Time for another Update :) Last week Roya (Auntie's niece) arrived from Canada to come live and work in China, Beijing. Although her plane was delayed she arrived here around 8pm with two suitcases marked 'heavy'...Still that's pretty good..two suitcases for a whole year! I would probably need a little mini-van for the luggage alone :p Nisa and I had already eaten but we figured Roya's arrival was a good enough excuse for a 'second dinner' :) We had a nice evening and went to bed...Getting up the next day (Wednesday) I stayed home til 10 in the morning to keep Roya some company.. Not feeling the jetlag (yet) she slept til 9 in the morning :) I left for school and did my usual art class... Auntie went home to pick Roya up for lunch .. We all had some lunch together and then hung around school.. Roya had been here before but for lack of more interesting stuff to do she went on a little tour around campus :p I had my tutoring class at three and had to cancel my french class cause we were going to auntie Janet in Tianjin for a devotional...We left around 5..but it was starting to go dark and the combination of darkness, classical music and the soothing effect of the car made us all fall asleep within 5 min. :p We got there a little late (around 7ish) and dinner with the friends there...after which we had the devotional, which was very nice. It was a great evening, ..had fun with the cousins, met some new people, had interesting conversations.. we got home at around 10pm and i went straight to bed :p I kind of slept in the next morning.. (yes, i can sleep in if i want to) till 8am..(its better then 6.30!) did the same thing as wednesday basically.. oh i had an awesome chinese class.. since there was this big meeting going on, I was the only one to show up for class and so got some one on one time.. i've never learned so much in one class and the hour was over before i knew it! It was good.. we were doing date and time and i got to practice my numbers :) After class we went out for Dinner with most of the Bahai friends here in Teda,, it was yummy ..as usual.. :p but i was sitting at the 'spill table' tea, sprite, food, ..you name it.. it was pretty funny :) don't think i did anything special on friday accept maybe going out to sushi for lunch.. oh and I had an extra tutoring Job at 4.30.. that's a funny story actually. the place to be was called aojing yuan and auntie Nora had told me it was close to where the sanchez's live.. so i go there and notice it's only 4.10 so i bought myself some oranges and started looking for the apartment.. Couldn't find it! So i go to the little park to see if i got the address right.. suddenly mister mazlum calles out to me (he oversees the park from his appartment) Hey! I was getting happy, cause i was sure he'd know where i was supposed to go.. right .. he had no idea.. never heard of the place... so i called the mom (Jessica) whose English limits itself to Hello and Goodbye.. I was on my own, but determined to find the place so i tried to call auntie, doesn't pick up, called Helen, doesn;t pick up...called Luis who picked up and amazingly knew what i was talking about and gave me directions,.. luckily i have great orientatial skills and was convinced to have reached the place to be.. just to make sure i asked the guards.. don't think they actually understood me but they said 'yes yes yes' good sign.. So then i started looking for building number 9...It only went up to 7..turns out i was looking at the wrong numbers.. Getting cold and confused i called Jessica again,.. Of course my phone was dying so in superfast but understandable English i said: I'm at the entrance, can you come down and get me ?! Phone died/.. But she came out :) I was late but at least I got there :)
The nest day we got up nice and early, had a full Breakfast including pancakes, egg, honey, fruit, coffee, .. and left with Roya (and the suitcases) for Beijing. But I'll tell you more about that later since I have to go to school right now ... :) x
It's Snowing!!! Again, we already had our first snow in November (Global Warming i tell you) thanks to the manipulative scientists in Beijing who're shooting chemicals up in the air to make it snow...Supposedly for the drought up north but i think they're just enjoying themselves having snowfights ..:p (This is information is unconfirmed.. ) I'll blog some more later, got to go to my tutoring class now :) catch ya later x
