grilled cheese in a wok: our first ten days in china

now that our jet lag is (i think) officially gone, we're ready to start talking about what's going on in our new home...

no, this isn't a girl's bike.
all the really manly dudes in china have bikes like this.

the school that we're teaching at is doing a really good job of helping the new teachers get accustomed not only to the school, but to chinese culture. we're in meetings pretty much all day learning about the new community in which we live. (i know what you're thinking, "wow, he knows the rule about not ending a sentence with a preposition, but he's not capitalizing anything." that's just how i roll.) what we're learning about the organization we're with which encompasses a manufacturing company, foster home, and school, is that it's a pretty unique and incredible place to work. the people who work with the various parts of our organization make up a community that's very beneficial to corrie and me, but also very beneficial to the people who live around it.

we live in an apartment complex that is part of a farming village, which has a name i don't know yet because i don't speak chinese or pay enough attention. but i do know that our village is really old, and is renowned for its watermelons, so much so that it used to supply them to the emperors. we're about fifty minutes outside of downtown beijing, and we're in an area that is rapidly expanding. basically, the suburbs of beijing are growing towards us, an area called the beijing developing area, or bda.

we bike to and from our school daily, and we're starting to get into the routine of shopping, cooking, etc. in our new culture. we cooked our first chinese meal the other night, and had a chinese guy tell us what the buttons on our washing machine mean. and there was one button he didn't know what did. we get stared at a lot, but it's just because they're curious we've been told. i think i got stared at a lot in the states anyways.

stir fried peppers and we think pork

oh and we found a stray kitten. she was outside of our apartment, and was way mangy and feral. we've taken her in, bathed her, and now we're adjusting to being foster parents. we're not sure if we're ready to be considered "cat people" just yet, so we're looking for a permanent home for jessie. but we're also not ready to put her back on the street if no one wants to adopt her. and we found out you can't adopt a baby in china until your thirty, so we figure this is a good dry run for us in case we want to adopt in a few years...

jessie pre-bath

be looking for corrie's thoughts on life in china soon, and the next clear day we get we're gonna take a ride through the village and film it.

thanks for your thoughts! - daniel