Winter Season

Lots happening right now at school and alas we have completely been neglecting our blog for people from far away. Winter is here and we are often bundled in long underwear and layers upon layers of clothes. Warm muslim noodles often fill our bellies, and we are thankful for quite a well working heating system. Only a few days left of school and we will leave all this cold behind which will fade into a memory as we head down south for a few days with friends, then REALLY south to India! Yes, our friend Cyriac has been asking us to come and we finally have the time, the money and close proximity to make our "one day"'s into TODAY! I am nervous but excited to explore us much as we can, and Ben should be a decent tour guide after spending a number of months as Cyriac's travel companion, long ago when they were both still bachelors. Now married, we are excited to meet his lovely wife and adorable little boys.
Heading up to these last few days of school we have been enjoying holiday festivities with the kids. The other grade one teacher and I have really enjoyed melding our classes together once again for all the fun. Here are a few shots of past and more present past. We've been making penguin adoption snow globes, reindeer hats, cookies, cupcakes and more. Such fun such fun!

MOVEMBER

It's been a month since we last checked in, so here's a whirlwind. Term 2 started, we finalized our Christmas holiday plans... INDIA!! We headed to Beijing to get visas for India, then had to go back, and then go back one more time to officially get them [India has lots of holidays and Ben needs to check when the Visa Application Center is open :)] We only have four full weeks of classes left before the break (the last week is half days and Christmas performances!!) The weather is getting colder, but not as cold as last year, for which we are very very thankful. The sun was shining bright today and it was actually a bit on the 'warm' side in the apartment. Christina enjoyed a peaceful afternoon at 798 on one of the most recent Beijing trips and Ben enjoyed eating at FatBurger!!

Most importantly, it is MOVEMBER, which means MOUSTACHE growing. Ben is loving it, but Christina wants to have her husband back... Moustaches can do strange things to men it would seem, and as such, November 30th can't come soon enough.

A real big shout out to Calvin and Lenny who are also MOVEMBERing this year. Search for Calvin Farnell and Len McCormack on the ca.movember.com website to see two truly majestic moustaches. Mo on!!

Christina continues to expand her culinary skills and for this I am THANKFUL. Today it was another batch of her Pumpkin Curry Coconut Soup. It tastes even more delicious than it sounds....

We'll be sure to keep you updated on the India travels as they unfold. Until next time

Done and on with the next

Report cards, parent/teacher interviews, crazy first term DONE! I am looking forward to second term, it shall be far less of a mess than this one. To cap it off, I started with a class of 18 rug rats, and for math it was boosted up to 24 with 6 early language learners to help through major math terms, on top of which a handful of second language learners I already had in the class to help with lower level of language comprehension. Then, a slew of unusual parent issues and things that seemed to come in large waves, and THEN my class was split in two, a month ago, but only part-time and I was still in charge of giving full-time report cards marks, comments, and interviews for 18 of the 24 students, 10 of which I only still had part time. All that and only able to use half my classroom space because the other half is in rotation to the pre-k kids for use of our smart board. Major report card vamp 2 weeks before they were due, teachers responsible for compiling and arranging in final order, based on a an elusive draft curriculum and anything else we chose to use, sort of, still not clear on that no matter how many questions I ask, yet keep it linked to all other grades and the high school too, wait, do I know that information? Nope...... Oh, and major changes in my TA help halfway through the term. Vague is all this forum can handle, specifics would baffle. But its done, term two has great promise in store. Parent/teacher interviews were the last of my stress for now, and they went incredibly smooth, so much for all my worries. Ah, looking ahead to new, leaving behind the old, wonderful:)

Back to work

Here we are, the night before another day another dollar. We are back to work tomorrow after a nice week off, though more than half of mine was spent on report cards and getting ready for term 2. YIKES!!! Term two already. My class has shrunk from 19 students to 10 (most of the time, sometimes there are three cute little Korean ESL kids that join in for Math class, no English but adorable smiles and delightful giggles.) 10 is heaven, though I am still taking all 19 for science and social studies, at the moment, but at the end of this week it will be my ultimate treat, with just the 10 and me. The tough part is that I still have to do report cards for all 19 for this first term....and I lose 3 weeks assessment time for half of them.....plus some other time for some this and thats at the beginning of the semester, are you following? Cuz I don't think I am:) Anyways, after this first term reports hopefully I will find life to be a little lighter and a little easier. The students are still so cute and I love seeing their smiling faces everyday. There is no shortage of tattles and "he did this" and "she did that" but they are still so stinkin in cute! Makes my day exciting, makes me feel like I can participate in someone's life and affect that little being in a positive way somehow with a simple "well, what do you feel about that?" or "let's talk about it together". Simple things, simple conversations, these, even the tough ones, get me through each day. Mini people are so full of life its great:)

WOW! Long time no blog!

