A Seoul Vacation

Such a great time with great people.

It's been so long since my last post, I actually went back and re-read it. I think I had a premonition about the difficult travel part, but it wasn't too bad.

We started our first October break pretty lazily, just hanging around the house and watching cartoons mostly. I walked over to the ferry with Honey to purchase ferry tickets for our transfer on Monday, I'm glad I did because they were sold out of most of them. The time they had left was 11:00am, and our flight wasn't until 6pm that night. It would be a long day at the airport, but those days don't bother me as much as they do Donnie. ;) Honey and I wandered back home through old Shekou, stopping at some of the shops for some gifts for the Bates'. Sunday was another lazy day, with a nice hike to start it out, and Monday I was certainly ready to get going.

The ferry went smoothly, except for some last minute stress about having our tickets verified. Paul loved the boat ride, and we arrived at the terminal to check in. It's so easy to take the ferry, you walk off the boat and straight to a ferry-passenger-only ticketing counter of your airline, check your bags, clear security and you're done! They even give you some rebate cash on your tickets as you head to the gates. It's stress free because you never actually enter Hong Kong, so there's no double customs, just the Chinese customs. From there, we shopped a little and eventually settled at a really nice restaurant, where Paul fell asleep and we waited out the hours.

Insa-dong walking street

Finally, we boarded the plane, but we sat on the ground for an hour before taking off, which was very annoying. Paul was looking a little piquish, even though he had been playing and talking like normal. I should have known something was up. Shortly after take off, Paul threw up more than I thought he could have inside of him. It was very upsetting to all involved because it went every where! I was a bad mommy and hadn't packed a spare set of clothes (even though my lesson was learned in Germany!) and so he had to sit there covered in blankets for the rest of the flight. I managed to get him to sip some sprite and he seemed to be doing better until landing when it happened again. *sigh* Needless to say, I was very grateful to de-board the plane in Seoul.

Kell was waiting for us when we exited customs, and he drove us back to his splendid apartment. It was late by then, so everybody was asleep, but it was nice to sit and chat with him for a while before getting some rest.

My first Korean meal

Unfortunately, Paul didn't sleep too long, and we were up early to start the day on Tuesday. Kell and the kids had work and school, so Marcella took us to a really cool area called Insa-dong. It's a lovely walking street with hand made crafts and lots of restaurants. Paul had fallen asleep on the metro ride, so Donnie volunteered to sit with him while we walked. It was really nice, but I felt bad leaving Donnie, so we headed back home after Paul woke up in a bad mood. Paul's mood did not really improve until the kids came home from school. He loved playing with them. :) When Kell got home, we all walked over to a nearby mall to find some food. The food was so good! Donnie had hot soup, I had a bowl of cold buckwheat noodles, and Paul had dumplings. All of us ate for less than $60, which for 7 people is pretty good. We headed home for an early bedtime.

On the way to the zoo!

Wednesday was a lost day. I woke up with a terrible head cold, Paul was feeling sickly and we were all super tired. We had planned to do some sight-seeing, but ended up sleeping most of the day after a failed attempt of shopping at the commissary on the military base near the Bates' apartment. It was a shame to lose a day of exploring the city, but it was a much needed break. :) We did go out for dinner to a place right across the street from their home for some awesome chicken. You got a plate of fried chicken and coleslaw. It was heaven.

Thursday was  Korean holiday, so Kell and the kids stayed home. We had originally planned to go to Andong to see the mask festival, but the travel time was going to be a bit far, so we decided to go to the Seoul Zoo instead. It was super crowded due to the holiday, but we did manage to see some nifty animals and it was fun to be with the kids all together. The people watching wasn't too bad either. :) We got a late start to the zoo, so instead of trying to crunch in another activity, we met up with Kell and Marcela's friends, the Greenfields. We had traveled with them a long time ago, (seven years ago?) in Mexico, so it was neat to catch up with them. It was Aurora's birthday, so we met them at the Navy Club on base to celebrate. Donnie and I split fajitas, and they weren't bad! ;)

The fam at the Palace

At the palace

Mixed up food. yum!

