Tour Guides for a Day or Three

Heather's sister Debbie and her family came to Beijing and we volunteered to show them around. Heather is Mike's sister-in-law's sister so although very distantly related, especially for me, they are family. They are such a friendly couple, they treated us like family they hadn't seen in a long time. We had such a good time and are sad they are gone. I felt like we had a mini vacation along with them which we were really craving. They were only here for three days so it was three very full days to get all the must dos in. We all went to the great wall together. If any of you come to China, Mike is the tour guide to get. I swear he knows everything (Mike says that is not true). They quizzed him on Chinese history all the way to the great wall. We went to a different part of the same section that we were at a couple months ago. We didn't have to climb the mountain as much to get to the sky lift that put us on top of the wall but man, it was one INTENSE hike once we were there. Some of the stairs were so steep that when you got to the top and looked back you could not see most of the stair case, as close to vertical as you can get without falling over backwards, and to add they were not short stair cases. Jack counted 107 stairs on one of the stretches. The individual stairs were extra tall as well. About half way most of us waited in a guard tower while Debbie and her son Joey finished the hike. She got where the wall was no longer restored and unsafe to go past. She said it was all grown over with vegetation and in poor condition. She said she was determined to do the whole thing. Once we were done hiking on top of the wall, we took the toboggan sled down the mountain. It is a lot of fun to do. Debbie was behind Mike, and the person behind her kept yelling at her to go faster, but she was limited in what Mike was doing. Poor Mike was leaning forward with all his weight to try to go faster, and his sled was barely moving.

We got back to Beijing, and after a meal (which ended up being a little too spicy, even asking them not to make it spicy) we went to the Silk Market for some shopping. Shopping there can be an interesting and trying process, as it is all bargaining. Because it is a huge tourist market, they start the prices out very high - sometimes what seems like 500% higher then what is a fair price, or what you can get it down to. Most tourists don't always understand the currency, and are not used to bargaining, so they end up paying double or more what they should. Chelsey and I being the Beijinger's that we are knew a lot of the true prices, so were able to get decent prices for the McFaddens. For example, they wanted some chopsticks. While Mike was not looking, she started looking at the some chopsticks, and had started bargaining. Before the deal was done, Mike got there, and knocked off another 50 RMB/set for the chopsticks. The vendor was not very happy with Mike, as she lost some profit. Another vendor for some Jade said to make sure that Mike and I come back, but don't bring anyone like Debbie back (who was a hard barganer herself, having lived in Mexico before). Mike had to go to work for a couple hours that evening, but we continued to shop. Some of the other vendors were also really hard - This one that we got some silk shirts at would not even bargain until she had done this 15 minute speech on how she had called us a friend, and that if we tried to bargian lower that we were insulting her. We probably should have walked away from that vendor long before we did and found a nicer vendor for silk shirts. Bargaining can be a phsycological game sometimes. They are very skilled at it. It is alot about acting. They will use your generosity, morals, ethics, and compasion to get the ball in their court, just like the girl I mentioned who started of immediatley by using an ageless strategy of trying to make me feel that I owed her something and that she was doing me a favour. By the way, her friend price was over three hundred american dollars for two silk shirts.

Yesterday, they went to the forbidden city, but unfortunatly we could not go. Mike had some training, and I new Jada wouldn't handle a whole day out in the sun with no naps very well. We met them for dinner and had some dumplings. Part of what we did is took them to some resturants and help them order so that they could get good food, as well as know what it was. In the first resturant, Jada was playing peek-a-boo with a little boy, peeking around corners and smiling at him. That is the first time I have seen her actually play with other kids. They are going to send us the pictures, so we will post them when we get them.

They left this morning, and we helped arrainge a driver with a van to take them to the airport, saving them quite a bit there as well. It was a busy couple of days, but a lot of fun. We will miss them, and wish them safe travels.