Oops, seems we have neglected to keep up on our posts, with the craziness of school and all that is going on, I think we have just felt there is little time to do much. BUT, thankfully this week we got a break and spent a few days in Beijing exploring some areas we have not ventured into before. One place being an area called the 798 District. Now, markets in China are fun and all, but they are exhausting, with all the vendors trying to entice you in, trying to haggle you into paying outrageous prices, sometimes even grabbing at arms and bags, its almost like a scary movie when someone finds themselves in a cave of grabbing moaning hands:) So, we have done the usual, and made some connections at those markets, but we decided we wanted to try something new, and 798 turned out to be a GEM! 798 is an area that holds a large number of old factory and industrial buildings. Old brick walls, metal stacks, and strange pieces of heavy machinery litter the 3-4 block area and are now a part of the plethora of art pieces also on display. The area has quite a number of public galleries, along with unique clothing shops, tea houses, leather shops, trinket stores, jewelry stores, and more. What lies within this space welcomes the old and new and modern all together. Everywhere you go the walls are smattered with art and graffiti, people are mulling along exploring each new jewel they find, and the walkways and alleyways are constantly being used for photo shoots (it would seem that 50 percent of asia are photographers with all the latest and greatest in gear, and the other 50 percent are models, quite amusing:) It was hard to believe this place is in China, there was so much appreciation for art and raw aesthetics that it seemed too unpolished to be here, but it really is, and a number of people were there appreciating it. Definitely a place we will go back to, and if any of you ever make it to Beijing, a place you should drop by, but give yourself a whole day, you'll need it:) Here are only a few pics, it was pretty crowded in most areas where there was some really funky art pieces so I couldn't get any shots, it was the holidays so people were EVERYWHERE! More next time.

The Crew

Its been a while, yes, forgive me, and far too much has happened so far to explain it all. But the short of it is that there has been much to transition into, much to be challenged with, and yes, still much to enjoy. Our first month and a half back in China have been a whirlwind and we are struggling to find time to relax. Seems we are always on the go and always more to be done, but we are attempting to find balance. I am LOVING my kids! Maybe there are struggles in certain other areas, mainly in the adult world, but thats what life brings, beyond that though, and before it, I guess, are the chillins who make me laugh, question, wonder, smile, and ache for them. They are bundles of joy and I am thankful for each one of those little bundles in my class. So here are most of them, a few I haven't had a chance to capture yet as they were absent.

Shopping

Daily grocery shopping can be a fun task in China, mainly because sometimes I marvel at how cheap things actually are. Take for instance my trip to the vegetable market today. In total I spend 45 yuan (a little under 8 dollars Canadian). For this well spent 45 yuan I got:
-two large heads of broccoli
-one large head of cauliflower
-one head of celery
-one head of lettuce
-two large handfuls of long green beans
-eight large tomatoes
-eight large green peppers
-eight large carrots
(eight is a good number in China, sounds like the word for 'wealth' and you want to avoid four, because it can sound like 'die')

Is it organic, no, is it local, not too sure how local, but I bought it from a local, so that fits the bill for me. The local, my regular produce lady, was shocked at the weight of the bag as she heaved it over her neatly arranged rows of vegetables... then she asked if she wouldn't see me for another week... only time will tell on that.

What are all these vegetables going to make you may ask?? Well Christina is going to make a huge batch of her delicious Minestrone soup so that we can freeze some and have some ready to go meals after those long hard days at the office!!

back in TEDA

We're back! Our apartment greeted us late Tuesday evening to a hot stale air smell. It really doesn't cool down up on the 29th floor when all the windows have been closed for a month. Our Air Canada flight was GREAT!! No one sat in the third seat so Christina and I had the whole three-seater for two !! We enjoyed two very nice meals, a mustard chicken and a penne bolognaise, as well as many snacks and best of all had our own personal entertainment systems to pass the 10+ hours in the air, and did the time ever FLY!!

