Apartment Search

Speaking of finding apartments, we found out this last month that we need to move out of our school-provided apartment. First, let me give you some background information: The school rents an entire building right down the street for staff dorms. Apartment buildings in China usually have a stairwell with an external door, and two apartments on each stair landing. So, for example, a 6 story building has 12 units in each stairwell. Buildings also have 2-3 stairwells in them, and each stairwell is called a unit. Our staff apartment has 3 units in it (A-C) with 6 floors. At the end of this last year, the school gave the option of moving off-campus to most teachers in the dorms, because they had a lot of new teachers coming in (us), and they were converting B-unit to dorms.

Now, the old dorms were actually on the campus, in one of the classroom buildings. But, they converted all of those to offices, and moved the students. After the school year started, they realized that they had much higher dorm enrollment then they were expecting, and told us that they were giving us the option of moving out. Normally, they don't give this offer to teacher who have been here for less than 2 years.

Now, they give us a housing allowance of about 24600RMB a year (about $320USD/month), which is more than enough to get a rather nice apartment off campus. In fact, the off-campus apartments are bigger and nicer than our current apartment, and slightly cheaper. So, we found an apartment on the 6th floor with a really nice layout, and are working with the school interpreter to negotiate all the details. Here in China, you can negotiate anything, and ask for anything in an apartment. For example, we asked for a water stand (for 5gal water bottles), 2 A/C units (small room-style), a computer desk, a flat-screen TV (common request now-a-days), and we would have asked for a much larger fridge, but their was already one in there.

Our apartment is fully furnished (very common), with nicer furnishings (not so common), a large bathroom (not common), with a showerhead which is NOT right above the toilet (VERY not common), a new washing machine, and lots of windows for natural light (also, not very common).

Seriously, what are the Chinese thinking? The bathrooms are really small, but I think they are designed for a squat toilet, which used to be common. But, when you install a showerhead, water heater, Western-style toilet, sink, washing machine, etc, then the bathroom becomes too small. But, size aside, why would the showerhead be installed over the toilet?

Now, heating in China is accomplished by hot water from a boiler pumped through pipes into each apartment, either through the floor (nice), or radiators (not so nice). Thankfully, our new apartment has floor heating, and is only 2400RMB for the whole winter, instead of 3000RMB like our current apartment.

So, we get a stipend for the rent, but we are responsible for heating fees, management fees (such as cleaning of the stairs, elevator power, external maintenance), gas, water, power, internet+phone, and cable (which we probably will not get). Overall, its a good situation. We will update you all as the negotiations take place.

Regularly Scheduled Life - In China!

Well now.

Its been an interesting couple of weeks.

First off, school has started. Mikaela is in full swing with the first graders, with about 14 40 minute classes a week, with the remainder filled with ESL small groups. The first graders in China are actually Kindergarteners, because they usually don't start school earlier than that. So, they are working on phonics, introductory conversation, simple words, vocabulary regarding our senses and body, etc. Mikaela has never really wanted to teach Kindergarten, and probably would not have taken the job if she knew. But, she is awesome with these kids, much more than she realizes.

The day lasts from 7:45am to 4:30pm, every day, including after school activities. Mikaela is starting a craft club, which will allow the kids to make crafts for an hour and 30 minutes every day. I (Zach) am going to be involved in either the mock UN club (woohoo!) or the Lower Secondary (grades 6-9) yearbook.

On the weekends, twice a month on Saturday a school bus takes the teachers to Jusco (a mall) or to Walmart/Metro. Metro is basically a German Costco, and has lots of Western type foods such as: cheese (Australian and German), bread, sausage (lots of Bratwurst!), chocolate (surprisingly hard to find here), expensive pasteurized shelf-stable German Milk (Chinese milk is NOT good), amazing beef from Mongolia (huge primal cuts), and many more things. The beef in the stores in not good, which is why Metro is so nice. We bought a beautiful 5lb sirloin roast for 120RMB, about 17 dollars. They also sell beef tenderloin primals (uncut filet mignon) for about 300RMB, about $40. We bought a large toaster over at Metro because Chinese apartments do not have ovens, and we have been baking in there.

Our small washing machine is really nice, because it washes clothes well, and quickly, and makes a cool jingle when it is done! We have gotten used to hanging up clothes, and once we worked out how much soap and fabric softener to put in each load, the clothes started drying quickly, and without a musty smell. Mostly, they don't wrinkle too much, and since we only wash with cold water (as it is the only option available), we never have to worry too much about sorting, or bleeding of colors. It is interesting, that when we were looking at apartments we put a large area to hang dry our clothes on the top of the list! More on our apartment search in our next blog post.

