Chinese Team Building

Center 5: Chongwenmen

Hello World!
Two days of Disney Orientation was followed by a great day of team building. Everyone is the North (Beijing) District was put on buses, taken up the mounntain to the middle of nowhere..(while a chinese kung fu movie was playing). All 100 plus of us had formed a team flag, chant/song, name etc... with our team were were lead through some team building exercises such as trust falls,spider web, dragon race,and building a boat out of bamboo,string and barrels(with holes in them). Though our team did win the dragon race,we did not place overall and with my competitive nature i was a little sad :(

But we, as the newest center were lucky to get to participate as it gave us a chance to meet all the other people that we will be working with and playing with in the upcoming year. It was an awesome experience.

Highlights from the trip:
-Mispelled engligh signage
-A insight into what the future plans are for Disney English (if you need a job..contact me!)
-Having a historic piece of the Great Wall as a back drop the entire day
-Having asians want to be in pictures with me

-Using the squat toilet for the first time

-Sitting next to Sarah Bartlett on the bus

-Constructing a boat that didnt capsize...much

-Making new friends

-Eating a tougue kabob

-Being happy

Training Time

I graduated training! After 4 long days of lecture and practice our group finished our Disney English curriculum training.  For our last observation my assistant and I created a pretty awesome lesson and the person evaluating us said it was by far the best lesson hes seen from anyone in training..not that i should expect anything less cause i am pretty awesome...After training a few us of went to a place called lily's diner. A little American food place with 6 tables. It was like being back in the states. they had dr. pepper, fajita's, pizza, burgers and the specials for the day. I prob wont be living close to it, but it is def my favorite place so far. Other than that i havent had any weird foods yet..im still shy!

Saturday I took the subway to see a friend who had to work.We did some shopping went to H&M and found some new store which i love called "Uniqlo". It was fun seeing all the American stores and they have orange Julius, cold stone, Starbucks, auntie ann pretzels and lots of other U.S stores. The malls are different there like 6 plus levels but the levels are long and the stores seemed very small in comparison to the size of stores in the U.S. After that we decided to find the apt my friend was moving into. she wanted to take the subway (as she didn't exactly know how to walk there from the mall) I insisted we walk and just try to find it... Ending walking all over her neighborood getting lost for well over an hour, but got to see stuff i hadn't yet. People selling huge slices of melon on skewers like Popsicles, people playing Chinese checkers on the street, street vendors and other interesting things. After using our superb Chinese pointing skills we found our way. Pretty good adventure. and thats not including our adventure in trying to find out how to turn on the electricity with people who spoke no English!

I think its a big karaoke place?

Whats next? Hopefully exploring more today.We have Disney orientation training mon/tue then Wednesday some big wigs are coming to town. rumor has it there taking all of the Beijing staff to the Great Wall to do some team building competition..needless to say im pretty excited! Hopefully i can start my apt search also and find a place to live so you all can start sending me care packages!
Important survival chinese words i am trying to learn:
water: shui
cold: liang de
(it impossible to find ice..so water is usually warm unless you ask for a cold one)
chicken: jirou
subway:ditie

XAIJIAN FOR NOW!

Pic's from the backseat of a Beijing Cab

stuck in traffic next to this thing

Pretty much what most the buildings look like

This just outside Beijing..rundown, old, lower buildings

Olympic Stadium (Bird's Nest)

Day 1

Ni Hao!
I arrived in Beijing around 3pm Monday after starting my journey sunday at 8:30am..needless to say it was a long trip, but surprisingly enough it did not seem that long! I did have to endure a miley cyrus movie and some horrible airline food (including ramen noodles) but all and all it was quiet and safe.
I was met by a trainer who led me through the metro system and to my hotel. The next day i was up early and we caught a cab alll the way to the other side of Beijing for a medical check.. The cab ride cost 100 RMB which is around 15 dollars..very cheap. All the book and stories i read about the traffic and horrible driving are totally true. I was pretty sure i was going to die. There are 4 lanes going each way but Beijingers make it into 6 or 7 as theey drive straddling the lane divide lines to get to there destination faster..which they are not. the long cab ride did give me the opportunity to take some pics from the window of some buildings and get a glimpse of what I am getting myself into!
Every foreign vistor must go through a medical check which was quite interesting..they shuffle you around to 7-8 different rooms checking blood,vitals, eye sight etc..this would take forever in the states, but one thing ive learned already is that the Chinese are efficient!
After sigining some paperwork downtown i was taken to the center that i will be training at. I am training with 9 other people. 4 english trainers and 5 assistant trainers(bilingual and all from China) For the next few days we are learning the demo classes, lesson planning and presenting our version.. So it's pretty intense.. I have yet to try and local flavor..because luckily subway is only a few blocks away :)Hopefully i will get over the jet lag soon..as i have been up since 2am on only hours of sleep..happy day
People I saw peeing in public: 1
People randomly playing guitar/singing on the subway: 1
Old ladies flying kites: 1
Dr.Pepper's found: 0

What is Disney English?

I am about to find out what its all about... but here some stuff to take a look at t get an idea of what i am getting myself into for the next 13 months!