Chilly Chilly

Hello All!! It's been a while since I caught up with you. My apologies...

As you may have guessed, it's gotten a bit chilly here. It rains a lot, and it's cold, and the rain is cold, and reality-wise, I don't love heading off to class in the chill every morning.

The cold here is a bit different from the cold back in the US. Here, because we are in the south, there is not central heating. So, no public buildings have central heat in them. This includes our apartments, but, by the grace of God, we have two duel-action air-conditioner/heaters in our apartments, one in the bedroom and one in the living room. Unfortunately, the duel-action air-conditioner/heater in my bedroom is currently a single-action air-conditioner. So it stays off. So this is me, bundled up at home!!

Luckily, the school put space heaters in the classrooms this year (the Elizabeth Effect- no big deal), and those babies are saving my life. Unluckily, I do not know how to work the heaters because everything is in Chinese. Don't get me wrong, I can press buttons until heat comes out, but I feel like it diminishes my authority in the classroom when I push every single button on the heater and it still isn't working. So I leave it up to the kiddos.

My Tuesday morning class always turns them on before I get there, and it's like walking into a sauna. It's so great! The first day they did it, I looked so shocked when I walked in that one of my boys stopped and asked me, "Teacher, what's wrong?" Nothing. Everything was right with the world. Then there are other classes that apparently generate their own heat, so they don't like turning on the heater. Or when one of them miraculously does turn it on, someone else will turn it off 10 minutes later. I don't want to be the weak foreigner who can't handle the cold, so I suffer in silence.

But in reality- I can't handle the cold. My little hands just don't like it. To everyone who was worried- I bought a coat the other day! And I love it! The lack of heat here means you wear your coat all the time. All the time. So my coat is my best friend right now.

The cold signals that time is passing. I am giving Midterms this week and next. Midterms! One- it's a weird feeling giving out Midterms when six months ago, I was taking them. And two- that means the semester is half (actually more than half) over!! Where has the time gone? It's a weird feeling where I feel like I've lived in China for years, and at the same time I feel like I just got here. It's like when I ride on airplanes, and I forget what it's like to not be on the airplane by the time we land.

So far China's been a good ride. A little bit of turbulence every now and then, but overall, pretty solid. I'm getting to know my kids better, and spending more time with them. Now that I'm not as stressed with all the newness, life is settling down. Still lots to do, and I'm constantly busy, but it's busy in a good way. Not in a frantic way (most of the time).

So I'm cold. But cold and happy!

The Elizabeth Effect

I know you have all been thinking, "Elizabeth has finally succumb to her inability to keep up with blogs." "It's over." Wrong!! I'm back. There has been quite a bit going on since I last wrote to you about anything. I feel the only way to really do anything justice is to give you a few short stories about my life since we last spoke.

The Elizabeth Effect- The End of a Glorious Reign

The namesake of this blog post. One of my teammates, Lori, has coined the term, The Elizabeth Effect. This is my first year in Chongqing, and this year we have gotten air conditioning in the classrooms, hot water in our kitchens, and up until recently, it was beautiful and sunny most days- The Elizabeth Effect. Basically I bring all the good things! No, clearly I'm not going to fight the spread of this term, and I really think it was catching on.

Unfortunately, overnight, the weather took a turn for the worst. And when I say that it changed overnight I mean that in the most literal sense. One day I was wearing a skirt and short sleeves, and the next it was jeans, boots, and a sweater. OVERNIGHT. Luckily, having grown up in Kentucky has prepared me for 70s one day, and snow the next. Unfortunately, my poor little body is not quite as emotionally prepared for the whiplash. I am now sick in bed with the sniffles.

So the Elizabeth Effect came to an end, the sun took refuge behind the clouds and the air conditioners in the classrooms are left unused in recent days (although I feel like they could possibly be the fancy AC and heater dual action guys- here's hoping). The hot water in the kitchen remains, and while I only had to transport hot water from my bathroom for a few weeks, I am so thankful for it!! It's funny how things that I took for granted in the US are just a joy here. Even as the scorching (so hot!!) water burns me, I'm just the happiest kid in the candy store!!!

