Week 1 Recap

Well it's been a week since I left the states, and it has been quite a week!  Here are a few thoughts about the past week:

TIS Staff:  The other TIS teachers and staff have been so amazing.  They have gone out of their way to help the new staff get settled in and survive the first week.  When I got to Tianjin, our apartment was clean, beds were made, phone and electricity were running, and there was food in the fridge.  They have planned something for us every day to help us get to know Tianjin and figure out where to get things we need and how to get around.  They've even organized dinner for us every night. (See, Mom... I'm not starving!:) Some of the staff speak very good Chinese, and they have been great resources this week!  It really motivates me to want to learn the language!

TIS School:  I got to see the school on Tuesday.  I have never seen a more beautiful facility!  I'll try to post some pictures of it later.  The school as a whole is HUGE and absolutely breathtaking.  Words really can't describe it and pictures don't do it justice.  I'll be in the ECC (Early Childhood Center).  It's attached to the rest of the school but kept closed off for the safety of the kids.  It is such a fun place...it is exactly what a school should look like. I feel so blessed to be able to teach in such an amazing place!  I sort of feel like the new kid on the first day of high school, though...I hope I don't get lost!

Elementary library

Ikea trip:  Here we go....the Ikea trip.  Yesterday was such an interesting day.  We left for Ikea in the middle of a torrential downpour, so of course we had to wade through inches of water to get to the bus at the front gate.  By the time we got to the bus my shoes were soaked (lesson learned...wear sandals on rainy days).  So with soggy feet I climbed onto the school bus and we headed toward Ikea.  An hour and a half later...we were still searching for Ikea.  Uturn...Google Maps...Uturn...Stop for directions....Uturn....Stop in the middle of the street, hold up traffic, and discuss a new route....Uturn....Ikea!  When we finally saw the yellow and blue Ikea sign in the distance it was like I could hear whatever the Chinese version of the Hallelujah chorus is.  Thankfully the rain scared most shoppers away and we were able to navigate through the wonderland that is Ikea pretty painlessly.  My roommate and I made it through the showroom quickly only to spend what seemed like an eternity deciding on dishes. (Ikea makes decision-making a thousand times harder....)  We finally decided to just decide later. Ha... We got lots of good stuff - curtains, bedding, kitchen necessities, throw pillows, laundry hampers - and plenty of other things Ikea made us believe we just HAD.TO.HAVE.  (I also got a floor lamp like the one I had in Dayton to make my room feel more like "home"...then got it back to my apartment to discover the lamp shade had been taken out so I can't even use it.  Bummer...)

Now, the trip home was another adventure altogether.  Everything was going really well until we got back to Yang Guang.  Most of the people who had a lot of stuff live near the back gate of the complex, so we asked the driver to take us there.  He was in a hurry so he said "no".  There was no way we could make the 15ish minute walk from the front gate to our building with all our stuff, so the driver agreed to compromise and take us to the side gate which would cut our walking time in half. So what did the driver do next?  Well, he made a uturn, of course! The problem was he decided to uturn onto a one way street into oncoming traffic.  He drove all the way down the wrong side of a one way street and took us to the side gate.  The craziest thing was that the other drivers didn't honk at him or even give him a second glance.  #china

Here's something I've observed about the Chinese:  if there is any possible way to get something done, they'll figure it out and do it.  Yesterday I saw someone carrying a giant wooden board down the road on a bike.  He wouldn't have gotten far in the States before getting pulled over.  Here it is normal.  There are trucks hauling sky-high piles of cardboard...like so much cardboard you just keep thinking, "Don't take a sharp turn...don't take a sharp turn..." So anyway, when we got to the side gate we channeled our inner Chinese, loaded ourselves down with bags and boxes, and trekked back to our apartment building. If my hands hadn't been full of area rugs and shelving units I would have taken a picture.  Oh, and thanks to the rain we got to walk through overflowing sewage, so that was awesome. 

All in all, not a bad week.  :)