Things I Miss From Home

Date: January 11, 2015
Mood: Perfect
Weather: Overcast
Listening to: God Gave Rock & Roll To You by Kiss 
Reading: How to Be A Husband by Tim Dowling

Had a perfectly love day with dh and the monkeygirls today. We slept in and then we all kind of did our own things this morning and afternoon. I did some laundry and watched a weird movie, Honeymoon. It was a thriller of sorts and fun for a one off watch. Mid-afternoon we all went outside to play for a while. The girls scootered, hula hooped, and played on the exercise equipment by the track. Then this evening we caught the bus to Walmart to do some much needed grocery shopping.

So, in one of my very first posts here I mentioned a couple of things I really miss from back home in the States, besides family and friends. In that particular post my mind went in the direction of food, specifically pizza and Mexican food. GOOD pizza and Mexican food. There are, however, a number of things that I miss on any given day. It just depends what is going on or what is on top of my mind.

This weekend I've found myself thinking, on more than one occasion, about two things I quite miss. What are they? Wait for it; this first one is kind of silly. I miss.... Glad and Hefty kitchen trash bags! Bahahaha I told you it was crazy. Truly though, if you ever have the chance to check out a Hong Kong trash bag, or better yet a China trash bag, you will completely understand this comment. The garbage bags here are absolute and utter crap! We actually have to buy our trash bags in Hong Kong and carry them across the border just so we have something substantial enough to carry down our five flights of stairs to the rubbish bins. And suggesting that the HK ones qualify for this task is giving a lot of credit where credit isn't always due. Truly. The trash bags purchased in HK are of a slightly higher durability and quality than the ones we can find locally, but they are still a far cry from being anything even remotely comparable to a US garbage bag. They are tiny and so completely flimsy that putting more than a few handfuls of anything in them, and that is barring anything with pseudo sharp corners like an egg tray or box, will split them without you even exerting an ounce of pressure. Forget trying to carry the bags down the stairs to the building's communal rubbish bins. You'll be lucky to make it out of the kitchen/bedroom/bathroom with the bag and contents all in one piece.

I can't begin to tell you how many broken bags of trash we've had to haphazardly carry through the house and downstairs. Or how many trails of trash, or better yet- dirty cat litter, we've left going down the stairs. Yep, real fun. Of course we always clean it up and never leave the mess behind for someone else to deal with, but it sure would be nice not to have to worry about such things. One might find it funny to see how I excited I personally get when a package comes from my mum and step-dad back in Oklahoma. Sure there are US goodies like snacks, clothes, Christmas presents, etc to be joyous over. But there's also been a couple of times when my mum has used garbage bags to wrap and contain some of the stuff so that it was all kept together neatly if the customs agents had to open and investigate the contents mid-delivery. And when I see those US trash bags... Well, I just get all giddy inside and can't wait to run through our flat and collect all the trash I can find to put inside them. hahahaha Not only do they hold easily three times as much, they are durable, and they have those awesome handles that also work as bag ties. Aaaaaaaaah the simple pleasures in life. lol

I said there were two things I'd thought of this weekend that I miss from home, but now after my diatribe about rubbish bags I've quite forgotten what the second thing even was. Guess I don't miss whatever it was nearly as much as I miss garbage bags. :P Oh wait, I remember now... good internet! We didn't always have great connections with Cox, yet we didn't have the Great Chinese firewall to deal with either. I hate how difficult it is to get onto certain websites, or just online at all, here.

China is big on keeping things very manageable, and for this reason they find it far easier to keep the internet locked down to the extreme. Far easier to promote products, companies, and better yet- ideas that you want if the people only have access to it. There are ways around these censorships/blockages; however, they aren't always foolproof. This is especially the case when you are dealing with a sub-par internet connection, or one that is heavily inundated with seeders anyhow. (Because we live on the school campus we share our internet line with the entire school. Which, with over 3,000 students and several hundred teachers and other on-site staff, means there are a lot of people connecting via their own wifi routers to the main school modem. Also because this is a school they have their own firewalls in place, and these are in addition to those the government has imposed nationally.) I'd say it is fairly safe to say that just being off site with our own personal internet connection would give us a completely different internet experience to speak of.