Mike's Busy Schedule

So I have a new job now. I am teaching English still, just with another company. I now work with "Elite" From New Oriental. It pays 150 RMB (22 USD) an hour, but it is only part time. At least they provide a visa and it will pay the bills, as long as they schedule me for enough hours. But if they don't, because it is part time, I have time to work other jobs if needed. Already, for a little bit anyway, I have two other part time jobs. One that starts on Friday, and another that starts next week. They are both temporary, but are corporate trainings, so pay even more. Just means next week I will be crazy busy! I'll be working most evenings at New Oriental, then Friday nights I'll work two hours at the Hilton hotel teaching some of the housekeeping staff English (200 RMB/29USD an hour). This job lasts for 10 weeks. Then next week, I'll be teaching more English at a hotel in Tianjin Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings, 2 hours each morning (at 240 RMB/35USD an hour). The only bad thing about the Tianjin class is the travel - its a little over an hour each way, but considering many times it takes up to an hour to get places in Beijing, it is not horrid. This class lasts about a month or so, so at least I don't have to
So in recap, I'll be teaching whatever hours at New Oriental; Wendnesdays to Friday from 10-12 (plus travel); Friday from 5:30-7:30, all at differernt jobs! Busy, yes it will be. Things will work out, and it will help us get some money for now.

More pictures and update!

We are currently still on the job hunt. Mike just recently finished a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and has been working part time at his old company until he finds something new. We have been seeing a lot of blessings. An old contact randomly called mike up and has been offering him temporary jobs teaching corporate English for some hotels. Those are cash cows, big bucks! 30 plus dollars an hour. And the TEFL qualifies him for some of the highest competing English Schools. He also put in an application for an entry level position at the Canadian embassy, cross your fingers, which would be really great for getting a foot in the door and making some contacts. He is seriously thinking of working for the government as his long term career. Other than that this month he has had more time to spend with his family, smile, and a much needed break from the hectic hours he was working the last month or so of his contract at Pattison English. He taught 144 classes in May. They have this stupid policy that if the student doesn't give 24 hours notice and are a no show then the students are not refunded the money, company pockets it, but it counts as a class to be made up by the teacher. And also for a while there they had a policy that if there was only one student signed up for a group class they canceled it and again the teacher was still required to meet their teaching quota for the month. So Mike ended up being short 50 classes at the end of the year to make up even though he had never missed a day. Stupid eh. So they worked him like a dog for the last month and a half with no overtime pay, teaching 7 and 8 classes a day plus prepare time, and he still had 11 to make up at the end of his contract. So he had to teach those 11 classes without pay! dumb. Sorry I use the words dumb and stupid a lot when talking about this but that is how I feel. That is what motivated him to get the TEFL so he could sign on with a better company. One company he has interviewed with already told him that the teacher only would have to make up classes he missed (ie he gets sick) not the students cancelling or no shows. Much better!

Enough ranting now on to Jada!

There are fountains on the grounds of our apartment complex and Jada's new favourite thing is to kick her feet in the water. She goes for them with gusto. It is so cute, she always gets several passersby stopping to watch and take pictures. Chinese people are constantly telling me she's too hot or too cold, you should do this, you shouldn't do that. Don't let her put that in her mouth, she needs to wear socks, you can't feed her that, ect. ect. So I was really surprised when nobody said anything about me letting her kick her feet in the water. I got a few, is the water cool? questions. Will she be cold? But no scoldings. I have noticed that people in this complex are more understanding towards foreigners and the things they do different, I guess because there are several foreigners living in this complex. I have here tell me that the way I raise my child is good, that Chinese children get sick easily because there parent don't let them put anything in their mouth, are really concerned about them being too hot or too cold and so really protect them in that respects. I just think there is no one right way to raise a child. No matter where you go in the world people have different opinions about these things and the kids are fine for the most part. I think every parent should follow there instinct about what is best for their child. In fact, some of the things that parents do here would make parents in Canada feel VERY uncomfortable. Such as babies and young children walking about in open crotch pants, mothers exposing their breast to feed in public (not being discreet at all), parents letting there kids pee anywhere, including in front of a restaurant ( I saw this once).

Anyways back to what I was talking about. When Jada starts kicking in the water the other kids want to too because she looks so happy. And so a few parents have let their kids kick in the water as well. We are thinking of talking her to a kiddy pool somewhere soon, she would love that.

For the first time yesterday Jada told us when she had to go pee. She didn't make the que sound I have been teaching her but she started whining, looked at us and put her hand there. We are still a long way away from that being a constant thing but it is a start. She got lots of claps for that one.

She has also started to wave. She is picking up new things at a rapid pace. We are working on saving the money to hopefully be able to make it back to Canada for Christmas, we miss family and would love to see Jada with her cousins, grandparents and aunts and uncles.