January Updates

It’s January! Here are some updates about my current state in Beijing.

What I wear before I leave the house for the bike to work:
Tights, leggings, jeans, two thin pairs of socks, one thick pair of socks, boots. T-shirt, work shirt, fingerless gloves to my elbow, scarf, long downy winter coat, fleece-lined mittens. fleece hat, knit hat, SARS mask.

With this gear, I can make it through the 20 min. bike ride, but I can’t say I’m not still cold.

(Ok, I was resistant to the face mask at first. Aside from the obvious aesthetics, it seemed difficult to breathe under that thing. Thanks to the pollution in Beijing, which has been officially termed “crazy bad” – not even a joke- it’s really dangerous to breathe through your mouth. Thanks to the unbelievable cold, my nose is a faucet the moment I step outside. Enter, SARS mask, the solution to my problems. It doesn’t hurt, either, that I found a really soft cloth one that’s pink and
flowery.)

Christmas lights: still up.

Getting used to: drinking tea more than coffee

More used to than American: money.
In the airport I changed some RMB to USD, because China no longer carries Pesos (they must be pissed at the Philippines for some reason). Holding the dark green bills, all the same size, was a really strange feeling for me, which, as an American, was a really strange feeling for me.

Worst part of January: the wind.
It’s so strong that when it blows right at me I actually can’t go forward. I call it treadmill biking. (Those of you who know how much I love the gym can guess how fun this really is for me.) Every morning I have to dig poor Finding Flying Pigeon out of a mountain of bikes 20 feet from where I left her. Her front wire basket has been officially molded into a triangle, with a number of holes on the bottom.

Work update: Farmer’s Market
I’m really loving my job these days. I’m down to 11 kids now, with another one leaving at the end of January. I hear that it’s common for classes to change in International school, because the parents are changing countries. One kid switched to a closer school because he was commuting 1.5 hours from the center of the city. I miss him, but he’s too young for that commute. My girl leaving at the end of the month is going to America to live with her father. I am sad to see her go, but I’m happy for her. I’ll keep the blog posted if my plan to sneak myself into her suitcase is a success.

We’re finishing our study of food by running a Farmer’s Market from our classroom. It’s our reading, writing, math, social studies, art…it’s everything. It’s great to be a part of this project, even though I have no idea what I’m doing. A lot of times, even in progressive ed, teachers pretend to take student input and shape it to how it’s supposed to be done. Over here, I really don’t know what fruits and veggies we should sell, or how best to advertise to our customers, so my kids are really running it themselves!