My complaint specifically deals with how difficult it is to get online to post my blog updates and to simply check my e-mail. I can't without using a VPN because both are blocked otherwise. Likewise, things like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are also. Using a VPN isn't a big deal, but because our base internet isn't always overly reliable it means the VPN connection isn't always there. Hence my recently delayed posts. Not life shattering, but annoying all the same. 

Short, Sweet, and Still a Day Late

Date: January 10, 2015
Mood: Cold and Hungry
Weather: Partly Sunny and Breezy
Listening to: Wave by Robin Schulz
Reading: How to Be A Husband by Tim Dowling

Woke up to a redonkulous mess this morning. Had a brand new bottle of delicious apple cider vinegar drink sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed by our little fridge. Well, apparently, someone knocked it over accidentally, and the bottle broke! Not only did I have broken glass everywhere, but I had a huge lake of apple cider vinegar drink all over. Plus the bottom end of our quilt had been hanging off the bed and managed to soak up probably 3⁄4 of the liquid. Helpful in one sense, and yet an even bigger hassle, in another, because we can't wash the quilt. It's too big to fit in our tiny Chinese washing machine.

It took me probably around an hour to an hour and a half to clean everything up. Had to move the bed as best as I could by myself so I could mop up the spill that had leaked underneath. It was a huge pain in the butt, but my floor is clean and I even got the dust bunnies out from underneath the bed. Haha Too clean the comforter I had to haul it into our bathroom, get monkeygirl #1 to hold up one end, and then I turned the shower nozzle on the end that had soaked up the spill. Not a perfect solution, but a pretty good one all the same. Now I'm just hoping that I was successful at hosing it off enough that when it finishes drying out on the balcony it won't still smell like apple cider vinegar.

Dh went to HK today to run an errand for our boss. I wish we all could have gone, and technically we could have. However, all he was doing was going to the airport to purchase some plane tickets, and only his transport and food was being covered. Seemed kinda silly for me and the girls to tag along and spend the money to go when he wasn't doing anything else. Maybe if the girls had somewhere to be I'd have gone with him, but alas they did not. So here we sit. And that dh of mine is WeChatting me photos of his lunch at Popeyes. PUNK!!! lol 

Crappy Internet Delays My Posts ... Boo

Date: January 9, 2015
Mood: Full
Weather: Cool
Listening to: Crazy Stupid Love by Tinie Tempah 
Reading: How to Be A Husband by Tim Dowling

Been a good day. Girls both a good bit accomplished in school. Monkeygirl #1 is learning about Isaac Newton in her current Science chapter, and today she had to come up with a cover design and song list for a CD all about him. Cheesy, but a totally fun way to get her involved. It was cute seeing what song titles she came up. Very creative.

Ate lunch with some of our first year IELTS students today. As much as I love those guys, I really feel awkward eating lunch with them. I don't know why either. Dh and mil both seem completely fine with it; however, I just feel like I can't be myself or really enjoy my meal. Part of it, I'm sure, is that we were eating on their turf again. Maybe if I was in my own element I'd be more relaxed? I'm thinking that today was the last day of the meetings and whatnot going on that have brought all the outside guests on campus and kept our usual teacher's canteen off limits to us. Crossing fingers anyhow, cause I want to go back to our regular routine come Monday. The food isn't always fabulous up there, but it's usually better than what is available on the student's levels for sure.

Classes went well today and I ended up hanging back for about 40 minutes after my last class to chat and work with a couple of my students. This is what makes this job worth it! The students that truly want to learn and grow. It's nice to see in class participation, but when you have the students really demonstrating a desire to learn and progress, well that's the sweet spot.

Our Christmas package from my mum and step-dad in the US arrived today!!! For some reason it ended up getting stuck in customs in HK for over three weeks, so missed arriving in time for the holidays. That's okay though because now we got to enjoy a little Christmas fun belatedly. My fil picked it up a couple of days ago in HK and brought it in to us today since we weren't going to be in HK for the weekend.