The Campus Radio Station, and Its Love of Broadway

So the campus radio station is kind of funny unto itself- also kind of annoying. It's not just a radio station that you tune into. It is a radio station that is played over the campus loudspeakers for at least 2 hours a day. It's a nice mix of random English songs- they were playing some sweet 90s jams the other day- a little bit of radio chit chat (in Chinese), and a lot of Chinese songs. Did I mention that it's super loud- very very loud. And I do believe that they installed a brand new speaker right next to our building this year (apparently someone was displeased with the quality of their listening experience). Every now and then, the two closest speakers get out of sync with one another- that's my favorite. My love of silence is not a big fan of this particular CQUPT feature.

Recently however, the DJs have really gotten into Broadway musicals. We had a week of Phantom of the Opera, and just yesterday they have moved onto Chicago. It's pretty dang fantastic. I'm not even a little bit ashamed to say that I walk around campus singing. To top it all off, I have been listening to a lot (A LOT) of Wicked recently (something you are very aware of if you are updated on my Spotify listenings- which is probably no one). So I'm pretty well prepared for this. My life is full of overly dramatic singing, which leads to overly dramatic dance/walking. It's truly magical!! I sincerely hope that this continues throughout the year/forever.

The Man at McDonalds

Let's get this out in the open at the very beginning: personal space is very different here in China than it is in America. There are a ton of people, so personal space bubbles are much smaller. On crowded busses and subways, you are always touching someone. Not a big deal. Students sit in the desk right next to one another even if there are other open desks, and it's not super uncommon to occasionally share a table with strangers at a little restaurant. That being said, the man I met at McDonalds live in a league of his own on the person space front.

So I went on a day trip to the other side of the city to the art district (super fun) a little while ago. We stopped off to eat at McDonalds (which offers its own set of interesting cultural comparisons with the McDonalds in America- maybe for another day). We were done, and were getting ready to leave. I was looking at something behind me, and when I turned my head back around I was face to face with a random Chinese man. Face to face. Not looking at him from a slight, comfortable distance. He had bent over and his face could not have been more than 8 inches from mine. I'm not usually startled by things, but this was very disconcerting.

"Where are you from?" he asked (very loudly I might add- people in Chongqing tend to speak loudly- also something that my love of silence is not a huge fan of). Now, I was expecting him to be speaking in Chinese, so I had no idea what he was saying. I desperately looked to my teammates who also did not understand him. So he repeated himself, and I figured out that he was speaking in English. I told him I was from America, and he said, "Congratulations," and walked away. I watched him walk away from our little, less than a minute interaction, with the look of shock still on my face. It was a very strange experience. Very atypical.

From Scratch

One of my teammates is Canadian, so a few weeks ago we celebrated an early Canadian Thanksgiving (which falls on October 13 for those who do not know- me a month ago). I volunteered to make pumpkin pie, because it's pie and I wanted to make something from scratch. Now when I say I made this pie from scratch, do not misunderstand me. I didn't buy the can of pumpkin and the pie crust and the whipped cream and everything and put it together. I slaved over this pie and made everything! Everything!!

The pie process started the night before. I made my crust dough, pumpkin spice, and my pumpkin puree. I literally started from flour, butter, and a few pieces of pumpkin (it's shaped differently- very squash-esque). I cut the butter into the flour (I don't have a pastry knife-y thing that the recipe was telling me to use- and unlike the recipe suggested, I couldn't just "run out and take the ten minutes to get it"- so I used this nifty curved metal ma-gig that I found in my kitchen. I have literally no idea what it is, but it has a flat edge on it, so it became my pastry scraper. I do not exactly recommend this- because I was not using it correctly it gave me a rather uncomfortable hand cramp). I roasted the pumpkin squash for over an hour and then scraped and smashed it by hand.

Then came the rest of the pie the next day. The eight-year-old daughter of one of the other teachers came up to help me assemble the pie. We rolled out the dough, mixed everything together (luckily the local import section had evaporated milk- I have no idea how I could make that. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's harder than the name suggests). Cooked it. Made our own vanilla, cinnamon whipped cream out of whipping cream. And these two paragraphs cannot fully express just how much work I felt like I was going through to get this pie. Two days of work and only one canned ingredient. I'm not going to put every picture on here, but let me tell you, the photojournalism that went into the production of this pie was incredible.