Rain, Rain!

It honestly seems like it has not stopped raining for two straight days!
And...(hang on a second...let me check the forecast...) they still predict rainstorms throughout the week 'til Sunday! During the first day of the rain, as I walked out my door, without my umbrella, my first thought was of a Chinese saying that my co-teacher taught me the other day: "It it rains in the morning, you will have sunshine in the afternoon!" So, walking down the stairs, I took that to heart and braved the light sprinkles falling from the sky. Unfortunately, I must have taken the saying too literally, because by 4:30 that afternoon (going home time), I was walking back to our apartment--becoming drenched--while my smug umbrella was sitting in its cabinet warm, snug, and dry. Believe me, today I did not forget that umbrella!
The array of student umbrellas with their canvases spread wide, drying on top of the lockers, looked especially artistic today. Flowers, blue plaid, and spring colors shone brightly out against the normally gray metallic scene of the hallway, and for a while hid someone's forgotten grass seed sock bear (I wonder if we will end up doing those in the spring?) We are enjoying the rain, and so far the students are holding up pretty well. Quite a few ran outside to play football (soccer) during the lunch break, that is, until I decided that we all were becoming too wet (forgot the umbrella in the classroom this time!)
Well, it is back to work for me...I know that you all are anxious to hear about the school, and I promise that is coming.

Finding ways to pass the time

Mikaela and I have been in China over two weeks now, and we are both pretty happy to have school start soon, which will be on the 5th of September. We have been enjoying exploring this city, learning about our new friends and fellow neighbors, and adjusting to life here. But, this last week we have been struggling with being bored. It is silly that one can be bored right after they move to a new country, but we simply do not have the energy or time to go out every day, nor do we have the language skills to direct a cab to those areas.

Mikaela and I feel we are in some sort of low spot, and maybe it just means we are at the end of our China honeymoon stage. I dunno. It is nice to get out and do something. Last night we went to Druid's Irish Pub here in Yantai, run by this Irishman named Pete. It was their three year anniversary, and one of teachers at Yew Wah, an Australian named Greg, was the musical talent and the M.C. Mikaela and I didn't win any of the prizes being given out, but one of our fellow teachers, Jaime (music teacher) won a cigarette lighter. Fun! We uploaded a bunch of pictures of Druid's to our photoblog.

Teacher orientation starts this next week, which is exciting! It is wonderful to be a part of a school community which is much more tight knit than a school community back home. How often do teachers in California have dinner with each other, drink with each other, go to beach together? We all have each other's cell phone numbers, know where each other resides, and are all willing and eager to go together to the grocery store (Jia Jia Yue), or to Wal-Mart, or something. We LIKE hanging out together, and we are open with who we actually are, and not fake. Our relationships are being built on more than half hour interactions in a lunch room.

Prayer requests for Mikaela and I are to be fulfilled by recorded sermons, at least in the short term, to find a church locally, and to be able to build a relationship with our Chinese neighbors. Again, feel free to share this blog with anyone, and don't be afraid to post comments!

Popcorn!

While heading down the brick path back home today, a literary figure stepped out of the pages of a recently read novel and parked himself in front of our apartment building: The Popcorn Man!
Before I even knew that my application was being considered by YWIES (Yew Wah International Education School) I had been reading an interesting-looking booked picked up from a pile at a high school rummage sale back in Turlock. The title was "Pearl of China" by Anchee Min. (Highly recommend it!) "Pearl of China" is a biography/historical fiction about the famous Pearl S. Buck, who forever changed both Chinese and American novel history...but that is another story! (Heh, heh...now you want to know more, right?) In the novel, Min recounts Pearl's childhood experience of the local popcorn salesman. Both Pearl and her best friend run out excitedly to watch the tradesman at work whenever he comes through town. The popcorn man puts the kernels in an oblong kettle, and turns the kettle 'round and 'round over a fire. Then, at just the right moment, one end of the kettle is removed and the kernels all pop at once with a deafening BOOM! Like the blast of a cannon, the fresh popcorn shoots into the awaiting long, cloth bag.
As we approached the apartments I first espied a woman selling plastic bags of popcorn in the shade...a little further away was a man turning some sort of black kettle over a flame, with corn husks scattered all about. I did not realize what was going on until my ears rang with the mighty blast of the "popcorn cannon" (as I think of it). I turned around with a excited smile on my face and shouted to my friends, "That's the popcorn man!!"
As I was cooling off in the apartment, I could not get that popcorn out of my mind. The kettle was booming outside, and there was a small sort of adventure to be had. Grabbing some small change, I hopped down the stairs to one of my new friend's apartment, and invited her to accompany me on the popcorn purchasing mission. She readily agreed, and we went on our way.
Okay, so, this must be said...I still am learning how to say numbers in Mandarin!! This makes buying anything without a predetermined price very difficult. ;-) I pulled out my coins (totalling 1.70 RMB) and showed them to the popcorn saleswoman. She wanted 2 RMB, which I am sure was a "western price," but having no ability to properly haggle, I agreed. My friend graciously ran back and got enough money for the both of us to buy what our eyes desired (which ended up being more than our stomachs could handle!) The saleswoman was very happy, and eagerly had us try the popped rice as well. In the end, we were all laughing and smiling...in spite of the language barrier, even. And we ended up with some pretty tasty popcorn. Tastes kind of like the Corn Pops cereal!