We've had two orientation sessions at the new school, and we are enjoying things so far. I've been given the keys to my new classroom and biology lab (Christina had already been over to her classroom before we left in June) and we are diligently planning the year. Well Christina is and I'm trying to! We have two more days on Monday and Tuesday with all the returning staff and then on Wednesday the students arrive!!

Home home home.....home?

We are home, finally! Feet set firmly on our lovely Canadian soil, breathing in the freshness of ocean and lush trees, drinking in the sight of galant towering clouds and calming cool mountains. We have stopped many times now to take it all in. Our Canada is far more fair than ever. A love is truly appreciated when absent for a mere moment in time, and yes, we love and appreciate Canada so much more than ever before. We are piling on lots of visits with family and friends over our short time here so please forgive the lack of posting until mid august when we will return to China and start our new positions for this next year. Hope all are well all over the world:)

Picture this...

...you are enjoying a lovely jaunt on your gym treadmill, stationary cycle, or elliptical. Listening to music, burning the calories, contemplating life, pushing hard, and sweating fiercely. You're decked out in your old sneaks, a well worn in pair of gym shorts, a raggedy tank, and your hair is all tousled and sweaty, but who cares? You're working out! But, then you question your attire, in fact you question your actual physical location, did you get the wrong venue? You're on a treadmill, right? There are weights and mats and water dispensers? Towels? Sterilizing wipes? What brings about this questioning? The man who walks in, dainty little gym bag in hand (quite a typical accoutrement here in China), donning his best tan leather loafers, porting his freshly ironed chinos, flaunting his crisp white collared dress shirt, he casually saunters around the room, puffing his chest out, eyeing each person's machine and their chosen level of resistance. After a slow once about, he meanders to the nearest, techiest looking machine and hops on, clicking the dials to be at least one higher level than the nearest user. For the next 5 minutes he "works out". Its at these times (and they are numerous) that I lose all focus on the calorie burning and MUST chuckle at the hilarity of it all, as well as pause in perplexity and wonder. Usually the man finishes his "cardio" and picks up a couple free weights, mostly to do something completely ridiculous, while grunting unnecessarily, perhaps what he has seen in some testosterone induced movie, which looks kinda good, maybe impressive from the right vantage point, but has no actual purpose or value. Then, casually, puffed out and proud chested, he picks up his baby blue gym purse and leaves satisfied and slightly smug. This is a regular occurrence (and not usually ever the same offender!) and completely shocking each and every time but it rivals the very recent, fantastically tight, all white, transparent gid-up a regular local has been sporting lately as he lunges and leans and grunts and growls. Honestly, its a wonder we get anything productive done at all at the gym, we are fully and entirely amused by the very diverse habits of some of the colorful locals.

And counting....

8 days and counting. We sit here, report cards finished, classrooms cleaned, offices becoming quite bare, and there are still 8 days until we depart for Canada. What are we doing? Watching paint dry....or something quite similar: invigilating exams. Yes, teachers become "big brother" during exams, "we are watching you". And yes, we are there to help, supervise, answer questions and hand out exams, but for the most part its boring and tedious and pretty much like watching paint dry. Ben and I are only invigilating 3 exams each, so that means a whole lot of hours of twiddling our thumbs....and perhaps getting ready for next year. Which, by the way, will be a whole new bag of tricks for us, since we are both switching up schools. It was originally just I who would be skipping off to the other side of the street, but fortunately for holidays and such, Ben was able to nail down a placement at the same school. We are quite excited about the new positions, and we are hopeful for the school community. Nothing is perfect, we realize that, and no grass is ever truly greener, BUT we are optimistic that the new school seems to suit our needs and aims a bit better than where we have been working this year. So adieu to Maple Leaf, thank you for the year, the learning, the struggles, the growth, the challenge, the humbling moments, and the paycheck. Now, hello to new challenges!

baby steps...

just a quick little shout out to the good samaritans who made a point to help out Thursday morning with all the carnage left around Vancouver. Too bad the major media outlets prefer to spread the doom gloom and fumes instead of the feel good stories...

here's to hoping more stories like Thursday's can wash away some of the black marks left by Wednesday evening...