And that pie was delicious. I have never been so proud of a piece of food in my life. Everything I make here is from scratch. We just don't have access to things. We make our own salad dressing, and sour cream, and I'm working on buffalo sauce at the moment. I look up recipes on Pinterest for extremely basic things. I'm trying to figure out corned beef at the moment in preparation for Christmas. The domesticity in my life is incredible. Cooking here is like a puzzle and a scavenger hut all rolled into one!

A lot of the recipes I find are from people in America who are trying to "eat clean" or hipster/trendy eating from the earth stuff aka: use as many different grains as humanly possible in one recipe. So I get a lot of recipes that say: 1/4 cup of unbleached flour, 2/3 cup or rye flour, 1/3 cup of almond flour, and a pinch of ground, organic hazelnut from the Swiss Alps. I'm lucky to have figured out what was flour at the store (on some bags of flour the English translation is something like: multi-grain glutenous  something or other- at least I think it's flour), so I read that and I'm like, "1 1/4 cup of flour." Don't get me wrong, I'm glad these health foodies in the States are making super complicated things, and I'm especially happy that they make things from the ground up because it's not an option for me. Over here, everything is from scratch.

Peppers

The food in Chongqing is spicy. It's a different breed of spicy than we are used to in the US. It's a slow dry burn that is absolutely miserable. I ask for "a little" spicy on everything, and it still clears out my sinuses every time. All the locals laugh at me. It's great.

But I want to take a moment to recount to you my two experiences with the little hot peppers here. We do team dinners every week, and I was bringing salsa for our Mexican night. So I went to the fresh market, and the recipe I'd found called for 3 jalepeno (spelling?) peppers. So three peppers is ridiculous- we would all die. But I decided to get a little handful of the peppers to keep on hand. The old man I bought them from kind of laughed at me when I got them. That should have been my first clue- he knew I couldn't handle them.

So I got home and made the rest of my salsa. Then I decided to investigate the peppers. So I literally pushed the tip of my nail through the skin of the pepper and just lightly touched my nail to my tongue. SO HOT. So I made the executive decision to not add any peppers, just cut them up and serve them separately. So thats what is did. Later that night, under my nail was kind of hurting, I didn't think anything of it- I accidentally stab myself under my nail all the time. It was when I messed with my nose-ring was when I realized something was wrong. The inside of my nose was burning. Let it be noted- I had already washed my hands multiple times since handling the peppers. Then the terrifying realization hit me- I had to take my contacts out. I decided to apply the bandaid method- quick. In reality, I thought it would be worse. Yes it hurt. But at least my eyes produce tears which washed it out. but that wasn't the end. The tear tracks on my face also burned. After a very long shower and tons of soap, things died down, and it was done.

So the next time I was making salsa for team dinner, I was not going to make the same mistakes.

I've always heard that the smaller the pepper, the hotter it is. So I bought the largest peppers I could find. I didn't have any plastic gloves, so I put on some ziplock baggies (these are a hot commodity, so it's a big deal that I used them for this) as I cut the peppers. I outsmarted the evil peppers.

Or so I thought...

It was so much worse. Apparently, somehow the pepper juice still got on my hands. I washed them and washed them. I had to take my contacts out again. Remembering my past success, I assumed it wouldn't be too bad. Wrong- it was "not too bad" like Walmart on Black Friday is "not too crowded". I thought I was going to die or at the very least lose my sight. Finally the tears did their job, I could see again. I thought it was over. It wasn't. The projector in one of my classrooms doesn't work, so I use a lot of chalk. This dries my hands out. Apparently, because my hands were so dry, the pepper juice soaked into all the micro cuts on my hand, and my entire had burned. To this day I am shocked that there were not welts. It was so bad that I had to set a bowl of water next to my bed to swish my hand around in just so I could get to sleep. It was horrible.

The moral of this story is that hot peppers are the spawn of Satan, and they should be avoided at all costs. They will get you. And I am apparently, incredibly delicate.


