Math Teaching in the PRC

JiuZhaiGou - where Autumn kisses Spring

2009-11-07T05:24:00.000-08:00

During our week in Chengdu, we managed to experience all four seasons in three days. JiuZhaiGou was the marriage of spring and fall. Although the leaves were just starting to change colours, there were still so many images of new life: wildflowers, butterflies and buds, and blossoms. The colours were vibrant and fresh and the air was so clean - so unlike any other place in China.

At the same time, the deep blues of the various lakes looked like they belonged with sandy ocean beaches and palm trees. We experienced the remnants of summer in Chengdu, with temperatures touching thirty degrees and plenty of sunshine.

Fall is definitely the best time of year to visit JiuZhaiGou. The vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows of the changing leaves contrast beautifully with the crystal clear blue lakes and waterfalls.

And who can forget winter? Even in the summer heat of Chengdu, we met Santa Claus and danced to Jingle Bells. On the drive between JiuZhaiGou and HuangLong, we passed by a glacier and snowmen. The temperatures at HuangLong were close to zero degrees, so we bundled up in scarves, mittens and long underwear. Anita had to buy a whole new outfit since she had only come with shorts and flip flops. Ironically, I was prepared for the cold since Anita had cautioned me to pack warm clothes before we left.

Adventures in Sichuan

2009-11-01T05:17:00.000-08:00

I had the most memorable holiday in Chengdu, JiuZhaiGou and HuangLong. We arrived in Chengdu late Sunday night (or actually early Monday morning) because our plane was delayed (typically). We stayed in one of the best hostels in China: Sim`s Cozy Garden Guesthouse. Even though they`re located close to the heart of the city, they have a charming garden and terraced restaurant to welcome travellers. They provided us with so many conveniences: books and DVDs to freely borrow, fresh fruit in our room, cheap bike rentals, a panda tour, and an excellent map to help us navigate the city streets. Anita and I rented bikes the first morning and joined the hoards of bicycles, scooters, and mopeds in the congested bike lanes. The city is perfectly designed for bikes: most of it is flat and all the main attractions are within a twenty minute bike ride from our hostel. We explored a temple, bought panda cards (for 1 yuan, which got us free admission to 11 attractions) and had lunch at Chen`s Ma Pa Do Fu. In the afternoon we went to people`s park where many groups were celebrating the 60th anniversary of the PRC with music, song and dance. We floated from group to group, overwhelmed by the intensity of the sound of adjacent groups trying to drown out the competing noise. At one group, we sat to watch a troup of Chinese musicians play Spanish music. Then they gave a big welcome to all the foreigners and invited us to get up and dance with them. To our surprise, they started playing Jingle Bells and we bunny-hopped in the hot summer sun (only in China...)

In the evening, we caught a flight to JiuZhaiGou. We had been debating whether to fly or take a bus, but since the flight was 45 minutes and the bus ride 13 hours, we opted to travel by plane. As we were flying, we began to see why the bus ride was so long in comparison. The flat plains of Chengdu soon broke into mountains as we came to the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The views from the plane were amazing. As we got closer to JiuZhaiGou, we began to skim the mountaintops, glowing in the setting sun. We had only planned to spend one night and return late the next day, but as soon as I saw the mountains, I knew we had to try to stay longer. When we landed, we went immediately to the check-in counter, where they miraculously changed our flights on the spot without charging any fees! We took a taxi ride to the city with Shirly and Mike, a Chinese-English couple from Bahrain. On the way, the taxi driver told us about HuangLong, another beautiful scenic area, and told stories about how his friend`s taxi had broken down on the road to JiuZhaiGou and been attacked by wild animals. The weather was significantly cooler in JiuZhai Gou compared with Chengdu, so Anita and I went shopping for warmer clothes (Anita had only brought shorts and flip-flops but the park was 10 degrees). We had spicy hotpot for dinner and went to bed early since we knew we wanted to hit the park as soon as it opened the next morning.

We made the most of our 300 yuan ticket price by getting in the park at 7 am when it opened. JiuZhaiGou is 30 km long and peppered with waterfalls, trails, lakes, mountains, and scenic spots. We took a bus all the way to the end of the park and then insisted on walking the whole way out. I can`t even describe how beautiful the scenery is. All our pictures pale in comparison to the real thing. Anita and I walked the forested trails singing our hearts out in praise to God and stopping every five minutes for every photo opportunity. So many times parks are Chinafied (ie commercialized and kitschy) but JiuZhaiGou reminded us a lot of parks back home. After 11 hours of walking, we hardly felt tired - we were so renewed by the beauty and peace of the park. So many places in China are terribly polluted, but JiuZhaiGou had air as clean as Terrace. I wish that Maple Leaf had a school in JiuZhaiGou - I would teach there in an instant!

Anita and I were reluctant to leave the park at the closing time of 6 pm. At that point we were still a good 5 km hike from the park entrance and there were still many scenic areas we hadn`t explored. We decided that even though the sun was setting behind the mountains, there was still quite a lot of light and our legs weren`t tired, so we would walk the rest of the way out of the park instead of taking a bus. Now, we had the option of walking along the road (where we would take the risk of being picked up by a bus and escorted out of the park) or we could take a meadow path parallel to the road (where it would be less likely that the rangers would notice us). The meadow path was so appealing - wild, full of mountain flowers and birds, and away from the traffic. We jumped into the meadow and kept traipsing along, stopping for photos of flora and fauna. As we walked, we noticed it was getting darker, but we weren`t too concerned since we were relatively close to the park entrance. Eventually the meadow path led to a bridge which crossed the rapid river into a forest. At that point we had to decide whether to go back to the road or continue. I noticed on the map that the trail we were on would cross the river again after 4 km and connect back to the road, so we decided to walk in the forest. As soon as we did, it got noticeably darker and the stories that the taxi driver had told us about wild animals started filling our minds and making us imagine moving shadows. Anita and I started singing more loudly than before to keep away any animals and we started walking faster, with resolve. We must have walked for an hour, when it really started to get dark. We didn`t have any flashlights but thankfully there was still enough light to see the path. That`s when I heard the noise. As we passed by a clearing, from the underbrush, so close on my right hand side that I could almost feel the breath on my arm, I heard a loud growl. This was no dog growl either - it was more of a snort through the nose, a loud territorial sound. My skin crawled and I grabbed Anita`s hand and pulled her abruptly in the direction opposite direction. At first instinct, I wanted to break into a run, but my Jerry`s Ranger`s training taught me to back away slowly. We were trapped - ahead of us was a mysterious wild animal, behind us was an hour trek through now-almost-completely-dark forest, to our left was a raging river and the deceptively close highway, and to our right was the tangled underbrush. We walked back into a clearing, where we could see the sky and make out the highway through the trees. At first we were both terrified. I wasn`t sure whether to try to climb a tree, cross the river, or just stay put. Thankfully we had our cell phones and we called our hostel to see if they could send someone to get us. The people at our hostel were so kind. They couldn`t come to get us because the park was already closed, but they called the park staff for us. Meanwhile, Anita and I were singing and praying at the top of our lungs, trying to keep the animal away and asking for protection and guidance. Our hostel called back and let us know that the whole park staff was in a meeting and none of them were answering their phones. At this point we had already been standing in the clearing for an hour, getting cold in our totally unsuitable outfits. I was beginning to think we might have to spend the night in the clearing and try to make our way again at daybreak. I rummaged through my purse to see if I could find anything to serve as a weapon, and only managed to find a hairbrush, which I brandished in my right hand. That`s when the skies started to cloud over and it began to pour, complete with thunder and lightning. We sang and prayed until our voices were hoarse, and amazingly both of us were overcome with a sense of peace and joy. Suddenly all our songs about being lost, deliverance, God as our light... took on a completely new meaning. Ironically, we got some random text messages from other teacher friends asking us how our holiday was going and telling us to have a good trip, which made us laugh hysterically. Our hostel called us again and told us that they were in contact with the police. The police sent a search party out to find us, but not before giving our hostel friends a lecture for not registering us properly. They yelled at the hostel and threatened to shut them down, while the hostel begged that they could figure out the paperwork later, but find us first. Thankfully, we had a map and knew exactly where we were, so we could direct the search efforts. The police drove down the highway with their lights flashing and we called them as soon as we saw the light (another hour later). They told us we were pretty close to the exit and that we should just walk out of the park. Are you kidding? With a wild animal potentially in our path? We insisted that they send some people in with a flashlight, so a bunch of young park rangers came to get us. I can`t describe what it felt like to finally see that flashlight shining through the dark forest. The rangers were goofballs and kept teasing us and hitting the trees with their umbrellas so that water would fall on our heads and make us jump. When we came to the place the animal had been, we heard the growl again, and asked the rangers what it was. A cat, they said, a bird, a bunny... I still don`t know what it was but I was glad to get past it. In the end, we had only been a ten minute walk from the exit. Maybe if we had known how close we were, we would have just run past the animal instead of backtracking. In any case, we made it out alive and unharmed. We had to go to the police station afterwards and write a statement. The atmostphere was tense. Our hostel staff recommended that we pretend not to know any Chinese and act apologetic. The police seemed to be on a bit of a power trip and seemed annoyed that we had made them work that night. They insisted that we write our full-page statement formally and they even corrected our English. It was almost as unnerving being stuck in the police station as being stuck in the forest. But we eventually made it home and collapsed in our beds without even eating dinner. We learned so many life lessons that night - that even though sometimes we insist on walking our own paths that really look appealing, they can eventually lead to trouble. We were amazed by how God provided us both with such a sense of His presence and protection that we were filled with peace, even at the scariest times.

China's catching on

2009-09-23T00:24:00.000-07:00

Looks like China caught wind of my proxy and now I'm only able to get patchy access to my favourite websites: facebook, blogspot, and youtube. Freedom of access facebook should be a basic human right!

I'm starting to settle into my teaching rhythm, just in time for a holiday. I can't wait to see the pandas in Chengdu and go hiking in the beautiful scenic area of JiuZhaiGou. Anita and I fly out on Sunday night and get back again on Friday so that we have a weekend to relax before school starts again. I've had a touch of the flu lately and with the whole H1N1 scare, I had to get a checkup at the school's clinic. Thankfully I don't have a fever, so I'm still clear to teach, but many schools around the world are closing their doors for a while until the swine flu starts to clear. Even Maple Leaf in Wuhan is closed for the week, so I keep wondering if our turn will come too.

I'm trying as much as possible to turn lemons into lemonade with our extra homeroom block. Last week we had fun playing Balderdash and this week we read a current Time article about China's growth over the last 60 years and its current role in global economics and politics. The girls were surprisingly well-informed and able to discuss both China's achievements and the costs of growth over the past 60 years. Reading the article I learned many things I didn't know before, like that

* China has the third largest GNP and is set to overtake Japan in 2010
* China is the first major economy to recover from the global recession
* The communist party helped pull 200 million people out of poverty
* China operates on a model of quasi-state capatalism and semidemocratic authoritarianism (whatever that means)
* China makes two-thirds of the worlds photocopiers, microwaves, and shoes
* China has 2,100 peacekeeping troops in over a dozen nations - more than any other member of the UN security council

But at the same time,
* Pollution is among the highest in the world, which leads to 28.5% of deaths due to malignant cancer and 13.1% from respiratory disease
* 207 million people still live on less than $1.25 per day (poverty is really evident in JinShiTan in the migrant workers who built this campus and the people living in the villages. Many people are being relocated from their small brick farming homes in the countryside to the apartments so the land can be developed. For the elderly, the dramatic change can be traumatic and we've been witnessing a lot of funeral processions in Manjiatan.)
* Income disparity is among the highest in the world (which in some ways I'm propagating by teaching the upper echlons of society)

I took the opportunity to talk with my class about the work our Maple Leaf Angels club plans to do this year. Last year we fundraised and bought winter clothing and shoes for orphans. We volunteered at the orphanage a number of times and hope to do so again this year. We also want to visit the local public schools and set up a buddy/English reading program. I told the girls that it's not just the responsibility of the government to make change, but that individuals can make a difference in the world. I tried to show them that making a lot of money, getting into the best universities, and getting a great career wouldn't necessarily make them happy or fulfilled, but most of the girls seemed skeptical. There is a general feeling that wealth will solve problems and bring fulfillment.

