Getting around.

Now that the weather is starting to get warmer we will be walking more rather than taking a taxi. For where we live and where we go it is only 5rmb or $0.75US for a taxi to take us. The cars are all small or smaller and there are different prices. There are taxis that are very dirty and barely held together and then there are newer taxis that are cleaner and a little bigger. It is 5rmb for the first 2km for any taxi and after that it varies in price from 1.3rmb to 1.6rmb for each additional 0.5km I think. There are buses as well but we haven't tried them yet. There is no subway in Jiamusi but there are rickshaws. The rickshaws are usually only 2 or 3rmb. The rickshaws are three wheeled bikes with an enclosed seat for two on the back. The drivers sit out front and control their own prices. I don't think the rickshaws are company owned like the taxis. Traffic lights have countdown timers on them showing how long before it changes to either green, yellow or red. Even with the lights I haven't seen any order to the traffic other than to keep moving. It seems the bigger you are the more right of way you have. Everyone uses their horns alot to let people or other motorist know they are coming. It is a lot like when in baseball two outfielders are going to catch the same fly ball and the one who calls out first that they got it is the one who tries to catch the ball. We have been in taxis that have turned left from the far right lane. The roads are marked off in three lanes each way with a bearier between directions. Cars, buses and bikes all share the road with people walking along the side and crossing anywhere. Even though the lanes are marked cars weave from lane to lane or even straddle the lines sometimes going five wide in three lanes or at lights six or seven wide. At the lights the taxis try to time it so they are already half way through their turns by the time the light turns green, like someone stealing a base in baseball. We haven't seen any accidents but I have heard of one. We have seen an ambulance get held up at a light because nobody wanted to move even with its lights and siren going. We have also seen police out at lights but do not know what they are there for. I have seen police going down the road with lights on and getting passed and cut off by taxis. People are a little more courteous with cars that are black, especially when they have dark tint. These cars are usually owned by people with money or power or both.

Cookie

We started this Monday by putting Destiny in her Easter dress for a picture and to talk to her grandma over Skype. This morning Deb and Suzanne went out for a walk in the snow and this afternoon I went to visit my friend George. After eating this evening Destiny wanted to practice with the spoon like she was feeding herself. TJ and Jenni had sent us a cookie mix from Beijing in a care package we got last week, so today we borrowed a toaster oven from George and Suzanne and Deb fixed one big cookie. It turned out very delicious. Thank you TJ, Jenni and George.

Just another day.

Christina came to see our apartment and visit with Suzanne yesterday. Today was just another day teaching at Ivy. I did pick-up some suckers for the kids and told them how today was a special day in America. I explained that it was Easter Sunday, a religous holiday and also that parents gave the kids candy. This was innocent enough and the little kids really didn't care all that much anyway. All they knew was they were getting candy. It snowed about three inches today with the first inch melting as soon as it hit the ground. The weather is slowly warming and it is snowing less and less often. At least this snow covered up all the dirty snow and ice that had not fully melted yet. China as a whole gets most of its energy and heat from burning coal. There are many coal mining towns in China and Jiamusi is one of them, so there is soot everywhere, especially during the Winter. Destiny was playing with Spot on the couch this evening while I was fixing homemade mashed potatoes and hamburger steaks. Poor Spot needed to be cleaned up after because Destiny spit-up on him. Suzanne just happened to have the camera out take the picture before. I have a full day off tomorrow because of Qingming but I still haven't prepared my lesson for this week. Maybe I will prepare next weeks lesson too. We will also gather around the computer and attend Easter Sunday church service from the BICF website. We visited the church with TJ and Jenni in Beijing when we were there.

Google Earth shots.

This is an overhead view of the city. You can see the river to the North and the airport to the East. Across the river is what the locals call Willow Island. The city has around two million population. It doesn't look that big on the map but most of the buildings are eight floors high and most of the downtown buildings are 20 to 30 floors high. In the zoomed in picture you can see a marker labeled 'starting location'. This is the city center square which is on top of 'Fu-Mart'. 'Fu-Mart is the single biggest underground market and is the center for the entire underground shopping. The underground stretchs in all directions for nearly three blocks. Our building, which is #4, is eight floors high; ten seperate entrances, called gates, access the building. Our gate is #5, and there our are two apartments on each floor of each gate, and ours is #2. I figure there is an average of five people on each floor of each gate. That makes 400 in each building. Our community has 12 buildings for a total of 4,800 people. There are communities like ours all around us. That makes close to 50,000 people living within one square mile.

Almost a day off.

