School, So-di-So-di & Skies

Is it really the middle of October??  Here is an update of the last month.

A Little About our School

We are at CFAU – China Foreign Affairs University.  China Foreign Affairs University was founded in 1955, and is affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is an executive agency responsible for foreign relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and other countries in the world. The agency is led by the Foreign Minister (the guy we shook hands with at the Opening Ceremonies at the beginning of the year).  The agency is responsible for formulating foreign policies, decisions, foreign affairs documents, and statements in regard to the PRC.

The courses of study offered include foreign languages (English, French and Japanese), foreign affairs, international politics and relations and diplomacy, international law and economics.  The university awards BA. MA and PhD degrees.  Jordan has all international law classes.  I have one international law class, two foreign affairs classes and the remainder are all international economics classes.  We definitely have a challenge in our teaching this year.  These students are some of the brightest in China.  As Jordan mentioned last month in his little blurb, these students are handpicked before any other universities get their choice.  Once the students are chosen by CFAU, they must accept and do not have the option to choose any of the other schools that accept them.  CFAU is serious about who they want running their government and train them from the ground up.  There is a large rock in the center of the campus that says, “The Cradle of Diplomats.”

The new campus where we teach is amazing and only a couple of years old.  The classrooms are very clean and quite high tech with everything at your fingertips.  We no longer have to haul our laptops, projectors and screens, etc.  We just put our little USB drive in our backpacks and off we go.  It is GREAT!  So all in all the facilities have improved 100%. 

It is also great exercise each morning because most of our classes are on the 5^th floor, exactly 170 steps up, up, up.   I've determined to never take the elevator and so far so good! It helps that the elevator is the size of a breadbox and tons of students and teachers wait in line to take it up.  I hate standing around so would rather be working off that Snickers we might have at night!  

Transportation

We can hardly believe the transportation situation here.  Apparently, taxis here don’t mind picking up foreigners.  In Xi’an, we practically had to lay down in front of an oncoming taxi to get it to stop and even then, they would swerve around and keep going.  Hailing taxis here is easy and fairly cheap.  We mostly use them to get to and from church, which is about 35 minutes away.  That trip only costs us around 40 yuan one-way ($7).  Additionally, there is a great subway system here in Beijing.  In Xi’an we only had 2 lines: N/S and E/W.  Here, we have 8 major lines running within the city and another 9 lines which connect and serve the outlying suburbs. Sweeeet!

However, we have found a MUCH better means of transportation!!  A few weeks ago, we decided to get bikes.  We finally found just the right ones.  They are mountain bike/city cruisers (a bit heavy but very sturdy) with 18 gears, disc brakes and good tires to navigate around the potholes, manholes and people!  We found some baskets at a different bike shop and zip-tied them to the back rack we had the bike shop install before we bought them.  The baskets are great and carry all our parcels and shopping perfectly!  You would be amazed at the things we have bungeed in, bungeed on and bungeed around those baskets.  Thank goodness for bungee cords!  Whenever we need food, we hop on our bikes and off we go.  Did I mention earlier that there are no stores very close by for shopping?  Not a problem anymore!  We LOVE our bikes!!!!!  Jordan's bike is Blue Lightening and mine is Green Hornet!

Every day we have off together (usually only Thursday unless there is a holiday), I plan a new route and area of the city to explore.  For example, today we did a 17 mile round trip to see the Olympic Green Area where the 2008 Beijing Olympics were held.  Here is a picture of the famous Beijing National Stadium also known as the “Bird’s Nest” where the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and athletic events were held.  The stadium cost USD 428 million and will seat 91,000 people.  It is a pretty cool area and we loved riding all around and exploring the area.     

         

We will keep you updated on all of our biking adventures.  We are getting more adept at dodging traffic and dangerous situations, although once in a while we have some near misses.  Today was no exception.  As a scooter almost took me out, I could hear “so-di, so-di, so-di” ringing in my ear as I swerved to avoid a collision.  I guess he was at least close enough to recognize me as a foreigner and decided I might understand “sorry, sorry, sorry” said with great enthusiasm!  But, we ARE being careful, so no worries!!!!!!

AQI & Blue Skies

We have been pleasantly surprised with the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Beijing.  Seriously, we have had more blue sky days here than the entire time we lived in Xi’an.  Everyone told us that the Beijing air quality was so much worse than Xi’an.  Well, from our firsthand account, not so.  In the 53 days that we have been here we have only seen 4 really bad days that were in the 400’s.  Otherwise, we are either below 100 or definitely below 175.  Today as we were riding it was around 67.  We can even see the surrounding mountains quite frequently, especially when we head out to the new campus.  It’s great!

We continue to love our experience here in China and encourage anyone that is interested in having an incredible, lifetime experience to plan on doing this sometime in the future, no matter how distant!  You won't ever regret it!!!

We are Happy in Beijing!!!