So I hope these little stories have offered you a little glimpse into the past few weeks here in Chongqing. Things are going well. Progressing as they ought, I think!

My Kiddos are the Bomb

I have used the term "the bomb" more in the past two weeks than I think I ever did when it was actually a popular phrase.

I have officially met all of my classes, and I think I can say this with very little bias, but my kids are the best. Just the most fabulous humans. They are all just wonderful. Every class I leave, I say to myself, "these guys are my favorite." That can only mean one thing- they're all my favorite.

I would say that I have about 180-200 students- I haven't done the actual count as of yet. My classes range from 16-41 students. So to get to know them and learn their names and such, everyone has these student cards with their faces and all their information on them. Literally nothing brings me more joy than looking through my student cards. Because they are all so funny or really concerned about their lives, or my life, or English. They're just wonderful, and I can barely handle it!

So on the back of their student cards, I have them answer the question, "What is one question you often think about?" (Shout-out to my teammate Jeannie on that one), and just so you can get a glimpse into their wonderful minds, here are a couple of the responses:


There's the really serious ones:
How can I be a better person?
What does it take to be successful?
Why do people love me but I don't love them, and why do the people I love not care about me?
What will I do in the future?
What should I do after graduation?
How can I realize my dreams and enjoy my life?
How to have no regret?

Then there's these guys:
Why did I waste time on boring things today?
Can you understand us in Chinese? :)
What kind of question should I write down?
Where is my cellphone?
How can I be taller?
Do aliens exist?
What should I eat for my next meal?
Why do I love dessert so much?
How to find a girlfriend?

These are the questions that plague their minds day in and day out. How can I be taller???

And then there's their names!
I have some of the coolest names:
Bond, Sasuke, Arno (which because of his handwriting I keep reading as Arm- btw), Sherlock, Scofield, Dante, Gio, Hebrew, Peter Park, Jax, Kegas, Keilantra, literally some of the best

I have a bunch of normal names.

Then I have these:
Bear, Stone (I have 2), Bleach, Sky, Wave, Recargo (who, when I told him that this wasn't really a name, looked at me and said, "What is a name, really?" So he won and got to keep his name), Shiny (I can't bring myself to change his name. It's so accurate to his personality. He's the smiliest, happiest, shiniest kid in the world).

And some names just had to be changed-
Plank is now Albert
Rum is now Brant
Dick is now Chris
Faker is now Nelson
Cool Boy is now Alan
Mascara is now Louis

It's just the best. I have the best job, because I get to work with these fantastic humans!

They're ridiculous, don't get me wrong. Some of them like to be edgy for no reason. I've had the f-bomb dropped twice in my classes so far. Some kid asked me if I would give him credit for the class, but he was too busy to come to class- ummmm no... I've gotten advice on how to plan lessons- thanks so much! They're just ridiculous. But I love them so stinkin' much.

And they seem to really care about me, which is really sweet. I walked into a classroom yesterday, and the class that was leaving was one of my classes too. They all said bye to me and stuff. Then one girl came back in. She was very concerned. She said, "Miss Elizabeth, the sign does not have your name on it. I think maybe you are in the wrong classroom." There are schedules outside every classroom that say what classes are in there, so we looked at the schedule. My name was not on it (PS- my name is Emily on all the schedules, it's great!), but some of my students were already in the room. So we made sure that they were indeed coming to my class, and it turned out that I was in the right room, and the sign was wrong. But sweet Amy was so concerned that I was in the wrong place and that I was going to lose face. And she was just so worried. It was the loveliest feeling in the world.

I'm so excited to get to know them all better! They're all so interesting. Talk about their lives, what makes them tick, what they want to do and such.And they're all relatively good at English; I want them to be so confident! I just want them to find purpose and meaning in their lives!

So those are my students! Get excited to hear stories upon stories about their lives and our adventures through English together!!

