We have been unable to access our Wordpress blog from all the computers we have available here in Beijing, so we have decided to switch our blogging allegiance to Blogspot. We hope you enjoy our new site!
We arrived in Beijing safely on Saturday afternoon. We flew out of Detroit on Friday morning around 10:30 and had one stopover in Toronto. Seth did really well on both flights. The flight attendant on the first flight had a lot of fun showing him around the cabin. We were very happy that Air Canada let us put Seth in his own seat on the flight from Toronto to Beijing (we hadn't purchased one) since the plane wasn't full. Seth slept about nine hours out of that flight and was only moderately fussy when he wasn't unconscious. The Brazilian and Mexican Paralympic teams were on the flight with us, so we had every announcement translated into Portugese and Spanish as well as English and Chinese.My supervisor Joyce met us at the airport and took us back to the college campus where I will be teaching. We checked into the guesthouse and pretty much crashed. Our place was small, but not too small, and consisted of a sitting room, bathroom, and bedroom.
On Sunday we went exploring. We found a grocery store, a Starbucks, a KFC, and lots of overprotective Chinese grandparents who insisted that we hadn't dressed Seth warmly enough despite the eighty degree weather. (At one point we finally succumbed to the pressure and returned to our apartment to get Seth's slippers.) Monday we did more exploring and found a peddler's market, the nearest subway station (about 2½ miles away), a bookstore with a handful of English books, and a halfway decent pizza place. On Tuesday we were pooped from walking everywhere and stayed home.
This morning we were given the opportunity to move into a larger apartment in our same building. We are now living on the fifth floor (no elevator!) and are very pleased with the change. We went from about 250 square feet to about 500, plus we now have a toilet that doesn't lean to one side. Other improvements over our old place include a kitchenette and much more furniture for storing clothes. We are still without a stove or washing machine, however. I did my first load of laundry by hand today, and I will say it was more difficult than I had imagined. We will definitely be looking for our own place this month, but where we are staying now is certainly good enough for the interim.
On Friday I will have a faculty meeting with the other English teachers who are teaching Academic Writing. There are five of us total; two of us are new this semester. I will have two sections of Academic Writing and each section will meet twice a week for two hours. Starting in October I will also have two sections of Reading.
Seth, of course, is our little star. We can't even leave our building without countless people oohing and aahing over his blonde hair and blue eyes. Everyone is amazed at how happy and outgoing he is and how willing he is to be held by complete strangers (unless he is overtired, in which case he only wants Mommy). Everyone wants to know how old he is, if he can speak Chinese (I tell them, no, he can't even speak English yet!), and if I don't think he might be a little cold wearing whatever he is wearing. We have been taking lots of stroller rides, and heads turn everywhere we go. If we happen to stop and speak with someone, a crowd of ten or more women will gather within minutes. Our little boy is turning into quite the flirt!
I will try to get some pictures or video up once I have my internet login through the school, hopefully by next week. Right now we have to go to an internet café or a restaurant with Wi-Fi in order to get online. There is a computer lab in our building, so we should be able to check e-mail fairly regularly starting next week. We appreciate your e-mails and comments and enjoy hearing from all of you. Keep in touch!