The public school where I teach during the week was testing today so I only had to go to Ivy and teach my Tuesday, Friday 5pm class. From right to left; Christina, Anthony and Martin also have a class on Fridays at 5pm. George who is the head teacher was at the school waiting for a meeting with the director, Mrs. Mei Han. From outside the teachers lounge window behind George you can just make out the mountains through the haze. Two students were late and didn't get in the picture. Daisy is a part time teacher assistant and does a wonderful job with so many young and energetic kids. Sometimes they are hard to control but they are always better than most of the older students I teach at the public school. During the day Deb and I went shopping and I purchased a digital watch I needed. They wanted 65rmb and I paid only 20rmb or about $3 US. This was the first time I have been able to talk them down in price. Next I will try my shopping skills at some hair cutting shears and some shoes.

PAY DAY!

It has been three months since I last got a paycheck. It feels good to be making money again instead of spending it. We still have some savings and shouldn't need to touch it again for some time. Since China is mostly a cash based country I get paid in cash. We will keep the cash under lock and key and spend it as sparingly as possible. This first pay is for five weeks work at an average of 31 hours each week. The contract is for 26 hours per week and 6,000RMB per month. I received 25 hours overtime pay but that is only at 50RMB per hour. We get paid less for overtime per hour than we do regular. This first paycheck was for 7,070RMB and included five weeks instead of four. The school really got thier moneys worth. In the states you are under salary or hourly, not both. The hours are figured weekly and then we are paid monthly. It will all work out in the end. Of course the school also spent a good deal of money getting our house set-up for us before we arrived. The only thing we had to pay for out of this pay is 300RMB for our new local phone cards and 180RMB for water. Next month we will pay for the electric which is billed on the 4th, 8th and 12th months.

Lazy day.

Now this is how to relax on a saturday. With working every day and always having something to do, it seems like we do not get much time to just relax. When we have to do something we have to either take Destiny or deside who is going to stay with her. This wouldn't be all that bad if we had just one whole day to do things. Summer will be different because I will have at least one day off. For now Destiny will have to take it easy for all of us. She fell asleep in her stroller while Deb was on the computer and later had a meal served to her on her pallet. The meal is what looked like 'corn flakes' on the outside of the package; they call all cereal "oatmeal" and is served hot. It is very small corn flavored oatmeal and comes in individual servings. It's a good thing Destiny likes it because the rest of us don't.

Eating Dinner.

We finally tried the food court at New-Mart yesterday for lunch. First you purchase a card for a 10rmb deposit and load it with money. Then you go to the various booths around the central eating area that fix different foods and select what you want. They swipe your card subtracting the amount of your purchase. Deb and I had the same thing; some skillet fried potatoes, onions and liver; a large meatball with a sweet sauce; and some honey BBQ glaze chicken nuggets. I think this is the best thing we have eaten since arriving. Suzanne had some noodle soup. After you finish your meal you take your card back to the cashier to get your balance and deposit. We all ate for less than $8 U.S. Suzanne and myself are starting to get the hang of eating with chop-sticks. If Deb remembers she brings a fork. Tonight I fixed a pork vegetable stew with potatoes, onions, carrots, tomatoes, corn, bell peppers and celery. YUM!

Weekend.

These are most of the kids from the four classes I have on weekends at Ivy. I have each of these classes on Saturday and Sunday. I have one more class at Ivy during the week on Tuesday and Friday. Suzanne fixed a kind of spaghetti with spiral pasta for dinner tonight. It was pretty good.

Shopping, shopping and more shopping.

While I was teaching Saturday, the family went shopping and Suzanne purchased some boots in the underground. After school, we all went out to buy some groceries at Fu-Mart. We went into New-Mart, accessed the underground there and only went half a block before we were lost and came up to see where we were. While waiting for Suzanne to finish here ice cream we got in the underground, there were two Chinese ladies that came out of the underground, looked around and then went back in, as though they were lost and were trying to find out where they were just like we had done. They say the U.S. is very service centered. This city in China seems to have mostly two things that drive the economy, selling things and buying things. In the downtown area in the building my school is in there is a six story mall including a supermarket in the basement. The mall is called New-Mart and from the basement you can go through tunnels into the underground which goes in all directions for a radius of three city blocks. The whole underground tunnels are filled with stalls selling everything. I saw a section as big as a super Wal-Mart back in the states selling nothing but shoes of all kinds. One block away from New-Mart is an underground store called Fu-Mart with a bigger market that we like to go to once a week. After we got our bearings, we headed back into the underground and crossed under the busy road to come up again. This time we stayed above ground. All along the streets are vendors selling all kinds of things including food. If you look in this first picture; we are at the NW corner of New-Mart and to the right is a KFC and across the road is another KFC. Fu-Mart is across the road and to the left.