Stairs on Stairs on Stares

I live on a mountain Not a bit of a hill Not an undulating landscape I live on a mountain When you get a taxi home, you say: .... Nan shan (Nanshan) which translates to:. South Mountain It's a mountain, and my apartment happens to be on the top of the mountain side of campus, as are all the apartments and dorms. What this translates into is stairs. Lots and lots of stairs for me to climb. It is not as if it's unbearable, but somedays it's quite the deterrent to going into town. Because when you go into town to run errands or get groceries, you have to then haul your groceries or your errand-tired self back up the mountain. There is a shuttle that will drive you up the mountain and will deposit you right at the door to our building, and believe you me, I have taken advantage of that shuttle. But there are some days when I just want to prove to myself that walking back up to my apartment is easy. Today was one of those days.

Today I was productive. We had an International College meeting this morning, then I went home, cooked lunch and then decided that I was going to run errands. And I did. I wandered around a bit to get the feel of the town a bit more. Found a park- very lovely, I will have to go sketch it sometime (and I just found out that it connects to campus somehow). Figured out how to mail things (you go to the post office, make sure your letters are visible, and someone will eventually realize what you want and that you have no idea what you are doing, weigh them, and tell you how much you owe). Went to the grocery. Then began back up the mountain. I was kind of tired , and my bag was kind of heavy- I was running pretty low on food, and I've mastered how to operate the grocery store so I like to take advantage of that. I was a little cranky and kind of sweaty, because apparently that's how I live here (the sweaty part- not the cranky part). 

Then I got here.

These gems are affectionately called the Stairs of Doom. Our apartments are located at the top of these stairs. It's six flights. If I'm being honest, I was not pleased to reach this point. If you can see the guy in yellow in the picture, when I took this, I was so jealous of him because he was already halfway up. There's a little store two flights up that I always fantasize about stopping at just to break up the stairs, but I have not yet- one day I will. These stairs are not my favorite. Gloria and I carried my shipped bag (60ish lbs) up these stairs. And today I carried my groceries up them. 

It's not as if they are a complete nightmare. There's usually a lot of students around, and I do not want to be that foreign teacher who is struggling, so I usually push through pretty well. But they are exhausting. The shuttle drives past these , and I love watching them go past when I'm on the shuttle. The shuttle drove by me as I walked up the stairs today- I did not love it. But I got to the top- obviously, it's not as if it's impossible . And I was pretty pleased with myself. My day of productivity continued!

This is where the second phase of the story begins. 

I'm still getting used to being one of the few foreigners on the mountain, and really in Chongqing. It is leaps and bounds better than Beijing. No one takes pictures here (or, if they do, they're incredibly sneaky about it because I have not caught them), and, especially near the university, people are kind of used to foreign teachers. However, I still get the stares, and as someone who likes to wander and who used to wander in relative anonymity, it's still a bit uncomfortable. Am I supposed to smile at everyone, or just ignore it? I just do not know how to react. And as someone who talks to themselves while they walk sometimes, I really have to keep myself in check- because people notice , and I really do not want to be dubbed the crazy foreign teacher. It's a process, and I'm just getting used to it. 

So I've reached the top of the stairs. I'm sweaty and disgusting (I usually look pretty decent up until the stairs- they destroy me) and I can not wait to be back in my air-conditioned home. Then I hear it, "这个，这个是外教", basically: "this, this is a foreign teacher" It was a tour group, and I was a perfect illustration of the foreign teachers here at CQUPT The perspective students and their parents did. . not see me at quite the height of my beauty, I was disgusting and exhausted from the errands and the aforementioned stairs. They did not seem to mind though. They looked on with interest as their shuttle drove past, and I think someone took a picture. 

The moment that they drove past and I stood there in minor confusion, exhaustion, and amusement at the turn of events in my life- it's a pretty good picture of my life right now. Constant confusion. Getting into shape climbing this mountain. Everyday hilarity . 

This is my life right now. And it's fabulous.

I Live in Chongqing, China

If someone would have told me 5 years ago that I would be living on a mountain overlooking the largest city in the world today, I would have laughed at them. Knowing myself, it just does not seem like where I would end up. I like walking through fields and seeing the stars and running into elementary school friends at the farmer's market. But that's where I live: Chongqing, China- the largest city that you've never heard of, and I am slowly adjusting to it.

