Day 1 Part Deux

Last night, we ended up just going to the Tesco / Lotus (grocery / department store). Got there by hotel taxi at a reasonable price and got hosed on the way back by local taxi. Little choice since we couldn't see another way home and it was our first night here. Had a nice cheap Thai dinner in the food court though so we saved money there. And we came home happy with our bags of provisions after a great time in the store. When we are on vacation, we enjoy shopping in grocery stores more than many tourist sites.

This was our lunch on our first day at the hotel restaurant:

Thailand, Day 1

We left a 5C Shantou, China this morning and after a short 3 hour flight, we touched down in Bangkok where it is 28C. Thanks to a prearranged airport pickup, we were in the car quickly and were at our hotel in an hour and a half. The drive was mostly out in the countryside so there were only fields and factories to see. The only thing that stood out were the signs. I can sometimes figure out Chinese signs, but there is absolutely no chance with some Thai signs. Luckily, many are bilingual and so far we haven't had any problems communicating with only English. Nice compared to the part of China we live in.

We checked into our home away from home for the month. As you can see above, we have a nice view of the pool. We went down to have lunch at the hotel restaurant by the pool. Of course, we had Thai food and beers and enjoyed the lovely breeze.

After a lazy afternoon getting acclimatized, we are just trying to decide what to do for the evening. Stay tuned.

We're Back !!!

I can't believe how lazy I've been about the blog. Living abroad has become our "normal" life so things have become ordinary for us. I'd rather blame it on the Great Firewall but that would be wrong. It's time for me to start appreciating life here and sharing through the blog again. Hey, I'll add this to my resolutions. Anyhoo, this is a short posting because we're getting ready to leave for Thailand tomorrow. Can't believe that we are going! We started planning this in November so it hasn't felt real until now.

Through the recommendation of a new friend we met at Algonquin this summer, we've rented an apartment for a month in Pattaya. We have no grand plans for Thailand, only that we will be warm:) If all goes well, we'll also spend a week with our Canadian friends, who we teach with here, in Phuket.

So for the next month, I will definitely be posting our adventures ... unless we end up just lounging by the pool, ha ha.

Happy Canada Day !!!

We are proud Canadians! Don just hung our flag out on the balcony and we watched some of the Molson Canadian videos on Youtube - classic "I am Canadian" commercials. Feeling proud to be Canadians even though we are thousands of miles away. We are coming home soon for the summer and will have our Canadian luggage tags proudly displayed too. See you all soon! J&D

June 2010 Update

Finally back on! We've been unable to get onto some sites since May (this time around) and so have felt a bit out of touch. We're also unable to get onto Facebook, boo :( We've just found a way to look at Fb but not to update or write anything.

We are just back from a mini vacation in Jinan. We had a few holiday days saved up so decided to go and visit our old school. We had a horrendous time getting there but are very happy to report that the trip home was relatively uneventful.

What was supposed to have been a short 3 hour plane ride to Beijing from Shantou turned out to be a freakin' nightmare. Our 4 p.m. flight was delayed due to a brief storm in Shantou so we waited along with the other passengers for hours. There was no word when the plane would arrive so we waited and waited and waited. The natives started getting restless. People were shouting at the airport reps and a large crowd formed. I found some Cantonese speaking passengers so got the scoop. People were mad because nobody was telling us anything. They tried to appease us with free drinks and "dinner" in a small cafe that could not accommodate us all. We even got some money back. When the rumour that a plane was going to arrive around 10:30 p.m., we didn't believe it. When it did, we thought that our saga was over. Sadly, it continued. We boarded the plane but there was another delay. Again, there was no announcement to explain why the cabin temperature was getting more and more uncomfortable when the air was turned off. People started getting off the plane and the flight attendants became scarce. I went to the open back door and crowded around it with other passengers to try to get some humid but fresh air. After what seemed like an impossibly long time, we found out that an angry passenger had left without his luggage so that ground crews had to be found and the bag retrieved. I don't think I have ever been so uncomfortable and claustrophobic on a plane. Finally, we left at around 1 a.m.!