There are also department stores and small shops everywhere along the streets and alleys. We went into the building with all the pictures on it that you see in the first picture. It is another huge, five story mall. That makes three large shopping areas in a radius of one city block, all surrounded by smaller stores and shops, with the streets above lined with venders and tunnels below filled with stalls. If people aren't working at one of these places selling something, they seem to be buying stuff from another place. Of course there is the food stalls and venders that are mixed in everywhere. This second picture is from the top floor of the other mall we found.

Just another fun day in the snow.

There isn't alot going on today and we are starting to all feel better so it was a good day to play in the snow while it is warmer and the wind isn't blowing to bad. It is going to be windy Sunday and maybe snow some more on Monday. The public heat is supposed to be turned off at the end of the month.

BBQ.

Suzanne wanted to share her room. She put up some posters she packed and now it makes her feel a little more at home. We went to the Korean BBQ place tonight were they didn't speak English and of course we didn't know enough Chinese. We ordered from the picture menu. I picked steak, Suzanne picked what looked like chicken and Deb picked octopus. The steak was awesome. The chicken was mostly gristle and the octopus was chewy but good. They cooked the food at our table over coals. We also ordered some side dishes. One was something very blad and dry. The other was a fruit salad with thousand island dressing. It was different but not bad. We were afraid we might have a repeat of our first dining experience in China but it proved to be much better especially when they actually brought the correct drinks we ordered. DJ was the center of attention as usual and enjoyed it very much.

Afternoon out.

Deb went out yesterday morning with one of the other teachers that has been here for over a year and was shown where a local store was that sold some foriegn foods. That afternoon Suzanne and Deb went back to that store and got 'Honey Nut Cheerios' and 'Fruit Loops'. This afternoon Deb took me to see the store and then we took a walk along the Songhua river. We saw a big statue at one spot and after walking West along the riverfront park we found another monument. Just past the monument there were several barges and boats stuck in the river ice. We turned to come back uptown and saw a TCBY. After some Cappuccino and a banana split we went into the underground to get out of the wind. There are more stores and people under ground than above.We were getting a little turned around so we came up to see where we were only to find ourselves just in front of New-Mart which is where we wanted to go and buy some more baby food. We are getting out this evening to go to a nearby Korean BBQ place. The weather is usually about ten degrees Celcius warmer but should finally get above freezing maybe tomorrow.

Flowers, birds and a dog.

Spot is here and Spring is on the way. The flowers are blooming in a classroom at the public school and on the way into the school I heard the first birds since our arrival in China. There is a holiday coming up in the middle of April which is similar to America's Memorial Day. Hopefully all the snow will be melted by then. Spot had a pretty rough trip. He got locked in a cage and dropped-off at an airport and after a long trip to Beijing was left in a freezing warehouse for a day and a half. Then he was taken to quarantine where they barely fed him and never let him out of the cage. Finally he was placed on another plane and put into the trunk of a taxi before he finally got to be released from the cage and saw his family again. He was very dirty and tired besides having lost some weight but at least he is home and we all feel better now that he is.

Somebody saw their shadow!

It snowed three inches Friday. We went shopping over the weekend. DJ got a little better. We watched some movies. Monday arrived with more snow. six or seven inches in the last 12 hours and it hasn't stopped yet. It should all be melted in time for next Winter. This may delay Spot's arrival but he has been released from quarantine.

More snow.

It is nearly the middle of March and it has snowed close to two inches in the last seven hours. It is supposed to get in the middle -20's Celsius tonight and then slowly start warming up again. Destiny saw a doctor today and has some medicine for bronchitis. Just like the Winter keeps dragging along, so does our colds. Classes are going better but it is a lot like getting the mill lined-out when I worked there; some days go pretty smooth and others are real rough; you just have to stay with it. We are ready to get this weekend over so we can have our family complete again with Spot arriving Monday. He doesn't like the cold but might enjoy playing in it, especially with his snow suit and boots.

DJ is growing up

DJ is six months old now and we know that she needs her shots. Doing that in China might be a challenge though. Then Carl found out that there is a lady working at Ivy school named Yen that is taking medical classes and can help. We talked to her this morning and she's working on getting an appointment for DJ and Susan to see a doctor. After that Susan, DJ and I went next door from Ivy to the New-Mart, where we went shopping for a walker for DJ. We found one that is basically a four in one. It serves as just a seat, a kind of stroller (where she can put her feet on a pad and we push it by a handle in the back), a regular walker (that can be adjusted for her height) and also a rocker. She has only had a little bit of time in it before she wanted a nap.