As we prepare to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the PRC, I encouraged the students to celebrate how far China has come, but at the same time to keep in mind the current challenges and how they might be able to address them. I urged them to connect with their families during the holiday and learn the personal stories and history of their parents and grandparents. Here are some amazing pictures of preparations for the celebrations in Beijing:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/china_prepares_for_its_60th_an.html

The Fall of my Discontent

2009-09-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

There is a general sense of disenchantment hanging in the atmosphere at Maple Leaf this year, which even manages to flap my unflappable optimism. Maybe these sentiments have simply been exacerbated by the twelve-and-a-half-hour workday I put in yesterday and I'm sure I'll find some relief after our week-long trip to Chengdu coming up September 27.

It all starting with a tantalizing, yet elusive carrot dangled before our noses. We had planned to start this year with professional learning communities - a block built into our weekly schedule for small-scale local pro-d. This was intended to go hand-in-hand with a laptop program which would equip each student with one computer so that they would be able to use language programs to improve their English while we were in our learning communities. This plan is still pending approval and is now set to begin in February, so for the first two terms, the admin adjusted the schedule to Plan B. This plan was brilliant in theory, but impossible to implement in practice. We have five 75-minute blocks every day, and the kids take nine different classes. We alternate between day 1 and day 2 on Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday respectively, while Fridays alternate every other week between day 1 and day 2. We teach 6 of the 9 blocks and get 3 blocks of prep time. So you might be wondering what happens to the tenth block? At first, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon was scheduled tutorial time. Our tutorials were actually built into the timetable. I naively thought this was wonderful and scheduled my tutorials for the end of Tuesday and Wednesday lunch. My schedule is a little unbalanced this year since all my prep blocks are on Monday and Wednesday, whereas I teach straight through Tuesday and Thursday. I still put my tutorial on Tuesday, just to ensure I would never need to stay after school for tutorial. The trouble was that after the first week, it was evident that most students were not attending tutorials, so there were a lot of unsupervised kids running around, which really didn't please the Chinese administration. In comes the sudden change of plans. Instead of tutorials and the end of the day on Tuesday/Thursday, now we need to hold classes with our flag-ceremony homeroom kids in order to ensure that every student is in a class. This year Sherman Jen hired a bunch of experts to help us with English enhancement across the curriculum. So in our previous tutorial blocks, now each of us teaches an English enhancement lesson. We are provided with a lesson plan, but the trouble is that it's the same lesson plan for ESL students who have barely learned a hundred words, to the grade 12 zhou en lai class who are studying words like fallaciloquence for the SAT. Last class, the students spent 75 minutes making flashcards.

The trouble is that now I've had to move my tutorial block to afterschool (while I kept the Wednesday one at lunch time). So here's what happened yesterday: wake up at 5 am to shower early so that the hot water recovers enough for Anita's 6:30 am shower (our hot water lasts about 10-15 minutes and then takes about an hour to recover), go to school at 6 to prep/mark, start teaching Math 10 at 7:40-8:55, 15-minute break spent answering student questions, Math 10 again from 9:10-10:25, 25-minute flag break spent answering questions and checking dBabble, Math 12 from 10:50-12:05, lunch spent in a Math 11 meeting, Math 12 again 1:00-2:15, homeroom block making flashcards 2:30-3:45, afterschool tutorial typically 3:45-4:45, but this time I had to invigilate exams for kids who claim to already have credit for math courses completed in other countries so tutorial went until 6:30 pm. Come home too exhausted to eat dinner (but still managed to heat up some pepper steak and mashed potatoes, mmm :)

Aparently these homeroom-tutorials are supposed to last only until the September holiday and the admin is looking for ways to improve the situation. There have been rumours that we might return to the old timetable of seven 50-minute blocks per day, but that wouldn't provide enough break time between classes for teachers to run back and forth between the two campuses. Rodi, for example, teaches boys on the fifth floor, then girls (a five-minute trot across the somewhat dangerous street) on the four floor, then boys again on the 5th, girls on the 4th, boys on the 5th and finally girls on the 4th. She will be so fit by the end of the year!

Money is tight in the Maple Leaf system this year after the expansion of the school buildings despite declining enrollment. Teachers on the boy's campus need to account for every whiteboard marker they use (for me, these whiteboard markers run out after two blocks of teaching). I've been trying for weeks to get a key to my console so I can use my projector like I did for lessons last year, but I wasn't able to get it until yesterday. I was elated to open my console, only to find that the wiring hasn't been completed yet. This means I need to rewrite all my lessons from last year and that I'm going through exponentially more whiteboard markers.

The one positive thing is the Maple Leaf people. We're all in this together and somehow the trials only strengthen our bonds. I don't blame the admin team - they're a wonderful bunch, but it's just difficult to find compromises and solutions within this Chinese/Canadian system. There's still so much segregation between the two cultures - it would be so nice if we worked together more. Here's hoping that all the wrinkles will get ironed out soon!

Teacher's Day

2009-09-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

We celebrated teacher's day last week and we were serenaded by the whole student body in the school's rotunda. The girls sang a heart-rending rendition of "We Think of You" and showered their teachers with notes, cards, and flowers. Even though the new girl's campus still has some technical difficulties, I have to say that it is a beautiful building. And our offices our completely decked out with cupboards, drawers, and really comfy chairs.

This weekend the weather was gorgeous. After worship practice, Anita, Sophia, and I went to watch the sunset in Labour Park. We took the gondola up to the top and absorbed the beautiful views of the city. Afterwards we had dinner at a Korean restaurant and I took off to complete my survey. I'm getting paid by a Swiss company to research the costs of tons of items in Dalian so that they can provide information about the cost of living in various cities around the world. It's interesting for me to find the prices of everything, but it's a lot more work than I was expecting. And some things like dishwasher soap and breaded fish sticks are just impossible to find. It's due today, so I'm just going to send in as much as I've finished and hopefully they won't ask me to keep working on it. I was lucky this time because the survey led me to the Shangri-La hotel. I felt odd just wandering in and writing down prices, so I sat in the cafe and ordered a delicious cheesecake for dessert while I perused the menu and surreptitiously recorded the cost of food, drink, fitness club membership, tennis courts, and hotel rooms. While I worked, I enjoyed a live piano/flute/cello trio playing the classics. It was just like home :)

Gong shows

2009-09-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

I witnessed two gong shows this year so far.

The first was at the drum tower in Xi'an this July. It was a gong show in the literal sense of the phrase and actually a lot less chaotic and more musical experience than I was expecting.

The second, the construction of the new girls' campus in Jinshitan, was a complete gong show in the figurative sense of the phrase. The only unchaotic thing about this gong show was that we were all expecting it. When we arrived in Dalian, one week before classes were to begin, the girls' campus wasn't even close to ready yet. The poor new teachers were housed in a smelly hotel in Jinshitan with no drinking water or laundry supplies, while the returning teachers got their old apartments back or bunked with friends. I've been sharing a bed with Anjali for the past week (and enjoying every minute of it :) In some sense it was nice to get the extra bonding time before the school year started. Classes started on Monday and we were still hauling over textbooks and office supplies on Friday and the weekend. When we carried things over on Friday, migrant workers were still living in bunks in the classrooms. Walking into the textbook room, I was surprised to see ten men standing around their bunk beds, half clothed, smoking cigarettes. I complimented them on their buff arms and offered them twenty kwai to help us lug the heavy books up three flights of stairs, and they willingly helped us out. I was shocked that everything was completed by Monday and we were able to have the first day of school. The classrooms are still incredibly dusty and dirty and every day a new road is paved and a new peice of equipment is installed. On Tuesday, I noticed a strange odor (which is totally normal in China) and then saw that one of the pipes was smoking and an electrical fire had started in the hallway between my classroom and my office. One of the teachers tried to pull all the fire alarms, but none of them worked, so we had to evacuate the kids by rounding them up and escorting them outside. On the weekend, they're going to cut electricity to the building, so hopefully that means the problems will be repaired and we won't have any more electrical fires in the near future. At the rate this school was built, it's no surprise that there are some problems. Anjali moved into her new apartment yesterday and I'm jealous of her bathtub, kitchen cupboards and counters, and a laundry machine that she doesn't have to drag from one room to another. However, they only have one hot plate to cook food on and the places are tiny and still very dusty. I'm happy to be staying on the boys' side with Anita, since there are no two-bedroom places on the other side.

I love my classes so far and I'm looking forward to getting to know my 170 girls. But most of all, I'm looking forward to the day when the dust settles, literally, and the new campus starts to feel like home.

Can't seem to post

2009-09-03T01:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know why, but I'm having trouble posting. My last post worked just fine, but all other attempts are not working. Maybe it's because of the content I'm trying to post...

The Great Frewall of Chna

2009-09-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

It's the beginning of another adventurous year at Dalian Maple Leaf International School. I'm finally able to post on this blog again after being bl*cked for months by the Great F*rewall of Ch*na. It all started with the 20th ann*vers*ry of Ti*n*nm*n Squ*re last school year. The ri*ts in Ur*mqi didn't help. So many sites have been bl*cked since: B*C, yo*t*be, blog sites and fac*book. I've tried a number of onl*ne pr*xies which have all slowly been bl*cked as well. After several frustrating attempts to break through, I finally found one that works, but I'm not going to divulge information about it lest it too be bl*cked and I once again fall off the map of cyberspace.

I spent July traveling around China with my parents. We had a wonderful time touring Xi'an, Beijing, Dandong, and spending a lot of time at home in Dalian. It was great to see China through my parents' eyes - it felt a lot like being here for the first time again. Here are some excerpts from my mom's journal:

"There is understandably a widespread fear of the swine flu virus. Before we were allowed to disembark from the airplane we were all given a temperature test, a quick swipe on the forehead. At the airport we were again given the test by young men and women smartly dressed in white shirts. All of them wore masks and looked very serious. They had badges on their sleeves that said “Police”. At Tianamen square we saw another group of young men and women wearing white shirts, but their badges read “security”. We know the people who work for the government are the privileged ones, probably envied, admired, hated, and feared by ordinary people"

"Going on the bus from the airport to city centre was great. The seats were clean with white covers at the head area. The highways looked strangely similar to our North American highways. The round signs reminded me of Europe. I was surprised by the greenery, the flowers and the trees. It seems the Chinese are serious about encouraging and preserving their natural beauty.
Going from the bus to our hotel was another story. We wanted a taxi and before we could get our bearings we were approached by a taxi driver. Thinking he drove the regular taxis we had seen on the streets, we accepted his offer, only to be taken to a beige car in an alley that didn’t look like a taxi at all. It was clean, though, and the seats were, as usual, covered with removable fabric. The driver insisted on carrying our bags but I think he got more than he bargained for. His grimaces spoke louder than words. He wasn’t a big man and the suitcases were weighted down by Catherine’s refried beans, canned cherries for black forest cakes, piano books, Body Shop shower gels, shaving cream and more. The handles were straining under the excess weight and I wondered if the suitcases might fall apart under the demands placed on the leather. They were old Samsonite suitcases I had bought for Art shortly after we got married. The suitcases survived and I’m sure the driver was glad to be rid of us. We still wonder if the price we paid for the trip was another rip-off. It certainly was a memorable ride through narrow alleys with many near misses and close encounters with other vehicles trying to squeeze by."