Everybody felt better on Friday, so we went out to a palace near Insa-dong. It was massive! It was set right in the city center, but it was so open feeling while you walked around inside. It was definitely the coolest thing we'd seen thus far. I took tons of pictures, and Paul was in a great mood, so we lingered before going to find food in Insadong. The meal there consisted of a plate of rice, vegetables and meat that you mixed together on a hot skillet when it came to your table. So filling, and so delicious. From there we headed home to meet up with Kell and the kids and had another yummy meal of fried chicken (like boneless hot wings). We put Paul to sleep, hired an excellent babysitter and went out on the town for a few hours. We went to an area near the base called Itaewon. It was full of soldiers, so it reminded me a lot of K-town. But it was fun to relax and have some adult time with Kell, Marcela and the Greenfields. We went to an old hangout of Kell from when he lived there before called Polly's Kettle House. They have dangerously strong drinks that they call Kettle's that are served in cut off plastic liter bottles. They are like the drinks you would find in big buckets at college parties. Drinkable, but not quite enjoyable. ;)

My guys at the fortress.

At the Toilet House

We got a slow start on Saturday morning, but after a long metro ride with landed in a suburb of Seoul called Suwon. I don't know how we got so lucky, but we stumbled upon a huge euro-style grocery and food court, and our luck continued as we wandered outside and walked right onto a tour bus that would take us to all the sights in Suwon on a guided tour, in English. (for only $11 a piece!) The tour was a total of 3.5 hours, but there were so many sights to see in this town, that it seemed rushed. It was nice to have transportation to all the spots and to be able to get back on the bus and take a break after each. It was great for Paul, just his style. :) The tour took us to a Toilet Museum first. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. It was called Mr. Toilet House (http://www.haewoojae.com/) and included a house built to honor the toilet, and a garden full of the history of toilets, and toilet's frequent visitor, poop. I thought it was hilarious. I hope it inspired Paul to start using the toilet more. ;) From there we headed over to the fortress that was rebuilt in the 1700's. Suwon is a walled city, so it was cool to drive around and see all the different gates. We visited the fortress, the training field, and the museum before returning to the train station. The ride home on the subway was horrific. Saturday was the day of an international fireworks festival, and the main stop to get off and watch them on was the Bates' stop. I've been in some crowded places, but this takes the cake. Every time we stopped I couldn't imagine squeezing any more people on, but every stop more people got on. I was worried about Paul and the kids getting crushed! We exited the subway, and it was not much better. We decided to brave the crowd, and head down to the river to watch the fireworks show. So we entered the mass crush of people and settled in a spot in the parking lot where we had a limited, but enjoyable view of the fireworks. We left a little early, and the Bates' stayed for the whole show, but the crowd never subsided. It was nuts!

Fireworks fest.

Love 'em

Sunday came to soon, and before we knew it we were walking back into our apartment here in Shenzhen. I had such a good time in Seoul, despite the sickness and difficulties with Paul. The Bates family is one of my favorite families to travel with, and we've been in multiple countries with them. Seoul was a very cool city, it made me wish we worked there. The weather had just started to turn to fall, so the air was beginning to feel crisp like fall. And it seemed a little bit more accessible than Shenzhen. I was happy to be back home and into routine this week. Even if I'm a little tired from the travel.

Since I flooded Facebook with my pics, I'll just add a few of my favorites here. Check out the album on FB if you want to see more. ;)







 ok...two more. :)

my fav pic of the palace

so beautiful

Steps Forward

A sunset view from our apartment: Nanshan Mountain

Another week has disappeared, and now we are on the eve of our October break, which I cannot wait for! It's been another eventful week, busy with events and busy at work. I think I last wrote on Saturday, waiting for Typhoon Usagi to arrive. It was a pretty big storm, heading straight for Hong Kong...

A bay view facing away from Shekou

I was going down.