A comment to the Vancouver out there...

This is not really a post about China, its more about how our excitement, in knowing we will be back in the lovely Vancouver in such a short time, has been a bit tainted as we have wandered through the Vancouver Sun. Now, excitement seems to be dwindled by a bit of hometown shame. We have not been exempt from the news lately surrounding all the playoff hype, and we have been enjoying following each game. Ben has been rising early to watch on a streaming site and we always read the news to see and hear the daily/weekly gabs and jabs. But after game 7 today, we were just plain saddened. What a shame to go out in a fit a rage and fury, for a city to represent itself like that and to self inflict such damages is childish. Canucks are the team, but fans make the team, and now the team has shame. So perplexing, such poor sportsmanship, and generally a great disappointment to have this as a mark on our beautiful city's reputation. Not to mention giving the naysayers more ammunition for the increasing cost of security and special events associated with a run deep into the playoffs. I know its always the few that ruin it for the many, but plodding through so many photos of people destroying property, drinking, carousing and causing general hostility and destruction, we noticed a good number of them were wearing Canucks jerseys. And if not causing the chaos, other C-jersey adorned viewers were caught documenting and sharing in the mayhem from the sidelines, how is this being a true blue fan? Is that what we cheer now? Dousing a car with accelarant and lighting it on fire? Throwing things through windows? Looting? How does that relate to hockey? How does that sum up the great run the Canucks had? It doesn't, and it just goes to show that all the critical and verbal jousting from non-Canuck journalists about Vancouver fans and their behavior was proved true by a small group of 'fans'. Disappointing to say the least. We hope this bitter taste passes and our excitement and love for our dear Vancouver returns before we begin our journey home.

Sunny Sunday

aside from the two center lanes closest to the middle median, these are all parked cars! None of them are moving nor have a driver present!

Ah this is the life! Sunny Sunday and we spent it well. Ben and I are in our last weeks of school and finishing things up for the year. So exciting to be at this place, yes some struggles, but so much good food, exploring, and bike riding in between, this weekend being no small exception. Waking up early to sun and heat tends to hit us most days now, temperatures are rarely under 32 Celsius though we do keep some air con on, in our room, through the night. Some meandering around the house this morning, puttering, reading then finally we decided to get outside for the day's adventures. One of our favorite things to do is take the 40 min bike ride to a neighboring town called Tanguu (said "tongue-goo). Here we usually spend some time at Starbucks marking student assignments, wandering around local shops and boutiques and chuckling at whatever strangeness we find. These days, couples wearing matching outfits is the in fashion and chuckle of the day (its cute but funny too), boys go as far as to gear up in pink cartooned kiddie style shirts, just to please their ladies and prove their allegiance to her, as she happily parades the other half of the matching set. Some women get completely dolled up, frills, sparkles, heels, and prints, simply to go to the grocery or drug store, only to complete their ensemble with a large full face sun visor and ankle length skin colored stockettes. We have seen so many styles coming out of the woodwork these days, but to top everything off, the color of the season is TRANSLUCENT! Yes folks, see-through clothing is on a rampage these days, and we have caught full views of any and every kind of undergarment in the process. We are not sure why people choose this kind of apparel, nor do we understand their choice to finish off the whole look with the most brightly colored underwear possible, but it is quite utterly amusing for us.
So Ben and I marked assignments and people watched for a while....actually I marked, Ben played Tiger Woods golf on the iPad, nothin keeps him from the game:)
We then headed for a quick pit stop to a foreign food store where some lovely ladies always warmly greet us and help us find all the necessities of a western kitchen. Then we trekked back up the highway on our bikes towards our new and beloved Oasis; the Renaissance Hotel Gym! Yes, true, we have committed ourselves to a full year membership of luxury. A piece of heaven, we are fondly finding it to be, fully equipped with an up to date gym, weights area, TV screens with programs in English, icy grapefruit water and fresh fruit galore, a lovely sky-lit pool, sauna, steam room, hot tubs, showers, massages, and MORE!!! The hotel itself is gorgeous, and we are excited that in the long bitter cold weekends of winter we will be able to simply plant ourselves in the hotel space and feel quite pampered and rejuvenated. So today we took ourselves to the new haven and relaxed for a bit before heading to our favorite Sichuan food restaurant. The owner continues to smile whenever we come in, she welcomes us, chats with Ben, smiles with me, and today, though we enjoy her care, service and smiles, we let her know that we would be taking the food to go for a picnic in the park, she smiled and laughed at such a good idea. The park is one we can see from our apartment, high above most other buildings, the 29th floor gives us a look into the massive green space. This is quite unique for China as green space is usually reserved solely for observing and appreciating from a distance, rather than gallivanting through in direct contact with grass and greenery. But here in TEDA our city is still not quite as congested as some other cities in China, so the park is open and free for people to roam and relax within. Since the weather has turned warm, most days many families will take tents and mats, games and toys, Chinese barbeques and even the family dog, to enjoy the shade, the trees, the fresh air and the long green grass. It was quite nice for us to watch all the interactions tonight. Kids play freely, parents relax, girls casually and oh-so-non-chalantly take glamor pictures of each other, dogs rummage through old food bags for scraps, boyfriends do cart-wheels and flex their muscles for their prized lady and we sit back and try to blend in as best we can:) Finally we decided it was getting late so we made our way home, coming upon the main road that passes in front of our building, it was beginning to become quite chaotic, a soccer game? Yes, and it must be quite a game since, now, looking out from our balcony, the usual 7 lane highway has shrunk to a mere 2 lane street. Cars are parked deep from the already double width curb all the way out past the middle of the road. This cramming of cars is usual but we have never seen it this bad. There are already roars that we can hear erupting from the stadium whenever TEDA makes a goal. The game will end around 9pm and then more chaos will ensue, cars tetris-ing everywhere, with only more amusement for us. A typical weekend in TEDA with the Farnells, food, fun and adventure.