It did not disappoint. The monkeygirls were super excited to finally get their new, handmade jammies, slippers, and fuzzy robes that grandma had painstakingly made. The fabrics she chose are so cute, and the girls just love them. Even I got a pretty fuzzy robe which I know I will thoroughly enjoy this winter. Dh got several new shirts he was wanting. My mommy also sent us two Taco Bell dinner packs, just at hamburger. YUM! And several spice packs for stuff that we can't get locally or would spend bookoos for if we did find it. Merry Belated Christmas to Us! Thank you to my mum and step- dad. :)

Dh and I decided we'd treat the girls to some McDonald's tonight to help cheer them up after the sleepover they were planning with their aunties fell through last minute because one of them was sick. Girls didn't feel like getting out because it was chilly and they were having too much fun doing whatever it was they were doing at the time. So, dh and I hopped a bus by ourselves and went out. I wouldn't ordinarily choose McD's for a date night, but it was kinda nice having dinner out just the two of us. Afterwards we ate and got the girls food to go we hit up the milk tea booth and fruit stand outside. Mmm Tomorrow we shall eat fresh strawberries and mini grapes! 

Time Stops For No One

Date: January 8, 2015

Mood: Fulfilled

Weather: Gray and Breezy

Listening to: Gasoline Rainbows by Amy Kuney

Reading: How to Be A Husband by Tim Dowling

Anyone else know where the time has gone? I'm sitting here looking at the calendar and seeing that it has been one full week since we started this new year. I could have sworn it was only a couple of days, but I guess 2 or 7 it's not that much difference in the grand scheme of things. Not like saying it's almost been 365 days but seems only 30 or perhaps instead 1800. That's true too though if you look at the calendar and what day is coming up. February 1^st will mark our 1 year anniversary of hoping on a plane in Tulsa and making a round the world trip to this place we now call home.

I can't believe that in less than a month we will have officially been on this adventure for an entire year. Like with so many things, I look at this approaching date and say with complete sincerity that it doesn't seem possible it has been this long. And still on the other hand I can also say with, again, complete sincerity that it seems like it has been so much longer.

It's that latter feeling that now has me typing through tear filled eyes. I miss my mum! I miss my step-dad, my grandparents, best friends, and all my family. I miss our cats. Not a day goes by that I don't feel guilty to the core of my being for leaving behind my Chici-boy. He was our precious [fur]baby boy, and we'd had him for over seven years. Leaving him was such a difficult decision, but we fought hard to find him and his adopted fur-sister Mochi a good home together. We eventually did; however, the news reached us a few months after we moved here that our Chici had died of what the vet labeled a broken heart. He just couldn't get over us leaving him. :( To this day I still can't tell the kids, especially Jocelyn as he was her kitty (in her heart anyhow).

Okay, enough. I started this entry saying I felt fulfilled, and here I now sit sipping my hot English style nǎichá (milk tea) with a tear streaked face and snotty nose. Yuck. What an image I just painted there, right? lol So, how 'bout them Dodgers? (This is the phrase dh and family are known for saying whenever a conversation takes that ackward turn and they want to reroute it in a different direction.)

Ate in the student's canteen again today for lunch. I'm thinking this was the last day that our regular teacher's canteen is reserved for the visiting guests here for the meetings they've been having. I hope so. Today's food was actually not half bad again, but I miss our usual fare. This time we decided to try the rice with curry, potatos, cabbage, and what appeared to be breaded chicken. I didn't try the chicken thing; however, dh indicated it tasted like the Chinese take on chicken fried steak. As usual, I forgot to take a photo again. Doh! I did get a picture of the yummy red bean coconut milk blend thingy that I had yesterday and again today. That's something at least. 

 

Student Canteen... Yum or Yuck?

Date: January 7, 2015

Mood: Accomplished

Weather: Overcast and Cool

Listening to: O sole mio by Andre Rieu

Reading: How to Be A Husband by Tim Dowling

I decided today was going to be a good day. Can't stay upset about things, so only way to go is ahead to bigger and better things. Or at least ahead to a new day full of opportunity. It was a good choice.