"A funny thing happened in the restaurant at lunch today. Art got his bowl of beef and vegetables and started to eat from it, which the Chinese local at the next table thought was hilarious. Art was puzzled, not understanding why they were laughing at him. Then it dawned on me that he was eating from what the Chinese consider a serving bowl. We cause a few guffaws about our (especially my) inept use of chopsticks too. The waiters helped us out of our misery by bringing us forks and knives, which I cleaned carefully before using them with the Kleenexes standing on the table. We had no napkins. At the other two restaurants we went to we were given moist cloths for our hands. We wanted to try a restaurant that served “Peking Duck” but when we walked in we immediately realized it was not open for business. We had walked into a wedding!"

I had the time of my life when I got back to Canada. On the day I landed, I went out for all-you-can-eat-sushi, watched Les Mis at the art's club, walked around UBC, had dinner at the Fairmont Airport, drank coffee at Starbucks, and shopped on Granville. I made sure to do everything that I love about Vancouver summers: Bard on the Beach, the Vancouver Art Gallery, kayaking at Granville Island, the planetarium, hiking at Mt Baker, walking the seawall, fireworks at English Bay, and spending time with friends and family.

Mandarin lessons are calling. More updates to come...

2009-09-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we slept in a little bit and split up for kayaking and rafting. Anita and I took a rickety old van with no shocks for a half-hour ride over bumpy dirt roads in the countryside until we got to the river. Anita and I each got our own kayak and started paddling down the Li river. The current was so strong that we hardly had to propel our boats. It was so peaceful and relaxing to be out on the water. The river was quiet and secluded - there were only two other kayakers and one Chinese man carrying our backpacks on his motor-raft. We could only hear the sounds of the birds and the breeze through the trees. I kept seeing interesting things on both banks of the river, so I would quickly zigzag across and stop to take pictures of ducks, fishing boats and water buffalo. After the two-and-a-half hour ride, we ended up in a tiny village and decided to explore. We wandered into a small courtyard where we stumbled upon a Chinese retirement community. It was like we had stepped into a completely different era - pictures of Mao hung in many buildings and the people seemed cut off from the outside world. One elderly lady invited us into her small one-room home for oranges and conversation. She lived in the small room with her two grandsons and shared bathroom, shower, and kitchen facilities with the rest of the community. Talking with her was interesting and thankfully Anita was there to translate. When I was talking with Anita in English, the elderly lady commented that my accent was interesting - that she could understand Anita when she spoke, but that she couldn't understand my dialect. Surprisingly she had never heard of God or the United States. Her son and daughter-in-law worked in the rice fields in the mountains far outside the city, so she rarely saw them. She provided us with such wonderful hospitality, even though she had so little herself.
In the evening, we met up with SuiKi and Anjali again for one last night of shopping on the busting tourist streets before retiring early in preparation for our crack-of-dawn flight back to Dalian. It was a completely relaxing and invigorating vacation!

Spring Holiday - Wednesday in Yangshuo

2009-04-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, we woke up early and rented bikes from our hostel for only 20 yuan for the whole day. Anjali wasn't feeling very well, so at 9 am SuiKi, Anita and I biked out to a fruit stand to pick up some breakfast. We had the most delicious mangos, oranges, pomellos, and other fruit that I didn't even recognize. Then the three of us started on our grand adventure. We wanted to hike up to Moon Hill, so we asked for directions from the hostel staff. It was only supposed to take about 25 minutes to bike out there, but we got lost along the way. Instead of backtracking, I saw another possible route on the map and suggested that we try the back roads. One local man escorted us on scooter all the way to a beautiful bridge where he runs rafting tours. We decided just to cross the bridge and keep biking. At that point the semi-paved roads turned into winding dirt roads through the countryside. We biked through tiny villages full of farmers working in the rice fields with their water buffalo. I was surprised to see satellite dishes in the front yards of some of these tiny one-room houses. We passed by groups of kids running home from school (they get out at 1 pm every day). We stopped at a picturesque site nestled right in the middle of the mountains for a picnic lunch. As we continued on, the roads got more and more rocky, bumpy, and narrow. Eventually we just had to walk our bikes, which gave us even more opportunities to take in the scenery. At one point we saw an elderly lady carrying water to her house. Her back was so crooked that she was completely bent over. These rice farmers have such a difficult life - they are constantly hunched over in water up to their calves planting or harvesting the rice plants. By the time they are old, their backs cannot straighten at all. I can't imagine what the skin on their hands and feet are like. After a while, I was wondering if we would be able to keep going in the same direction or if we would eventually have to turn around because of a dead end. Thankfully Anita and SuiKi could communicate with the locals and ask for directions, so we finally got ourselves back to a paved bike path. You could tell that once the tourist season hit, the path would be crammed with vendors selling water, postcards, or flowers to hoards of tourists. At the end of the long paved path, we came to a dead end at the bank of the Li River. There were a bunch of locals waiting there to take us and our bikes across the river on a rickety bamboo raft. They were going to charge us a fortune for the 5-minute ride, but we bargained them down to 5 yuan a piece. Later, I met an American from South Carolina who didn't have as much luck bargaining. The rafters were going to charge him 30 kuai to cross the river and they weren't going to change their price. So he decided to take off his clothes and swim his bike across the river. He lost his shirt in the process, which probably was worth more than 30 kuai anyways. We biked for another hour or so until we finally got to the base of moon hill around 2 pm. By then our legs were just trembling from all the exercise. Crazy us - we decided to hike the 40-minute climb to the summit of Moon Hill. Along with us came several elderly ladies carrying cases of water, pop, juice, and postcards. I can't imagine someone older than my mom carrying so much weight up all those stairs at the same pace as us. Those are some hearty farming ladies! When we got to the top, they fanned us as we panted from the hike. We bought some drinks from them and went back to our bikes. I was noticing that even though it was a cloudy day and I had been wearing a jacket, I was starting to turn my usual summer shade of bright pink, especially on my hands. Yes, I did put on sunscreen, but even so, a whole day outside is enough for me to get a nice burn. Gotta love my white-as-white-can-be dutch skin. We biked straight back to Yangshuo, taking the direct and not the scenic route and picked up some more fruit on the way home. By the time we got back it was 5 pm. We spent a good 8 hours of biking and hiking, so we were simply exhausted. We went out to a pizza place for a pre-dinner and then split ways. I was still hungry and really craving a good cut of steak. I was skeptical that I would be able to find a piece of imported steak in such a small town, but it was my lucky night. We chanced upon an Australian restaurant that had New Zealand steak. Even better, it came with steamed broccoli! I felt so re-energized after that meal, but still hardly able to walk on my trembling legs. We met up at the hostel again at 9 to watch a movie and get a good night's sleep.

Spring Holiday: Tuesday in Guilin and Yangshuo

2009-04-29T05:48:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday morning, we went exploring around Guilin. I really wanted to take the river cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo (we found one lady who offered a bamboo raft for 80 yuan), but the other girls wanted to take a bus. If the weather had been better, I would have taken a boat by myself, but the sky was clouded over that morning, so I decided to go with the girls. Early that morning, we headed out for Seven Star Park. Its name comes from the shape of the seven mountains spread out like the stars in the big dipper. We walked along the Li River and crossed the bridge to the other side of the city. On the bridge we saw a minority family selling some chestnut cake, so we bought a slice to split. Their kid was so adorable: he had the most gorgeous brown eyes and kept blowing us kisses. For a 3-year-old kid, he was quite the charmer - his smile was enchanting. At the park, we took a tour of an ancient cave and two of the Chinese guys on the tour kept asking to take pictures with us. The animals in the park were incredible - I saw my first wild monkeys, along with peacocks, birds, and bats.At about lunch time, we hopped on a 15-yuan express bus to Yangshuo. We dropped off our bags at the Bamboo House (which took forever to find!) and explored the city. It's even warmer here than in Guilin, which is hard to believe. We did a little shopping and bargaining at the outdoor markets and had dinner with Simon, a fellow Maple Leaf teacher, and his girlfriend Tiffany, who is teaching English here. At night we went to an amazing light show on the river. It's directed by the guy who directed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and it's one of the most amazing productions I have ever seen. They must have had at least 200 men, women, and children playing singing and dancing in spectacular costume. I felt like I was at the opening ceremonies of the olympics. But I have to say the best part of the night was coming back to the hostel and taking a bath in the bath tub. It's been way too long since my last real bath!

Vacation

2009-04-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

After a long week of school last week (including Saturday), our spring holiday officially began. Anita, SuiKi, Anjali, and I planned a trip to Guilin and Yangshuo, but since the first direct flight was on Monday, we decided to relax in Dalian on the weekend. The weather was perfect! It was like a cool summer day in Vancouver. We met up for lunch at our favourite jiao zi place - da ching jiao zi (I think) for our favourite mutton and cilantro dumplings. After lunch, we headed over to Er Chi to get some dresses made for Ryan's wedding in May. It took a lot longer than expected to choose a design and fabric, but I'm excited to see the final result next week. Then Anita and I met up with Mark and took a bus to his place. He was trying to convince me to stay with them, but I really wanted to get outside and explore and then stay at the spa, so I hopped off the bus at XingHai park. It is so picturesque in that area and there are so many things to see and do. I was tempted to take a zipline for only 60 kuai, but I'm saving it for when my friends are with me. I walked along the ocean for hours, all the way to XingHai square where I met up with Anita. We treated ourselves to ice cream and took a moterboat ride on the ocean. Then I headed out to the spa for my overnight stay. It was so crowded there (probably because of the May holiday) that I wasn't able to get a table for a scrubdown. I kept going into different hot tubs, and then checking to see if there were available tables. I really must not have been thinking. It was 7 pm and I hadn't eaten dinner because I was waiting for the free spa food at 11 pm. After the hot tubs, I tried one sauna after another and there still weren't any tables. Finally I saw an open table and I walked up and pointed to it (my feeble attempt of asking if I could lie down). The masseuse shook her head "no" and at that point I started to see spots and my head felt funny. I felt my body crumple like a house of playing cards - first my knee hit the cement floor, then my hand, and finally my head (it's pretty amazing how the body crumples to save your head from too much damage). The next thing I knew I was sitting on a bench and two of the spa ladies were holding my arms and offering me water. I was fine after a few minutes but exhausted, so I went to sleep at 9 and didn't get up until 7:30. I met up with Anjali, Anita and SuiKi at the qing gui and we took a plane to Guilin. It's so lush and green here compared to Dalian, where things are only starting to bloom.

