So I hope this finds you and your families doing exceptionally well as for Dylan and I we are constantly staying busy, meeting new friends, and continuing to have the times of our lives.
I am assuming the title of this has created quite a taste of curiosity. Always remember it killed the cat. hahahaha. Just kidding. So on to the the three B's.
I have been begging Dylan to go with me to get a new bike so I can ride around and such. Well I did!! This bike is the most unique thing we had ever seen. It folds up into the size of a suitcase yet I doubt it would fit inside of one being that it is bulky and all. But it did fit inside of a trunk of a taxi with no problems at all. Dylan took some pictures of me riding around on it and a few of my friends did too so be on the look out for those pics. So I am now a free person who can ride around wherever I choose to including to work everyday. This past week my thighs have toned up considerably which is good. Last night one of the teachers and I tried to ride around like they do here with one driving it and one sitting on the little rack you tie things to. Really funny but I think my bike was missing the element of having a motor for it did not turn out well in the end and thankfully we were only going about 12 feet away from where we were to begin with. Another bike story...funny....so the day before yesterday I do my thing wake up get ready blah blah and then take my bike with me out to the elevator and ride down. Well as I get into the elevator I noticed my front wheel looks a little flat and then when I pressed it, it was and I could not ride my bike to work that morning. UGHHH! So I hit the next floor and got off and dropped it off. Later on that day I went to this man who is outside with whom I assume is either is wife, girlfriend or sister. You really can't tell especially if you cannot speak the language that well to begin with. So the man takes off the outer part of the tire and fixes the inner part which looks like an inner tube. It was fascinating to watch him fix it. The "sand" it down with this weird looking tool, put what looked like a patch on the whole and filled it back up with air again. All for 3 RMB which is about 50 cents US. I tried to offer him more but he refused and shoved it back. So I was happy again and rode around till my legs got tired.
Next B story . . . So the same day we bought my bike, I bought a bra. Yes I finally found one that did not have as much stuffing as a good year blimp. Evidently FYI women here are as flat as walls no lie. And all their bras have tons and tons of stuffing in them. I am not a fan and in my situation I believe I don't really need the extra padding. This style of bras had made it nearly impossible to find one A. in my size and B. without the padding. So we finally found one and I was too excited about it. The lady says to me "What size you are?" and I am looking at the bra sizes saying "I don't have a clue." So she proceeds to measure me (deja vu from getting measured for my dresses). Then she finds me my bra in my size which was in a drawer and not with the others. Sad huh?? The sales lady proceeds to show me the fitting room which is long and narrow. Not one I have seen before. She shuts the door behind her and I am thinking maybe she is just trying to help me by putting the bras up on the hook and such. Then she starts helping me out of my shirt and I am like "Oh so you are going to help me?" Dylan said he could hear the whole conversation and thought it was too funny. Then I am standing there topless with the sales lady feeling just a bit vulnerable and then she helps me into the bra but it didn't stop there. She reaches down into the bra and "moves me" if you get my drift to situate me so that it looks right. I was thinking this is the most bizarre thing I have ever experienced...someone watching me undress (could handle to an extent) then helps me into a bra, and then moves my stuff around to situate it. So that is the Bra story.