Shekou, facing Shenzhen Bay

Despite the impending hurricane, I woke up early and went for a longer hike up Nanshan mountain with my new friend Honey. We walked from her place, to the mountain, then up as many steps as we could manage (I think around 500 steps). They are big steps, steep and precarious. Most of the walk is sheltered by trees, so the view eludes you until you reach a viewing platform (which is as far as we got). Unfortunately, it wasn't a very clear day, but the view of Shekou was amazing and you could almost see the whole Shenzhen Bay. I can't wait to see it on a clear day. I'm going to drag Honey back up the mountain this Sunday to see if we can get any further up. ;) Poor Honey. 

A super refreshing drink

We made it!!

After my hike with Honey, I grabbed some treats from a bakery, and headed home to settle in with Donnie and see what the storm would be like. We checked it's progress all day, and by evening time, the wind had picked up. Luckily, the storm moved and hit north of us, so we just had a pretty rowdy rainstorm, and not much else. But since the typhoon warning was in effect for Monday morning, school was cancelled!

So Monday, instead of going to school, we bummed around the apartment until the rain stopped, then took Paul for a bike ride over to Decathalon. We ended up buying a treadmill, which is a whole other story, which I will write about in a follow up post. From there, we headed back home for an early night and an episode of Downton Abbey. :)

Usagi in action

I know that time moves faster as you get older, but this past month has been ridiculous. It seems like the weekend was just yesterday, and tomorrow is the weekend again! Anyway, Tuesday was uneventful, our meeting was short, so we grabbed a few beers and a pizza with our friends Honey and Zack, then headed home. Wednesday was busy with another soccer game, and Thursday was Quiz Night!

Los Dos Duos: Donnie, Jessica, Honey, Zack

We've been attending Quiz Nights on a regular basis. Our team is called Los Dos Duos, because it consists of two married couples. We have a blast when we go out, it takes place at a restaurant that gives an awesome special. For Donnie and I to eat as much Italian food and drink as much as we want for the evening, it is only 50 USD.  The quiz is fun, sometimes hard, but the company makes it a blast. We goof around, try to answer the questions and compete with the other teams from our school. It's hosted by a different person each week, so the quiz varies from sports to music to art to pop culture to farm animals. It's pretty random. It's our one date night a week, and we look forward to it every week. :) We hardly ever win anything, but it's not about winning, right?

Quiz night sometimes makes Fridays a little bit hard to face, but it's only one day and since today is the day before break, it makes it even easier to face. :)

I do have to spend a moment to brag on Paul. He's been having a rough time settling in, getting used to going to school and generally adjusting. He still struggles with interactions with strange kids, and he does have a hard time right now not pushing his friends, but he's making improvements! This week when we had to put him on the bus, he bounded up with such happiness it made my heart glow. I'm glad he is excited about going to school and seeing his friends. I hope the momentum isn't lost after our week away from routine. And today was Water Day at school, so he got to play all morning in the water.

Proud mama of this guy.

But, I am so looking forward to the coming week! We will finally get our passports back today, after a month of not having them. Resident and work visas are complete, and we are free to travel! So Monday we will take the ferry over to the Hong Kong airport and fly to Seoul to see the Bates family. Kell made an awesome itinerary, way better than anything I could have dreamed of, and we've got a lot to keep us busy in the company of great friends. Hopefully the travel over there will be smooth, and easy, but somehow it never seems to go that way. ;) I'll try to post from over there, but if not, look for an update about Korea in a couple weeks. 

Love to all!

A long, short week

It was a pizza kind of week.

Ok, since it has been too long since I last posted about events, I think more than a month ago, it is time I got back into posting about weekly events. :)

Sat: Sunburn and Sick

This week has been the most trying week since we've arrived. Not so much because of our location, just because of the events. Last weekend I spent 12 hours on Saturday with the girls' soccer team up in Guangzhou. It wouldn't have been so bad, except we lost all our games quite horribly and the only people who seemed to care were me and the head coach. 