We took a bamboo raft to Elephant trunk hill as soon as we put our things into the Backstreet International Youth Hostel. We were located perfectly by the river in the middle of the pedestrian shopping area. At night we explored the markets and met a local who spoke almost perfect English. He let us sample some of his small village's green tea and recommended a restaurant where we ate some delicious fish for dinner. The streets were alive well into the night and the warm air kept the locals and tourists outside. I'll hopefully post some pictures soon, but for now we're going bike riding and picking up some fruit (mmm, mangos :)

Impulsiveness

2009-04-18T23:39:00.000-07:00

I can be rather impulsive from time to time. Sometimes this gets me into trouble and sometimes it's just plain fun. Let me illustrate. Last month as a joke, Timio called up the editor of the Focus on Dalian expat magazine offering to review restaurants in Jinshitan. The editor must be more desperate for articles than we thought because she accepted with enthusiasm. Begin dine-out Jinshi! Last week, Timio, Anita, and I ate at Tudoni (not the actual name of the restaurant - all restaurants in Jinshi are named after their best dish). In true journalist form, Timio came equipped with notebook, pen, and translator. When we got there, another couple was just finishing off their dinner. One of the customs that frequently annoys Anita and I is that the Chinese will often order more food than they can eat and then leave copious amounts of leftovers on the table in a display of wealth. It was kind of ironic at this particular restaurant since the average dish cost about 5 quai (1 dollar). The couple at the Tudoni place had ordered too much and left a dish of potato, eggplant, and green pepper (one of my favourites) virtually untouched. After going through the usual ritual of complaining about the waste of good food, I decided to take care of things and steal the leftovers to eat ourselves. While the waitress wasn't looking, I quickly ran over to the other table and swiped the food. The waitress was confused when she came back and asked us what we were doing. "Wo men yao jigga (We want this)," I replied in my best broken Chinese. Timio and Anita were embarrassed to be seen eating with me at first, but then they gave me props for my gutsiness. We enjoyed a huge meal of tudoni (mashed potatoes with pork, cilantro, onions, peppers, and a raw egg on top), slimy pork (Anita's best translation of the dish), egg and chive, and donkey dumplings. I've eaten my fair share of chicken feet, raw squid, fish eyes, and octopus, but somehow I had a hard time sampling the donkey. In the end it tasted surprisingly like beef, although the texture was different. It was a pretty nice piece of ass. After dinner, Timio interviewed the restaurant owner and got the actual name of the restaurant and the contact information. Since there are no real street names in Jinshitan, the best address we could come up with was "third dingy alleyway on the left". The only other distinguishing feature is a stinky outdoor washroom, but we figured that might not be an appetizing landmark for a restaurant review.

This weekend I went to Dalian on Friday night to reward myself for finishing my report cards. Anita and I met up with Edgar, Shannon, and Christine for a fabulous dinner at an authentic Japanese restaurant. We had the best chicken skewers and grilled makeral. Best of all, we enjoyed a couple bottles of plum sake with our meal. The next day Edgar, Christine and I explored Xinghai square, which is a wealthy district on the oceanfront. We pretended to be interested in purchasing some condos, so we went inside one of the fancy buildings and browsed brochures while the staff served us tea. They're building my dream condos there - complete with huge kitchens, bathtubs and even a grand piano. The walk-in closets alone are the size of our rooms now. The waterfront was spectacular. We bought a bag of bird feed for 5 quai to feed the flocks of pigeons. Later we met up with Anita and Mark at Peace Plaza for lunch. Mark took us to a great Korean buffet for only 43 quai. I ate pork and beef Korean barbeque to my heart's content. The restaurant had a gorgeous grand piano untouched in the centre. Mark dared me to go up and play it, so being my impulsive self, I took him up on the dare. Edgar played the role of my bodyguard as I tickled the ivories. One of the waiters came up to me and I assume tried to tell me to stop, but I played ignorant. Eventually the manager came up and started closing the piano on my hands, so I stopped. It was a shame - it was the nicest piano I've touched in China (which isn't saying much). The next project is planned impulsiveness involving a test drive of a Ferrari. Stay tuned for more details.

The Joys of Spring

2009-04-18T23:29:00.001-07:00

I love spring time! Every day something new is in bloom. It's no coincidence that Easter takes place in the spring - the signs of new life everywhere are a wonderful reminder of the new life we have in Christ. Last week, after a long day of invigilating exams, marking, and writing report cards, I needed a break, so I asked Anita if she wanted to join me on a bike ride. We went exploring on the dirt trails of Jinshitan. We discovered a bunch of lakes surrounded by blooming trees, mountains, birds, and ducks. It really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I regularly take my guitar down to the beach and sing to the rhythm of the ocean waves. Apparently spring in Dalian is short-lived, so I'm taking advantage of it before the bugs, enormous spiders, and humidity returns.(Actually spring is not entirely here. Last week, during exams, it snowed. Today the wind still has a nip in it, but I'm still optimistic we'll have warm weather next week.)

Concerts galore

2009-04-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying a whole series of musical concerts lately at the grand theatre in KaiFaQu (a development area between here and Dalian). Last month, we were serenaded by a Crotian pianist playing a lot of Chopin, Brahms, and Beethoven classics, as well as two Chinese singing trios. Last night was by far the best performance to date. We took in an orchestra of traditional Chinese instruments: there were many harps (guzheng), some flutes, trumpets, drums, and chimes. The conductor was outstanding and the whole orchestra even danced as they played, bobbing their heads with synchronized hand movements. I finally felt like I was soaking in some true Chinese culture.
The funny thing was the conductor and soloists were presented with flowers at the end of every piece! They probably have enough flowers to fill a dressing room. There are guards in uniform at all the doors of the concert hall, kind of like the Sound of Music, and they spend their time chasing down anyone who is trying to take pictures or videos. Tonight, however, they were more concerned with constantly replenishing the flower stash.

Learn Chinese in five minutes

2009-04-10T00:20:00.001-07:00

Mom and Dad are coming to visit in July, so I thought I'd give them some useful Chinese phrases to practice before they get here:

English: He's cleaning his automobile.
Chinese: Wa Shing Ka.

English: This is a tow away zone.
Chinese: No Pah King.

English: Is there a fugitive here?
Chinese: Hu Yu Hai Ding?

English: Small Horse.
Chinese: Tai Ni Po Ni.

English: Did you go to the beach?
Chinese: Wai Yu So Tan?

English: It's very dark in here.
Chinese: Wai So Dim?

English: Has your flight been delayed?
Chinese: Hao Long Wei Ting?

English: I thought you were on a diet?
Chinese: Wai Yu Mun Ching?

English: Your body odor is offensive.
Chinese: Yu Stin Ki Pu.

English: You know lyrics to the Macarena?
Chinese: Wai Yu Sing Dum Song?

English: I got this for free.
Chinese: Ai No Pei.

English: Phew! Does this bathroom stink!
Chinese: Hu Flung Dung?

21 degrees and sunny

2009-04-06T00:06:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's another beautiful day in Dalian. I didn't even need a coat today for flag ceremony. Every Monday morning the whole school meets outside in perfectly straight lines for a half-hour assembly when we raise the school and country flags and sing the Chinese anthem, the Canadian anthem, and the school song:

Gentle navy ocean unites two great nations
Over brilliant waters comes the pride of Dalian
Oh, Maple Leaf, oh, Dalian
Maple Leaf, working hard together for our future
Maple Leaf, working hard together for our future
Blending finest of our nations, that's the spirit of Maple Leaf!
Blending finest of our nations, that's the spirit of Dalian!

I was just thankful for the opportunity to get some rays of sunshine on my face. I would love to go for a bike ride after school, but I have guitar club and I'm not going to pass up the chance to play guitar with Justin, Dan, and Anjali, and build up these callouses on my fingers. This week is a little crazy for me because Lillian just had her baby, so I'm going to be covering her classes for a month. That means that today I teach blocks B-H with no preps (8:40 AM - 4:40 PM) and I get to mark an extra set of math tests. At least it means a bit of a bonus since I'm officially broke - I'll be living off $30 for the next two weeks. Thankfully $30 goes a long way in China and I've already cooked enough food to cover me until the end of the term. I love living off the leftovers in my freezer.

First spring weekend

2009-04-05T07:06:00.001-07:00

What an amazing weekend! After the Saturday morning shopping trip, I took some of the students in our Maple Leaf Angels club on a trip to visit some kids at an orphanage in Dalian. We've been fundraising to buy clothes and other supplies for the kids, and it was wonderful to be able to deliver some presents and play games with the kids for a couple hours. I treated myself to a bike ride and massage in the evening.

Worship at DICF this morning was awesome. Mark gave a message from Ephesians that reminded me of the depths of God's love and helped refocus my priorities. Best of all, it was the first real day of spring. Temperatures climbed almost into the twenties and I certainly didn't need my big winter jacket and long johns. After I got back from church, I changed into a summer dress and took a walk along the ocean. I'm so lucky to be living here in Jinshitan - it's simply gorgeous. There were crowds on the qing gui today because it was the first day that Discoveryland was open this year. I'm looking forward to riding those roller coasters again. I had dinner with Anjali and cooked some smoked salmon pasta in an alfredo sauce. Just in case that wasn't decadent enough, we enjoyed cinnamon buns for desert. We serenaded eachother on the guitar after dinner and I'm looking forward to improving my skills again at guitar club tomorrow.

March is over :)

2009-04-03T19:17:00.001-07:00

Living in China gets more and more interesting as the days get warmer. One of my favourite things to do on the weekend is explore the local outdoor market. It's crowded with people early in the morning. Actually, the Saturday morning trips remind me a lot of life in France. Most people here buy fresh groceries every day, just like they did in Grenoble (although their choices of cuisine are very dissimilar). In France I used to see men gathered in groups, drinking beer at a small cafe or playing boules in a courtyard. Here men also gather in groups to play cards or mahjong. This morning the market was bustling with new vendors. People were selling the usuals - strawberries, pineapple, garlic, onions, veges, meat, eggs, rice, spices, fish, seafood as well as flowers, puppies, chicks, lighters, bras, musical instruments, and clothes. Right now I'm eating a whole pineapple which was cut up right in front of me for less than 2 bucks. I picked up so many fresh fruits and veges and chicken breasts from chickens who were butchered just this morning.

March was such a challenging month. There were so many days when I was just trying to put one foot in front of the other. I'm excited about April: it's the last week for term three this week and then we'll have a bit of a break with term exams. At the end of April, we have a week of vacation when Anjali, Sui Ki, Anita, and I will go down to Guilin and Yangshuo to see the stunning scenery, and do a little hiking and cycling. March definitely had its highlights as well. On the last day of the month, Anita, Anjali, Dana, Mike, and I performed a Bollywood dance to raise money to buy medical treatment and supplies for some local village children. Here's a little taste of our dance:

In mid-March we hosted a Mexican dinner at our place. I made chicken enchiladas, a chip dip, tacos, and a blackforest cake. The food and the company were amazing.
I wasn't really in the mood for a party that night, however, because it was the same night as Massoud Namini's memorial service. Massoud taught IT and Socials at our school and passed away of a heart attack this month. He was only 48 and has a young son. His wife also teaches at our school. He was such an amazing guy - he always had a positive outlook on life even though his life had many challenges. He was famous for his homemade bread, which he would regularly bake in the fifth floor's office breadmaker. I miss his prescence in that office and I miss his friendly face and humour in the hallways. He was an incredible teacher. But somehow life goes on and I constantly pray that I'll have the wisdom to help support my colleagues and students through this time. The best I can do to honour Massoud is to live life with the same passion, optimism and generosity.

