No Horn Blowing!!!

Just another day in Baoding. Our classes will not start for a few more weeks, so we are preparing for our classes as best we can. We have been meeting students at various functions and making our way around the city. We're starting to do more things by ourselves without the help of a translator. That can be fun and frustrating. If we just keep a smile on our faces, things usually work out fine. People have been very kind and helpful. A few grumps, but not many. We were visiting the Governor's Palace in Baoding last Saturday and a lady and her daughter wanted their picture taken with Marianne. We are an attraction by ourselves. Little kids will stop and stare at us; old people too. At the grocery store, an older man wanted to look at Marianne's shopping list. He was very intrigued.

As we might have mentioned, the roads and sidewalks on campus have been all torn up because they are laying new pipes. The entrance to our building is the red brick entrance on the left on the photos. They are making progress on our part of campus, but the rest of the campus is still a mess. No, if you're wondering, Marianne did not crash her bike into the 'No Horn Blowing' sign. It was just collateral damage from a wayward front-end loader. I don't know the Chinese words for 'Whoops. My bad.'

Tonight is American Night for us foreign teachers. Cuyler is making dinner and Marianne is hosting the activity, which is Mexican Train. I think its ok to play Mexican Train on American Night.

Time for sports

So, guess where we went after a great lunch with some students (and a trip to have our pictures taken at the police station- just routine).

The students we went with were new to bowling but did fine. We took an elevator up to the alley which had about 10 lanes.It was fun.

Yesterday we decided we needed to get some paddles and try outdoor ping-pong. Many people driving by on their bikes liked the entertainment- foreigners, especially  2 tall old folks playing table tennis.

Our gap year apartment

Many of you know that we are planning to transition into co-housing one day. During this gap year we're getting ready for that.

Our apartment is a small, shotgun style setup with a small kitchen, with a toaster oven and micro, a two burner stove and a frig. We have a nice water cooler/heater that works great. That was a pleasant surprise, because clean drinking water was a big concern. Whenever it runs low, we make a call, and the guy comes with a new 5 gallon bottle. The bathroom is small with a western commode (thank God), and the shower is the bathroom, all there together. The living room has the clothes washer, a small fold-up table for eating and working, and nice large screen TV and a bookcase. We didn't actually get any channels until yesterday. Most of them are in Chinese, and can't find the CC button on the remote. They have a lot of Chinese soap operas and fighting movies. Unfortunately BBC Asia doesn't come in well. We can see the news ticker at the bottom of the screen. So really we only have one English channel that comes in well CCTV, which is mostly news. The bedroom has a king-size bed and a desk with a computer. The AC is quiet and works well. Closet space is tight as long as Paul doesn't hog the hangers, we'll be fine. As you see in the video (Laundry Day) the balcony has a couple of descending clothes lines. That's all we need.

Where's Marianne?

Marianne in a sea of bikes. Workers have been laying new pipes all over campus, so all the roads a lot of sidewalks are all torn up. Finding a place to park your bike has been crazy. Some morning we'll come out to find all the bikes have been moved to another part of campus. It must have taken them a long time to move all those bikes and line them up a perfect straight lines.

BB in Baoding

So, Sunday night we met a student named Li Fang and even had dinner with him. We went to a little bit fancier place than the eateries around campus. We don't know what he told them but they brought us up the third floor into a private room and were they disappointed when we had a simple meal!!!! Then yesterday he texted Paul to ask him to play basketball. Paul said he'd like to but needed basketball shoes. Li Fang took him to a sports store around the corner and Paul came back with white and red high-tops.
Before the start of the game, the head of the dept.had Emily call to say he was coming to play also and would bring some guys. Mind you they are all in their twenties and maybe thirties!

Well, my husband, Cool Hand Luke, played fabulously.

So did the boss- the head of the dept. in the yellow shirt. The player in red in the first photo is the 25 year old head foreign teacher named Amber who is now here for her third year. A large crowd gathered to check out this game.
Luckily darkness descended after a little more than an hour of play and everyone left in a good mood. Paul's already been invited to play again next week.

Meet the bosses luncheon

We had a nice lunch with the ‘bosses’ on Sunday. They really know how to put a lunch together. Once it was over they had brought out 15-20 different dishes. It was very informal with a lot of toasting. Everyone raises their glasses, the toast is given, then everyone taps the lazy susan with their glasses, and down it goes.

Marianne and I did some exploring around the city on Sunday afternoon. The air was a little clearer so we took advantage of it. Marianne got a flat tire along the way, but we were lucky because there was a bicycle repair guy up ahead on the sidewalk. Not sure if that was a coincidence or not. These bike repair guys are all over the city. You're never far from one. The bikes are rusty and rickity. No self-respecting 12 yr old in the US, or China for that matter, would be caught dead on one. But they work for the most part so we'll use them.

We made it back to the campus without further problems, which was good because I was hungry.

HIPAA won't like that...

Luggage arrived today. Better late than never.

We and the other two new teachers were driven to the province capital, Shijiazhuang which is 2 hours away, for our physicals. I don't know why we had to go there instead of one of the local hospitals, but there's always a reason for everything in China. We were in and out of there in about an hour. I think a few HIPAA rules were broken, but whatever. It was an assembly line. Bing, bang, boom and we were outta there. The people were very nice, but no chit chat.

Tomorrow the students start to arrive. The 1st year students have to take 4 weeks of military training so most of our classes won't start for a while. That gives us a little more time to adjust. Our internal clocks haven't caught up to us yet.

Biking in Baoding

Well, every day has been different so far here. Yesterday we were assigned lovingly-used bikes and followed other teachers to second campus (we live on first campus) where Paul and I both have classes. It was a bit crazy with all the bikes, buses and cars. Main streets have bike lanes, sort of like service roads, but many cars will use the lanes to park or get into a driveway and many of the bikers are driving mopeds and everyone is going at different speeds.The best part is the car or biker who'll just stop on the left or right side of the lane with no notice. I think that lots of guardian angels are very, very busy here, keeping people safe, including us.
We'll post a picture as soon as we can take one.

Laundry day

Welcome to China.

This is the door to our apartment. We arrived late Tuesday afternoon in Beijing. We were met by our host, Emily, and driven 2+ hours to Baoding. After we unloaded our stuff in the apartment we went out for dinner with our group.

That's right. We went to the Colonel's. It was the only place opened that late. We had a nice meal and we headed back to the apartment to crash. We were all very tired.

It is very strange to be different than everyone else. We are an oddity. I feel out of place. We went to the supermarket today and I couldn't figure out the different shampoos. Was this shampoo only, or shampoo and conditioner, or was it body wash. I had no clue. It's different, but we'll figure it out with a little help. More to come.