National Week Adventures

When I first found out about our week-long holiday (National Week), I made lots of plans for sightseeing and getting things done. Of course when the actual holiday arrived, much less got done than was planned. Part of it had to do with Daniel being sick, and another part of it was just us being lazy. In the end, our holiday basically involved a frustrating trip to IKEA, a stroll around a beautiful park (that I didn't get any pictures of), and a visit to the amazing Summer Palace, which happened to fall on Daniel's birthday. However, the Summer Palace is the only thing that's really worth elaborating upon.

Summer Palace - On our last day of the holiday (go figure), Daniel and I visited the Summer Palace with a few of our coworkers from Best Learning. I had seen many pictures of the palace and I was really excited to go. Even though the weather was terrible that day (the fog was everywhere and made it difficult to take good pictures), we really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful structures. Of course the area was huge, and there was a lot of walking involved (which meant joining a long, slow procession of people in order to get around) but the sights we saw and the company we had completely made up for it.

What's Up, Duck?

One of the first things we saw at the Summer Palace was this 18-meter-tall duck (above). Apparently, a Dutch artist named Florentijn Hofman created it, and it's been traveling the world since 2007. It will remain in Beijing until the 27th of October.

Birthday boy and me at the Summer Palace

Summer Palace View

Spotted: Cutie at the Palace

To the right, Daniel and I are standing in front of the Tower of Buddhist Incense, which is the most popular building. Inside sits a giant Buddha, but I got yelled at in Chinese as soon as I took my camera out, so I couldn't get a picture.

On the top left is a view from the tower. Even with bad weather, the view is amazing! 





One of the things I was most looking forward to seeing was the Marble Boat inside the Palace. It took us a long time to find it because the place is so big, but we eventually found it sitting calmly on the lake. Of course it's not actually made of marble but of wood and it isn't a real boat. We were disappointed to find that we couldn't get on it, but we enjoyed looking at it all the same.

Marble Boat

Marble Boat

Daniel for Dinner

Besides the Marble Boat and the Tower of Buddhist Incense, there were several other interesting things inside the Palace. Many sculptures adorn the place, such as the dragon (eating Daniel's head) to the right. Additionally, we found a great set of beautiful bridges (below). 

As we were walking around the grounds, Daniel and I got stopped three or four times by Chinese people asking to take pictures with us. I never know if the correct response is to be weirded out or flattered, but most of the time I'm flattered. Since we've gotten here, we've gotten lots of stares and I've gotten way more compliments than I've ever gotten in America! 

Love on the Bridge

Hanging out on the bridge

Walking around the palace grounds made for a great adventure, and that night we had to celebrate Daniel's birthday! We decided to go to La Bamba, a "Mexican" restaurant we had discovered the night before. We ate a heaping plate of nachos, chimichangas and enjoyed a small keg with some of our coworkers from Best Learning. Happy 29th Birthday, Daniel! It's actually the first one of his birthdays that we've gotten to spend together, and that again reminds me of how thankful I am that we are living out this great adventure together. So all in all, we didn't do much but spent the day that mattered (Daniel's birthday) at a beautiful location and with great company. What more could we ask for?

Dinner at La Bamba

Cheers!

Pilot

Let me start by saying hello to all my beautiful friends and family that are reading this! Tomorrow will mark one month since Daniel and I have arrived in China! I know I have been doing a dismal job of keeping everyone updated on my adventures, and for that I apologize. It's been a constant Go!Go!Go! since we got here, from training for the job to finding an apartment in Beijing (no easy task, mind you). But since this week is a major national holiday here in Beijing, I'm taking the opportunity to catch my breath and catch everyone up on what's been going on.

This was the view of China from the plane. Definitely a step up from the twelve hours we had just spent looking at clouds...

Our Arrival
Arriving in China was possibly the most confusing part of our experience so far, but our recruiter from Best Learning was there to pick us up (which we weren't expecting), so that was a really great surprise. We spent the next thirty minutes or so trying to get a taxi, and it didn't help that we had each brought huge suitcases. Eventually, we had to get two taxis to lug all of our stuff to the hotel that Best Learning provided for us. That taxi ride may have been the scariest ride of our lives. We weaved in and out of traffic just as every single other car on the highway weaved in and out of traffic. We somehow miraculously survived the ride, and spent the next three days adjusting to the fact that we knew absolutely no Chinese. 

Our first meals in Beijing! We thought there would be many English-speaking people in China...and there aren't. So we're limited on restaurants by whether or not they offer pictures in their menus. But the food has been delicious and pretty cheap.

Our (Lack of) Tourism
Aside from the three days we had before training started and the entire week we have now, we haven't had much time to really go out and explore China. The one thing we did see, however, was the Olympic Park. Our hotel was situated a mere two blocks from the park, so before our training started we headed over there to meander about. It is huge. It was really refreshing to see that much open space, especially since everything in Beijing is so compact and directed upwards.

Above is a great statue that we came across towards the north end of the park. How graceful do you have to be to run in a dress...and with fire? Awesome, ladies.

Look at how adorable Daniel looks posing by the Olympic torch (left). We also managed to find the  the Water Cube (right). Apparently they've turned it into a water park on the inside, but we haven't confirmed it for ourselves yet.

Of course after much difficulty (little bit of sarcasm), we were able to locate the Bird's Nest (left). We didn't go inside because we had a lot of ground to cover, but the outside was pretty extraordinary. To the right, Daniel is posing with the Olympic sign.



Though the tourism has been limited, we plan on making up for it during this holiday. We're just waiting on Daniel to feel a little better (he got sick for the second time since we arrived), but trips to the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City are on the agenda for this week! 

Our Brand New Jobs
Even though we did a lot of research on Best Learning before we left, we were still pretty nervous and uncertain as to what things would really be like once we got here. However, both Daniel and I have found that working for Best Learning is pretty awesome. They have done so much to help us get settled here in Beijing, and all of our coworkers are extremely nice and helpful. It also helps that the children we work with are adorable.  Daniel and I didn't get placed at the same center as we had hoped, but our centers are not too far from each other, and we were able to find an apartment right in between the two. We will begin working with our year-long classes soon, and as far as I know, I will pick up a Mommy and Me (they are so cute and tiny) and a PreK class at my center. Daniel will be taking on K level and G level classes. We are so excited to start!

Our New Home
Finding a home in Beijing was no easy matter. The first day we went apartment hunting was an exhausting, fruitless search. That was the day that we went with a popular housing agency in Beijing, and I would really recommend against doing that. The second day, we were able to get in contact with Samvia, an agent who works specifically with foreign teachers. She was able to find us an apartment that we liked (and in the area that we requested) that very day! She also helped us with basically everything we had to do once we were in our apartment (things like setting up internet, registering with the local police, etc). She is an absolute gem and I'm so thankful that we found her. Because of her, Daniel and I were able to find our first little home :) We're still working on making it feel more homey, but the picture on the left is the view from our indoor balcony. On a really clear day, we can see the mountains from our kitchen window!

Of course we can't forget about our new, bigger home: Beijing. Oh, Beijing. A city swarming with blaring horns, thick crowds, and neon signs. Even though the roads here are uneven, the pollution is pretty bad and the people spit a lot, we still love the delicious food. We love the fifty-cent-beers. We love the giant, hectic malls where everyone bargains in loud tones. We love the little farmer's market that is set up every single day in front of our apartment building. But most of all, we love that we were brave enough to take on this great adventure to start building our life together and we thank all the people who support us.

Those are all the updates I have for now, but I will be sure to post more soon!