Changing of the Weather

Wednesday Doug, Trent and I went into Ningbo to go to Metro. Yup we traveled an hour in traffic to go shopping. Fantastic, you wonder why though don't you...they must have stores where they live. And of course we do but not ones like Metro. At Metro you can buy loads of imported things...yes loads. We bought refried beans, tortilla shells, beer (but chinese beer and Australian wine), we bought pasta and spaghetti sauce. Why you ask? Well becuase...even though Chinese food is delicious it does get boring like if you eat hamburgers every night of your life. There are not many resturants in Beliun that have a variety of dishes pretty much you can get spicy Chinese food and non spicy Chinese food. Both great but you can eat only so much Bok Choy before it is growing out of your ears.

Anyway the store was wonderful...there was no one there so Trent, Doug and I could take our time...looking at things and whatever...the taxi that we called wasn't going to get there until seven so we had an hour and 15 minutes...everything going smoothly until we go to check out. Now by the way you have these three white people buying tons of food so you are already being stared at..and then of course Doug and I get in the line where they are training the new girl. For some reason that is always happening to us. Whether we are in Brewer Maine to Colorado Springs...yup took for ever.

Anyway we finally get outside and the humidity is so thick that you can not see across the parking lot. It was amazing. You could have cut it with a knife. Right then and there you knew it was going to rain, funny thing is the gardeners had been watering the lawn all that day. So of course you wash your car it rains same thing happen here, you water the lawn it rains.

It rained for most of the day on Thursday but it still wasn't cool...warm and wet..not always the best combinations when you have first graders running everywhere. When school was finally over after ASA (after school activities) I went running and Doug went to the gym. Now even though it is not hot our the water/sweat runs right off of you. Amazing what a little rain can do here.

Today...Friday it is cool...actually cool...like it could be fall and it smells a little like fall if you use your imagination. I think that's maybe what we miss the most right now the cool air and the changing of the leaves. Because here the leaves are the same...they are still green and hanging onto the trees. Though some have dropped...and turned brown. But you know what is still amazing...it's the flowers that are now just blooming...or the forever red flowers that grace the gate to our apartment building. It feels different...not bad...not good...just different. Maybe that's why it makes everything so special here...everything is so new. Yeah we miss the leaves and the bike rides, but Dad has been good enough to send us pictures...but things here are good.

Everytime we go to the store it is a new adventure and a funny story to tell but fun...today we take a two hour bus ride to Shao Xing where we are going with some co-workers on a free trip. It will be fun...you make it what you want it to be.

That's all for now...and we are off.

Shoreline...ummm..we think

Ok so on our bike ride we decided to go the shore...the ocean...think it would be a huge green/blue ocean that would just call your name to put your feet in...and this is what we got.


Yup this is definitely the second deepest port in the world with enough stuff to keep you staring for years...and it's not because it was pretty.





We carried our bikes up this "road" to get to the top of this huge wall that blocks your view of the ocean. Well the mountains were beautiful...and there are quite a few islands around the port...even one that has a bridge you can bike over. So maybe we can go there one day and it might be nice..or cleaner or something.












On top of the wall we took a break, Drank some water and tried to figure out where were on the map that is all written in Chinese. That was an experience. Once again it was Avis, Alissa, Robbie, Doug and I.


That is the four girls on the top of the wall. This was where we started to think about turning around but ended up going for another two hours. And we forgot to feed the Doug every couple of hours.


So the shore was a long stretch of mud flat and the water was as brown as the mud...none of us touched it...so no third arms are growing.

Biking this past weekend.

A week ago today Doug and I went for an four hour bike ride with a few friends. It was amazing. There were no hills but you had to pedal the whole time. There were no hills to go up this time but if you stopped moving your feet then you probably would have fallen over...well maybe that is just me. We got to see so much of Beliun that we had not seen before.

A lot of the area was a huge contradiction, there is so much growth but at the same time there are these random plots of land growing rice and veggies. Or these areas with pigs and chickens....also don't you worry there were plenty of smells that you wouldn't believe.

Well here are some pictures.


My big butt and some beautiful trees...we are headed to a village that is one of Robbie Daniels' favorites. They even had a communist party house. Beautiful there were mountains right outside the village, and very quiet. The village wasn't too much like the one where people were fishing and doing their laundry in the same small water area.