Today being Wednesday I had no classes to teach at the school, my day off for this semester at least. Which means that Wednesday is my big, hard and heavy school day with the monkeygirls. They, of course, do school the rest of the week, but with as much free time as I have on Wednesday is makes it really easy to tackle a lot with them and to upload any files they need sent back to their teachers. For instance, today I spent several hours side by side with my 6^th grader overseeing her work in Language Arts (poetry) and Science (intro to Chemistry and The Periodic Table of Elements... ugh). It was all stuff she was able to do on her own, but she likes me to sit with her and double check her work.

Little bit, my 3^rd grader, is working on finishing up a book she is reading for her Language Arts class. She doesn't do book reports, per say, but she has to write a short synopsis of the books and then give her opinions and recommendation (or not). It's a good thing she is turning out to be a bookworm like her mama and big sister. And it's fun for me cause I get to read along with her. Sometimes she reads a few pages and then I read a few pages; sometimes she just reads it aloud herself. Either way though I get to enjoy the stories along with her, and that's a-okay with me.

Due to the regional administrators meeting that has been taking place here on campus this week (Finally found out that's why all the extra people are here.) our usual teacher's canteen is still closed for us on site staff. So, once again we were relegated to eat lunch in the student's canteen if we didn't want to cook at home. I usually really enjoy the lunches we get at the teacher's canteen, and look forward to the opportunity to not have to cook. After skipping lunch yesterday because of the relocation, I decided today I was just going to suck it up.

First though we had to decide where exactly we were going to eat as the student's have two canteen levels they can eat on- both offering a different variety of options. What was being offered on the first floor didn't initially look that appealing, but after a quick and careful consideration of the second floor menu I quickly voted to head back downstairs. I ended up having choy sum, tofu, and some kind of carrot/celery pork mix with rice. It was actually pretty good. They also had a red bean and coconut milk blended drink thing we got to try. I'm ordinarily not a red bean fan despite its popularity around these parts. Yet, while it isn't something I'd want to drink every day, I really found this combination to be quite delicious. 

(Back to the upstairs canteen for just a sec.. I can't tell you what our selections upstairs were because I honestly haven't the vaguest idea. Usually I can make a fairly well educated guess at what it is even if I don't know for sure. However, whatever they were serving up there today was indescribable, and NOT in a good way. haha Our, local China born, department boss decided she was going to eat on the 2^nd floor today, and rumor has it she ended up not eating most of her food due to the awful quality. That's gotta say something if the local teacher was disgusted by it. Right?! haha Makes me feel bad for the students who eat on that floor [yuck] and even more grateful for our regular teacher canteen- occasional lurking rat and all!)

@#$%&!

Date: January 6, 2015

Mood: Pissed Off

Weather: Warm and Sunny

Listening to: Rude by Magic! (apt for today)

Reading: How to Be A Husband by Tim Dowling

Apparently the American administrators didn't go home this morning like dh thought they were, so everyone around here is kissing butt. Some other event is going on as well, but no one who we've asked is even able to tell us what. But there was something going on in the gym and a ton of extra people on campus today to the point where we couldn't even eat in the teacher's canteen at lunch. Instead we were made to eat with the students on one of their floors. Yuck. The girls and I didn't even eat because the food looked completely unappealing.

This on top of the fact that the head of student admissions made a big point, in front of me and dh, of taking mil and her two daughters off campus to a big buffet lunch with one of their friends and the American admins. Excuse me?! My husband and I are teachers here, but you aren't even going to include us. That's twice for me in as many days. I am so pissed right now I could punch something. I know to someone else it probably seems so trivial, but to me this is really really really pushing my last button.

If you only had so much room to invite people then should you not opt for two teachers vs one teacher and her whole family? If they'd have taken me and dh plus our girls it would have cost half as much as they're paying to take the rest of them because our two kids are ½ priced. Plus we are both teachers and I haven't even had the opportunity to join in on one of these lunches. Sounds self serving. It is, but I'm tired of being bottom dog all the time. And to make a show of taking them and flat out telling us, “You go to the canteen” is just pretty dang sh!tty if you ask me. A practical slap in the face. Never mind the fact that I haven't even been introduced to these Americans, and mil will now be on her second luncheon with them. Wtf makes her so damn special?!