Quotes from Tyler

2009-03-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"

- Kerouac

And above all I find it alarming that you believe you must study in order to write. No, my dear little sister, learn how to dance, or fall in love with one or more of the notary's clerks, officers, in short, any who are within your reach - rather, much rather commit any number of follies than study in Holland. It serves absolutely no other purpose than to make people slow-witted, and I won't hear of it.

For my part, I still continue to have the most impossible and highly unsuitable love affairs, from which as a rule I come away with little more than shame and disgrace. And in my own opinion I am absolutely right to do this, since, as I keep telling myself, in years gone by, when I ought to have been in love, I gave myself up to religious and socialist affairs, and considered art holier than I do now.

Why are religion or justice or art so sacred? People who do nothing but fall in love are perhaps more serious and saintly than those who sacrifice their love and their hearts to an idea. Be that as it may, in order to write a book, do a deed, paint a picture with some life in it, one has to be alive oneself. And so, unless you never want to progress, study is a matter of very secondary importance for you. Enjoy yourself as much as you can, have as many diversions as you can, and remember that what people demand in art nowadays is something very much alive, with strong colour and great intensity. So intensify your own health and strength and life a little; that is the best study.

- Van Gogh

Still sick

2008-12-27T02:35:00.000-08:00

A year ago I never would have imagined that I would be spending the next Christmas in a hospital in China. That's right - I've now been sick for 13 days and haven't been able to properly digest regular food. Thankfully we have a four-day weekend for Christmas, so I've been able to rest and relax and catch up on sleep.

The past couple of weeks have been eventful. After taking Tuesday and Wednesday off school, I dragged myself to class on Thursday and Friday, even though it took all my energy to climb the four flights of stairs to my office. I slept through my prep blocks and went to bed as soon as I got home after school. Saturday was our surprise party for Anita. Anjali and I went into KaiFaQu early that morning to buy presents for Justin and Anita on Robson street with Mike. We managed to find a shirt for Justin, but couldn't see anything for Anita. We popped by Watsons to pick up a santa hat and I grabbed some warm tights at Trustmart. It was sooo cold that day that I was still freezing even with three layers on. We headed into Dalian to meet up with Justin and get lunch. I've never spent so much time wandering around Dalian as we did that day. We walked down to Russian street and then jumped into a cab to grab lunch at the Olive Garden. People have been raving about the restaurant, but I thought the spaghetti was just okay. It was just nice to get inside and warm up. After lunch, we still had almost five hours to kill to keep Justin entertained and in Dalian until the surprise party. We walked back downtown and shopped for Anita's present in the underground shopping areas. We found some earrings and grabbed a scarf in the Korean market. By that point it was still only 4 pm and we still had two-and-a-half hours to kill. Justin was suggesting going back to KaiFaQu, so we were getting worried about being able to keep him in Dalian. We were also worried because we were so close to the Qing Gui and knew that other teachers would be arriving soon. We jumped into a taxi to go to a Starbucks and decide what to do next. While we were in the taxi, we saw Peter and Kevin with the birthday cake, but luckily Justin didn't notice. We actually bumped into Anita at Starbucks serindipidously and we all walked over to Brooklyn Bar together. After a whole day of preparations, it was great to see that the surprise was a success! We had about twenty teachers come out to celebrate and we managed to get everyone to sign their birthday cards the week before. The burgers at Brooklyn Bar were incredible and we had the whole third floor of the restaurant to ourselves. Afterwards we went out dancing at a little bar and taxied it all the way back to Jinshitan. Here's a picture of Anita, myself, Anjali and Justin at Brooklyn Bar: On Sunday I woke up exhausted, but took the early qing gui to Dalian for church where we met up with Edgar for the Christmas service. We stayed for the free lunch after church and then did a little shopping at Metro. They're putting up an IKEA right beside Metro and it should be open before February - I'm so excited. I'll be able to get my candles again :) On Sunday evening I wasn't feeling very well, but I still got up for school on Monday. It snowed a little bit on Monday so flag ceremony was cancelled. We usually all meet on the basketball court in front of the school to sing the Chinese, Canadian, and Maple Leaf School anthems. It was just way too cold on Monday, so I was able to rest a bit during the break instead. After school we had a Christmas potluck at our place. We had a lot of great food and I made my broccoli and cheese sauce again, as well as an apple pie, but I mostly ate vegetables. We sang carols together afterwards and it really started to feel like Christmas. Here's Angali, Elaine, me, Anita, Timio, and Yiming enjoying dessert:On Tuesday, I had a hard time dragging myself out of bed, but I still went to school. I cancelled my tutorial after school so that I could come home and go to bed. On Wednesday, Kevin and I mixed up our girls and boys classes to do some Christmas math problems together. I handed out candy canes to my kids and got a lot of cards and chocolates from students. On Wednesday night, Anita, Elaine, Rody and I went to Dalian to sing Christmas carols in Zhongshan square. We went out to our favourite JiaoZi restaurant for dinner took a cab back to Jinshitan. Anita and I were supposed to leave for Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning, on Thursday (Christmas) morning, but I was sooo sick on Tuesday night that I spent the night in the bathroom. I woke up and told Anita that I was so sorry, but I'd have to cancel our trip. Suiki and Anjali came over for a pancake and crepe breakfast and prayed for me. I started feeling better right away and even sat with them for breakfast. I was all packed and ready to go to Shenyang, so I changed my mind and decided to just try to do the trip (I really don't know what I was thinking!) On the way downtown to buy our tickets I realized that it would be foolish for me to try to do a big trip and come back to another week of teaching without any time to recuperate. So instead of going to the train station, Anita and I went to the hospital. The Dalian University hospital was just gorgeous. We got to stay in the VIP lounge where they had a large flat-screen tv and comfy couches. I got to take a blood test, urine sample, and ultrasound. Because I was a VIP, I got to skip the line-ups for the tests and get my results analyzed right away. They didn't find any abnormalities in my tests, which is good, and the doctor gave me about twenty packs of pills to take. I've been taking them regularly and they seem to help a little bit, but I still haven't been able to digest anything except soup and rice. If I'm still sick on Monday I'll go the doctor again. I've been losing a bunch of weight and I just want to be eat regularly again (especially since we have our weekly girl's night potluck on Monday).

After the hospital, we got our hair cut and met up with Edgar for dinner. Anita and I went to the spa in Dalian after dinner. It was an incredible experience! For a 37 yuan (6 dollar) entrance fee, you get access to all the hot tubs, saunas, and spas. You also get a free late night and breakfast buffet. There's also a room full of huge lazy-boys where you can spend the night. We took the elevator up to the second (girls) floor where we got a locker for our clothes. We stripped down completely naked and put on the paper underpants the staff gave us. We rinsed off in the amazing endless-hot-water showers and then jumped into the hot tubs. I thought it would be awkward to be completely naked, but I got used to it pretty quickly. It was pretty quiet there, since it was a weeknight and there were only about ten other people on our floor. We enjoyed the saunas and then splurged on the services they had to offer. First of all, we got a full body rub-down with an exfoiliating glove. It hurt a bit, but it was good to get rid of the rolls and rolls of dead skin. I was seriously pink afterwards :) Then we got to lie down on a heated pad and they covered us with this saran-wrap stuff to keep us warm and we got an exfoiliating full-body massage. They also gave us a moisturizing face mask. I wish I had photos - the place was simply gorgeous, but understandably, we weren't allowed to take pictures. After we got cleaned up, we went upstairs for the free food (even though I only drank tea and ate rice). We went onto another floor for the lazy-boys, but the only spots that were left were in the smoking room. Each chair had its own tv and there were a ton of masseuses offering to give us massages. The girls were all dressed in shiny little dresses and looked like they were offering a different sort of massage, if you know what I mean. We tried to sleep in that room, but it was pretty noisy and got a little smoky, so we slept on some couches in the lounge instead. I managed to get a spot in the non-smoking room and had a decent night's sleep. In the morning, we enjoyed the hot tubs and saunas again and took advantage of the free breakfast. We got a free entrance ticket for next time because we spent more than 200 yuan. New Year's holiday, here we come!
On the way back home we picked up some paint so we can redo our apartment next weekend. I hope I have my energy back by then. Today I just stayed at home and rested all day, which has done my body good. Best of all, I surfed the net and found a flight home for $640 (directly from Seoul to Vancouver on expedia.com). So for the long break, I'm going to spend a long weekend in Haerbin to see the ice sculptures and then go to Seoul to visit with Joanne. I'll fly to Vancouver from there and spend a good three weeks with the family. Ever since I got sick, I've been a bit homesick and I'm really looking forward to seeing friends and family again.