The big building in the background is a crematorium. Yup definitely thought it was a temple...definitely wrong.
Here's a great picture of one of the random farm areas that we got to see. Doug did such a good job with this photo.
Yes this is a huge contradiction...no idea what the plant was for. It's funny in these pictures you see so much green and clean but in real time...it is really dirty.
The things floating in the water are soda bottles...we think iwas for catching fish or growing fish, but the whole river was covered in all of these bottles. It was amazing.

We had tons of fun we went to the shore...also....more to come.

A Thursday...is it typical?

Ahhhhh...Thursdays. That means tomorrow is Friday and the great UN day at school. Doug has been working hard at getting it ready for the whole school. Him and his middle school team has been doing all the work, they have created passports, schedules, activities, a parade, and so much more. I even stepped in and did stuff. I had the Pre K -2 grades create flags of what they thought UN day, peace, and a whole bunch of other stuff is. I also had my 3rd through high school create a mural. I think it came out pretty cool. Each grade did a different part! I will take pictures tomorrow so I can post them later.



Last weekend Doug and I went for a four hour bike ride with a few friends. Avis Larson the Kindergarten teacher, Alissa Kruse the guidance counselor and Robbie Daniels the librarian. We went everywhere. Those pictures will also get posted this weekend so stay tuned.



Yesterday Doug and I went to the gym to see if we could get into a routine again after I got sick with the Beliun Belly...which by the way is when everything you eat comes right back out. Doug lifted and I swam.

Here I was swimming like this

S

W

I

M

M

I

N

G

and everyone else was going this way across the pool

SWIMMING

SWIMMING

yup...I was just like well if they get kicked then they get kicked. And they were probably saying look at that white girl..she doesn't know how to swim. Either way it was pretty entertaining.

Soon is our free trip to a town in China...yup can't remember how to spell it..will try to write about it this weekend so people can look it up if they want to but...it's free and we get to see a new place...I think we are lucky.

I think Doug and I have gotten use to the fact that we have an Ayi and really like it. We don't have to clean on the weekends, we don't have to iron and our floors look great. Really it's a huge relief for the both of us..and still a little bit of a shock when we walk in the door and our apartment is clean...but it is a good thing.

I do think we like it here and are having fun...we keep saying though our next place will be cleaner than this place...as in pollution wise. But every one is so nice and willing to work together. So much so I think we are going on another joint trip...yup for Chinese New Year...maybe to the outback. Who knows.

That's all for now in lovely China.

Things We Have Learned in China

Chopsticks, even though we use them for everything they still are not easy to use.

Babies do not wear diapers.

Air Conditioning is the best thing in the world.

Only having 144 students in the school is a blessing and burden.

Ants come from plants that you buy in the store.

Beilun belly comes at least every two weeks.

It's easier to buy dinner than it is to make it.

There is no such thing as personal space.

Yup the language is HARD.

People drive like they walk, and they swim like they drive.

If they don't honk worry.

Thank goodness for beer.

Thank goodness for the pizza joint down the street.

Being rained on beats the hell out of sweating.

Pollution brings a whole new meaning to breathing.

Don't drink the milk.

The Howard Johnson's in Ningbo would bring any 5 star hotel to shame. SERIOUSLY!

The five English speaking channels we have ROCK!

Old pictures...SHOPPING IN THE TRADITIONAL MARKET

This was so crazy. When we first got here....like the second day they took us to this huge warehouse where they have all kinds of food. Anything you could imagine was there. People were staring yes...and saying hello, hello, hello like you wouldn't believe. But all the vendors were so nice, we even got try some different foods when we didn't know what they were. It was called a Dragons eye. There was this hard shell exterior thing, when you peel it off there is thing inside that looks like a peeled grape so you eat all of that but have to spit out the hard seed in the middle. Swear to God I would have never tried unless we were made. It looked like it was a dry cocoon... the butterfly flew away.
I think this was the dried fish area...pretty interesting...very smelly.

No idea.
No clue what we are looking at here. The girl in the pink is Kelly Fu who works in the office. She was our guide for the first few days and she was great! She takes care of so many things and even taught us how to say bathroom in Chinese.