Yeah, I have a bad attitude about this one. If it offends you then I'm sorry, but I've just had about all I can take of the brown-nosing and favoritism. If you want your employees to stick around, you shouldn't continue to treat certain ones far better than the rest when there is no difference at all in their merit and abilities. In fact, not to toot our own horns, but hubby works far more classes than any of the other foreign teachers or local teachers for that matter. Also we never forget to show up for our classes or arrive late all the time. I won't point fingers, but let's just say others do. Not to mention you really don't want to consistently stick one person at the bottom, day in and day out, or you might just find that one person saying “再见zài jiàn”.

Not Every Day is Rainbows and Sunshines

Date: January 5, 2015

Mood: Content

Weather: Overcast and Cool

Listening to: sounds of home... the fan, dh on his iPad, a kitty meowing at the door

Reading: Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister

Today was one of those days where you almost wish you could go back to a certain point and ask for a do over. My classes went fine this morning, despite the less than stellar scores my students were earning for themselves on their 3-part mock speaking test. (Grrrrr It's really frustrating to see them failing so epically when if they'd just pay attention in class every day they could be getting excellent scores. But I digress...) It was between classes though, at lunch time, when everything kind of went to pot.

We had some upper level administrators visiting our school from a school back in the States. (They were here to tour our school facilities and to give a presentation about an online dual educational program they are promoting. Don't even get me started on what I think of that idea. haha) So, there was a big meeting/presentation thing that most of the classes went to, mine excluded because of their test being scheduled for today. And after the event was finished the local school administrators invited all of the attending foreign teachers (which equated to dh and mil) to a mini banquet with the US admins and admins from surrounding area schools. However, because my boss had me keep my students back for testing today, I didn't get invited.

You might think this is an easy to ignore oversight, but it really hurt my feelings. Maybe if it was a one off thing it wouldn't have. But I'm usually the one person out of the four foreign teachers here, that doesn't get invited to special engagements like this. Dh says it's not the case and that I'm misinterpreting a select few situations. Perhaps that is the case, but it doesn't seem like it. It just seems like they prefer him, his mother, and the other American teacher here to me. Perhaps that is actually the case. Who's really to say? (The third foreign teacher didn't attend today because he doesn't have classes on Monday.)

Anyhow, when I finished my morning classes and went to my dh for lunch in the canteen he couldn't go because he was already indisposed of in the administrators luncheon. I was supposed to be given a free pass so I could at least eat lunch in the canteen by myself for free, but the person responsible for giving me the pass wasn't advised until last minute herself and was completely unaware and without any. That left me either going home or quietly interrupting dh to get our lunch card from him. This is what I opted to do, but when I snuck in the room and saw just how many people were present, including mil- again, it felt like a punch to the stomach.

Stupid, I'm sure. But I've spent so many years being excluded from things in my social life that I am probably overly sensitive to this particular issue. Which is why as soon as I asked dh for the card I promptly decided I didn't even want to eat alone and just wanted to go back home. I felt bad enough, still when dh came home over an hour later, he said many of the people thought I was upset or something was wrong. I was and there was, to me, yet I wasn't aware I'd made any kind of indication of such while there. The fact that I came and went apparently made some of the other people in the room think something was wrong, and that retroactively made me embarrassed to the point of tears. So, yeah, all stupid stupid stuff which I would have gladly taken a do over to avoid. Eiyah.

My afternoon classes went well though and I was able to put the lunchtime hour drama behind me. I really enjoy my students and they never fail to put a smile on my face. Taught one of my students a new idiom/phrase today too. She was feeling low about doing badly on a couple of questions she'd be given on another teacher's homework or something, so I introduced her to the phrase “Don't beat yourself up over it.” She really seemed to like this phrase, and I'm hoping she'll both enjoy including it in her future vocabulary as well as take it's meaning to heart in the here and now.

Because the weather was so unseasonably warm and beautiful, we took a long family walk this evening. Enjoyed a chicken sandwich from a little copy KFC down the road and picked up a tasty pearl milk tea and some fruit at the market before coming home to watch My Blue Heaven with the kiddos. I guess it's safe to say that the day ended up turning out okay. Maybe I don't want a do over afterall. :)