Sunday, August 26, 2018
10:00 p.m.
Beijing, China
Hey! Look at that! I kept my promise. I’m so proud of myself. When it comes to writing this blog, I’ve been pretty bad about holding myself accountable. Speaking of holding myself accountable, remember how I said I was going to set up an event in the calendar I share with my parents so they can help me stay on track? Yeah, so apparently something got messed up and it was set for 8pm Saturday my time. What this means is tat I accidentally woke up both my parents at 8am on a Saturday morning in Ohio. Yeah, I got a bit of a taking to about that one. Sorry again, Mom and Dad!
Anyway, little update on this week. So work officially started for me on Wednesday, but I cut ally spent all week at school. It was nice to have some time on my (almost) own to get some things done. During those two days, all of my friends and coworkers returned from their summer holidays! Wednesday was so great, getting to see all of them (except for Katie ?) and catch up. Plus, it was nice to start getting some actual stuff done in preparation for the start of the school year.
Most of this week has been about prepping for the beginning of the year, although that’s no real surprise considering I’m a teacher and that’s kinda what this in-service is for. We’ve had many meetings, but I’m definitely glad to be in EK. We’ve even able to get out of most of the whole school meetings and really focus on our departmental needs. Most of the other departments haven’t had that opportunity And I’m really grateful. Keri and I have spent most of our time prepping the semester’s curriculum and getting ready for Parent Orientation. I’m really excited to send his week getting my classroom al ready to go.
Aside from work, this week has mostly been sent hanging out with my friends. I was able to get dinner with Brian and Vivian (who is student teaching at the high school this year) on Wednesday and had a movie night with some friends on Friday night. Basically most of this weekend has been spent with my group of girl friends, and it’s been pretty great! I’m so happy we’re back together again!
Okay, that’s about most of the week. Sorry I don’t have like a great story to tell. Honestly, I’m so tired, I can’t even remember a full story in detail right now haha.
Oh! One last thing before I go. Quick update about my rodent problem. So Julia (the EK Office Administrator) is honestly the best person in the world! She is great! She found me an exterminator who came on Tuesday to try and help me with my furry little problem(s). I’m not sure exactly what all they did, but I know they used steel wool to plug up any holes in my apartment when rodents could get in (like the drains in my bathroom and such). They also put out some more sticky traps to catch any that get through. Additionally, I paid a little extra for them to deal with cockroaches (a problem I’ve had since moving in here), so they used gel bait and spread poison behind my furniture to hopefully get rid of the nasty little bugs. So far it seems to have worked. I paid them for a year of service, so if I have any more trouble, I can call them back and they’ll deal with it again.
The best part, though? I have an amazing landlord! I know, hearing about all of this sounds like I live in a disgusting apartment and everything is so gross. Honestly, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I love my apartment! I just have the unfortunate luxury of living on the first floor. And up until this rodent thing, I haven’t really had any serious problems. The roaches are kind of gross, but there really weren’t that many and they’re more just a pest than an actual problem. And keeping my house clean, which I do with teh help of my ayi, has really limited how many I have. But in addition to just liking my apartment, I have been blessed with a great landlord. I am his only tenant and he is eager to help me whenever I need it. He is quick to respond to problems, usually coming to fix anything within a couple days. He is super sweet and brings his 11-year-old son with him to help translate. When I told him about all of this that happened over the summer, he didn’t get upset or try to blame me. He came and fixed most of the damage the rodents had made and even paid me back for the exterminator. Seriously, this guy is great and I’m so lucky to have him as my landlord.
After all of that, I’m falling asleep. I have to head to bed. I’ll talk to you all next week.
Blessings,
Kristen
P.S. Beka, I really hope you don’t mind me using this picture.