Unsurprisingly, living in a new place in a new country has it's difficulties. One being that I have no idea what I'm doing 90% of the time. I'm basically a tiny baby bird. I'm slowly learning my way around campus- which by the way is a lot bigger than I imagined it would be. Gradually learning my way around the city on the mountain. And I am totally lost in the actual city center of Chongqing. If it weren't for my teammates, I would never have left campus- or done so very very slowly (aka- hunger would have driven me to the grocery, but that's probably about it- and it would have taken me hours to find the grocery and my way back.)

As it is, I am outing and abouting pretty regularly. Getting to know public transportation- still don't know if I could do any of it myself- maybe the bus. It's a whole new world for me, coming from absolutely never using public transit in Lexington to now being dependent on it. It's an entirely new world.

But public transit offers so many opportunities to see things that I never would have otherwise. Yesterday we went to the "Times Square" of Chongqing (conveniently called Times Square- I think- I saw one sign that said that), and couldn't get a cab back up the mountain because it was Friday night and everyone wanted a cab. So, we took an hour long bus ride back, and I got to see so much of Chongqing that I may not have otherwise. First, I saw a pretty sweet, dark back alley and a 5-lane highway that we crossed without a crosswalk (yay adventure!). But I also got to see some of the more residential side of the city: the apartment buildings, the places where people who live in Chongqing actually go. And I love the people who ride the bus. Everyone does. There are college students, businessmen, Chinese tourists, young parents with their kids, grannies, and then us- the funny little pack of foreigners. I'll probably end up loving the Chongqing bus system like I love the Beijing subway! It's just lovely to see the mix of people you see and the parts of the city that you see. Chongqing has so much character. More than I will probably ever know- no matter how long I live here.

Chongqing is super interesting. It's absolutely enormous. It is hilarious to look around at the city and think about Lexington which has two "skyscrapers", both of which are banks and both of which are dwarfed by the apartment buildings here. My teammate was joking with me and said, "you're going to have to resign yourself to living in a rural, unknown town in Southwest China." There's an IKEA here, and a Gucci, and about a million other things that Lexington never thought of having.

That being said, I also have to adjust to the enormity. I know my way around Lexington backwards and forwards. There are people who grew up in Chongqing that have never been to parts of the city. I'm not going to be able to know every alleyway and area of Chongqing. It's simply not possible. I just have to get to know the areas that I'll be in, and I can adventure beyond once I get the basics down.

It's a world of it's own here, and slowly and surely I'm getting introduced to it. I'm ridiculously overwhelmed right now, but it will eventually calm down. School will start and I'll get a routine. For now, I live in confusion. But good confusion.

Wrapping Up Beijing

My time in Beijing is drawing to a close. Been here a week and a half- about time to mosey on down the road to my real home. It's been very lovely, and I couldn't have asked for a better intro into Chinese city living. I'm ready though; I can't wait to get to Chongqing and be able to have structure and stability again!!

One thing that I don't think I will ever get used to is the picture taking. Everyone here keeps telling me that it's super normal and that I'm going to get used to it, but I don't know. I don't if I will ever be comfortable with some random stranger taking a picture of me for no apparent reason. Sometimes it's from a foot away on the subway. Sometimes its from 30 meters away along the street. Either way, it's super obvious (I actually really like how much they own it- zero shame) and very uncomfortable. I just think it's so strange that there is a picture of me on someone's phone (lots of someones actually). I'll keep you updated on my paparazzi and my adjustment to fame.

My wanderings about Beijing today made me some new friends. Mostly- almost entirely- young children who stared and pointed. I'm not complaining; they're the cutest things that have ever happened. Also a few passing people who I have a hard time reading- are they friendly or creepy. I'll have to get more culturally acquainted to figure out that one. Reality- I'm sure they are mostly all just very friendly people. But good news- you are never alone, so it's not like if they are creepy, you're unsafe. There's at least 7 or 8 other people there.