a lovely picture from Tanguu:)

Hockey Talk

Christina and I chatted hockey the other day. She made a comment about the Canucks and it being the Stanley Cup finals, and then I asked her who she's cheering for... she said no one because Montreal isn't playing. I said good answer!! In truth, we're actually cheering for Vancouver, but the city rather than the team, because in four short weeks we'll be back in the mountain protected, vast blue ocean surrounded area in Western Canada, Vancouver (& Vancouver Island) that we have so desperately missed these past 10 months in the concrete jungles of North Eastern China.

We miss the ocean! We miss the green spaces, we miss the mountains, we miss the random and eclectic assortment of things to do on a Saturday afternoon, and yes we miss our families and friends.

That being said we have learned and experienced much this year. We have learned patience in dealing with students who don't understand what you are trying to teach, or what you are even trying to communicate. We have learned perseverance... October-January is a long time to teach 5 days a week, with no holidays or PD and only one day off for Christmas, all the while, if we were lucky, the temperature would possibly reach a 'balmy' ten degrees Celsius INSIDE the classrooms!! We expanded our palettes for various Chinese cuisine as well as sampling some tasty International fare. Christina has become a FIERCE bargainer, employing skills and techniques that the most experienced barterers would envy. Ben is learning, and continues to find that if he is riding his bike in front, no matter how hard he tries, Christina CANNOT hear what he is saying if he continues to face forwards... (this one is still being learned along with his need to check the distances before attempting to 'walk' to new places!!)

As the school year comes to a close we don't have much class time left with the students, two weeks in all, where final projects will be worked on, study tips will be shared and the students can see that we aren't as evil as they think... giving homework and actually making them work for their grades... whodathunkit??

Maybe one of these weekends we'll remember to bring the camera along on a bike ride and we can document some of our favorite getaways in the surrounding areas. I'll guess you'll just have to keep checking back to see if we do!!

Show em what you can do!

This is Tiger. Tiger was part of our family for a mere 3 days. Poor Tiger was left alone beside a hot concrete wall to fend for himself in this big ol' bad world. But....Tiger quickly found herself being scooped up into a blue bike basket and rolled away to a land of love and food and play. Tiger got real strong in 3 days, but alas, her new family was only a foster family because they couldn't take her back to Canada later on. So, with a bit of a tear in their eyes, the fosters bid adieu and good luck to Tiger as she moved to an even newer home, with a nice couple and a cat friend. Here's hoping for the best with you Tiger, show em what you can do!

