Evening in Shanghai

After returning from the middle school, we gathered for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Again, the feast began appearing dish by dish, each one placed on the lazy susan. I could not tell if there were distinct courses to the meal or not. Our dishes included tiny shrimp eaten whole with the shells and heads on, chicken feet, duck, fish, mushroom soup, lemon chicken, and a sweet and sour style pork. Everything I tried was delicious, but only one of us tried the chicken feet. I had planned on trying every food while here, and perhaps by tomorrow, I will be able to do that too.

After dinner, three of us were driven downtown to the shopping area where one of the delegates could purchase a computer cord. We found it in a huge, brightly lighted electronics area where every electronic gadget ever made seemed to be displayed. We also saw KFC and Dairy Queen!

I continue to hope that this blog is working! Perhaps one of you who reads it will email me and let me know if it is actually appearing.

In China, In Chinese

I have tried a couple of times to get on this blog to update it only to find that the website could not be accessed. I decided to try a backdoor approach, and it looks as though I will be able to update it. The only problem is that all of my directions to update it are in Chinese! We'll see how much I remember about where the directions were placed!

I arrived in Beijing last night at about 9:30 p.m. local time after a 25 hour journey. I felt quite confident that everything would work out, but as I was walking through the Beijing airport, it did occur to me that I didn't have a really good Plan B if there was no one there to pick me up. Of course, there was a wonderful person named "Shiffong" with an NAIS sign. She is tall and pretty, and her smile made me feel at ease at once. She apologized to me for breaking the news that we would be leaving for Shanghai the next morning at 7:30. I wasn't bothered by that, but I did look forward to a real bed.

This morning, we met in the lobby of the Sino-Swiss Hotel and then left for the Beijing Airport where we grabbed a cup of coffee and a muffin and proceeded through security. When we got to the gate, we realized the gate had been changed. By this point, it was about 8:30, the time our plane was to take off. Shiffond assured us with her comforting smile that "important people are the ones who board late." We got to the right gate and then got on a bus that drove us out to the plane. The snack on the plane was seaweed coated peanuts. They were delicious!

It was a short plane ride compared to the ones the previous day. In Shanghai, we were met by a man who is from IIE. His office is on East China Normal University as is our hotel. We checked into the hotel and then ate lunch in the hotel restaurant. The food was served on a lazy susan and included many different dishes from pig stomach and dried fish to spring rolls and mushrooms with tofu. I must admit I was not as adventurous an eater as I often am in other countries, but I enjoyed everything I did try!

By the way, the photo shown here is of me in front of a statue of Chairman Mao. I took it myself while at the university.

This afternoon we visited Chengfeng Middle School. When the principal was asked his greatest challenge, he said that it is trying to help the students be happy, healthy, and well educated. Of course many differences between American schools and Chinese schools were talked about, but this one statement stuck in my mind as so telling. We can go halfway around the world on a twenty-five hour trip, and the thing that stays on this principal's mind is the very thing that is on American principals' and heads of schools' minds as well. How do we give students a fabulous academic education as well as a health and happiness?

My bags are packed, and I'm ready to go

If you are old enough to remember the song "Leaving on a Jetplane," you will be familiar with the title of this post.

I bought a digital camera today so that I can post pictures to this blog while in China. Today is my day to work out any bugs, so I am going to attempt to post a picture of my packed bags -- a garment bag and a carry-on bag. My passport and money will be in the beige pouch that you see in the picture. I am determined to pack lightly going over there, but I bet I have to buy an extra suitcase to get back home!

Don't worry! The pictures should get more exciting in a few days!

Only Two More Days!

The details of the trip have been trickling in this week. I now know hotel names and teaching candidate names. I have been looking over the list of 88 candidates who are interested in teaching at an independent school in the USA. Included in the information are the teachers' hobbies, educational and work experience, year of birth and more. This information takes up 25 pages! While there are plenty of black letters on white pages, this is no replacement for meeting a person face-to-face. That will be the fun part.

While researching seal cutting, a hobby of several of the candidates, I found another great website about China. This website has everything from Chinese art and culture to maps and language help. What a great resource for students, teachers, and those just curious about China! I hope you will enjoy it.