First Week Firsts

1. Cooking with an awesome wok
2. Eating tofu/bean curd and liking it!
3. Made our first friends
4. Took a cab to Walmart (in China!)
5. Visited and signed up for a membership with Metro, a German store analogous to America's Costco
6. Caused some smiles by saying thank you ("Xie xie")
7. Caught a mini sand crab at the beach in Yantai
8. Saw the world's largest ship-building crane http://www.yantai-raffles.com/index.php
9. We both caught a cold or flu
10. Used a Chinese pit toilet
11. Had an ultrasound during a physical examination to check out the health of our livers

If you don't go shopping, you don't eat!

Obvious statement, I know. But so true.
I awoke this morning with the anxious question, "What have I done??" running through my mind. We also awoke with our stomachs growling, as Zach and I had both fallen asleep around 4 PM the previous day, and had unintentionally missed dinner. What did we have to eat? Leftovers from lunch the other day, which were frozen through in our freezer...a choice of two Top Ramen-style noodle bowls, and 4 peaches. Our 5:30 AM breakfast that morning consisted of tea, 3 peaches and a shared noodle bowl. After a couple of hours of anxious procrastination [mostly on my (Mikaela's) part], we decided to go out to the corner grocery store a couple of blocks away. As we walked out of our air-conditioned apartment, and down the humidity of the stairwell, we stopped by to see if our neighbors were at home. Our downstairs neighbors are another couple who have come to teach as well, and were the first to arrive. (We were the second.) Fortunately, they were home, and were glad to accompany us to the store, which they had already visited in during their time here. It was very much relieving to have friendly guides and fellow Californians to share the shopping experience with.
How did we know what we were buying, you may be wondering? Well, thanks to our global economy's symbol/picture-driven product labeling habits, we were able to find what we needed. Bathroom cleaner had a picture of a sparkling bathroom, etc. And then there were of course many recognizable products and produce. With much rejoicing did we find instant oatmeal for our breakfasts! Other items were labeled in Chinese and (minimal) English. We bought an all-purpose cleaner called "Green Way," which, I am assuming, was a mimic of "Simple Green." (This cleaner actually turned out to be quite caustic, which was great for cleaning, but probably not great for the environment as labeled!)
We are learning a lot about how to do and act from our constant observation of locals. In the produce section, we noticed that there is a clerk with a station of scales, which is where things are weighed and priced. If you bring an un-marked bag of produce to the register, they simply throw it aside and you have to buy it later. After weighing and tagging several bags of produce, I told the clerk "Xie xie, thank you," and she shook her head in a befuddled manner and mumbled quickly back in Chinese, "Don't worry about it." I don't think she was used to that at all, whereas we say thank you all the time in the States.
In the evenings, clerks in the produce department call out back and forth to each other--I am thinking that this might be verbal advertisements to the shoppers. Altogether, it is a very loud and bustling experience. The environment of the grocery store is something very different too. Constantly crowded, people push past each other without notice or a word, and push as closely together in line as possible. Having someone's shopping basket banging against the back of my legs constantly (BAM, BAM, BAM) while waiting in line earlier tonight almost drove me crazy! Thank you, Casey, by the way for your word of advice: "T.I.C. This is China!" It is going to take me a bit to get used to the lack of space bubbles in the stores. I am assuming that perhaps this shopping environment is more characteristic of the city; although I will amend my statements if I find any differences during our time here!
Well, we have some food in our fridge and cabinets, and relief is starting to settle in. Next step: learning to cook with what we have!