Onto the third and final B story . . . the Bank! Since yesterday was the last and final day of summer school we got paid. It was nice too (for China) and I was paid in US dollars. I am walking around with a big hunk of one hundred dollar bills in my pants pocket and calling Dylan to get his secretary to meet me to set up a bank account. No way was I exchanging all that money for who knows how much and storing it who knows where. So Crystal, Dylan's wonderful and sweet secretary goes with me to the bank more specifically The Bank of China. When you go inside you first fill out the forms. Thankfully they had a few without the Chinese characters on them and were in English. If not that's what Crystal was for. So we fill out the work and stand in line. Now I am not a fan to begin with standing in line but it wasn't so bad until towards the end. The bank closes at 5 PM so they had two little tellers open when we started the line and then when it was our turn the man who was one of the two tellers decides it is quitting time for him and puts up his little sign that says "Service Paused". Crystal tries to see if he will budge but he didn't as I thought and he starts counting his money. There are other bank tellers walking around the place yet none seem to want to work. So now there is this huge line behind us partly due to pay day because it was Friday and only one teller. She was forever slow. I kept thinking how funny is this....this would so not fly in the US. The manager would be using all of the tellers (all three of them) and making sure everyone got as much as they could done before quitting time. It reminded me of our Wal Marts back in the states. Not exactly sure where and what your Wal Marts are like, but the ones in Suwanee and Buford Georgia have over 30 check out lanes with tons of check yourself out lanes too. However, as many as they have they are never truly filled up in fact there are usually 5 or so that are actually open and forget going to the self check out lanes they are either broken or someone who doesn't understand how to use them with two grocery carts full of stuff to the brim. Well same situation but one teller with a huge line behind. The guard told the majority of the people to go home. Awful!!! However, I now officially have a bank account with an ATM card and it won't charge me an arm and a leg to get money out now. YEAH!!!!
By the way....Dylan and I are getting ready to leave for Thailand in about 8 days. We leave on July 27 and come back on Aug 3. The main purpose of this trip is doing what Dylan did with his passport to get his working visa. So we are mailing my passport and documents back to the states from Thailand stay there while they process the visa and mail it back to me. The other purpose is that we need a vacation. A friend of ours who is from the US lives here in China and has his own company (well I should say companies) and also has a house in Thailand as well. He usually rents it out but not in the summer time as much as in the winter when people are trying to get away from the cold. The flights are extremely cheap from Hong Kong airport so that's a plus and things we have been told are relatively cheap there too like food and trinkets and such.
So that's all for now. As stated before I hope your loved ones are doing well and family members I love you all!!!
Amanda and Dylan Blankenship :)
Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
So it's been a little over a month now and . . .
Hello all . . .
Well Dylan came back successfully from Hong Kong with his z-visa which is his working visa that allows him to come in as many times as he wants, pay Chinese taxes (only as long as we stay out of the US for 335 days we don't pay), and gets to work in China. It was kind of lonely not having him around for a week but allowed for me some down time which we all need every now and then.
A couple of weekends ago Dylan, Andy (a guy who Dylan works with), and one of Dylan's US friends and business associates Travis went to a temple here in Shenzhen. It was amazing to say the least. After I left the temple I had such a wonderful feeling inside and I was filled with peace.
The weather here has been just as unpredictable as the sights I see. Last week we had a typhoon roll through that was downgraded to a tropical storm. There was massive flooding and they canceled summer school for a day. I think that is a first for me to have school canceled because a tropical storm. As for summer school, things are actually starting to lighten up or maybe its me. In the county where I used to teach in the US they were test driven and taking the creativity out of teaching and creating robots as for teachers and students. No fun or letting you teach. Now being given the opportunity to have fun and be creative I am rediscovering my teaching roots that I was taught in my undergrad classes. I am loving teaching these days and I am seeing the students increase their academic successes within these last 3 weeks. It is something indescribable. So now my days are like this: I get up and push snooze 3 times get ready for work. Find my driver whom I have adopted. His name is Joe and speaks semi good English. We actually have a conversation on the way to work instead of sitting in silence. He has a family and a teenage son. We talk about me teaching and if I like it and my feelings about life. Then I say good bye hand him 15 RMB and walk into school. Get started in the classroom make sure everything is ready go and meet the kids in the gym at 9:00 and walk them back to class. We get started with normal morning activities such as calendar. Then break up into reading groups. Then come back together and go to specials. Come back from specials and have lunch. After lunch we go to recess in the gym in fear of the crazy old man and its just too darn hot. Then go back and grab our bags then go to the library and then go home.