We arrived in Beijing and finally checked into our hotel, exhausted. The plan had been to arrive there around 8 p.m., have a good night's sleep and do the Temple of Heaven in the morning before taking the express train to Jinan. We still wanted to visit the Temple of Heaven so we slept for a few hours and headed out. We were sad to only enjoy such a short rest in the softest bed we've had in China. Unfortunately most beds here, including ours in Shantou, might as well be boards.

So that we could enjoy the Temple of Heaven knowing we had train tickets to Jinan, we decided to head to the train station first. That was another adventure. Due to the lack of English speaking ticket agents, we had a difficult time with what should have been a simple task. With the help of a friendly and helpful lady in the next line, we found out that they had been trying to tell us that there were no seats but that we could buy standing seats. Stand for 3 hours to Jinan, why not? Because we would have had to wait a couple of days before there were seats available (this is why travelling in China during any festival or holiday is a really really bad idea), we had no choice. We set off to try to enjoy the Temple and hopefully buy a small stool that would make our train journey bareable.

When we got to the Temple, I spotted a storekeeper sitting on a small foldable stool near the front gate. I went over to try to buy one and would have paid almost anything. Others have since told us that I paid too much but it was well worth the 25 yuan (around $4 Cdn). It made for some great shots during our visit. We will post our photos of the Temple of Heaven soon. Stay tuned. I'd have to say that it was worth it to see such an iconic site. The beautiful round building that I had seen so many images of was just as beautiful when I stood in front of it. Check that off my list!

While our standing trip to Jinan was uncomfortable, it was not as bad as it could have been. In a small area between the cars, we stood along with up to 9 people off and on. Some of our students have stood for a much longer time going home on holidays so we really can't complain. There was air conditioning and food if we wanted to buy it. Our little chair gave us respite and so did my luggage. I even managed some short cat naps.

Our main reason for the trip back to Jinan was to see some of the graduating students before they dispersed to different areas of China for jobs or further studies. So our trip back was filled with meals. We ate very well. A pleasant change from our less colourful menus here at this school. Our old school was kind enough to offer us a room in the teacher's residence so we were close to campus. We were able to see many of the students and catch up with some of our other friends there. We were even lucky enough to be included in the official graduation pictures. After a few short days though, it was time to go.

We are headed into two very busy weeks of oral exams here to finish off our term. We will be doing over 300 exams each. After that, we plan to come home for the summer holidays so we hope to see everyone soon. We have agreed to come back to this school next school year so we'll be travelling light, yay! Take care everyone. We'll post our pics as soon as we can. Check back for the link.

J & D

Tv Watching

Believe it or not, we are able to watch our favourite tv shows usually the same week they air in Canada. Thank goodness for the Internet! We are luckier here in the south of China because there are actually 2 English channels from Hong Kong that air on cable. Unfortunately, the programming is still pretty lame and not current. At least we get some unbiased news unless it gets zapped by a public service announcement.

We have also been able to see some newish movies via the Internet or the very cheap dvds we buy from a little store in town. Sure the sound quality might be a little less than perfect but definitely watchable. I have yet to watch a movie where someone got up in the middle to go to the washroom :)

As I'm writing this, we are listening to one of our iPods. We came armed with a digital music library. I have also picked up a whole bunch of Chinese music cds, ranging from the traditional to what is currently popular. Since I don't know what they play on the radio, I rely on the students to tell me what is popular. I haven't picked up any cds of this yet, but Korean pop is also very popular here with the students. It's a bit hard to keep up with music from the West though. I realized how out of touch I was the other day when I was browsing iTunes and realized that I didn't know most of the artists :(

We only have the option of watching movies in English in the big cities like Beijing and Guangzhou so sadly dinner and a movie dates are out of the question. Besides, the last bus from downtown leaves at 7:30 pm so we don't do much beyond going out to dinner around here in the evenings. Now, we do have playing pool as an evening entertainment option but Gord and Jackie checked it out the other night and said that the tables sloped. Oh well, should still be fun if we start drinking before we play. Ha ha.

We were able to trade our hard wooden furniture for some cushy ones so I am happy to report that lounging is a great option for our downtime now. Yesterday, the school told us at the last minute that our three day weekend just became five. How delightful! Now we have 2 more days to procrastinate on our work. TTFN! J

Is it almost May already?