May Break Adventures

As some of you may have known we had a week long break at the beginning of May. During this week, my parents came up from Thailand, and the four of us spent the week in Beijing. We had a few days in TEDA with some highlights being a meal at the Korean BBQ, a day exploring Tanggu and some FANTASTIC mango chutney made by Christina!! Monday morning we hopped on the High-speed train to Beijing and at 325km/h top speed, we arrived in no time at all!! This is when the fun began. Me, Ben, being tight fisted with taxi fares, decided that we should take the subway to our hotel. It would only be two transfers and we didn't have that much luggage, only a large rolling suitcase and some smaller ones, but this is Beijing we're talking about. The subway in Beijing is ALWAYS packed. We made our first train, had some standing room, but as we began our walk to transfer to the next line, the density of people increased exponentially. Not only did we have to push ourselves into the train, but we had to assure that the luggage made it to. Picture Calvin sizing up the situation, six foot four frame and all and with one mighty burst and lunge, he and the suitcase plunged into a gasping and moaning sea of black heads. At one point on this train, trying to hold onto the luggage, Calvin began to shrink in size. Usually towering over short statured asians, Calvin's head level was getting progressively lower, until he had to drop a bag and right himself before he fell over!! It was at this point that I realized perhaps a second transfer, onto an even busier line, might be out of the question. We made the walk over to the next transfer point with the density of people increasing to levels unheard of for us 'personal space' loving Canadians. As the subway pulled up to the gate, the patriach of the Farnell family took one look at the packed sardine can we were supposed to squeeze our way into and with that our subway adventures were over. We proceeded, with my keen sense of direction, to walk the rest of our way to the hotel, arriving a bit tired and hungry.

We stayed at a very nice hotel quite close to the center of Beijing (Forbidden City Area). It was walking distance from all the major attractions and boasts a subway station quite close-by, which is extremely convenient when not transporting much luggage!!

Tuesday we shopped and had the privilege of seeing the matriach of the Farnell family actually have to take a break from the vendors at the market. Yes, the vendors were too much for Clair to handle, and at one point, she excused herself from the market and went and sat outside for a breather to regain her composure and shopping spirit. We have it on good authority, from someone with close to 30 years of experience with Clair, that he had never experienced shopping getting the best of her, concluding that May 2nd would go down in history as a day he never thought possible.

Wednesday we had the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit the GREAT WALL OF CHINA. We had a few stops along the way, much like a 'cheap' tuk-tuk ride in Thailand conveniently buzzing to 5 surprise shopping opps, but upon arriving and stepping foot on the wall a deep sigh of completion was breathed... well up until we realized that we would NOT be unable to ride the 'tobaggan' (read luge) track down the side of the hill because it was too wet!!! Wet, too WET, it wasn't even raining for crying out loud, but it just gives Christina and I another reason to go back!!

Thursday we toured the Forbidden City. Clair reveled in the magnificent history entombed in the old Chinese style architecture, she clicked and snapped and blipped her way through the whole expanse. This City was the highlight of the trip for Calvin, being able to see a place steeped in so much history and significance, he was barely able to contain himself. The look on his face from the picture in front of one of the great halls sums it all up... if only you could have seen the look on his face as we exited the North end of the Forbidden City after three hours of walking amongst hoards of people, and stopping every 10 paces for yet another thrilling photo opportunity which simply could NOT be passed up!!!

Friday we had to head back to the airport so flights to Thailand could be caught, as well as a bus back to TEDA.

All in all it was a GREAT time, even if no one did eat a scorpion or seahorse on a stick for the exotic food market!!

Now we're back in TEDA, five weeks of teaching left, two weeks of exams, one set of report cards and then a 12+ hour flight back to CANADA!! We can't wait to see the ocean, the mountains and those of you who we get to see.



Transformers car. Seriously, you can't see it well in the picture, but whatever was loaded on top of this car's roof added an extra 4 feet.


A credit to Tara and Karin:)


Seahorses, starfish, scorpions, the whole lot.....and the scorpions were still alive and KICKIN!






Chinese "In and Out". This is not an uncommon sight at all in China. Adults dressed to the nines, like they are clubbing 24/7, squatting down with a little tyke as they pee, and giving them a feed at the same time, hey WHY NOT?! Yet, I still scrunch my nose and chuckle when I see it being done.





THIS is also something that is completely normal in China, protects from dust (supposedly), and sun (apparently) and bugs (evidently:)