My first Chinese holiday

This week is Dragon Boat Festival a.k.a Duānwǔ Jié and although I don't have any plans for tomorrow's festivities... I am hoping to celebrate somewhere!

Dragon Boat Festival is said to have started in the third century by a man named Qu Yuan (pronounced- Chew You En). In protest of a corrupt government, Qu Yuan threw himself into the Mi Lo River. When people heard about the news they raced through the river in boats to find him. To scare the fish away from eating him they played loud music and threw rice in the river. Sadly, they did not save the man. It is said that boat races and ceremonial sacrifices of rice were performed each year to commemorate the passing of Qu Yuan. Today, people eat zongzi (pronounced- jong zuh), a rice dumpling, to symbolize the rice offerings to Qu Yuan.

The festival is celebrated by boats shaped like dragons racing each other. Rowing teams compete by racing to the finish line to the beat of drums.

Like I said, I don't know what I am doing for festival yet... but I think I may try to find some colorful boats racing? If I can figure out where exactly these boats may be...

Mandarin lesson:
Chuán 船 (boat) Shuǐdào 水稻 (rice) Bǐsài 比赛 (race)

I am sad

that my VPN is not working... I am missing Facebook and blogging and TMZ. I am missing quality computer time. Thankfully China sells cheap DVDs. They may not believe in the internet being used for social media but they do believe in selling dirt cheap DVDs. I bought Dexter Season 4 a few nights ago for 40 RMB. Which is basically $6. Brand new! You buy the DVDs for 8 RMB a piece. So, if you buy a season of something you pay for each DVD in the set. Dexter had five DVDs so I spent 40 qwai.


I am about to hit my three week anniversary in China. It is hard to believe it has been so long. I have never spent this long away from home. That is pretty sad... In these three weeks I have already grown very proud of myself. I walk everywhere. I eat (almost) anything. I can catch a taxi by myself. I can ride the subway by myself. I can order (some) food by myself. I have been living by myself for these three weeks. It is great how much I have to depend on myself to do things. I really don't feel like my life was that way at home. I knew there were many people I could lean on to get things done for me. That is just not the case here.


I have a few goals for when I go to Wuhan. Mainly I want to pick up on a lot more Chinese. I will be the only native English speaker at work and I will be in a city with a very small expat community. Hopefully this will help push me into learning and using more Mandarin. Right now I am a little embarrassed to try to speak it because I feel like I will not say anything right. I need to break out of my shell and just start speaking this darn language. I have been listening in on people's conversations. Be it at work, on the street, people on the phone, in a taxi... wherever. I try to figure out what they are talking about without really knowing any of the words they are saying. I am definitely becoming more aware of the way foreigners must feel in America. I used to be one of those people who said if you were going to move to another country then you have to learn the language. It is much harder than I thought.


I have been practicing how to order things in a restaurant...


Mandarin lesson:
Fúwùyuán 服务员 (waiter) Càidān 菜单 (menu) Màidān (check) yīngwén càidān 有英文菜单 (English menu) Kuàizi 筷子 (chopsticks) Sháozi 勺子 (spoon) Jiǎozi 饺子 (dumplings) Cāntīng 餐厅 (restaurant)

Sorry I have been MIA

My VPN is not working so until I fix it I may not be blogging... Hopefully that will happen soon!

I just wanna bang on the drums all day!

What exactly do I do in China?? Well... I work at Romp N Roll Beijing. Romp N Roll is a play-based learning school for children aged 0 to 6. Although it exists in the states it is run a little different in China. Considering the kids and parents do not speak English, there are some things that have to be different here in China. I like to describe the school as an "immersion" program for preschool aged children. There is always one American instructor and one Chinese assistant in class. So the instructor teaches just as you would in the states and the assistant translates to the children and parents. We are not in a "classroom" but instead we teach in a gym, music room, and art room. We work on things like body awareness, upper and lower body strength, balance, sign language, hand-eye coordination, and more. While teaching the gym, art, and music classes you are being sure to point things out in English. The instructor may refer to the shape of an object or its color. We use words like "tall" and "small." Or we may play music loud or quiet. We stretch up high and down low! I think you are getting the point here... We also offer an Oral English class which is set up for our older students and we work on vocabulary and concepts in English. Oral English is really the only class that has the main, obvious focus being on the English language. All other classes focus mostly on different skills to help children pay attention, become social, take turns, follow directions... and other skills necessary for when they start school. I will be teaching my first classes alone later this week. I am not exactly sure right now which classes I will be teaching yet. I am pretty sure I will be with Babies and Toddlers in the gym and maybe some art classes with the older kiddos. I feel pretty good about getting in the classroom and becoming more involved at work. I only have two more weeks of training and then I am off to Wuhan.

In Wuhan I will meet another American instructor, Megan. She will show me the ropes for a few days and then she will come back to Beijing. I will be in Wuhan for three weeks. A new American instructor will be arriving in Beijing around the time I leave for Wuhan. She will get trained for those three weeks and then come to Wuhan so I can come back to Beijing. It will be weird when I come back to the Beijing center because Anna and Jill will both be going back home. I will work at this center with Theresa and Alex (the other American instructors). In Wuhan I will be the only American. I am worried about not really being able to communicate with my colleagues and not being able to find other Americans/native English speakers to hang out with. I think the experience will be good for me to become more comfortable with the Chinese culture and at work. Because I will be the only instructor, I should get some pretty good work experience. So at least if I am confused and lost and over my head with things this country has to offer, I will know my job. If I can just know how to do my job it will be one less thing to worry about.

Mandarin lesson:
Nǐ néng bāng wǒ pāi zhāng zhào ma? 你能帮我拍张照吗？ (Could you take a photo for me?)