Amy gets her health.. checked?, meets the school and gets lost in space...

The Zen Garden in the center of my Apartment complex

Shopping centers circle my apartment complex. 

Ok, there is so much happening on a daily basis and really, I am doing my best to keep up with noting it all, so I can mention it here. I realize there are some teachers and student teachers reading my blog now so I will try to document a fair amount of what is going on inside my classroom too. I just want to start with a BIG thank you to Tina Arndt at Central Trail Elementary. Although it felt like a gauntlet at that time, I am quite convinced that every moment of my student teaching assignment has prepared me as much as I can be for the 680 students awaiting me on Monday. I will surely be going into this later, but for now, let us rewind to Day 2: the Health Check.

The marble royal statues that greet visitors at the east gate. 

So it should be known that when you immigrate into any country they want to be sure you are not bringing in any communicable diseases or you know, you are healthy... so they do this, uh, check. So I was asked to not eat or drink anything after 10pm the night before my appointment...this was difficult as I was parched and famished after my journey and it is humid and hot here in Jiaxing, but I pulled through with the promise of free breakfast after our appointment which I was quite certain would not include pancakes, eggs, and bacon but hey, free grub is free grub!

So, I met a very anxious Janey (one of the Chinese HR reps) and the driver at the entrance to my apartment complex and we were off to pick up another new foreigner teacher -calling someone a foreigner teacher is not a negative thing in Asia. It is what you are. And bringing the west-east is greatly respected, so really a 'foreigner teacher' is something one can be proud of. Anyway, we picked up Chris who is a new teacher in the English Department. He is from Illinois but spent the last eight years in South Korea, so we have a few things in common, which is nice. He has been in the country less than I so we can commensurate with our jetlag lugged-ness as we anticipate the procedures we might be enduring soon.

East Gate of Peking University Experimental School Jiaxing (PKUES)

I had been through a couple health checks in South Korea. It is what I would imagine one feels like if they were, let's say, abducted by aliens. (Not so much the torture or anal probing, umm, maybe this is not a good analogy after all.., but  having people perform procedures for reasons unbeknownst to you can be a little disconcerting, also the staff talks to each other and to you in a language you can not understand in the slightest.. (yes, in that way it is the same : ) We had a rather stabby blood sample, urine sample (a whole other ball game that I will not go into here, but let's just say it involved a cup the size of a jello shot and a test tube, no I'm not kidding..) eye checks (which seemed to only confirm I really, really need my glasses), an ultrasound of our innards (of which the lady told Chris in English "I cannot find your gallbladder." to which he replied frankly "I assure you it is where I left it." There was also a peculiar check involving me squatting and standing a few times while raising my arms up and down. Still, have no clue as to why. I was hooked to a machine with electrodes attached to it, and in most cases, I was in each station of the health check building for approximately 45 seconds.

Recreational fields at PKUES

The medical person would say 'Ok, finish. 'and I was like 'but I just got here!' My X-ray was anecdotally entertaining as the radiologist told me to put my necklace pendant in my mouth while he took the x-ray. Well, he didn't really tell me, he showed me with charades. You get good at communicating in action when language is a failed form of exchange. He kept opening his mouth and pointing, I tried to guess: 'eat something? take a picture in my mouth? I have teeth? Don't eat while you take the picture? swallow when I take the picture? put something in my mouth? Put my necklace in my mouth? Wait, put my necklace in my mouth, well ok! This whole thing has to be equally entertaining to the staff as they are constantly seeing a parade of dummies come through their door. After we finished the assembly line of mysterious procedures we were given a couple loaves of sweet bread and lukewarm soy milk to enjoy for breakfast in the lobby of the medical center. It did the job!

The auditorium and student exhibition hall. 

Next, we were on to the school, which I was able to see for the first time in the light. I have to say, it is a breathtaking property. I have learned since this day that it is a smaller version of the actual Peking University in Beijing. Btw: did you know that Peking is actually a mispronunciation of Beijing? This was surprising news to me a few months back as I learned that during the English occupation of China in the 19th century there was a gross mispronunciation occurring in the translation of sounds and words. Beijing sounded much like Peking in the old ways of transferring English sounds to Chinese words. Although most of the capital city has respectfully returned their name to Beijing, Peking University remains vigilant in keeping their namesake as is.

Hallway of PKUES

School's pagoda with watch tower. 

One of the most impressive features of the school is the east gate which is a replica of the Buddhist gate which serves as the gateway to Peking University in Beijing. It is grandiose and painted with precision and detail. As you enter the school grounds you are met with an impressive facade of the auditorium and student showcase hall. In the center of the school grounds, is a reflective pond, small pitched roof buildings flank each side which are traditional music rooms for playing drums and house different art performances. You can find a short animated video of the school grounds here. I very much hope to witness these and perhaps this may be a brimming location for a student collaborated installation (here's hoping!)

Traditional music houses which flank reflective pond. 

There is also a stunning pagoda and the school circles around this center. There are two divisions at my school: the International School and the National Division. This was confusing to me at first but, basically translates into respectively taught completely in English and Chinese Government regulated.

