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:)