So I thought I didn't like the food...

I thought that I didn't like Chinese food, I was not used to the mass amounts of grease found in everything including vegetables. Veggies are not served fresh nor steamed in any place that I can think of. Pork. It's in everything. Good right? I prefer it to beef. Jiu-ro? or Jidian? Chicken or Pork? Those are my options. Spicy or sweet, those are my options. ok. time to go, more to write later!

Update on my life!

So lets expand on the current happenings/past happenings in my life!.

So starting with

1. I got stuck in the Chicago Airport before I left for Beijing and Taxi Ride to the Hotel!
1. OK, so before I left for Chi-town my mother booked a ticket on mega-bus for my sister and I to Chicago (because my flight was out of Chicago). The bus ride went down without any issues, as well as the day and a half spent exploring Chicago with my lovely sister! However the trouble came after the long and burdensome walk to the metro from her apartment. This took FOREVER!! After that came the 1 hour metro ride to the airport. Ok not so bad so far right? Next I got everything in order and I went through the security check followed by going to the boarding area/lounge. I made some friends with some people my age who were going to some other city in China to do the same deal, Teaching English. 
2. My flight was due to leave at 12pm was delayed until about 2pm due to a 'modular panel issue'. Whatever that means!  Then 2pm rolls around and they give out free lunch passes for the wait and say that the plane will be ready around 3pm. So we wait till 3 pm. Then at about 3:30 they announce that the plane part was just flown in from Denver and they were beginning to install it. However, there would be no flight that day and the flight would be delayed until the next morning.
3. Mind you I was on a schedule to be picked up from the airport and I needed to be there on August 16th instead of the 17th! So I panicked, I talked to the flight attendents/managers and asked if there was any way to get to Beijing on the 16th. The only way to do so was to go on a different flight and my baggage would NOT be transfered. WHA???? So I somehow had to find internet and let my company know that I would be late so they could meet me. What was the e-mail that I got in response to this??? Of course it was "OK. We will not be able to meet you at the airport. The address of the Hotel is: 和平西桥往南拐，路西，速8酒店的旁边“ 安怡之家”酒店。My number: 134 6678 4765.Call me if any problem." 
4. NOW whAT was I supposed to do??? Somehow find a printer to print off these Chinese symbols that mean absolutely nothing to me? No, of course not, I'm cheap so I decided to copy these symbols down by hand and pray that whatever taxi driver I hired would understand my scribblings! 
5. TOUCHDOWN: after much stress on board the flight and desperate conversations with Chinese people that spoke minimal English, I was able to ensure that I had decent scribblings and any taxi driver would be able to understand. I landed and was in awe of the vast airport space and security cameras everywhere! Then I made my way through the airport to the taxi exit! AGHHH! This was stressful, now how would I speak any Chinese to the taxi driver. I got out my Chinese dictionary and mandarin phrasebook and made a feeble attempt at saying hello "Nihao". Luckily there was a man who directed people to taxis, and he spoke enough English to tell the taxi driver that I needed to go to the address scribbled down in Chinese characters.  The taxi ride itself was amusing. All I could say is Hello! and he would reply with the same. I knew he was ripping me off from the moment he refused to turn on the meter! I was told that the taxi ride should be somewhere from 70-80 kuai. He told me in the only english word/phrase that he knew "100". I looked up the word for 80 in my dictionary and kept repeating 'bushi' and kept repeating it emphatically while pointing to the Chinese character in the dictionary. Well now that I think about it, bushi is a form of negative in Chinese and NOT 80, it is actually ba-shi (with a completely different tone). He still repeated 100, so I just dropped the topic feeling defeated. After this we rode in silence for a while I took out my camera and snapped a few pictures (including his photo ID, in case I wanted to report that he was ripping me off). He motioned to me with his hands to ask if I wrote the Chinese characters, to which I replied yes with a nod of my head. We both had a good laugh after that.  Finally we made our way to the hotel and we found it successfully! Evidently our laugh had had some kind of effect on him and he lowered his price to the price I wanted 80 kuai!
6. YAY so I had finally moved into the hotel, and by some miracle had communicated in enough Chinese to get me where I needed to go!!!!!!!!
2. Started training for a few days, Interviewed at a Montessori Kindergarten but didn't get the job, Interviewed at Ke-Er International Kindergarten (also Montessori), Attended TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification class and passed, Was Hired at Ke-Er
3. Saving the rest of this for later... I'm tired of blogging for today. I wrote a good bit of information for all you folks! toodles and till next time!

Can I recap?

Hi everyone! I've been in Beijing for about 2 months right now, working as a kindergarten teacher and doing many different things. I love living in China! What more can I say, the people are friendly and always willing to help you, despite the language barrier! Anyway, as a brief introduction I will recap on the sequence of events in my life over the past two months in a quick time line. Maybe the next time I blog, I will add some more details.

1. Got stuck in Chicago on my way to Beijing (I was put up in a fancy hotel by the airlines).
2. Arrived in Beijing Airport with no one to meet me (I had to direct my own way--in my own lame attempt at Chinese characters--to the hotel)
3. Checked into the hotel and slept for a day
4. Started training for a few days
5. Interviewed at a Montessori Kindergarten but didn't get the job.
6. Interviewed at Ke-Er International Kindergarten (also Montessori)
7. Attended TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification class and passed.
8. Was Hired at Ke-Er.
9. September 1st - The school year started and I had children to look after :/
10. Moon Festival happened (don't eat moon cakes, they're gross)
11. Went to the Great Wall of China! - It was pretty Great!
12. October 1-7th was a 7 day break where I sat around the apartment, watched movies and went out on the weekend.
13. Got some cool kids, got some turds (the kids). I was even able to give some of the kids English names!
14. Worked with Cynthia who pronounces her own name Cyncia.

I'll save the rest for the next blog. But for now at least everyone has now had a quick run-down on my life and times in Beijing!

oh yea and I cut my hair really short before I left! The 1st picture is a picture of me on the Great Wall after my hike up to the wall. The second picture is me on the park grounds of the Old Summer Palace near Haidian Huangzhuang.