I teach in the National Division, which seems to offer an opportunity to be more surrounded by Chinese teachers instead of amongst a team of other foreigners. So, I am happy to be where I am. However, I am sure it will offer its challenges too. More to come later as the year

My classroom before my Western Additions. 

progresses. The International School has its own wing of the School and the National Division has its own wing too. My school is K-12 and I teach 1st-3rd grade. This is nice for planning as I develop three curriculums as opposed to the states where I may be doing 4-6 depending on the assignment. My classes last 35mins a piece (which is SHORT for an art class) but I plan on breaking up the

My classroom after Western Art Additions. 

class into intervals with short projects and basic outcomes to make this a rewarding and engaging class for all. There are 36 students in the average Chinese classroom. That's right. 36! I have been promised an aid to help me 'herd the kittens' (Thanks Mrs. Arndt). I have placed some hopefully persuasive reward systems in the class to help motivate good behavior. Most of this is robbed unapologetically from Tina Arndt's program which she has been ingeniously crafting for over two decades and from my experience while working at VIPKID (the online teaching company based in Beijing that I worked for before moving here.) I also read 'The First Days of School" by Harry K. Wong. (This book was very helpful and I recommend it to any new teacher regardless of the subject they teach) Anyhow, I believe I have prepared myself as much as I can for the oncoming 680 or so students I will have. (18 classes, 36 in each class) My classroom is well, just dreamy. Big picture windows, two giant sinks, plenty of storage, and the teacher prior to me had the kids paint the walls in a big colorful mural.

The Western Art Bulletin Board.

I had brought with me a large sum of posters and children's books. Most of the library I made was donated from members of the Toledo Community and if you were one of the individuals/institutions which donated, I thank you and offer you documentation of your contribution. The library is getting quite a response from teachers and students. It was my intention to turn the classroom into as much of an American classroom as possible. This is not because I do not want to assimilate, but rather it is because I want them to experience as much of another culture experience as possible.

Anyway, I thought it best to show the transformation of my classroom here, but there are many more posters and resources I have yet to display. I am delighted to represent my Western culture appropriately. I will post more about my classroom later, as I am sort of getting ahead of myself. I have yet to even tell you about the cell phone store!

So after a quick informational meeting post poking, we went for a meal in the canteen. The canteen, for those that don't know (I didn't), is the cafeteria. There are four dining halls on campus and two are reserved just for teachers. (Which is delightful to have our 'adult swim') I shall post about that later too. Sorry, I know I am saying that a lot, but there really is so much to share! And after the lunch, we all hopped in a cab and went to the cell phone store. We went with our HR representative, Bonnie. She is sort of our life manager when you are abroad and connects many dots for me when I am need of understanding how to navigate this very foreign landscape. I will message Bonnie anything from 'my hot water is not working' to 'where is the post office' my last message to her reads 'I understand you are not magical.' - I am serious. ( I will also explain that LATER- sorry!) 

Anyhow, bring a passport, a working phone and 500RMB and you get your phone set up. I was under the impression I would need to get a separate phone for China and one for the US, but come to find out, this is not the case. And just like that my connection to the states was eliminated.

Main Shopping complex in Jiaxing

(temporarily I will admit, but for a moment I felt like my tether to the spaceship had just been cut, as if I was just set adrift into the eternal cosmic Asian void. They told me I could just pop the other sim card back in any time I wanted but to return to my previous services but, emotionally this offered little comfort. This was an unfamiliar feeling to me because the last time I was in Asia we were not living in such a connected smartphone world. It has now changed me and to feel disconnected is to indeed feel disconnected.

Now I know you are all saying, "but Amy, what's the big deal, you can just Facebook everyone." well, no you can't, the Great Fire Wall of China keeps internet staples such as Facebook and Google out of its information wells. That being said, there are ways around it. I do have a VPN, which allows me to get to the blog I am writing right now. With a private VPN, one can pretty much get all of the reasonable uses out of the internet you like without consequence. Of course, the Chinese devices cannot run with a VPN, so my cell phone no longer is able to access those things. Honestly, I haven't missed it that much. I pop on when I can from my computer at home and hop off again for most of the day. So far, the sky has not fallen, or maybe it did but I missed it in

I walk passed many canals on my way to school.

the Timeline : )

I digress...back to the feeling of being set adrift.. one has to be prepared for occasional feelings of complete overwhelmedness. It is bound to happen every now and then. You are, in a very real way, very far away from everything you know and understand. It takes courage and vigilance to participate in this altered-reality for any committed amount of time, but whenever I am feeling like the floor is dropping out I simply talk myself back from the edge. There is the panicked thought: "Oh my God! I will never talk to anyone I love again!" and then there is a reasonable thought: "I will get home and get on my computer and notify all my friends and family that they can contact me through different means." It is always best to choose from column B, but that cannot always be avoided. Sometimes I just let myself be a little lonely, and like a storm in the night, it passes and the sun shines again in the morning.

I suppose I should stop there. There is oh, so much more to tell you... Until next time. thanks for reading and know that  "no matter how far away we are, we are still under the same moon."