I had brought a Johnny Jump Up with us, so that it could be hung on a doorway and she could sit in it,  practice her jumping and get her legs stronger. Then when we got here we saw that the doorways are not made where we can do that. We decided that we needed to go and find a walker for her. We have lots of open floor in the living room so she can have lots of fun when she starts moving around.  

Quick update.

We have been in China for about a month now and it seems like an eternity for us to reach this point. We are still settling in and hope to have Spot join us within a week so the family will be complete. We are all fighting off a cold I picked up from one of my students. I have a work schedule with 30 hours a week. I don't have any classes before 8:20 in the mornings during the week or before 9:00 on weekends. I am finished during the week at 11:30 except for one class on Tuesday and Friday from 5:00 to 6:00 in the evening. The weekend classes are finished at 3:15 and include 15 minutes between classes and a half hour break in the morning and an hour and a half for lunch. All together I am happy with the schedule and get more hours than the other five teachers with four hours overtime each week. I am having to adapt to my new job as a teacher but will get the hang of it soon I hope. It is still cold here with a chance of snow again by Friday when it warms up above freezing. At night it is still very cold. When the weather finally does get nicer in May we will be able to get out and explore the city more when it isn't raining too much. The local food is pretty good and very cheap. We can all eat out at KFC for around $12 American, at the Viva Curry restraunt in the mall for $5 or from a local hole in the wall nearby for $2.50. There are huge markets to shop at but with them not having many western foods and us not knowing what stuff is or how to use it in fixing meals, we are very greatful for the good, cheap local places to get take-out. Sorry for no pictures this post.

First week.

It has been a week  since we arrived in Jiamusi and we are still trying to figure things out. The picture on the left is the view we have from the front of our apartment building. We are on the second floor so this is also what we see when we look out the window. The picture on the right is of the front of our apartment building. There isn't much too look at even when it isn't Winter. The front of our building faces North and on the other side of those tall buildings is the river. I have a work schedule of teaching 60+ students in each class, four different classes a day, from 8:20 to 11:30, five days a week at the local middle school. That is a total of 20 classes and over 1,200 students a week. Then I have a small kids class with 14 students every Tuesday and Friday evening from 5:00 to 6:00 at the private English school which hired me named Ivy English. And another class of 14 small kids that I teach at Ivy on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 10:30 to 11:30. I also have a class on Monday evenings where I assist another teacher. The picture with the building with all the writing on it is the public school I walk to about 3/4 of a block away each week morning. The other picture with all the people and cars is one of the two huge malls that are here. Inside it is five stories tall and the supermarket is in the basement. There are also tunnels filled with merchant booths going in all directions for three blocks from under the mall. The building on the left is where Ivy English is on the 8th floor. We are trying to adjust and are missing many of the things we had back in the states or even Beijing such as: butter, Rootbeer, Diet Coke, soft beds, dishwashers, ovens, toasters, water pressure, clothes dryers. You get the idea; it is a big difference here.

Made it.

The final leg of our trip is over. We left the hotel early, too early, because we had to sit at the airport for one and a half hours before check-in and security. Better early than late. Security didn't like all the baby food but let us take it anyway. The only thing that didn't make it was the dark corn syrup for DJ's morning bottles Jenni gave us in Beijing. Security took it because we had it in carry-on instead of a checked bag. We can't find any here, and they never even heard of it, so I will just have to make some myself. The airport is so small no planes stay here and there is only two flights a day during the week that arrive and then leave. We exited the plane by walking down the steps they pushed up to the door and then we walked into the one room terminal building, collecting our luggage off the only conveyor. I have seen airports this small but not many much smaller. The apartment is much bigger and nicer than we expected. Most of the apartment buildings are only eight floors, because if they were any taller they would have to have elevators. We live on the second floor with views out the front and back of the other apartment buildings and right now about two to three inches of fresh snow on top of the already four to five inches. The first night the principle of the school took us and the three other teachers out to eat. There is only one female teacher, Cherney (I hope I spelled that right), from Hawaii and has already been here for one year. There is picture of the other three teachers with her on the left. The man on the right is George from Canada and the man in the middle is Anthonay from England. We are the only foriegn school teachers in the city, so there are not many foriegners here at all. The other pictures are of the school Chinese staff and the lady with the big smile is the school principle, Mrs. Mei Han.

I walked down to the local store at the end of our building and picked up stuff to fix breakfast of ham, eggs and toast with strawberry jam. After breakfast I walked two and a half blocks to see the school which is on the 8th floor of the same building as one of the two huge underground shopping malls. The apartment has raidant floor heating which is nice and they provided us with some things to get started here including a bed for DJ. We are going back to one of those malls to pick up a few more things to make it more livable for us before I start work tomorrow. Most of my teaching time will be on Saturday and Sundays from around 8am to 9pm.