Hey! So remember I got back from the middle school trip on Friday ? Well We were planning on going back to Beijing on Saturday mainly because of my Visa...It expires in a couple of days so we really had to go...So we all got up nice an early. packed our bags because we were going to stay there overnight at a friends house,.that was the second reason to go actually..They were having a reflection meeting about camp..Anyways we get in the car, hit the road and guess what? Highways were closed because of the fog...we drove around for about an hour or so and were starting to feel a bit hungry..the plan was to go and have lunch and then try the highways again.. We went to this really good Dim Sum place.. the food was really good. We hadnt been there before but were definitely going back :P So after lunch we tried the highways again..luck wasnt on our side that day cause they were still closed.. so we decided to go and try the train.. but we were like 5 min late for the afternoon train and the next one was only at 5pm.. which was too late.. so we decided to go to Beijing the next day :p Tired of all the driving around Teda (it isnt even that big :p) we went to have a nice comforting cup of coffee at Starbucks.. aah The tall Latte.. what else ;)? Next stop was the DVD store..haha J We went back home, made dinner, watched a movie (while Uncle B and Auntie N were having the camp meeting over skype..) My eavesdropping technique needs some improvement asap :p So on Sunday we got up even earlier and left for Beijing.. Highways were open (Yay!) and 2h later we arrived.. First we went to take care of my Visa.. after that we had Persian for lunch ( Yum, but heavy food) And then Shopping !! I got myself some shoes, clothes .. got my brother some stuff (im such a good sister) ..at 3.30 Imet up with Milly !! And guess what we did ? Yes! Some more shopping :p It was really nice seeing her again J At 5 we got back in the car and went home traffic was terrible as usual but we got back..and went out to have some noodle soup (one of my favourites) for dinner J We bought some fruits, went home, watched another movie and got to sleep in on Monday cause we had the day off !
Hi! So let me tell you all about my Beijing-week! We (being grade 7,8 and the teachers (including myself :p)) left for beijing on Tuesday morning. We divided the kids in color groups..Cathy and I were in charge of the purple group..each group had about 8 kids which was plenty :p We managed to get them on the bus and about 2hours later we arrived at Miniature world..It s like mini-Europa but then Mini-world...The weather was cold but sunny and since it was a week day, the park wasn't busy at all, which was nice..I went to Belgium, Russia, France, America,..haha :) It was cool (yes i took some pictures). The kids were good too, well until they discovered the 'rent your cart here' stand :p Anyways we had no collisions of any kind..we did find a camera..(which the unlucky kid got back on our way to Teda at the end of the trip :p). After Miniature world and a sandwich we left to go to our hotel in the center of Beijing. Three starts, so comfortable but nothing fancy..although being a teacher definitely has its perks,,..we got the hotel 'suites'.. I roomed with Maryanne which was really fun ;) The bathroom door was kinda crappy though, it was easy to get in but it took you at least 5 min to get out again...After everyone checked into their rooms we went out for dinner: Buffet at an Italian restaurant.. cool place,..you got to write on the wall :) original ! After dinner we got back in the bus, this time to go see a famous Acrobat show..We got there a little late,..if you ever come to Beijing you ll get it (traffic).. But the show was really amazing!! It was a 1.5h show but it felt like 10 min cause you were so fascinated by the whole thing :) After that the kids were getting tired (YES!) and so we went back to our hotel.. It was a nice calm night, everyone was in their rooms by 10pm and the lights were switched off by 10.30pm. Smooth :) The next morning a knock on the door woke us up..Uncle Bart with (Mc Donalds) coffee..;) Better than no coffee :p There was a little confusion about breakfast hour and of course everyone showed up at the same time...But we split them up in 2 shifts and eventually they all had their breakfast in time... Wednesday was bike trip/museum day! I was with group one and so we got to do the bike trip in the morning.. The trip itself was really nice and you go places you normally wouldnt go or know they existed,..but I couldnt fully enjoy that since some of the kids who supposedly were able to ride a bike needed some basic 'how do i ride a bike' rules,..and then there was a little part on the road where i was stressing to make sure the kids didnt get run over by a taxi/bus.. :P I had the back and so i got to talk to the back-guide..so i ended up getting all the tourist information :p He also thought it was really funny to repeat what i was saying so i would go ' Go Go Go' and then he would go ' Go go go' :) This did start to annoy me after a while :p After the two hour bike ride we had Korean for lunch (really nice) and then the kids could go buy snacks in this Ole shop it was funny when i told them they could go shop there i said: Ok and now you can go and buy snacks in the Ole winkel ...uhm shop :p After that we went to the Science and technology museum.. Kinda like Technopolis but then 3 times bigger..But since it was a week day and there