Toys

This picture is of Doug's beautiful bike. He fits it perfectly...so yes surprisingly you can find bikes to fit very tall people.
Don't you worry he got this really comfortable seat so we can go on longer rides! YEAH!
We both have disk brakes on our bikes...they are so new and cool. They are also shiny. The bike shop that we bought them from...well the guy doesn't speak any English but he can pull a bike out of the box and put it together in about a half hour. He is pretty amazing, he will also fix our bikes for no extra cost. The other day we stopped by to buy a bell for me which is a must here, and he had gotten a puppy about the size of half of my fore arm. I petted it and then wasn't allowed to touch Doug until I scrubbed my hands. I think I have fleas but it was totally worth it. Yes...I do understand that he might be eaten for Christmas dinner but he was so CUTE! At least I didn't touch the cat that eats our trash in the morning!
This is my bike...I think I need some type of Gel seat because sitting down now is a little painful.
These are our Tennis rackets that Doug and I bought on line. Well we didn't but the Elementary PE teacher Ken Lee found them for us and set it up so we would get them in the mail. It was awesome. He is a really nice guy, easy to smile..willing to stay after school and play tennis with you and go biking with you on the weekend. His wife and him just had a baby boy this weekend. So good luck to them!

Here are some friends..still at the Japanese Resturant

From the Left to the Right. There is me. Then Alissa Kruse she is the guidance counselor. Then there is Avis Larson who teaches kindergarten. Then Jess Burton who teaches 6th, 7th, and 8th grade language arts.
From the left to the right is Mappi and she is dating the tall Kelly Miller who teaches 6th, 7th, and 8th grade history and PE. He's the 6'8" guy Doug talks about.
That is my handsome husband!
OK you know everybody but the guy in the middle that is Matt Devlin and he is married to Jess. He teaches Elementary ELL which is English Language Learns...up we have a lot of those!
It was an awesome night. We haven't been to this place again but we have gone back to the other one. There it is a little more authentic. Tons of fun..you can sit on the floor and stuff.
It's great to have people to hang out with and everyone is so nice and willing to go out of their way to help you. But I think you have to be in order to be in this business.

Japanese Resturant and Food

OK so this is one of the Japanese restaurants that we go to. For 100 R.M.B. which is about 13 dollars per person you can eat and drink all that you want. YUP EAT AND DRINK ALL THAT YOU WANT.
Can you believe it? We do this once a week or maybe every two weeks. We eat lots of sushi which is very good and some other very random things that taste good for the most part. We order from pictures sometimes...and sometimes we don't know how we ended up with things.



Here is a picture of me eating a craw fish or something...ummm...it was marinated in something and it was a heck of a lot of work for not a lot of pay off! But everyday is an adventure in China.














Yup raw fish...for all I know it was caught in the stream were people wash their feet in earlier that day....but it tastes really good.















I know I know you would have never guessed it but here is Doug eating the same thing as me. We made a deal, we try everything at last once...so far it is working out OK.
















Yup more food. It's like a five hour eating fest.

The Apartment

So this is a brief view of our back yard. Yes we do have one since our apartment is on the first floor. It was a mess when we first got here...so we paid a gardener to clean it up...35 R.M.B. so about 5 bucks for these two lovely men to make the yard less scary to go into. Still don't sit out there but soon maybe...that way we can really smell the pollution. LOVE IT!



This is where we cook. Just a gas stove top. We got a nice wok though. And we try to cook every once in awhile. The food is good but we don't eat much meat...usually just veggies and tofu. It's good.
Small fridge but big enough to keep contaminated milk in and veggies!

Part of our living room which is huge with the biggest flat screen t.v. we have ever seen. We are one of the few people with couches that are not painful to sit on. We now have plants and that is great. The best part is the fluorescent pink lights that we use every once in awhile...they are awesome...showed Meghan and she was jealous...Ton said he might install some!
This is our oven..up we make toast in it but other people make homemade brownies in theirs. Doug has not made it that far yet. Oh and our coffee maker....we drink our coffee black now...so the people that are coming to visit get use to it now!
Our apartment has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room, laundry room, and kitchen.