Thus far, China has been splendid. I'm really brushing up on some of my more crucial Chinese: 对不起 (I'm sorry), 我的中问不太好 (My Chinese is not very good), 我听不懂 (I don't understand), 我不知道 (I don't know), and of course 谢谢 (thank you). But not to worry, my Chinese is not quite that bad. I can order food, buy things, and ask and answer some basic questions. Today though, just as I was feeling moderately content with my Chinese, some random man at the park decided to have a 15 minute conversation with me- I couldn't tell you the first thing he said. He mentioned America a couple times- that's pretty much all I got. There were a lot of confused looks on my part and lots of apologizing. Everyone else at the park thought it was quite the hoot- lots of staring. Made me feel really great about myself. I'm going to make so many friends over here!

Love you all!! Next update from Chongqing- 重庆！

Conquering Beijing

Today I have conquered Beijing! I have ridden the subway without a guide, transferred lines, and walked quite a few blocks to find a museum. That may not sound like much, but to me, it's a huge deal. Coming from a small city where the public transit system was a couple dozen busses, the subway system is intricate and wonderful and a little bit terrifying all at the same time. So the fact that I was cool, calm, and collected while zooming around at alarming speeds in relatively small underground tunnels while being shoved into someone's armpit during rush hour in of the city 19 million, is pretty much on par with the moon landing. A miracle of the modern age. 
In reality, the Beijing subway system is wonderful, easy to use, has English translation, and is basically the best. I can go virtually anywhere I want in this city that I have been in for four days without getting lost (mostly). It's amazing; I love it (obviously). Plus, when I swipe my little public transit card to get through the gate, I feel like the most metropolitan person on the planet. It is splendid! 

But, I didn't write this post as free advertisement for the Beijing subway, I've actually done other things. Like sleep, and go to class, and eat, and be ill. 

Yes, I have been here all of four days, and I'll have you know I've only had one illness. My lovely cold has been my constant companion. What caused it? Who knows!! Jet lag, pollution, brushing my teeth with tap water, any of the nine thousand people that I've walked by on the street. Take your pick. But friends, a bit of friendly advice- if you feel an illness coming on, DO NOT decide to power through and climb the Great Wall of China. You will be miserable. You will get a fever. And you will go back to your hotel and sleep (very fitfully and uncomfortably) for 16 hours. And then and only then will you drag yourself down to the office to get some medicine. It is not a good idea, learn from my mistakes. Luckily, I'm on the upswing! I just cough a bunch and blow my nose now- my roommate LOVES it!!! 

Overall, Beijing has been lovely. It's great to finally be here in China. It's still transitory because I'm moving again on Monday, but to actually get this underway has been a huge burden off my shoulders. I really can't wait to get to Chongqing and get settled into my real everyday life, but for now, Beijing with her subway system, great food, and fabulous people suits me just fine.

No getting lost in this place- for sure not with the giant tourist map I have!

Rocky Mountain Highs and Lows

Well, the adventure has begun, and it has begun with class. A lot of class.

I'm in Greeley, CO on the campus of the University of Northern Colorado. It's a lovely campus with lots of trees and probably the softest grass ever. I, however, am much better acquainted with the classrooms. I have class from 8am to 5pm every day. As a recent college graduate, I'll be honest in saying that stepping back into hours of class was not exactly the most appealing prospect. It is interesting though, and I'm learning tons (which is good considering that I'll be teaching in a few short weeks o__o).

In all honesty, it's been a great experience. I feel about a million times more confident to teach a class now than I did a week and a half ago. I know theories and after tomorrow my classroom dynamics class will be done, so I'll know how to run a class. Anyone who was ever rude to a teacher should go apologize right now. It is really hard work, like really hard. I wrote a pretty sweet lesson plan the other day- no big deal- it only took me like three hours (definitely going to need cut that time down)!

Anyway, enough about my classes!

I'm in this uncomfortable state of transition. I'm meeting lots of people at training, but none of them are on my team in Chongqing. I'm missing people at home, but I'm excited to get to China. It's a lot of transient, uncertain mishmash. I just don't know how to feel sometimes. It's been great, but every now and then I feel like it's a dream. I've been planning on this for so long that it's hard to believe that it's really happening.

Also, I think time passes differently out here. I feel like I've been here for at least a month. My roommate, Nikki, and I have been saying this since the second day. Everyone out here bonded pretty quickly (unsurprisingly, we have similar interests and we spend huge chunks of time together every day), and we've just all been close from the very start. So when I look back and it's only been a week and a half, it seems impossible.