The waiting room of Home Hospital

After a long day, I came home to a sick child. He'd slept most of the day, and his fever had been on and off, and only worsened as the day went on. So Sunday morning we took him to a really nice clinic called Home Hospital that is just for women and children. They have a really nice pediatric unit, and an international liaison who accompanies you to translate all that is going on. So after a longish wait, we were seen, Paul had blood work, and it was determined that he had a "severe tonsil infection." He was prescribed antibiotics by mouth, and also by breathing treatment twice a day. The difficulty was that we had to go back and forth between the hospital and home for the breathing treatments. And that night when we returned for his second treatment, he behaved as if we were severing a limb, not just giving him a nebulizer. Frustrated, hot, and tired we finished our weekend on a rather sour note.

Moon festival hike

Coastal City

Monday came too quickly, and Donnie stayed home with Paul because he was still feverish. I headed to work and talked about Paul's condition with a few people with kids. Luckily, a co-worker offered her portable nebulizer for us to use, and it was like a gift from God. We were able to give him his treatments at home and not make the twice daily trips to the hospital. Paul slowly got better, but he didn't sleep well and was very grumpy during the days he was sick.

In the meantime, the week kept rolling on. It was a really busy week, closing a unit and starting a new one, and just trying to track down kids to get their work turned in. 

Moon Cake

Inside Moon Cakes...sometimes good.

Thursday was a Chinese holiday, so school was closed. Paul and I had an adventure climbing some steps up Nanshan Mountain, and then I went on an adventure with some coworkers out to a mall called Coastal City. Our intent was to go to a pizza place, then wander around the mall, but the pizza place was closed.  It didn't dampen our spirits though; we headed upstairs to a Korean BBQ restaurant. Eating is always a new experience, because you're never quite sure what you're ordering. We thought we were ordering chicken pieces, but it ended up being chicken knuckles. Great flavor, but not great texture. We got an enormous plate of meat, more than 6 could eat, and of course sampled the Moon cakes, which were in celebration of the Moon Festival holiday. 

It was delicious food and excellent company, and we had a really good time. From there we explored the massive mall, and then I caught a cab home with a couple who has become our good friends. 

Korean BBQ...

It was weird to have to go back to school on Friday, but the day flew by, and after soccer practice I was back home relaxing with the fam. Today, Donnie got up early and played tennis with a coworker, and then we headed out to Ikea and Metro.

Just like Germany

We've mastered our Ikea trips; we now go right when it opens, eat breakfast, then skip the furniture bit and head through the marketplace. We mostly only go to buy foodstuffs from the cafe area, but it's still fun to wander through all of the random stuff to buy, and there are no crowds at that time!! It's fabulous. From there we head over to the European supermarket, Metro, and buy whatever Western foods we need for the week. Today it consisted of tortillas, cheese, beer, wine and cereal. It's not that expensive, and you can buy in bulk, so it ends up being cheaper than any of the little international stores. 

What typhoon?

We caught a cab home, and were home before noon, so Paul and Donnie took a nap, and I took  Chinese lesson. I've only taken 4 lessons, but the program is pretty good. Chinese is a difficult language to learn, and I'm not even learning the characters. It has four different tones, and the same word said with a different tone can mean something totally different. So training my voice to make the right noises takes some time. I'm pretty good about listening and understanding, and I can understand some written pinyin, but when it comes to characters, I'm lost. I'll keep working, but it's a difficult, time consuming task. The motivation to keep learning is there though because I really want to be able to function better in our community. Small steps, but I'll get there.

Playground!!

We also went to go play at the massive playground at the mall, Paul had a good time, but he has trouble keeping his hands to himself, so we left to come home. 

Now it's the eve of the super typhoon, and I think we're ready, but really, I've never faced a hurricane before, so I have no clue what to expect. When we were in Hawaii this summer, there was one that was supposed to hit us, but it ended up being nothing, so I have a hard time envisioning this one being a catastrophe. Only time will tell.  Today was clear, hot and sunny, didn't seem like anything was coming, but I've seen the photos of this storm from space. It's epic.