Sicker than a dog

2008-12-16T23:15:00.000-08:00

Today and yesterday were my first two sick days of the year. My friends tell me I've been overworking myself, which is partly true, but it's surprising I got sick now, because I really did take it easy on the weekend.
On Friday night, we had our last game of bowling. We stopped by Eddie's for dinner and I picked up an advent calendar for old time's sakes. I was on fire during bowling, for some reason. Even though I bowled zero in the first and last frames, I managed to score 136. I've never scored above 100 before. I lucked out with a bunch of strikes and spares - I just wish I'd had that luck earlier in the season. I hung out with some friends at Starbucks afterwards and took an early taxi back to Jinshitan. Once I got home, I buckled down and finished all my weekend marking. I was ecstatic at the first opportunity to really enjoy a weekend.
On Saturday morning, Anita and I headed into Dalian to run some errands before the Christmas party. First we went to the post office to mail some Christmas cards. We had them all ready to go, but we were told that we needed special envelopes, so we had to readdress every letter. Maybe that's why my letters from September took so long to send. I don't even know if they've made it to Canada yet. Anita and I were planning to go to a spa (where many Chinese people go to bathe - it's segregated into men and women and essentially you're taking a bath with a bunch of other naked people. It sounds more awkward than relaxing, but I still want to try the experience). Unfortunately, the mail took so long that we were out of time for the spa, so we did a little shopping instead. We went down to Er Chi square so that Anita could pick up her tailor-made dress for the night (I decided against getting a special outfit made, since I couldn't decide on a cut, colour, or fabric (too many choices!), but I wore a skirt instead). I did a little browsing and saw some beautiful coats at one of the booths. I've been wanting to get a long coat tailored, so I talked to the ladies in broken Chinese and managed to describe the coat I was looking for. The offered me a price of 450 yuan, but I thought it was a little much and suggested 300 yuan. They shook their heads, and I still wasn't sure I wanted it, so I told them I'd think about it. Then they said ok for 300, so I couldn't refuse (that's about 55 bucks for a knee-length peacoat). I can't wait to pick it up next week. I was so proud of being able to describe exactly what I wanted and negotiate a price without having Anita around to translate!
We went down to the hairdressers after Er Chi and got a dry hair wash, massage, and style. We did our makeup in the salon and jumped into a taxi to get to the party. The party at the Imperial Hotel was incredible! There was so much good food catered by Eddie's and at least 100 teachers came out to celebrate. We danced the night away until about 11:30 and then Anita and I went to Elaine's grandparents' apartment to crash in Dalian.
We got up early the next morning and ran a bunch of errands at Metro (my favourite store for groceries and imports, even though it's crazy-expensive), Decathalon (a great sportsware store), and B+Q (a furniture store). We picked up some cute lamps for $2 and a great shelf for our kitchen. The only trouble was that we were lugging heavy bags around Dalian to get to church. We finally made it a little on the late side and were glad to take a load off our shoulders for a while. After church we came straight home and Anita and I went for a bike ride since it was so nice outside. It's been so clear lately and hardly cold at all. I treated myself to a massage after the ride and went all out with a full-body and back oil massage. My masseuse didn't want me walking home alone at night, so he walked me back to my apartment, even though I assured him I'd stay safe. I went to bed early, completely relaxed.
Monday was Anita's birthday, so I planned to bake her a cake and have a potluck at our place in the evening. I didn't get a chance to back during my morning prep, since one of my students wanted to get some tutouring, so I rushed home after school. I baked a cake, some shake-and-bake chicken, potatoes, broccoli and cheese sauce. Anita, Rodi, Anjali, Elaine, Suiki, and I had such a feast together - thai curry, indian potatoes and chick peas, chinese soup, and all my dutch food (it makes my stomach queasy just thinking about it). I ate until I was stuffed and then we surprised Anita by inviting a bunch of other teachers over for cake. Anita and I went out for a bike ride afterwards to get a massage, but they were already closed, so we just headed back home. I was feeling a little sick to my stomach, but had no idea how sick I really was. When I started puking, it just wouldn't stop. I don't think I slept a wink that night and I lost track of the number of times I threw up after 10. I vomited more times that night than I have in the past 15 years put together. There were times when I didn't know whether to sit down or lean over the toilet. By the end of the night, I was puking up tea and medication. I called in a sub, but still had to go to school in the morning to make sub plans. Sometimes it's easier just to teach than to call in sick! I slept all day and all through the night, without hardly waking up. When I got up this morning, I was feeling a little better, but still really weak and unable to hold down food, so I called in a sub again. I still went in to school to make plans and practice for our New Year's musical performance tomorrow. I hope I'm fully better by then. I'm playing pachabel's canon with three violins. I'm grateful for all the wonderful friends I have here. Anita made me tea and prayed with me for the past few days. Rodi gave me some medication and Suiki called to see how I was. Anjali stopped by to give me a hug and get me something to drink. I'm so well cared for!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-08T00:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend was just what I needed. On Saturday I went into Kai Fa Qu to have lunch at The Real Eddie's. They have the best western food around. I love their pizza and especially the roasted vegetable sandwich. They also just stocked up on new imports like taco seasoning, salsa, mozarella cheese, pasta sauce, and spices. Mmmm :) We met up with Steve from Shanghai (the guy who used to teach physics here last year. Both Anita and I discovered his blogs before we came to DMLIS and that's how we met eachother). I did a little shopping at Trustmart after lunch and then finished all my marking at Starbucks. I picked up a tiny fake Christmas tree and some garlands to decorate our place. When I got back to Manjitan I treated myself to a massage and then hung out with Anjali. On Sunday, Anita and I came right home after church, but we still didn't get back until 4 pm! We did some shopping at the local markets in Manjitan. There's a wonderful spot to buy fresh chicken breasts and all the fruits and vegetables are sooo cheap. We had a potluck dinner and listened to Christmas music.
But the best part of the weekend was the discovery of most of my lost items. My cell phone was at the bottom of my purse (I swear I emptied my purse twice and didn't see it - I don't know how it got there), my USB was in one of my sweater pockets (I took all the clothes out of my closest this weekend and checked all the pockets), my attendance sheets were in the vice-principal's office, and my favourite mug was in the fifth floor office. My laptop is still MIA, but I have faith that it will pop up somewhere this week.

Rant

2008-12-04T22:01:00.000-08:00

It's hard for me to imagine a more challenging week than this one. Let me explain...
First of all, on Monday we teach from 7:40 to 4:40, but this week was even longer because we had a meeting afterschool to welcome the ministry of education representatives here to inspect the school. I came home simply exhausted and then cooked up some spaghetti for a potluck with Anita and Yiming. After dinner, Anita and I went out to Manjitan for a foot massage, which took away some of my stress, but meant that I wasn't as planned and prepared as I wanted to be for Tuesday.

On Tuesday, I was scrambling in the morning to prepare all my materials and get my binders ready for the ministry inspections. The vice principal was supposed to come into my class during F-block, but got sidetracked and couldn't make it, so now he's going to surprise me sometime. It was such a hectic day, but thankfully I got a package from my parents in the mail which gave me the energy to make it through the day. I stayed late after school on Tuesday to plan and get organized and didn't get home until late in the evening.

Wednesday was crazier than I was expecting. I was called to TOC for another Math 10 class, so I lost one of my prep blocks. Then I had a meeting at lunch time and was running around in the afternoon. After school, there was a staff meeting for pro-d for new teachers and at 5 I ran my tutorial. There were tons of kids there, trying to get caught up on old assignments and ask questions about their tests. I felt like I needed a couple of clones to get everything done. I rushed home at 6:45 for our potluck and just crashed. I felt so bad that I didn't have time to contribute food to the potluck and I barely had the energy to eat. Right after dinner was over, I headed back up to the office to get ready for Thursday, and as soon as I got home, I fell asleep.

Yesterday, we had the Maple Leaf Angels club meeting at lunch and again I was running around beforehand and couldn't even get to the meeting on time. After school I ran my tutorial and again it was packed. I was so exhausted afterwards that I left a bunch of stuff in my classroom and just came home for dinner. Somewhere in the craziness of this week, I lost a ton of stuff. When I get stressed out, my brain can't hold all the information it needs to and I start to forget things. Early this week, I lost my USB, which contains all my teaching materials, my students' grades, and pretty much everything that was on my computer. Last week I tripped over my computer's power cord and pulled it face down onto the floor. The monitor cracked, but I managed to snap it back together and it seemed to be working reasonably well. Also early this week, our shower floor cracked and we couldn't use the shower for a couple days. I also can't find my attendance sheets for this week. I have no idea when I lost them or where I might have left them (I think I lost them on Wednesday because I remember writing down the attendance for that day). Even worse, last night I lost my cell phone. I've been trying to call myself, but I can't find it anywhere. And to make matters worst, yesterday I lost my laptop computer. So I didn't have any of my lesson plans or materials for teaching today. I had to scramble this morning to put everything together. We had another meeting at lunch today, so I didn't have time to eat until just now. I am so thankful that it's the weekend.

During lunch today, our Maple Leaf Angel club sold newspapers to raise money to buy winter shoes for children at an orphanage in Dalian. It was a good reminder for me that I am so blessed just to have things like a cell phone and laptop in the first place. I really have nothing to complain about - I have my health, a great job, wonderful family, and such good friends. Some days like today it's harder to keep a positive attitude and count my blessings, but I have to, or else I'd go crazy.

Things that really wouldn't fly in Canada

2008-11-29T22:00:00.000-08:00

It's been way too long since I've updated this blog and so much has happened since then. I have so many little China observations and anecdotes, so I apologize in advance for the randomness of this post.

First of all, there are some things you would experience only in China. I'm not even sure if this is normal in China or if I just have all the luck. The last time Anita and I went to pick up drycleaning at the small shop in Manjitan, we were calmly and politely (or should I say Canadianly) conducting our business when a man walked in to drop off some clothes. He budged in front of us (a common occurance here. With so many people, it's truly survival of the fittest in China. You have to fight to be seen and heard). He started talking loudly with the store clerk, completely ignoring the fact that we were in conversation with her. He picked up his drycleaning and then proceeded to quickly strip down out of his pants. Now this store is really tiny, so I tried to avert my eyes, but this dude was really in our personal space. When you go into a store, you simply don't expect to see someone from the opposite sex take off his clothes right in front of you. He gave his dirty pants to the cleaner, put on a pair of clean ones and walked out as if he did this every day. Can you imagine if this happened in Canada? I could sue for harassment.

I still can't get over the way people drive here. I would never dare to drive a vehicle on the roads, although I am getting used to the honking (which really means "I'm here - get out of the way and fast!"). Last time I rode a taxi, the driver pulled up onto the sidewalk (even though people were walking there) in order to get in front of a couple cars to make a right turn. I rode in another taxi that was flying through the traffic, changing lanes continually and honking non-stop. He even cut off a police car with its sirens blaring. Can you imagine this happening in Canada?

The view I have from my office window is constantly changing. There's a new commercial centre popping up across the street and I've never seen anything get built so quickly. Just a couple weeks ago they were dropping huge, flat, round rocks to create holes in the ground for the foundation. Now they're building the actual buildings and at least one floor gets added every two days. I wish I had taken time-lapse photos of the construction. The guys out there are like lemmings. They're crawling all over the place, working 24-hours a day. There's a good 100 guys out there right now, each efficiently doing his task at hand. Labour is cheap in China, so construction happens at record pace. I wonder how stable it can be, however, if it gets built so quickly. Just the other day, one of our students was playing around downstairs and bounced a basketball off the wall once. The plaster crumbled on contact and now there's a huge hole in the wall. I can't imagine what would happen to our buildings if an earthquake hit here.

This afternoon our club, the Maple Leaf Angels, visited an home for children whose parents are in prison. We played games and sang songs with the kids and then make cookies together. It was a lot of fun and it felt good to do something in the community. We're hoping to raise enough money by selling newspapers at lunch time to buy the kids winter shoes.

My address

2008-11-10T01:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a copy of my address in easy-to-print label form just in case you want to get in touch with me. I'd love to hear from you!

I stink?

2008-11-05T00:50:00.000-08:00

My vice-principal came in to my office today and said she just met with one of my students who couldn't remember my name, so she said "You know, she's the one who's really smelly. She's the teacher with the big smell" It took the vice-principal a minute to figure out that by "smell", she really meant "smile" :)

Observations

2008-11-04T17:19:00.000-08:00

China is full of great benefits and drawbacks:

- Today is so foggy and/or polluted that we can barely see the buildings across the street. My eyes are stinging a little, so I decided to check the air quality index. It turns out we're at 128, which is "unhealthy for sensitive groups". Anything under 100 is satisfactory. Surrey, in contrast, is at 9 right now. I'm just hoping that cold, cold wind from the North will come and blow the blue skies back again.

+ On the weekend, I took my first motorcycle ride back to campus from the Qing Gui for only 50 cents.

- While walking out to dinner in Kai Fa Qu last Thursday, we passed by an outdoor pet market. The puppies looked way too young to be separated from their mothers and many of them were shaking with their tails between their legs. One of the puppies jumped out of its box to the ground two feet below. I gasped in shock when the pet salesman gave the pup a good hard kick (the puppy squealed in protest) and then picked the poor animal up and threw it in the trunk of his car. I can't wipe the image from my mind. I just wanted to buy the whole lot of animals then and there. It looks like there is no SPCA in China.

+ Yesterday, I took my bike club guys on an hour ride up to the golf course and back. The views of the waves crashing along the beach were extraordinary. The pollution makes the sunsets even more brilliant. It was a great way to unwind from a long, long day.

- The list of foods which are safe to consume keeps getting shorter and shorter. So many things are tainted with melamine that I'm beginning to lose track. At first, it wasn't so bad. Chinese milk was infected, but then I never did like milk all that much, and I could always get New Zealand milk from Metro. Now all our dairy products are in question: yogurt, ice cream, coffee creamers... What took the cake was when they announced that Snickers and Dove had melamine in it. How dare they take my chocolate! Now it turns out that Dalian eggs are not good and our oranges have worms in them.

+ To end on a good note, we discovered another little luxury after our Halloween party on Friday night. For about 14 dollars, you can stay overnight in a lazy-boy at the Kerren Hotel, enjoy the spa, watch tv, and even get a massage (for a little extra). I was going to take advantage of it, but ended up going back to Jinshitan instead. It's nice to know that I can always stay there overnight if I'm out on the town late. One of these days I'll sleep there just because I can.

