December, 2013

Merry Christmas!

We are in GuShi, China; this is pronounced (Goo Sure.)  They call it a small town; I didn’t get to count the people yet but there are lots.  There are no single family dwellings, duplexes or the like.  More than half of the building s are 4 to 6 stories high; others as high as 30 to 40 floors.  We are approximately South of Beijing and West of Shangri-La.

Our responsibility is to teach English; primarily through listening and speaking.  Sue has all the 7th graders and I have all the 8th graders.  There will be up to 60 students per 40 minute class session.  We each have 15 sessions a week.  We know that the students have some English because when we are walking the campus; we hear hello almost every step we take.  We can barely reply and most students laugh and run away.

Breakfast, lunch, and supper are available for us.  Breakfast is served from 6:30 AM to 7:30 AM; the cost is 30 cents.  So far we haven’t motivated ourselves to enjoy this opportunity.  Lunch and supper has included barley and onion soup; fried eggplant; mushroom and onion cooked together; a green something possibly turnip greens or spinach with a little egg mixed in; a broad noodle; and a heap of white rice for 30 or 40 cents.  Its way more food than one person could eat even if they liked it.  We like some things and some we don’t.

Our flight was 15 plus hours long; I decided that is too long to sit in a very restricted seat so we upgraded to First Class.  The leg room was spacious enough; I could not occupy all of it.  The reclining chair with adjustable leg rest folded totally flat for a comfortable sleep.  A concerned party suggested that after going through security; we purchase a sub sandwich of sorts because a bag of pretzels or peanuts would certainly not be enough.  Our first class amenities surpassed our expectation; starting with the airport lounge; the special line for security check with no waiting.  We experienced for the first time in our life; a chilled salad fork.

Our first night in Beijing; was hotel only.  We plan to re-visit the city in the future.  We had 2 surprises for breakfast; the first a white melon like fruit with black specks; we think its called dragon fruit.  I will let you imagine its flavor; the second was the coffee.  If you had the option to dilute it; a gallon of water per cup of coffee would not be enough.

After our next flight going south; we were meant by 2 TA’s (teachers’ assistants.)  There job is to help us with everything except classroom assistance, including hailing a cab; this proves to be the most difficult and entertaining of our total experience.  We stood just back of the curb with our luggage while Tom (our TA) entered into the danger zone to hail a cab, we soon discovered; we were not our of the danger zone just because we weren’t in the street; they drive on the sidewalk also.  Most cabs quickly declined our request; possibly due to the 4 large and 2 small suitcases and 4 people.  Eventually with the use of 2 cabs; we were transported across town; the city has 4,000,000 people, and it is still considered small.  I seemed although everyone was out that day.  I guess it could be described as early morning Black Friday shopping without organization.

From there we went to CZZ Consulting; headquarters on floor M.  4, 14, 24 and so on are considered unlucky so these numbers are replaced with a letter.  Any number with 4 in it is considered unlucky.

A 7 hour bus ride to our city / school included a toilet stop with squatty potties.  Very interesting.

It seems life just yesterday this adventure started, maybe that’s true because we are 14 hours ahead of you.  We are living in tomorrow.

All is well here.  We hope to have an additional posting in a week with some pictures.

Love,

Dennis and Sue