Now that I look back on this post, maybe it was more interesting to post about themes, at least they had a point. ;) Thanks for reading. Until next time, love to all. :)

Oh, one more week until October break! We're headed to Seoul to see the Bates family. We can't wait!

The last of the themes: Our apartment

Paul's room before.

Before: Our bedroom

Ok, this is for sure the last of the thematic posts, I want to get back to cataloguing our daily lives so that I can remember the details, but I have not posted about our apartment. I remember obsessing over what our apartment would look like before we got here. Spending hours perusing over any apartment that might be ours. I watched an obscene amount of international house hunters and imagined myself trying out new apartments, wondering what ours would be like, and figuring out my likes and dislikes. But mostly I just tried to keep an open mind. 

The office/train room

The night we arrived I was so incredibly anxious to see our place, it seemed like hours in the taxi from the airport to our new home, but it was really only an hour. When we arrived, it was late, and we pulled into the below ground parking structure and made our way up to the 7th floor through the tiny elevator. It took us several trips to get all our baggage up there, and it was stiflingly hot.

Our Bathroom

When we walked into our apartment, it was hot and empty. Sure there was furniture, but it seemed a little bit desolate. The only light we had was fluorescent, and our beds were made with loaned sheets from school. I couldn't help but feel disappointed after my extensive "research.“



After: Our room

But in the morning light, it was better. Our apartment is large, three pretty good sized bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room combined with dining room and a kitchen with attached patio for laundry. It has tons of windows with natural light, and the bathroom has a good sized shower. Our bedroom even has room for a king sized bed, which is super luxurious. :)



Computer/TV

After our horrific trip to Ikea, the apartment began to feel more like home. We had rugs, our bed wasn't as hard as a rock, and light that wouldn't blind us. It's much smaller than our five-bedroom house, but it seems the perfect size for us. Actually, I don't know what we did with all that space. Donnie and I share a closet, and it's fine. Paul has his own room with a full size bed, plus his "train room," which is actually an office. So if anybody wants to come visit, we have plenty of room. ;)

The furniture isn't what we would pick out for ourselves, but we've arranged it in a way that is acceptable, and we've accented it with some furniture that we've bought and now it seems like it all went together to begin with.

Sure, there are days when we lament not having our own pool and a kitchen the size of our living room, but mostly we enjoy coming home to our oasis of cool and quiet in this hot and bustling city.

Our apartment is in a part of Shekou called Garden City. It is right across the street from a mall, and a Wal-Mart (which is a whole other post), and it's right next to the QSI Shekou Secondary school. We catch the bus about a 8 minute walk from school, and along the way there are hair salons, little marts, clothing shops, a cute cafe, and a couple nail shops. We seem to be in an area of cosmotology, which is good when you need grooming, but not so great when you're searching for dinner.

Luckily, right across the main street there are some dumpling, noodle and other shops with lots of good stuff. Not to mention, pretty much every place delivers.

So although not the place of my dreams, and still a bus ride from school (I was hoping to be able to walk), it's home now. I really like it. Donnie is a fantastic decorator, and he's put his touches on it and made it ours.

 

Come see it for yourself. ;)

A new job

View from the 4th floor

So my posts have been more themed lately, and less chronological. I'm sure I will get back to the chronological posting, but right now I am going to stick to themes. This one being my new position at QSI Shekou.

For the past eight years, I have been an elementary school teacher in the grades 4-6. This means that I have had a self-contained group of students, which I taught all subjects. Part of the reason I left public school teaching was because I was ready for a change. I was ready for something new. I know I could have found a satisfying position in San Antonio, in fact I did right before we were hired for these jobs. But something told me that this would be a great experience for me as a teacher as well as a person. So I turned down the other position, and we took the plunge, and here we are.

