Skip to main content

State Side!

Image
By

Seven weeks is a long time to be gone. Its like putting your life on pause in one place and starting fresh in another. Its quite weird being home, but in a good familiar kind of way. I like so many things about the familiarity of home; the language barrier or lack there of, my washer and dryer - especially the dryer, my nice soft bed, the fresh clean air, my kitchen, familiar faces and of course Pip.

The journey home was a long one, over 28 hours of traveling and we still got in to Logan the same day we left Beijing. The last few days were not as great as we had hoped. Our tour guide and driver in Beijing made us feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in their city. We were all tired from schlepping our stuff and living out of our suitcases and we missed our friends and the familiarity of Shanghai.

For 6 weeks we got to know this city and the people that lived there and it became our home. Yes we did need to get used to some Chinese customs that we did not expect, like people hawkingloogies all the time in the street, babies pooping on the side walk, people pushing and shoving you in line - no understanding the concept of personal space, and sometimes very strange food. But we were all good sports and tried new foods and adjusted to the customs quickly so we could not only fit in but gain understanding about living life in China.

The students began speaking more and more Chinese and less and less English. They even began using the Shanghai dialect a bit as their families spoke this at home. We had our favorite food vendors who soon came to know what we liked to order. I had my favorite restaurants, most of which were not Chinese food, as I could only handle Chinese food for breakfast and lunch! The students became friends with the other students and I became friends with the other teachers. I had a standing breakfast date with Mr. Chen, an English teacher, who loved talking with me in English. We had our routines in Shanghai, only to be up rooted and thrown into a crazy routine of traveling.

Xi'an was a wonderful city. I wish we had more time there. It was hard to like it so much the first day because we had just left our second home, friends and family. But I did enjoy the city. Our guide, Shine, was great! She was warm, welcoming and knowledgeable about all things Xi'an. Everyday we saw something new and exciting from the Banpu Society and Han tombs, to biking on the city wall and the Qin tombs.

Then it was off to Beijing and the journey started off with that terrible train ride! But we rallied and saw the sites. The forbidden city, temple of heaven & summer palace were all very impressive, but they were all veryrepetitive. All of these sites have the same exact architecture , design and size (huge). Plus our guide was not so warm and welcoming and it felt like we were all just going through the motions. So by the time it was time to go home, we were all ready.

Now that I'm home I feel like I never left. I still have jet lag, as I found myself falling asleep on the couch yesterday at 4pm and woke up around 9pm. I'm working on trying to stay awake today until at least 8pm!

There are some things I want to talk about still that I never got a chance to post. So check back every once in a while for updates!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quarantine Day 24: Technology, Fixing Old Things, Long Walks, Family Game Night

By
Charles River by our old house! Sunday. This morning the kids got up before us and headed downstairs to watch some Batman cartoon episodes from the 90s that JP got for them. Naomi (& Juliet sort of) has been reading the three Batman comics that we got from Park Street Books that have Spanish on the sides and in some of the frames. One of the great things about technology, or at least the technology in our house, is that we can cast stuff from our phone to the TV in the family room and our bedroom. So while JP and I were just getting up and dressed, he cast the Sunday school stream from the temple. This of course interrupted the Batman cartoon. I peaked my head out the bedroom door and heard..."but we were watching Batman!" The Sunday school songs and chat from the Rabbi's today was about Passover as it is this coming Wednesday evening. After the morning service 45 minutes later there was a zoom session with the Rabbi's to have more of a conversation and so...
Post a Comment
Read more

Quarantine Day 69: meetings, biking, digging for fossils

By
Today was a typical quarantine day. We got up. Walked Pip. Made breakfast. And then JP and I got to working while the kids played outside. It was a gorgeous day. The kids went on a fossil expedition digging up rocks in my front flower bed. They apparently promised to leave the flowerbeds as they found them. But that’s not what happened. Then they played in the hose as it was hot out! The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with the kids in the neighborhood. In the evening we walked Pip and went over to the neighbors that was hatching Chickens. He’s going to let us foster a few of them for the next few weeks. Hopefully this will move us forward with us getting our own chickens! So after the chick visit we went out and got a few things to raise them. A heat lamp, a water bottle, sawdust flakes and chick food. Tomorrow we pick up the chicks. Then dinner, books and bed for the kids. And school Committee Meeting for mom.
Post a Comment
Read more

Quarantine Day 31: More landscaping and Easter Sunday

By
Signs of spring Easter Sunday. This morning the kids got up at the same time, around 7:30 and they went down and watched some TV and played some video games. I got up and made some breakfast for the gang and then we headed outside. It was almost 60 degrees today. The girls helped me move some of the plants around in our front flower beds. We moved 2 daisy plants, 2 echinacea plants, and 3 day lilies. The side of the house had nothing in the beds there, so we moved 5 plants there. Hopefully the plants make it!!! Then we did a general clean up of the beds. Juliet got a bit bored and went and helped JP dig out weeds for a bit. Then they went and practiced riding bikes. Juliet is a bit timid on her bike with training wheels but she took the bike for a spin around the neighborhood for a bit. Naomi seeing her decided she wanted to ride for a bit too, so she went off and rode her bike around the neighborhood chasing Jules. She's' still learning how to use the gears on her new bike...
Post a Comment
Read more