Our Apartment

When we got to our apartment the day we landed in China, it was like walking into a chic New York City apartment. There are four rooms in total, two full bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a dining room. Plus it's all fully furnished. Our school is literally a 10 minute walk away, and I can see it from my room. Everything is a walking distance to us. We've discovered a little bakery shop  called Holiland,right outside our apartment where we get our fruit drinks. We're on the 24th floor. The view is amazing here with all the city, and mountains in the background, it's so peaceful and serene when the clouds are out and it's a clear day.

Our apartment building. 

View from Tirhza's room.

Outside my window.
There is also a park inside our apartment  complex.

Tirhza's room.

My room.

The bathroom we share.

Living room

Kitchen

Our neighborhood

The big mall with some American stores, makes it feel like home.
There is also a karaoke place, which is very popular here.

Work/School

Our first week was a huge challenge. Being in a new environment and adjusting to the way they do things was more than difficult. But the kids are just amazing and I fell in love with them instantly. They are so warm and welcoming and they make the hardest days that much better.
 Both Harris and I have three classes each. He has a baby class, a little bit older than the baby class, and a sort of kindergarten class. I have a kindergarten class, a class of 4 year olds, and a 3 year olds class. Tirhza has two classes, a class of 3-4 year olds, and a class of 5 year olds. We each have about an hour with each class. Both Harris and I have two classes in the morning and one in the afternoon.

We eat all of our meals at the school, and they are delicious! Usually in the morning we have boiled eggs with a type of bread, and/or soup. For lunch we have whatever the kids are eating and we are encouraged to eat with them and everything is organic. The chefs are so sweet! Even with the language barrier they manage to care for us and feed us delicious food. When we come back from our three hour break, (I know, AMAZING. We get to go home and take a nap or do whatever we want for the three hours!) we finish our teaching time with our afternoon class and have dinner with them once again before they leave and our day is over.

Here are some pictures of our school:

The front of our school. It's gated with a security guard. We named him Joe. 

Inside one of my classrooms: The 4 year olds.

Inside one of Tirhza's classrooms: The 5 year olds.

In the hallway of our downstairs.
I love how they represent all of the countries. 

Tirhza's 5 year olds's classroom.

The lobby of our school.

The playground in the front of our school.
This is where all the kids park their bikes also. 

This is inside the Elephant room. My baby class with 3 year olds.
Their cots are so cute!

The China flag alongside the American flag.
You see this as soon as you walk in the school.

Me meeting one of my students on our first day. 

WE CAN'T SLEEP!

It's about 3am here and the jet lag is CRAZY! Tirhza and I tried staying up and keeping ourselves busy, but our bodies weren't agreeing. We ended up taking a nap at 5 in the afternoon, because back home it was 5 in the morning. We woke up around midnight here and so did Harris (our other American roommate). Since we all can't sleep we ended up watching some Netflix (THANK GOD FOR VPN and for the new release of Orange is the New Black). We are binge watching it.

So on our first day we had to run lots of errands. We had to stop by the police station to let them know we are her but we weren't able to talk to them because we needed our landlord to show them a contract or something. But we walked around and got to know our area. We went to go see the school that we will be working in and gave our security guard a new American name, since he forgot the one he was given before. We named him Joe!

The school is AMAZING. As soon as you walk in you see the children's and teacher's pictures displayed. You walk down the hallways were there are a couple classrooms and cubbies storage in the hallway. We met some children that are there to see the school to see if they want to enroll their children there. We also met a little girl and her father who has already enrolled her for September. They are so cute! I really am so excited to meet the kids and get to know all of them. We looked at all the artwork displayed throughout the school and all the classrooms and they are so developed! After we explored our new school we walked to the mall to get some supplies for the house. We found a Starbucks! The flavors of course we a little different but having a piece of home felt nice. After our trip to the mall Abby's (our Chinese roommate) boyfriend picked us up and we went back home to "sleep".

Our Journey to China

As I sit here on my flight to China, I’m reflecting back on my last 20 hours of travel. Even in this first day I’ve learned a few things about the world we live  in.  We flew off from JFK in New York, and the hardest part was of course, saying goodbye. Just thinking about how I won’t physically be there for my sister’s first day of Kindergarten or my baby brother’s development in language, and my puppy’s (my baby) first birthday turned into instant water works. think that the only thing that was holding back my excitement was the fact that I had to leave my family behind. But I got to video chat them as soon as we landed for our layover. Now that I can’t turn back from here, I can’t wait to land in China and begin this new life of adventure.

Something that I never really thought about living in America is the difficulty of language barriers. In Russia we had a layover for a few hours and it was so hard trying to read where to go or what to do. Of course, we just followed where ever everyone else was going, can’t go wrong with that! Well actually you can, but we took that chance and it turned out for the better. It’s so hard coming from your homeland and knowing if you ever needed help there was someone to help you when you asked. It’s so different trying to ask someone something and have them give you that “You’re speaking an alien language” face. But we got to our gate safely and from there we waited. The time change is definitely effecting us because as we boarded our next plane, in America it was about 3am and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I slept so much. All of us were separated from each other and at first it was a little nerve wrecking. Tirhza and I even tried getting someone to switch seats with each other people but in the end it didn’t work out. I had one man sit next to me, who we were actually trying to get to switch his seat, and he was so persistent in keeping his. Or maybe he wasn’t understanding what I was saying. I learned that everything that I’ve heard about the Chinese culture with them being so helpful and friendly to be true. Although I was upset and frustrated that he wouldn’t switch seats with Tirhza, he became my friend. Our conversations consisted of lots of head shaking, gestures, and big smiles. He looked after me in a sense that he woke me up whenever the food or drinks came around. He also saw that I was watching the movie and he just put one of his ear buds in my ear for me to listen (even though it was in Russian). He also didn’t disturb my sleep by waking me up to get back to his (he sat in the middle), he found another seat. When I woke up to see him in another seat I told him to come back to his seat, and he ended up trying to share his lunch. He had brought boiled eggs and just tossed one over to me to eat. But I respectfully declined by a no gesture and a smile. Then I tried out my “Thank you” in Mandarin and he was ecstatic. He taught me how to say “You’re welcome”… but of course I forgot it already. I should get into a habit of writing these things down.  

Today is the Day

Today is the day that will start a year full of adventures, challenges, learning and teaching!
It has been a rough week full of every emotion in the book. As this dream becomes reality, saying my "See you soon's" was probably the hardest thing to do for me.
But I am so grateful and blessed to have an opportunity like this to grow and learn from the experiences I am faced with. But with all these emotions I'm most excited to indulge in the new culture, foods, and opportunities.
Now we're off to the airport! I'm dreading the fact that I have two luggages and a carry on that basically weighs more than me. It's hard putting your life a year in advanced in two suitcases.

Until next time,
xo Ms. Suzy


See you in 20+ hours Beijing!