On a side note

I got to Beijing on August 1st. I found our apartment and our lease began on August 25th. It is now September 17th. We have yet to find knives available in any store for our kitchen. Apparently the Beijing government has decided to ban the sale of knives until the Olympics are over. (Just in case, someone else decides to stab someone.) And that will be September 20th. No knives. We have been cutting veggies with our butter knives.

I just think that it's funny that there was no announcement of all this. I could have ended my knife search if the news would have just told me. No, the knives just disappeared and that's the theory I have come up with.

Wedding in India pics.

I know this is long overdue. But I just had some free time and wanted to post some pictures of the wedding we went to in India two weeks ago. These are just pictures of the reception was at a large outdoor venue with verandas, decks, ponds, etc. There were fireworks, so much food, and well, we danced. I even got Chase to dance at the very end of the night.
















A close up of me, Samsrkruthi, and her friend from London, Jane.















Swathi (bride's sister) and I.





















Chase sat in this chair most of the night, avoiding the dance floor.





















Success!




















Mom and Geeta Aunty (the bride's mother)




















The beautiful bride, Sam.
















I got the dancing gene from my Mom. And there's Sam's parents dancing as well.


Tomorrow Chase and I are off to the Great Wall. I am very excited. Expect pics of that soon.

to the doctor

Tomorrow is a big day. I go to a Chinese style hospital for a check-up because the current wrk visa situation requires that all foreigners get a doctor's certificate from only one particular hospital in Beijing. So I will have to take a cab ride for over an hour to get to the outskirts of Beijing where I will poked, tested, and x-rayed. Yes, they x-ray my chest for any signs of tuberculosis. It seems so archaic to me coming from a country where we just do a simple under the skin test on the inside of your forearm. I have to show up without eating breakfast. I really hope I remember that. I have to have my blood drawn. The only solace is that I won't be there only foreigner there and this hospital has been designated for only this purpose. But still, Danielle, a girl who works for the Robarts' who's here from England said that it was highly disorganized and they would take you from room to room for different reasons. I'm not happy about this at all. I have resisted, especially since I was told to get a doctor's statement of good health while I was in Austin. I did so and I find out it still isn't valid in China for the simple reason of, "it's not in Chinese."

Wait, to top it off. I have to return to this place four to five days later to hand pick-up my test results. They do not mail or deliver.

Alright, that's my vent for today. It rained all day in Beijing. And Chase is under the weather. I'm so tired from work. The only bright side is that all this rain might.... possibly... push out the pollution and we might have a few days of sunshine this weekend for the Mid-Autumn festival. Oh, by the way, I get a three day weekend for that. Chase and I have opted to stay in the city and finally give him a tour of the Olympic venues... and for the both of us to finally visit the Forbidden City, Tianenmen, Tianjin, and the Great Wall which is about one hour from here.

First Day of School

Well, today's the big day. I get three new children in my class. Last week from Wednesday through Friday I had the returning children. They definitely are getting used to me better, but the first few days were rough. I just have higher standards than what they are used to. And there's so much difference in culture in raising children in China, so the children here are just so different in behavrior. However, they are very disciplined... as far as, I don't really have to remind them about anything twice. They follow along quite well. Part of the chinese mentality.

Today, I hope to focus on the new ones as they are quite young. It's going to take a lot of energy. I imagine myself running around after one particular child that I met on Friday. So I know what he's like. So I went to bed relatively early last night and I woke up this morning and had a really slow and meditative yoga practice. I focused on holding and staying in poses for a long time. So I didn't do too many. I hope that it will give me the patience and focus I need today and this week.

Here we go...

2 Great Days in Beijing

It's been too long since I've written. But we've been settling in this week in Beijing in addition to working full-time. The children come to school starting on Wednesday and we've had workshops and I've been working furiously to turn my classroom into something that will work for me. I just have these high standards for my "prepared environment." And to some people it might seem neurotic, but finding the right baskets, the right papers, and making sure everything is polished clean and presentable is so important to me. This is really hard to do in China mostly because I don't know where to look to find things like bottlebrushes and doilies and construction paper even! It will take some time for me to get my bearings.

I have internet access but only when Chase is not on the computer since I haven't hooked up my laptop to the cable connection we have in our new apartment. Tomorrow we get a phone line, DSL internet- wireless, thank goodness, and hopefully our Satellite TV fixed.

Well, yesterday three great things happened. Chase and I walked to my work because I had to drop off something and there was a Bally's gym that we were looking into for a yearly membership. We are getting out of shape. So this has been a priority. On the way out I spotted a Jenny Lou's! This is great because the day before, we went to a Carrefour. Carrefour is this chain from France similiar to a Target. It has everything from irons, to bicycles, to groceries. I couldn't manage my way around the smells of the grocery section. Seafood was still alive, dried foods smelled putrid, and produce was limited and foreign. No wonder Chinese eat out so much. It's a chore to shop for groceries and cook at home. It was looking bleak for me ever stepping into our kitchen for the rest of the year. But Jenny Lou's is an import grocery store with real bread, salads, produce, and brands that we can recognize- Newman's Own, Barilla pasta, Betty Crocker, etc. So we (mainly, me) are so happy to reclaim the kitchen and be able to cook once in a while.

Secondly, Chase and I bought bikes. We feel like Beijing has opened up to us and it's a new playground to explore. My bike is pink with a black basket in the front and a black rear pannier. I feel like such a Beijinger. I am currently taking suggestions for the name of my bike. Chase's bike is called Gray Thunder and is a road bike that is too small for him. It's 50cm to be exact and he needs one that's 58cm. He's raised seat as far as it can go.

And lastly, the sun came out! I was so happy. Yesterday was a great day.

Today was another good day. A beautiful Sunday. Not too cold, not too hot. We got our bikes out and rode to Ritan Park. It's a beautiful 20 hectares park where in the Northeast corner is an outdoor climbing wall and bouldering area. We met some climbers and taught Fernando how to belay. Then we went to a contemporary Chinese restaurant and had some dimsum and milkshakes. What a great way to round off the day. Now we're going to watch KungFu Panda before dinner.

India and so many things

It has been many days. And this is the first one in which I have had time to check email and get on the internet. We have been so busy since the day we arrived. We literally leave the house every morning and get back at night. We have been shopping a lot for the wedding and attending wedding related events for Sam's wedding. The wedding was yesterday and was beautiful. The reception was last night and we had a lot of fun. I will post pictures when I'm sitting around the Hong Kong Airport on Sunday.

All I want to say is that I'm glad to be back in India after so long. I missed this place and there's something about it that makes me feel like I am home. The smells, food, people, chaos, all make India one of the most spiritual places on the planet for me. Bangalore has gotten so much dirtier and crowded though. I wish it didn't outgrow itself so fast. The infrastructure is so poor, for example, we sit in traffic on average for 2 hours a day. Other than that, the people and how they live admist everything really motivates me to get out of my bubble and appreciate Earth and mankind.

I don't think this is the same reaction you'll get from Chase, however. He's definitely overwhelmed at times and even though he's so easy-going and such a good traveler he's had some trouble accepting how things are in India. I don't blame him. India is a place that you have to adjust to. Life, living, everything is hard here. He's doing great though. My grandma loves him. He has even started calling her "patti" now. Which is the word for grandma in Tamil.

I wish we could have left the city. Our plans were to go to Mysore today but my grandma needs attention. Maybe some day Chase will want to come back with me and we can do some proper traveling around the country.

Gotta go. More later in Hong Kong.

India is not a geographical location, it's a stae