This past week our theme for the week was Rainforest so we did divided into four groups (mixing low English speaking with high English speaking students) and did a really small research project on a rainforest animal. We made a clay creature and safari hats. Graphed in math and for our field trip we went to the Evergreen Park in Shenzhen where they have a pseudo rain forest and the kids loved it. The Evergreen Park reminds me of Helen GA when you first drive in and for a split second you forget you are in China until you get off the school bus and are approached by the staff "Ni Hao" (hello). The parts that remind me of Helen GA are the greenery that cross over the road as you drive in. Also it has mountain looking rooms or so I've been told.
I have been taking up a new hobby of cooking. I am trying to watch my weight for it jumped when I got here. Scary thought huh? Oh well. So I am on the Zone Diet which is very beneficial for my blood sugar levels and sugar cravings. I am making vegetarian dishes for Dylan and I for dinner. Finding the things to make these new found dishes is a bit tricky and slightly pricey but I love being in my closet of a kitchen. By the way there is no oven in the kitchen so I am getting creative in "baking" dishes. So far I have made an eggplant parm which is pretty good and a vegetarian chili that is pretty good but not as good as the eggplant. For breakfast I made an apple melt with raisins. Not too bad either.
So life is awesome here in China. Meeting new people and exchanging exciting stories with one another. It's a wonderful feeling living here in China. You feel as though you are a part of something special and that its "alive" here versus being "complacent" where I was before. Speaking of being a changing person, just found out I am going to be teaching kindergarten again next year. I am excited about going back to where I started as a teacher.
In getting back to the visa issue because many of you are so sweet and kind in asking about Dylan and I's situation so here it goes. As for Dylan he is complete with his but now as for me....the fun has just begun. In order to do the visa process you have to get a "physical" at the "local" hospital. One of the girls who works at my school took me to the hospital last week. It was a 30 minute trip. I kept thinking....If I have a life threatening problem I am better off throwing myself in the ocean and dying in peace. Scary thought but thats China for you. So we arrive at the hospital and then we walk up to the floor that does physicals only. They are open from 9:00AM-12:00PM and then reopen at 2:00 till who knows but this I think applies only to floor where you get your physical. So we fill out a form and thankfully I had the girl help me who brought me to the hospital for there were three thing that said something in English. We wait around kind of like at the DMV where you are constantly looking at the digital signs above the help desks and waiting on your number to pop up and when it does you make a mad dash to show passport and other crazy information. Then you pay first for it and then you get to go on a scavenger hunt of a life time. You have to go to these different rooms to have these different tests performed. The girl who brought me was like Speed Racer zooming into room after room with me. So the first "test" was cardiovascular where they put these zapper things on your chest and print out what your results were. Then I went and was tested for tuberculousis where they did a chest x-ray screen. They scanned my stomach looking for who knows what and did an ultrasound. I told the women I was not pregnant because the test was performed just like looking for a baby but all is well and no baby. Then there was the teeth screening to make sure you had all your teeth I guess. Then there was the "Surgery" room and I was "hell no I am not going in there and no one is going to cut me up especially here in China". And the girl was like "what??? No they just look in your ears and throat and make sure you are OK". I was like they need to come up with a different name for that room. Then we had to have my blood drawn. Dear God that was not so fun. I did find out I am o positive which is a good tidbit of information to know. Next I got to pee in a cup. Gee whiz thats a story within itself. So you get this flimsy little cup with a handle on it kind of like a measuring cup that could hold only cotton because everything else is to heavy to put in it. So you take the cup downstairs and go to the bathroom. Dear God this was interesting. They didn't have toilets like we know. They had a hole in the floor (yeah I about peed my pants laughing when I saw it) and there were these places to put your feet while you squat. So being a girl we all know its not possible to write our names in the snow with pee so there is a process to go about handling the peeing on a hole in the floor. Take off a pant leg (I now understand why Chinese girls always have skirts on) and hold it with the opposite hand. Hold the flimsy pee cup with the other free hand within pee catching distance but don't pee too much or it will overflow and then you got a new problem which is trying to pee again to fill the cup up. Then put pee cup down carefully place your leg back into the pants and grab the pee cup. You are carrying this thing like a prized possession because you don't want to go through that process again or at least for awhile. Then you walk out of the bathroom and place your pee with everyone elses on a a cart that is in between the men's and women's bathroom. I kept thinking..."someone's going to contaminate my pee with something" but everything turned out OK. Then the girl that brought me to the hospital was like "hurry hurry...we have to catch the bus". So I was running around and there was the QSI school bus (the school where I teach at sent a bus to pick the girl and I up) waiting for us and they came just to pick us up so that we didn't have to pay for another taxi ride. That was so nice I thought.