Students, As you begin to read this blog next week, please send me questions. I really look forward to being your eyes and ears in China until you are able to travel there yourselves!

Resources Available and Questions Answered

As word has gotten out about Highlands' involvement in the China Connection, folks have been wonderful to ask questions, express congratulations, and offer resources. A website that came to my attention today is entitled Life in New China. It has something for everyone -- information for students to learn more about a school in Beijing and information for educators who would like more teaching resources about Asia.

"Is this a permanent teaching position for Highlands, or is this a one-year position?"

Highlands School will hire a teacher for one year. Hanban helps us in several ways including by providing acculturation training and by partially funding the teacher for one year. Highlands School will provide housing, transportation, and a stipend. If the teacher and Highlands School both wish to continue the teaching relationship, the teacher may stay up to two additional years.

The students are excited about finding out who their new Chinese teacher will be. Some of them who know some Mandarin have been coaching me. One student who knows Cantonese has been trying to teach me to say, "I would like some lemon tea" because she says she got very hot and thirsty when she was in Hong Kong, and she wants to help me out!

Eight More Days Until Takeoff!

I will leave for Beijing in eight days following a path from Birmingham to Detroit to Tokyo and finally to Beijing. The total amount of time of the trip is 25 hours! It is hard to imagine being en route for that long, but with the adrenaline, some good books and movies, and sleep, the trip will pass quickly, I predict. Highlands School is one of eight to have this opportunity this year. The others come from as close as Nashville, Tennessee and as far away as Maine. I look forward to getting to know the other heads of school as well as Paul Miller from NAIS.

I finished some tasks yesterday -- getting cash (I have heard the ATM machines sometimes work, and sometimes they don't), buying gifts (children's books with painted pictures of Alabama sites and books geared toward adults filled with beautiful pictures from Alabama; magnets of Elvis, hamburgers, and hot dogs), and the appropriate sized zip loc bags. I have one quart size bag for liquid toiletries and several two-gallon bags for clothes. I have packed some of my non-wrinkly clothes into these bags with dryer sheets. I have packed everything into a garment bag and will have a mostly empty carry-on bag with books, magazines, protein bars, a change of clothes (just in case my luggage gets lost) and toiletries. My purse will hold my laptop. I like to pack lightly, and I hope I have accomplished this!

Our two destinations will be Beijing and Shanghai. We will visit schools as well as cultural sites. I look forward to meeting people in Hanban as well as people who work in the educational system in China.

I plan on keeping this blog up to date as best I can over the next three weeks! I look forward to sharing pictures of China!

Preparing for China!

Several other heads of schools and I will leave for China in less than two weeks! My plane reservations are complete -- I will leave on April 9 early in the morning and arrive in Beijing the evening of April 10. I decided to stay a day longer than the official NAIS China Connection program. I don't know when I will be back in China, so I thought I should take advantage of already being there by seeing one more day's worth of sites! I will return to Birmingham, Alabama on April 21. I am appreciative of Scott Wilson at Altec who travels to China frequently. He is helping me figure out what I might be able to do with a "free day" in Beijing.

Although this week was officially spring break, I completed my "to do list" to get ready for China. I completed paperwork for my visa application, got extra passport pictures to send with the application, and put the finishing touches on the job description for the Highlands teacher. I mailed all the paperwork along with my passport to NAIS so that the visa can be given.

I read on the internet about health issues for travelers to China, but I do not feel that I am at risk for malaria or typhoid or any of the other scary diseases that one might be more likely to encounter in other areas of Asia. I did undergo one preventive step -- a B12 shot! I have found that having a B12 shot helps me handle jetlag with ease. i don't have any scientific evidence to back up my claim, though. We will see how all of us react to having our bodies forwarded 13 hours in time.

I continue to listen to Mandarin CDs and read my National Geographic book about traveling to China. I have also subscribed to podcasts to help with my knowledge of China and the Mandarin language.

There are still more tasks to be completed -- I must figure out and buy gifts to take with me to give while in China, and I must figure out what to pack for a ten day trip to China in April.