Some days are hard. I miss everyone at home. I miss just being around people that I know really well. I get terrified about this whole teaching thing. I'm exhausted from class. It's not the most glamourous life that I lead. But I wouldn't change it for the world. I am so glad that I'm here, even when it isn't all sparkly and rose colored.

Well, I'll try not to wait so long to post again. A lot happens around here, and I don't want these to be overbearingly long.

Love you all!

There Are A Lot Of Things To Do When You Move To Another Country

Hello lovely friends!!

Well it's 3 weeks until I leave Lexington on my grand adventure! (I hadn't actually calculated that until just now- THAT'S SOON- only moderate terror!)

Now this is going to shock you all: There's a ton of stuff that you have to do when you move to another country. Like bank stuff and cell phone stuff and going to all of your various doctors. Not to mention that you have to get rid of all our earthly possessions so that all your stuff fits into two suitcases. Add that to trying to see everyone you know before you leave, and pre-training assignments. All in all, it's been a bit hectic over here in the 859.

Hectic is a fun word- but the reality is not always quite as fun as that word makes it seem. The stress level is PRETTY HIGH at times! My poor dear parents have to deal with my snappiness. The lists of "To Dos" are pretty long, but I'm slowly chiseling away at it. -Speaking of chiseling- think of how overwhelmed the sculptor of Mt. Rushmore, or the Trevi Fountain, or those huge Buddha statues felt- there's no way I'm that stressed- use that to get you through all of your stressful moments (getting me through the day).

But in reality- it's not all that bad. I may be a tiny bit overdramatic. It's super satisfying to finish a paper or get rid of 85% of my belongings. I'm still incredibly excited to get this started, and every little step toward it is really lovely.

If anyone has any suggestions or tips on how to make transition, please let me know. Particularly electronical things- I am literally useless in this area.

3.5 Weeks!!! :)

Chongqing!!

I'm moving to Chongqing (pronounced chong-ching)!! In two months time I will be leaving my childhood hometown of Lexington, Ky and (after a brief month stop over in Colorado) moving to Chongqing, China. It's a splendid little city in the central- southern part of China!

Not only is it one of the most stereotypically named Chinese cities, but it is also one of the best. Why? Because I'm moving there, that's why! Also it has a river and quite the skyline, if I do say so myself.

I mean, just look at how pretty it is- it's stinkin' gorgeous- according to Google images (seems like a trustworthy source!!)

Now, if I'm being honest, I don't know all that much about my new home. I desperately need to talk to some of the team members there to learn more, but word on the street is that it is hot and muggy and slightly polluted- SHOCKING!!! It's along the same latitude line as Austin, Texas, so I can see the hot thing. And it's along the Yangtze river, so I understand the muggy-ness. (Luckily I've lived in Kentucky for the past 22 years, so I have a pretty good grip on humidity.) Then there's the pollution- not super in love with that, but what do you expect in a city of 30 million people. 

30 million people.

What?!? No big deal- that's only 100x the city of Lexington. For every one person in Lexington, there are 100 in Chongqing- no big deal. THAT'S PERFECTLY OKAY WITH ME...

In all honesty, I'm really glad to be moving somewhere that is so different from my home now. It'll be a much bigger experience and I'll get a good feel for living in a metropolitan environment. I couldn't be more excited! 

And lucky for you all, with the size of this city, I'm going to get lost a lot.  

Getting Closer

3 Months.

That's how long I have until I head out to Colorado to start my adventure. That's absolutely insane. I really can't believe that this dream that I've had for years is going to be coming true in 3 short months. 3- you can count that number on one hand, even if you were missing two fingers!

I'm going to be keeping you all up to date on my adventure via this lovely blog. I will do my very best to update regularly, but honestly, the next few months are going to be kind of boring. Mostly fundraising updates and me talking about how I can't wait to go. But once I get to China, this is going to be a hotbed of excitement, and probably a bunch of embarrassing stories.

Honestly, can't wait to get started, and I really can't wait to share this with you!