If this is what the physical turned out like I can't wait to go for my interview at the police station. Should be just as interesting if not more. Probably they will put me in Chinese prison over night to see if I will crack up or something. Too late I already did.
Well I hope this finds you finding my life a smidge bit funny and I hope you and your families are doing well. I wish for cool gentle breezes and a big nice tree to sit under to relax and reflect.
Amanda and Dylan!
Well Dylan came back successfully from Hong Kong with his z-visa which is his working visa that allows him to come in as many times as he wants, pay Chinese taxes (only as long as we stay out of the US for 335 days we don't pay), and gets to work in China. It was kind of lonely not having him around for a week but allowed for me some down time which we all need every now and then.
A couple of weekends ago Dylan, Andy (a guy who Dylan works with), and one of Dylan's US friends and business associates Travis went to a temple here in Shenzhen. It was amazing to say the least. After I left the temple I had such a wonderful feeling inside and I was filled with peace.
The weather here has been just as unpredictable as the sights I see. Last week we had a typhoon roll through that was downgraded to a tropical storm. There was massive flooding and they canceled summer school for a day. I think that is a first for me to have school canceled because a tropical storm. As for summer school, things are actually starting to lighten up or maybe its me. In the county where I used to teach in the US they were test driven and taking the creativity out of teaching and creating robots as for teachers and students. No fun or letting you teach. Now being given the opportunity to have fun and be creative I am rediscovering my teaching roots that I was taught in my undergrad classes. I am loving teaching these days and I am seeing the students increase their academic successes within these last 3 weeks. It is something indescribable. So now my days are like this: I get up and push snooze 3 times get ready for work. Find my driver whom I have adopted. His name is Joe and speaks semi good English. We actually have a conversation on the way to work instead of sitting in silence. He has a family and a teenage son. We talk about me teaching and if I like it and my feelings about life. Then I say good bye hand him 15 RMB and walk into school. Get started in the classroom make sure everything is ready go and meet the kids in the gym at 9:00 and walk them back to class. We get started with normal morning activities such as calendar. Then break up into reading groups. Then come back together and go to specials. Come back from specials and have lunch. After lunch we go to recess in the gym in fear of the crazy old man and its just too darn hot. Then go back and grab our bags then go to the library and then go home.
This past week our theme for the week was Rainforest so we did divided into four groups (mixing low English speaking with high English speaking students) and did a really small research project on a rainforest animal. We made a clay creature and safari hats. Graphed in math and for our field trip we went to the Evergreen Park in Shenzhen where they have a pseudo rain forest and the kids loved it. The Evergreen Park reminds me of Helen GA when you first drive in and for a split second you forget you are in China until you get off the school bus and are approached by the staff "Ni Hao" (hello). The parts that remind me of Helen GA are the greenery that cross over the road as you drive in. Also it has mountain looking rooms or so I've been told.
I have been taking up a new hobby of cooking. I am trying to watch my weight for it jumped when I got here. Scary thought huh? Oh well. So I am on the Zone Diet which is very beneficial for my blood sugar levels and sugar cravings. I am making vegetarian dishes for Dylan and I for dinner. Finding the things to make these new found dishes is a bit tricky and slightly pricey but I love being in my closet of a kitchen. By the way there is no oven in the kitchen so I am getting creative in "baking" dishes. So far I have made an eggplant parm which is pretty good and a vegetarian chili that is pretty good but not as good as the eggplant. For breakfast I made an apple melt with raisins. Not too bad either.