When Donnie and I were hired back in February, we were told our positions would be a science teacher and an intensive English teacher. So when we arrived it was made more clear exactly what each of us is teaching. Donnie's position is a reading/writing teacher to students who need moderate English language support. He only has one section of those students, so he spends the rest of his periods co-teaching science with me or with the other science teacher. I teach five sections of Earth science to 12 year olds (there are no grades in QSI, just age groups). It's a dream position for me. I have tons of time to prep lessons, and I only have to plan 5 lessons a week! I have access to pretty much any material I need, and an assistant who helps me gather them and make copies. I have small classes, no more than 18 student in each section. Of course, the grading load is greater, but QSI is based on mastery learning, so grading takes on a different form. I know the workload is going to be heavier during the end of the quintiles, and during parent conferences, so I know it won't always be so dreamy. But right now, I'm loving it.

Family bus ride to work!

My school life is so much different here compared to at home. Back in Texas, I usually felt dread heading into school, and absolutely exhausted when it was over. It was always a rush to get to the next place, go get Paul, figure out dinner and a work out, get Paul to bed, and then it just repeated over and over. Donnie had very little time with each other, and we were too exhausted to spend meaningful time with each other during the week. Here, the morning seems like a luxury. I'm trying to get into the routine of waking up and running before school, but so far I've only managed it twice. But other than that, we get ready, make breakfast, get Paul ready, and are out the door without a rush at 7:25. Then we all walk to the bus together and travel the 10 minutes to school on the city bus. When we arrive, Paul chills in my classroom or Donnie's watching RastaMouse, and then at 8:15 we put him on the bus to his pre-school. That is still a teary-eyed event, and breaks my heart, but his reports from his teacher have been relatively good. And I know he's in good hands.

QSI Shekou from the bus stop

Then our teaching day starts, like I said I have five sections and a few free periods. The day seems to go by so much faster, and before I know it, it's the end of the school day at 4! These first few weeks have been an adjustment, trying to get used to the schedule and finding a routine, but it is slowly working itself out. Donnie and I have both started coaching sports also. He does tennis at the high school, and I'm an assistant coach for the girl's soccer team her at the middle school. Our practice schedule is pretty demanding, practice M-W-F until 5:45, which leaves us just enough time to rush home to relieve our nanny at 6pm. It's exhausting, but in a really fulfilling way. Tuesdays are meeting days at school, and Thursday we've been meeting with a technology committee, trying to make positive changes to our school.

It's a busy schedule, but I don't feel half as stressed as I did at home. My days are not emotionally exhausting like they were in Texas. And Donnie and I spend so much time at work together, co-teaching and eating lunch together, that we don't feel guilty taking the extra time to coach, and Paul gets the all the attention he could want from his parents when we get home.

Working towards mastery.... :)

Another thing that I find super cool about my job, is that I am allowed so much freedom, but also have very clear curriculum. It's always a balance for a teacher to have licence to use their own creativity, but still have clear objectives to meet. Since I have only one subject to teach, I can spend a lot of time making the lessons meaningful and enriching for the students. Nobody tells me how to teach or even asks to see my lesson plans. There is a level of trust, and professionalism that has been lacking in my other teaching jobs that is so refreshing. Also, QSI believes in mastery learning, success for all, so the students can't fail. They may take longer to master a skill, but they can't fail. It sounds strange, but so far I can sense that the students aren't afraid to ask questions, that they do their homework because they want to master something, not to get a grade. Maybe that's why I feel so much less stress. We're here to foster success, not watch failure like I have for so long.

Anyway, that's quite a bit more detail than I was going to divulge, but it helps me sort my thoughts to write it all. ;) Thanks for reading.

My classroom

Wait! I forgot to mention the physical appearance of our school. It's located in Sea World, Shekou, right down the street from the ferry port to Hong Kong. Our school used to be a shopping mall, so it's five stories with lots of stairs and a set of escalators that don't work. My room is on the 4th floor, which is handy since that is where the copy room and printer is. The 5th floor is mostly administration, accounting and admissions, and the rest of the floors are classrooms. The 1st floor has a sizable cafeteria, a reception office, and attached to the school is a really handy international grocery store (you can enter it without leaving the school). The rooms are all different sizes and shapes, and have a strange design of windows, but when you think it used to be a mall, it makes a little more sense :).

Ok, now I'm done.