Happy Halloween!!!

As I was pondering which was scarier, the Chinese candy my students gave me for Halloween or the slop that they call food that I refused to eat for lunch, I realized that I hadn't posted on my blog in a loooooooooong time and since it was the last day of the month, I decided I'd better get in at least one post for October. (And if any of my students wrote a sentence that long, I'd circle it and write Too long! Break into smaller sentences!) Hmmmm... what has happened in October?

The first week I had vacation. Actually almost all of China has vacation for their National Holiday. Instead of fighting my way through crowds, I decided to stay at home and relax in Beijing. I only had five days off anyways. I cleaned. I finished unpacking, more than a month after I had moved into my apartment. I shopped! I bought the many things that people have in their homes but I didn't have time to buy previously. I can now cook because I have a wok and a pot and cooking utensils. I have rugs. I no longer need to buy small bottled water because I finally got a water dispenser. Yeah! My apartment looks lived in now (and not just because it has this bad habit of getting really messy).

On one of the days off, a few of us brave folk took an adventure on the Great Wall. Hannah, Josh V, his family, a few Chinese friends and I went out to an unrestored section of the Wall about 2.5 hours from Beijing City. We drove down the highway, then we turned on to a smaller rode, then we turned down an even smaller winding, curving road, then we turned off the road on to a dirt path. At the end of the dirt path, we got out and walked about 20 minutes. Finally, we were at the Wall! When I say unrestored, I mean partially crumbling. There were small trees and shrubs growing on the Wall in some areas. We brave folk carefully climbed to the nearest watchtower where we had lunch. A few of especially brave folk continued on to the next watchtower. Some sections required using boths hands and feet to climb. But it was worth it. The view was spectacular! It was cool to think that we were standing in the same place that hundreds and hundreds of years ago Chinese warriors had stood watching out for invading Mongols. On the way down I realized that going up was the easy part particularly for people like me who are terrified of falling from heights. I survived. On the way home, we stopped and bought some pumpkins. We can only get the small (edible) size in Beijing City but outside of the city limits you can get bigger ones.

I brought one of the pumpkins to my office/classroom for a fall decorations. My students were fascinated! By the week before Halloween, it was in pretty rough shape. It has developed some suspicious looking spots on it. Even so, I carved it last week during on my English corners. Again, the students were fascinated. Now that Halloween has finally come, the poor pumpkin is rotting on one side and has mold growing in the inside. Yuck! I thought about lighting a candle in it for Halloween but decided that I didn't really want to put my hand inside or even take the cover off. It's going in the garbage as soon as my last class ends today.

The weather in Beijing has changed from cool to cold. We still don't have our heat turned on yet so I've been surviving with sweatshirts and lots of hot tea. Tragically, today after finally getting my office warmed up (I have a small heater) I realized that it stunk like the um, um, barf (sorry can't think of a better word) that I was suppose to eat for lunch. Now I have my windows open letting out the warm air and hopefully the bad smell too.

Hmmm... sorry October hasn't been that exciting of a month. Busy but routine. I still really like my job and my students, although some of them need strangling on occasion. It keeps me super busy. Bernice the bunny is her usual naughty self although significantly more litter trained this year. There may be hope for that rabbit. Now if only I can get her to stop eating my (landlord's) couch. I'm starting to get used to living in the middle of nowhere although I hate the buses more than ever. Well that's all for now! Maybe if you're lucky there will be another update before Thanksgiving!