2008-11-02T01:04:00.000-07:00

Whoops, I can't believe I haven't posted for a month! It sure has been an eventful month! I'm going to have to fill in all the details eventually...
This weekend, we celebrated Halloween to the extreme. Angali, Anita, and I got Jane-Austen-style dresses tailored at Er qi square in Dalian (I always thought it was Archie square, named after a tailor or something, but it's actually just "27th square"). I can't wait to get a bunch of different clothes tailored there. I was just drooling when I walked in. There are literally hundreds of booths, each with a different tailor and different specialty, just waiting to take your order. The rows upon rows of fabric to choose from are any seamstress' dream come true. Now I just need to decide what might look nice. There's just way too many choices!
Anyways, our dresses turned out wonderfully and we bought gloves and masks to match. Anita convinced me to dress up for exam invigilating during the day so we could show our students. I got a lot of work done before the party and headed home where our hairdressers from Dalian were waiting to do our hair. Anita had taken them on a short bike ride and they were both exhausted, but they still managed to curl all our hair with only one curling iron in an hour. We went out for dinner with them at a Korean restaurant and enjoyed a night out on the town at the Silk Road Bar afterwards. We definitely turned some heads walking down the streets of Kai Fa Qu on the way there (especially the guys in their dresses!)
Yesterday I went to another Halloween party near LvShun with the guys we met in Beijing. We were all exhausted from report cards and partying, but we still had a great time. We were even greater celebrities there. The party was mostly for the Chinese university students and they made a crowd around us when we came in. Everyone's cameras started flashing and I was asked to be in so many photos that I felt like I was being chased by paparazzi. We had a great time - we got the shy Chinese students on the dance floor and were entertained by an amazing magician. The best part was hearing the shop owners blare French pop music as we walked down the street.
Right now I should be writing report cards, so I'll have to save all the other interesting updates for later...

Beijing

2008-10-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm on a one-week break thanks to today's National Holiday. So Angali, Anita, and I decided to go to Beijing for the week and check out the sights. We also joined up with Edgar from the Foreign Nationals School downtown. So far the trip has been amazing. Beijing is still basking in the glow from the recent Olympic Games. Flowers are in bloom everywhere, banners for the Olympics still fly, and it seems like all of China wants to visit the capital for the National Holiday. The streets are packed with foreigners and Chinese alike, thronging to take in the sights.

We left Dalian on Saturday night after a full day of teaching. The six-day work-week wasn't quite so taxing because we had sports day on Friday and didn't have any regular classes. Still, it was weird to have one more day of school before the break. It seemed like every teacher gave a quiz or test on Saturday, poor kids, and my class was no exception. That means I have a lot of marking to look forward to when I get back home! I actually thoroughly enjoyed sports day. I had a one-hour block to supervise various events and cheer on my homeroom, but other than that, the day was free. It was one of the most beautiful and clear days that we have had in a while, so I couldn't resist the urge to take my bike down along the beach and snap pictures of the coastline. I can't wait to share them with you, but the computers at the hostel here are having trouble reading my USB stick. Anyways, it was a wonderfully relaxing day. That evening, we headed into Kaifaqu for an all-you-can-eat buffet at the East Hotel. It was a little pricey by China standards, but the chocolate fondue made it all worth the while :)

So, as I was saying, we took the qing gui out to the airport to catch our evening flight Saturday after school. We were going to grab dinner along the way, but we didn't have enough time, so we ate at the airport. We got to take a shuttle-bus out to our airplane and walked right on the plane. The trip was about as short as the flight from Terrace to Vancouver, so we barely got in the air when we started to descend again. We were a little too excited about our escapades, I think, because one of the guys in front of us told the steward to tell us to be quiet. It's true that when Anita, Angali, and I get together, we get eachother going :)

We took a bus from the airport and arrived at our hostel in a hutong district of Beijing just after midnight. I'm so impressed with our hostel (Chinese Box Hostel) - it's incredibly clean and even has sit-down toilets that flush (truly a luxury in China). Anita did a great job finding an affordable, lovely place to stay. We're staying in a six-bed dorm with a guy from Switzerland, and a Chinese guy. We got up early on Sunday morning and went straight to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We had breakfast at a noodle restaurant by Tiananmen. I still have a hard time getting used to eating spicy noodles with meat and veggies for breakfast, but I'm learning to adapt. I don't crave Western food very often, but I do when it comes to breakfast. It's a good thing I brought a whole case of my favourite oatmeal with me to China :)

After breakfast, we were excited to explore the Forbidden City. It took us a long time to get inside the city since we kept getting distracted by the many things to see along the way. We got tickets for a small artifact exhibit, and on our way in, we met an art student who showed us an exhibition of his and his classmates' work. I picked up some paintings to put up in my place (I still have to show you what my new place looks like). Then we went next door and dressed up in traditional Chinese dress and had our pictures taken in front of screens of the Great Wall and the emporer's throne. Sure, it was a bit of a tourist trap, but it's also a nice keepsake. While we were waiting for them to develop, we checked out some of the small museum exhibitions and then finally went into the city. I could have easily spent a whole day there, exploring the alleys and buildings. It really is a city all to itself. I especially liked walking through the gardens and seeing all the exotic plantlife. It was there that we met Tyler, who is studying Chinese in a city close to Dalian. In her typical style, Anita picked up his cell number so that we could get together throughout the week. On our way out of the city, we bumped into a lady who was offering tickets to an acrobatics show. We haggled them down from 180 yuan to 100 yuan, but it was still too much for Angali, so Anita and I went on our own. It was an amazing experience to see girls spinning plates on large sticks, guys jumping through hoops, and eight people riding one bicycle. I was surprised that the audience didn't applaud more often. My favourite part was a love story between a man and woman, floating through the air on stretchy ropes. It was truly beautiful. After the show, we got a text from Tyler inviting us to meet him and some others in the bar district of Sanlitun. Angali and Edgar met us later that evening and we danced the night away. It was a fun-filled day!

More to come...

Things I miss...

2008-09-24T01:51:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong - I love life in China. But there are certain things I really miss from home. This is for all those people out there thinking about moving to China - I wish I had this list before I came!
Tortilla shells (O frabjous day! I found them at Metro today)
Taco Chips (yay, also at Metro!)
Chocolate Chips
Gum
Yeast
Bread that isn't sweet
Normal milk
EXPO whiteboard markers (ours run out sooo quickly)
Hockey Night in Canada, reality TV (yeah, I know, I'm addicted), Gray's Anatomy, the Big Bang Theory, Lost...
Rock Band
Dutch candies
Quaker Chocolate-Chip Granola Bars (I don't know what I'm going to do when they run out)
Rustic Touch, Clear Power and other Melaluca cleaning supplies (they're amazing, really)
An in-tune piano

I am sooo glad I brought:
Medication (I've become the resident dealer)
My whole spice collection
Herbal tea
Deoderant
Earplugs (the noise from construction, honking cars, and barking dogs is enough to keep anyone up at night)
My music!

I am grateful for the little luxuries China has to offer:
Cheap taxi rides (even though it feels like I'm risking my life every time I step into a taxi!)
Massages
My ayi (she is truly amazing)
Great food
DVD's at a steal
So many places to explore...

Lost in translation

2008-09-24T01:39:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting episode in one of my classes the other day. I was just reading out the daily attendance when all of a sudden everyone bursts out in uproarious laughter. The kid whose name I read quickly excuses himself and rushes off to the bathroom. The next day he comes up to me and asks me to call him Tony M instead of his full name. I was so confused! So last night I asked Anita and Li Lei what it could possibly mean. Poor kid - apparantly when you put his English first name and Chinese last name together, you get a swear word. Tony Ma means "go *bleep* your mother". I guess he didn't realize what would happen when you put the two together (in Chinese, the last name comes first).

So overwhelmed

2008-09-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

It's another gorgeous day in Jinshitan. The weather turned crisp, cool and windy overnight and it finally feels like fall. The cold winds from the North are a godsend because they blow away the pollution and leave the sky clear and blue. Winds from the South or the East just bring in more grayness from the big cities. I don't mind the cooler weather, but I'm just really hoping my boxes will arrive soon since they have all my winter clothes in them. That was a huge fiasco! We were told that the school would ship two boxes for us, which is wonderful, but they didn't tell us that they wouldn't arrive for a good two months. We were told to pack our teaching supplies, bedding, shoes, and winter clothes in the boxes (but not food, electronics, or medication because that stuff causes the packages to get held up in customs). Now I've been trying to survive these past few weeks without any teaching supplies and not many pants at all. We've been told that the boxes have arrived in China, but might take a month to clear customs! The good thing is that it will feel like Christmas when we do get them.
I did not sleep nearly enough last night, so I'm not as planned as I'd like to be today. I'm kind of panicking and trying to hide it, while scrounging for time to plan and mark. There's just way too many opportunities to socialize around here! After school today we have a club fair, where Anita and I will promote our bike and community outreach clubs. I would love to go on a bike ride along the coast today, but I think that I'd better finish all my plans before I take a break.

A tale of three cities: Jinshitan, Kaifaqu, and Dalian

2008-09-21T04:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend I definitely treated myself again. On Friday night, we played ultimate frisbee afterschool with a bunch of teachers and then headed out to Kaifaqu. Anita and I met up with Anjali for dinner and we tried to convince the other teachers to come out for Korean food with us, but they really wanted to go to Pizza Hut. Seriously?? Pizza Hut in China?? It's incredibly overpriced and not nearly as good as the asian food options. Needless to say, our Korean meal was incredible and the company was great :) We shopped at Trustmart and a bunch of little stores along the way back through Kaifaqu. At the end of our long night we enjoyed some McDonald's ice-cream. It's a little creamier than the Canadian variety and it hit the spot. We were sooo exhausted! We planned a little bit for our Beijing trip - I can't believe we'll be there in less than a week! Even though we got back from Kaifaqu pretty late, I stayed up to watch a movie for the last time in my apartment.
On Saturday morning, I switched apartments with Rody, so now I'm rooming with Anita - yay! I'll have to post some pictures of my new place soon. My new room is huge and has a nice view of plants outside my window. I was surprised how quickly the move was with all the help we got, but I still needed to clear my head before I started unpacking. I headed into the ESL building and played piano for a good two hours. The pianos are okay, but unfortunately the building is never open when I need it to be! I wish I had a key or could climb in through the windows. Maybe I should try that... Some students poked their heads in while I was playing and convinced me to teach them how to play Apologize, so I acquiesed. Eventually I dragged myself away from the pianos and started a little lesson planning (not before first grabbing some icecream at the school cafeteria store. It's still almost 30 degrees outside and I can work up a sweat planning :) After dinner I got a massage at the Blue Phoenix, which was incredible. I didn't realize how much tension I had built up over the week. It was a foot massage (later I wondered why I had chosen the foot massage of all things, because I'm sooo ticklish), but they massaged my whole body and left me feeling so relaxed. Best of all, it was less than ten dollars and there's a chance that the school will compinsate some of the costs. I'm going to make this a weekly tradition! I came home and watched the Bourne Ultimatum before bed (my DVD player is definitely getting good use).
This morning, I went to church with Anita, Rody, and Yimming. The worship time was very uplifting and helped me refocus for this week. We went out for the best jiao ze (my favourite is mutton and cilantro) and a nice restaurant downtown and then met up with Tyler and Peter to get another dry hair wash and massage. We did a little shopping at a 2 quai store (a dollar store where everything costs 33 cents) and picked up a bunch of plates and utensils since we do a lot of entertaining. All in all, it was a great weekend, but I'm feeling behind on planning and marking so I'd better get to it!