Sorry to have been so long in between posts. I have a couple of excuses: the Great Firewall of China and nothing too exciting happening. Funny how easily we get used to things and then lose perspective on how amazing "regular" days are.

Our life since the last entry in a nutshell

We enjoyed the whole month of February in Guangzhou. Thanks to the amazing generosity of my mother's aunt and uncle, we were able to stay in their empty apartment. Life there consisted of lots of relaxation, reading, eating, sightseeing and shopping. The subway system was convenient and we were able to get around quite easily because of the English signage. Eating in Gz is practically a religion and it was easy to find good food everywhere. More importantly, there was an international menu. Among other things, we enjoyed authentic New York style pizza and Turkish food. We even got Caesar salad at the Italian restaurants. When you can't get something easily, you really really enjoy it when you can :)

We were "adopted" by a Chinese family in town and were fortunate enough to share their many New Year festivities. They even delivered home cooked meals to us! Yeah, how do you say spoilt. We even got to play tour guide when Jackie and Gord (our fellow Canadian English teachers at school) came to visit Gz.

School started back in March and we got back in the swing of things. Both of us have hundreds more names to remember since many of the classes were new. We are finding it even more challenging now since we have the students from last term to remember. In the blink of an eye, we are now half way through the semester. We have done more English corners and recently judged an English speech contest where we cheered on many of our own students.


Nan Au Day Trip

We spent an incredible day with some of our students yesterday. A bit of necessary background first. Jack, the boyfriend of Don's student Sunny, got a job teaching during the Chinese New Year holidays. He made friends with a boy who he taught for only one week and that little boy lives on Nan Au, a beautiful island near Shantou.

Jack arranged a van to take us along with Sunny, Rose and Ricky to the ferry terminal in a nearby town. From there we took a half hour ferry ride across to Nan Au island where the little boy met us with his father. The ferry ride over was a bit rough but enjoyable. The girls were loudly squealing with delight despite the strong winds and ocean spray that periodically got us all a bit damp.

As soon as we stepped off the ferry, there was the little boy with his father to meet us. We were shepherded to an awaiting van driven by the boy's uncle. This family then spent the rest of the day showing off some of the sights of their beautiful island. This is one of the most scenic places we have seen in China. The natural beauty is pretty much untouched by commercial tourism. No crowds. No loud noises. It was heaven.

We were treated to a delicious fresh seafood lunch by our very generous hosts. We arrived at a floating restaurant and Rose ran down the walkway with the little boy because they were so excited. The lunch we had was delicious! We enjoyed meals prepared with the seafood that was just picked from live tanks. It can't be any more fresh! We had fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, seaweed, sea urchins, scallops all cooked in simple ways and we also had fishball soup and the best fried noodles. Interestingly, we enjoyed all of this dipped in Wasabi and soya sauce. Yum!

The other highlight of the day was the beach. It is known as the Hawaii of Eastern China. Hopefully you can see from the photos the pure joy on our companions' faces. For all of them, it was the first time at a nice beach on the ocean. I'm not sure I can describe their first look at this place. Their faces lit up as soon as they saw it and they could not wait to get their shoes and socks off. In fact, Rose ran in with her shoes on and pants not rolled up yet. The rest of us took the time to get barefoot and then they ran screaming happily into the water where the frolicking began in earnest. They were thoroughly enjoying the moment!

We had to practically drag everyone off the beach. We were there at the perfect time since the holiday season starts up next weekend. We had the beach to ourselves but hear that the resort is quite busy from May to October. After the beach, we stopped for a quick visit to our hosts' home before being dropped off back at the ferry. Don, of course, drew lots of stares from our fellow passengers. There was a group of young ladies seated by us who all had the conical straw hats and rubber boots on. Rose asked them what they did for a living and one of them told her that they packaged fish. They were also in a festive mood, probably because they were heading home after a long work day. Our ride back to the school was a quiet one since everyone was pooped. We are grateful to have been included in their day on Nan Au and have wonderful memories of the laughter and joy we shared.

Enjoy our pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22798130@N07/sets/72157623800497643/