So life is awesome here in China. Meeting new people and exchanging exciting stories with one another. It's a wonderful feeling living here in China. You feel as though you are a part of something special and that its "alive" here versus being "complacent" where I was before. Speaking of being a changing person, just found out I am going to be teaching kindergarten again next year. I am excited about going back to where I started as a teacher.
In getting back to the visa issue because many of you are so sweet and kind in asking about Dylan and I's situation so here it goes. As for Dylan he is complete with his but now as for me....the fun has just begun. In order to do the visa process you have to get a "physical" at the "local" hospital. One of the girls who works at my school took me to the hospital last week. It was a 30 minute trip. I kept thinking....If I have a life threatening problem I am better off throwing myself in the ocean and dying in peace. Scary thought but thats China for you. So we arrive at the hospital and then we walk up to the floor that does physicals only. They are open from 9:00AM-12:00PM and then reopen at 2:00 till who knows but this I think applies only to floor where you get your physical. So we fill out a form and thankfully I had the girl help me who brought me to the hospital for there were three thing that said something in English. We wait around kind of like at the DMV where you are constantly looking at the digital signs above the help desks and waiting on your number to pop up and when it does you make a mad dash to show passport and other crazy information. Then you pay first for it and then you get to go on a scavenger hunt of a life time. You have to go to these different rooms to have these different tests performed. The girl who brought me was like Speed Racer zooming into room after room with me. So the first "test" was cardiovascular where they put these zapper things on your chest and print out what your results were. Then I went and was tested for tuberculousis where they did a chest x-ray screen. They scanned my stomach looking for who knows what and did an ultrasound. I told the women I was not pregnant because the test was performed just like looking for a baby but all is well and no baby. Then there was the teeth screening to make sure you had all your teeth I guess. Then there was the "Surgery" room and I was "hell no I am not going in there and no one is going to cut me up especially here in China". And the girl was like "what??? No they just look in your ears and throat and make sure you are OK". I was like they need to come up with a different name for that room. Then we had to have my blood drawn. Dear God that was not so fun. I did find out I am o positive which is a good tidbit of information to know. Next I got to pee in a cup. Gee whiz thats a story within itself. So you get this flimsy little cup with a handle on it kind of like a measuring cup that could hold only cotton because everything else is to heavy to put in it. So you take the cup downstairs and go to the bathroom. Dear God this was interesting. They didn't have toilets like we know. They had a hole in the floor (yeah I about peed my pants laughing when I saw it) and there were these places to put your feet while you squat. So being a girl we all know its not possible to write our names in the snow with pee so there is a process to go about handling the peeing on a hole in the floor. Take off a pant leg (I now understand why Chinese girls always have skirts on) and hold it with the opposite hand. Hold the flimsy pee cup with the other free hand within pee catching distance but don't pee too much or it will overflow and then you got a new problem which is trying to pee again to fill the cup up. Then put pee cup down carefully place your leg back into the pants and grab the pee cup. You are carrying this thing like a prized possession because you don't want to go through that process again or at least for awhile. Then you walk out of the bathroom and place your pee with everyone elses on a a cart that is in between the men's and women's bathroom. I kept thinking..."someone's going to contaminate my pee with something" but everything turned out OK. Then the girl that brought me to the hospital was like "hurry hurry...we have to catch the bus". So I was running around and there was the QSI school bus (the school where I teach at sent a bus to pick the girl and I up) waiting for us and they came just to pick us up so that we didn't have to pay for another taxi ride. That was so nice I thought.
If this is what the physical turned out like I can't wait to go for my interview at the police station. Should be just as interesting if not more. Probably they will put me in Chinese prison over night to see if I will crack up or something. Too late I already did.
Well I hope this finds you finding my life a smidge bit funny and I hope you and your families are doing well. I wish for cool gentle breezes and a big nice tree to sit under to relax and reflect.
Amanda and Dylan!
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