Best weekend ever :)

2008-09-13T04:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, I just had the most amazing weekend and it's not even half over yet! Yesterday, right after school, I packed up my bags and took the qing gui (aka skytrain) from Jinshitan to Dalian with Anita and Anjali. We went to an Indian restaurant on the fifth floor of the Zhongshan Hotel and met up with some other teachers from the Foreign Nationals School downtown. The food was amazing and we were entertained by Indian dancing and music throughout the night. The hotel had a glass elevator which took us up for an amazing view from the 38th floor, which was almost as fun as the hellevator ride at the amusement park last week. Then we wandered around the night markets and enjoyed the nightlife. Dalian is always thronging with people, no matter what time of day or night. We decided to indulge in one of our favourite luxuries here: the dry hair wash. We went into a random salon close to the teacher apartments and introduced the Foreign Nationals teachers to the joys of the hair wash. The guys in the salon pour shampoo on our heads and rub it in, using a spray bottle to get it all sudsy. The best part of it all is that they massage your head, back and arms while they do your hair. These guys were way stronger than the girls we usually go to in Manjitan, plus they were entertaining and kept teasing us. We went to bed so relaxed that night, and for only two bucks. We stayed in the apartments with the Foreign Nationals teachers. They are staying quite a distance away from their campus, in small one-room apartments. After seeing their places I feel so blessed to have so much space. They don't even have kitchens or stoves, so they eat out most of the time. I'll take my smelly bathroom anyday, if I can have a place to cook. Actually, I might move out of my place next weekend and start rooming with Anita. I can't wait to have a roomie again!
Anyways, today we woke up to the most beautiful day we've had so far in Dalian. And it was perfect, because we planned a hike for today. We picked up some coffee at McDonald's and some breakfast from some bustling street markets early in the morning before jumping on the qing gui to Kaifaqu. There we met up with some other teachers and took a bus out to DaHeiShi (literally big black mountain). The bus only costs 16 cents a ride and the light rail is just $1.33 (quite a steal compared to Vancouver). We hiked up to the top of the mountain past horses, yurts, and Buddist temples. The hike was absolutely amazing and by the time we reached the top, we could see for miles towards Dalian, Kaifaqu, and Jinshitan and out over the ocean. I can't wait to post pictures! We were also celebrities up at the top. All the Chinese hikers took out their cell phones and started snapping pictures of us. A bunch of girls wanted a picture with me. I'm getting accostomed to the stares I get as I walk down the street. Tomorrow we have a great day planned too: we'll be going to church, having lunch there, shopping for bikes (since we just got paid today, yay :) and celebrating the moon festival with a potluck and fireworks on the beach. So right now I'm hoping to get all my work for the week done so I can enjoy tomorrow and not panic on Sunday night as usual.

Jiao Shi Jie Kuai Le

2008-09-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

Jiao Shi Jie Kuai Le is Happy Teacher's Day. We celebrated yesterday and I even got a card from one of my students. So sweet :) I've been taking Mandarin lessons on Tuesday afternoons, but the students always laugh when I practice my phrases on them :)
I had my ayi come on Tuesday and she did such a great job cleaning my place. It was amazing! She does everything: she cleaned my floors way better than I could, dusted every crack, cleaned the bathroom and kitchen top to bottom, got rid of mold, did my dishes, cleaned and hung my laundry, and emptied my garbage all for $6. I will free up so much time on my weekends to get other stuff done and it's so nice to come home to a clean place at the end of a long day.
On Tuesday, we threw a surprise birthday party for Anjali, and I somehow managed to get her out of the house and stall her while we crammed 30 people into Anita's place. We even found cake and icecream! I have been eating at Anita and Rody's so much and getting lunch at the cafeteria (it's so cheap: $1 for a huge plate of food), so I have an overflowing fridge of food that needs to get cooked. Luckily we have plenty of potlucks coming up :) Life here is good.

Where did the weekend go?

2008-09-07T02:34:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I had grandiose plans of finishing a lot of my prepping for the term, but I ended up cleaning my place, doing laundry, and checking my email instead. So that evening I went down to Dragon, our apartment manager, and hired someone to clean for me. Hopefully that will free up some time in my schedule. Saturday night, I also went over to Anita and Rody's place for a potluck to thank Brian (Dragon's assistant) and Lei Li for helping them move in. We thought we were doing these two guys a favour by cooking home-cooked food since we see them eating out all the time. But little did we know that Lei Li used to be a cook himself. He took over all his supplies and made the most amazing dishes, including fish soup and a turnip carved into a rose.
Today I went to the Dalian International Christian Fellowship again with the girls from my Thursday Bible study: Rody, Anita, and Sui Ki. They changed their location to a university out by Tiger Beach to accommodate a growing congregation. I love how multi-cultural the church is and the pastor's messages always speak to my heart. We even have the opportunity to get involved in the community and volunteer at an orphanage. I can't wait to make more connections with people from Dalian!

Survived another first week

2008-09-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

So, the first week of teaching is now behind me. I really wish I had started blogging earlier because so many things have happened that I'd love to remember years done the road. I'll try to do some backtracking as I go along. The first week of teaching actually went pretty well, even though I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants. We actually started class last Friday, August 29. The kids take nine different classes during a week, of which we teach six. On Friday, we were supposed to run through all the blocks, but for a half-hour each, to give the kids a sense of what their classes were like and who their teachers were. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the computer system, so when I got to school on Friday morning at 6:30 AM, they still didn't have a schedule of which classes we would be teaching where. The admin team (who had been working all night except for a two-hour break from 2-4) told me to come back in a half hour. I was starting to panic because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find my classrooms in this gigantic school. I was hoping to scope it out before the school day began. Soon afterwards, the admin team realized that the student schedules couldn't possibly come together on time, so they decided to scrap the half-hour blocks and create a day of activities in the homerooms. So instead of doing a bunch of short math activities, I had to lead a grade 11 class through a bunch of get-to-know-you activities. We also took a walk down to the beach and played some PE games in the field (which you can imagine would be pretty difficult to coordinate with 500 kids on a field). All the teachers had to dress up semi-formally for the morning flag ceremony, so we were pretty sweaty and our feet were all sore from our nice shoes after the unexpected activities. Thankfully the kids were very well organized and knew where to go, so we could just follow them. The day was a success in spite of all the last minute changes.
On Monday, we had the first real day of school. We found out that our blocks and classrooms were rearranged and I ended up with one of the best situations imaginable. I'm teaching in a large, bright, new classroom equipped with all the latest projectors and sound systems (but not an overhead projector! What am I going to do? I just have a whiteboard and no whiteboard markers that work). My three prep blocks are all in a row, so I can get a lot of work done during the day if I choose to be productive. The school days are long here, especially Monday. The kids have class from 7:40 AM to 4:40 PM on Mondays and 7:40 AM to 3:40 PM Tuesday to Friday. Thankfully, the way my preps worked out, I teach 8:40 - 3:40 Monday, 9:55 - 3:40 Tuesday, 7:40 - 8:30 and 12:50 - 3:40 on Wednesday, 7:40 - 10:50 and 2:40 - 3:40 on Thursday, and 7:40 - 1:40 on Friday. Many of the other new teachers have to switch classrooms a couple times during a day or go to separate buildings for their offices, but my classroom is all mine and it's just two doors down from my office. I love the students already. This year, the school decided to segregate the genders in grade 10, so I have two blocks of Math 10 girls, two blocks of Math 10 boys, and two blocks of Math 11. So far I really love only having to prepare two subjects and having so many other math teachers to bounce ideas off of. Our classes are still changing a lot because the admin team is still trying to iron out problems with the students' schedules. Next week I'll make a strong effort to learn everyone's names. Each kid picks an English name and they definitely get creative picking names. I have girls named Cinderella, Memory, Funny, Cissy, and Tree, and boys named East, Wish, Rabbit, and Lucifer.
Last night, two of my close friends, Angali and Anita, and I caught the school bus to Kaifaqu to do some shopping. (It's crazy how quickly we all met and became friends here. It seems like this shared China experience drew us all together. I guess it also helps that we all work and live next door to one another. Relationships are developing all over the place). Anyways, we managed to pick up plane tickets for our end-of-September trip to Beijing. We have a week off for the national holiday, so we're going to explore China :) I can't wait to do some traveling! We also discovered an incredible store called the Haute bakery, which has amazing black forest cake. We went out for dinner at a pretty good Indian restaurant and then had a get-to-know-the-staff party at the Silk Road Bar. All in all, it was a great Friday night.
This morning I cleaned my place (which got incredibly dusty after one week - I'm definitely hiring a maid soon) and did my laundry (which is quite the task, involving dragging my heavy washing machine into my bathroom so I can hook it up to the sink, plug it in, and put the drain tube in the drainage hole in my bathroom floor). Right now I'm supposed to be planning lessons for next week, so I'd better get back to work!

First few days

2008-09-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Here's some stuff I wrote on August 22
It's hard to believe that I've only been here for two days because so much has already happened. It was so nice staying overnight in Japan - the hotel was wonderful and we had fun going out for dinner downtown. I'm not too terribly jet-lagged, although I've been waking up with the sun at 5:30 every morning. It's nice not having to drag myself out of bed in the morning :) Yesterday, we went for a medical checkup, which was a little crazy. First of all, we weren't allowed to eat anything for breakfast (probably for the ultrasound), and then we had a 2-hour bus trip downtown. We got there at 9:30 and waited in long line-ups for an around-the-world room-to-room checkup. The first one I went to made me lift my shirt and everything else and stuck wires all over my body and pulsed some sort of current through to check my system. It was especially awkward since you could see apartments through the window and there was only a thin sheet separating our room from the line-up waiting outside. Then I had to get two vials of blood removed to check for HIV. Something between the combination of no breakfast, a hot muggy room, and losing blood made me feel really faint afterwards. I'm still bruised from the needles. We also got an ultrasound, vision check, xrays, and had to give a urine sample (in a really dirty room with just a squatty potty). So afterwards when we went shopping, I made up for it and treated myself to everything I need for my apartment (including a toaster oven, DVD and CD player, rice cooker, and pots and pans). Even though restaurant food is incredibly cheap here, I can't wait to be able to cook for myself (my digestive system hasn't quite adjusted to the food here, but then my digestive system has always been a little crazy). I haven't gotten propane for my stove yet and my fridge doesn't work, but I have hope that soon I'll be all set up.
Today, we did a tour of the school and a lot of pro-d. The school is enormous! Right now I'm on the fifth floor of one of the buildings. It's like being on a university campus. The people that I'm working with are great. It really makes it feel like home when you always have someone to speak English with and almost everyone is from Vancouver. I haven't picked up much Chinese yet, but I know thank you, hi, how are you, 1, 2, 3, and cheers! I have no idea whether people can actually understand what I'm saying though :) Tomorrow I'm going to church with two other girls who just graduated from UBC and we'll do some shopping afterwards. I've also been hanging out with some of the other math teachers and since we all live so close together, we see eachother all the time. Now we're going to walk down to the beach, which is just a couple minutes from the school and see what it's like.