werent really a lot of visitors a lot of stuff didnt work and then for me the stuff that did work was in chinese :p But the space ship was fun :p It had all the cool science things to do..so the kids had fun :) (i did too :p) After that we all washed our hands and went through the 'let me sniff your hands (uncle Bart) inspection' After that we went out for dinner.. Pasta night at the Italian restaurant again ;) The evening activity that night was Bowling! I was on a roll man :) It was funny .It was my turn and i suddenly get this phone call from my mom. So I had the phone in one hand and threw the ball with the other ..and managed to hit 8 pins :) Haha :) After bowling we went back to the hotel hoping it would be another smooth night,...Think again... at 11.30 we got 2 girls playing cards in the boys room...This resulted in them being put on a train and send home the next day with the whole disappointment speech included, i felt bad for them but there really wasnt anything that could be done.....That day was The Great Wall of China day ! Yaay! When we got there we were kinda panicking at first since the hill going up to the wall was really icy ..and if the wall was going to be like that no way we could take the kids.. But luckily the sun had melted away most of the ice and so we started our hike! The fastest group managed to complete the walk in 2.20h,..the slowest group ( including 3 of the teachers) needed 5h :p But the wall itself was amazing, really really worthwhile ! The frist part was pretty difficult though but towards the end it got easier and all the kids got to the finish :) There was this really cute boy Ji Han who was walking about 5 min in front of me and when you got to this certain point you couldnt go through the tower but you had to turn right..right before entering the tower,..so suddenly we see him standing in the tower yelling at us : I cant find the exit ?! I cant get out?! So we yell back ; go out and turn right Ji han ! It was so funny when we got there a few minutes later he was still circling the tower trying to find the exit :) The very last part of the wall was a mean little sucker though because you had been going down for about 20 min but to get to the exit you suddenly had to go up (and i mean up as in vertically up :P) While we were waiting for the last group to arrive this couple (South African/Austrian) showed up wondering if they could get a ride back to Beijing. They had been travelling through Russia (transsiberian) and now China..it was really interesting talking to them..Fortunately after signing a little piece of paper they could to come along with us :) Talking for the 2h ride to James (teacher) who s been living in China for 3 years now..:p When we got back (late again) we got ready for the pizza/movie night..Our room was the Star Trek room (live long and prospher) The pizza had gone cold by that time but since everyone was pretty hungry no one really cared :p After that everyone went to bed.. the next morning (the last day) we got to sleep in...We left the hotel around 9.30 to go shopping right across the street in Silk Street! Hello Hello, Lookie Lookie, Cheapie Cheapie :p Im getting really good at bargaining btw :) But i was a bit overwhelmed and so only bought a jacket and pants (which i needed, but i needed a lot more really :p) Lunch was Mc Donalds..Didnt feel like it so had some fruits instead...Then of course we get this phone call "The highways are closed because of the fog and so the busses are going to be at least 2h late" ok, What do you do with 60 kids to keep em busy for another 2h...We ended up going for a walk around the block .. Dang one more hour left..So they got to play games in the lobby of our hotel .. eventually we got them all in the bus and took off for Teda :) Arrived at 6.30pm, made sure all the kids got home and got a ride back home :) Auntie Nora welcoming us with a nice home made dinner :) Nisa came in 30min later (back from babysitting) and we all had dinner together telling the stories of the week :) This was on friday..Today is monday so i ll just tell you about my (Beijing Visa, Shopping) weekend later :) ! X
Hey! So my week was pretty similar to the previous weeks,, meaning Tuesday I had the Art going on and then tutoring Kasuri at 3, . After Kasuri I walked to Tesco (kind of like the Carrefour) and met up with the family,.. We did some shopping and later went out for dinner at Jackie's. This was our first week of our cooking schedule, .Monday is Jiao Zi night (dough with some meat and vegetables inside) which is easy food cause Monday there's usually no time left for cooking,.. Tuesday is uncle Bart's night which is way we went out for dinner Haha, .. So We came up with a new rule, .. you can go out for dinner twice/year, other nights you have to cook yourself.. We'll just see how that goes :) Wednesday instead of art I went to check out the Gym with Eloisa,.. It wasn't as big as i expected but a lot of