me in them ...well the reason my hair looks wild and everything is because it was sooo windy and soo cold. Haha

After we couldn’t stand the wind any more we decided to walk down the other side of the hill.
Here is a picture of all the stairs that we walked down:

Once we got down to the other side we could hear music and singing. We decided to go and check out where it was coming from and we found groups of people singing. There were some people playing the keyboard or violin and people would just walk up and join in on the singing. It was so pretty and we stood and watched for a while. All throughout the park there were all these different groups of people singing. I wish I knew what songs they were singing though haha

Here is a video I took of one group of people singing. 

Forbidden City

We finally made it to the Forbidden City and we picked a very cold windy day to go. Haha

We would walk through one open area and through the building to find another open area. I lost track of how many we went through. But it was interesting because you could look into the buildings to see the bed, or the chairs that the emperors had sat in.

There was this small building:

 and it has the most beautiful ceiling 

When walked from one end of the Forbidden City to the other and when we got to the exit we saw

So we decided to climb up and see what it was....see next blog post!

Two Weeks Left!

Two weeks from now I will be on a plane heading back to Canada!! (This might not be true by the time this is posted because of the time change and since my sister posts this for me) but two weeks from right now while I am writing this post I will be on a plane!!

It is crazy to think that this whole experience will soon be over!  I can’t believe that I have been here for almost 4 month..can you!?

For those of you who didn’t know I have switched my flight. I was suppose to come home later but we changed it a little while ago. I am looking forward to my comfy bed for a good night sleep and getting hugs from friends and family and having some nicely cooked meals!

I know that when everyone home is sleeping I will want to be awake and vice versa so if you get a call from me at about midnight ..it’s just me calling to see if you want to go for lunch ;)

Family Fun Night

This past week the school put on a night for the students and their parents. It was called Family Fun Night. Kim and I were in charge of the limbo station. There were lots of different activities in place for the students to play and win prizes. There was a fishing pond, musical chairs, an art wall, pin the tail on the donkey and so on. The students had a lot of fun and it made me smile to see my students come up and be so happy to see me!


It was also very entertaining to watch the student’s limbo. Some were just great at it and others really struggled to understand how to limbo. haha


Then at the end of the night all the teachers go into the gym and the Macarena plays and all the teachers line up at the front of the gym and dance while the parents and students take pictures of them. Oh and I forgot to mention that the teacher dress up in really wacky outfits, like wigs and hats and bright clothes. It was a really fun night and the teachers had just as much fun as the students did. At the end of the night one of the students in my class was crying because she was so sad that the night was over. And I’m not talking about a few tears, she was really crying. 

Summer Palace

This place was really beautiful. We only had a few hours to spend here because we were meeting up with another teacher because she was going to show us an Art Market. A couple hours was definitely not long enough to walk through this park. There was so much to see because it was so big.

Here are a few pictures.

The view was so nice we were just in awe when we walked into the park.

We walked into one part of the park

And then we heard some music playing and looked up to see some girls dancing up on the stage

We stayed to watch for a little while but we didn’t have a lot of time so we kept on walking. We are hoping to go back to walk around more here if we have some time.

Side story: While I was enjoying the show and watching the girls dance I was snapping a few pictures and then I turn to see a guy holding a video camera up, not at the girls dancing but at me. Haha I kind of half smiled and then walked away..it was a little bit awkward.

Random Signs

Here are a few pictures of different street signs that are around here.

This is one of the signs that is outside a lot of the parks around here. We enjoyed looking at this and trying to figure out what they meant for each one because some are hard to figure out.

This is one of the signs as you walk up the stairs off of the subway. I know it is a little fuzzy but I like the translation.

Advertisements

I took a few pictures of the different advertisements that are inside the subway or that are outside by the bus stops.

Halloween in China

Halloween isn’t really celebrated in China but since it is a little westernized here there were some Halloween decorations up and things for sale. And of course we celebrated it at school.
The students all looked so adorable dressed up. There were a lot of witches and princesses and most students just had on a witch hat and a cape. Their costumes didn’t seem to be as elaborate or different like the costumes people have back home but I think they view Halloween a bit differently here. There aren’t big boxes of candy or chips here that you can buy either. (Which was probably a good thing haha)

We had an assembly and different classrooms put in little songs or poems or dances. My class did the 5 little pumpkins. It was very cute! Kim’s classroom did the Thriller dance and they did an awesome job! Then we had a little party and some of the kids brought treats for the rest of the class.

On Saturday night to celebrate Halloween the residents had a floor crawl. Three of the floors in our building had a theme. One floor was a CSI theme and that group all dressed up like that and decorated the common room for that theme. The next floor has an Alice and Wonderland theme and the costumes were great. The last floor was a casino style from back in the day. Kim and I didn’t end up joining a floor so we decided to come up with our own theme “Jersey Shore”. She went as Snookie and I went as J-wow. For those of you who don’t know, the Jersey shore is a TV show. The people on it are very tanned and they poof their hair up hhaha

Kim did my hair all straight and made a nice poof in it for me. I wasn’t sure how we were going to make our faces so tanned but I put on some make up that I had and we looked pretty awesome haha

Check out how long my hair is getting too!