We had a super fun Halloween party last night with families from our church branch. The whole time we were there, I was super impressed with all of the ladies I have the pleasure of associating with here. Two or three women had the idea to put together a Halloween party for the kids and two weeks later, we a full-blown, well planned and well staffed Halloween party on our hands. The kids loved it and it felt nice to be doing something that was uniquely American. Using our good ol' Mormon ingenuity, we tracked down Halloween decorations in China and put together costumes for our kids. We did the best with what we had available and I think it was a smash hit! As we were all cleaning up, I had this feeling of unity with these other families - we are all trying to live our normal American-ish lives in this foreign country and we are a team.
I have also started teaching a private English class on Saturday mornings to a group of eight year old Chinese kids. One of my favorite ladies that works with Joel at school asked if I would be interested in teaching this class to some kids. She was friends with their parents and knew that I had a background in education so she put us in contact. So far, I've taught two classes and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I love it. I have missed teaching and missed the interaction and bond that comes as learning is going on. It is fulfilling for me. But, even though I have a teaching degree, I have very little experience in teaching English as a second language. All of my classroom experiences in the past have been with native English speakers. I am finding it hard to assess my students' English abilities in writing, speaking and understanding and I am struggling with knowing exactly where to begin. I have 6 kids for two hours (on a Saturday nonetheless!) and I have to keep them busy, entertained, engaged and learning all at the same time. I have no curriculum to guide me and relatively no experience teaching a language. It feels a little overwhelming right now but I'm hoping after a few more weeks, I'll find my groove and feel a little more comfortable.
Oh um, I also chopped all my hair off. Yeah. I have a pixie cut. I just had a crazy urge to do it and I went to the salon and got it done. My stylist gave me my ponytail of cut hair to take home and it was a little repulsive. But, I'll be honest, it was probably three or four days before I could finally let go and throw it away! Some days I love the new hair and some days I find it annoying and I have moments where I think I look like a Vulcan. I'm glad for the change though and it's nice to have something different.
Will is officially 18 months old as of a week ago. He doesn't say a lot of words but he understands most of what we say to him. It's interesting to contrast his behavior and demeanor in America to his here in China. In America, he was more curious and brave and independent. Since we've been back in Beijing, I'm finding that he is very cautious again. It's almost a survival skill for him here. He stays much closer to us here because life is much crazier. There isn't as much space for him to run around in and everywhere is crowded with strangers who have an endless fascination with him. So it makes sense that he wants to stick close and isn't very interested in exploring. It's things like that that make me feel a little guilty about living here. At home in the States, we were in our element. And I think he picked up on that.
I had forgotten how cold our apartment was last winter before the heat came on. It's all coming back to me in vivid detail now! Beijing's state-provided heating starts up on November 15th and until then, you're on your own to keep your apartment warm. The state-provided radiator heating doesn't cost us anything, which is nice, but those radiators are only on for about four months. It's already cold outside but, we learned our lesson last year and were prepared for the onset of winter this year. We invested in a radiator of our own that we just plug in and it is HEAVENLY! We mostly only use it at night and we keep it in Will's room because at least Joel and I have each other to help keep warm (each other and our fabulous new IKEA winter bedding. Thank goodness for IKEA!). When I go to pick Will up out of his crib every morning, I feel like laying down on the warm floor in front of the radiator. This time last year, I would sneak into Will's freezing room after he was asleep and add two more blankets to his bedding (which he would inevitably kick off at some point during the night) and put mittens on his hands to keep his fingers warm. It was a little rough. But now we know better!
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| We found this great park with awesome grass! Will gets excited every time he gets the opportunity to walk on that wonderful stuff so it was hard to get him to come off to play on Joel's skateboard, but we just had to get a picture. |
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| mmmmm, mac and cheese...... |