teachers go there and it's usually not busy at all.. It ll cost me 120 euros for 6 months,..haven't decided yet...Anyways they also offer some classes like Yoga, Pilates,.. Eloisa wanted to try the Belly dancing :) Haha It was fun but don't think i'll be doing it again any time soon though :p In the afternoon I finished a little art Project for Miss Natasha: she needed white crowns with flowers for her performance on Halloween, .. I kinda underestimated the amount of work and time it would take but it worked out in the end, . When I showed the crowns to this chinese teacher she suddenly looked at me as if someone had died,.. turns out people wear white flowers in their hair for funerals here,.. didn't know, but it is halloween so even better :p Later that day I had the French tutoring and that's it,.. Yesterday I helped out with Art in the morning, went home for lunch and then to the halloween meeting at 3,.. We made some stuff for our act tonight,.. an oven, a meat grinder,.. went home for dinner and then came back to school at 6, since we needed it to be dark outside to rehearse our act,.. It's pretty awesome,.. Dave's playing sweeney todd, he'll slit Chad's throat (blood effects) and at the same time Dave slits Chad's throat we'll stand behind the audience and spray them with water =) Then they throw a 'body' down from the second floor and this is where I come in.. I chop up the body, throw it in the meat grinder and make my famous meat pies ! I have a lot of lines to memorize but i'm excited about the whole thing so hopefully i won't be too nervous! By the time we finished it was around 8.30,.. When we got outside we couldn't see a thing because of the fog , I ve never seen it like that before! You could see maybe 1 meter in front of you and that's it, .it was soo dangerous to drive home, I was supposed to take a taxi but luckily i was able to get a ride,.. imagine going 5km/hour, window open so we could follow the white stripes on the road, .. it would be so cool if we got have that fog for halloween night ! Today was a normal day, i'm pretty tired though cause last night before i went to bed i had some spicy soup so i had to get up at around 2am cause i felt so thirsty :p Halloween today ! So cute (i mean scary of course) all the kids dressed up in their costumes :p I did the art, went home for lunch, went to tesco and now i'm just waiting for school to end so we can start preparing our room !! Auntie N. left for Manilla this morning by the way,.. well hopefully she actually gets there since there's this huge typhoon approaching the Phillippenes.. I told her to wave at us on the news if she get's stuck in a palmtree or something :p Okay, got to go and get ready now.. I'll let u guys know how it went ;)
Hi! Can't believe it's already been a week since i last wrote on my blog! As far as i can remember the week wasn't particularly interesting so i ll just skip a few days to the Volleyball tournament..which started Thursday with the first game being played at 5pm. The beginning of a V-ball marathon. 3 days straight people, no mercy, (Ha, and i wasnt even a player). There was a total of 6 teams each consisting of a girls team and a boys team (so that makes 12 for all you linguistics people out there.) The teams flew in from all over China (just for V-ball, i know) Anyways It was pretty exciting for me since I'd got a chance to meet some pretty cool people.. :) Friday we had a lockdown in the gym meaning they locked us in (as you maybe derived from the term lockdown). We had food, music, volleyballs, soccerballs, basketballs and a lot of people! Oh that day a guy broke his nose during a spike, but he came to the gym and played some soccer anyways ;) That's about it really, I had a good time and spent my marathon eating snacks and cheering on teams (the chairs could have been more comfortable though).. On Saturday you had the finals in the afternoon.. SIS boys and girls won! So That night you there was the players farewell, end of the tournament dinner at the Renaissance.. I didnt get to go..since i wasnt a player, .. what do you do right ? So i spent the night watching some grey's anatomy (almost finished season 5 now) and had self made chicken soup with noodles! Sunday was clean-up day.. So thats what I did in the morning.. I cleaned (yes dad, i cleaned) and then we went to the 'freezer' store, where apparently big ships get their supplies, so it was an impressive supply of food (although you couldnt see most of it so i just took uncle B on his word) That night we watched the latest Harry Potter on the projector for that real theatre feeling :) Today was amazingly calm, since it's raport card day and the primary kids didnt have to go to school, so no tutoring, no art, no choir ! So in the morning i did some studying, went home, had lunch, waited an hour, danced when no one could see me and okay i watched some television too :p Gotta go to class now so tell you more later :) Bye !
