Blogs from Daqing, Heilongjiang, China, Asia
April 7th 2010
On Monday 5th April, 2010, Christina, Alex, Sandra and I went to Poli Brides here in Daqing for a photo shoot. It was Alex's birthday as well so was a perfect day to dress up and feel glamorous. I arrived late as I was getting my hair extensions re-braided. The place was huge and very fancy. I walked inside, called Christina - who informed me that after paying at the counter one of the staff would collect me and take me up stairs - which all happened so smoothly. The girl who collected me was very sweet and spoke a very little amount of English. Once upstairs I noted that Sandra was getting her hair and make up done, Christina was dressed about ready to go in for hair and make up and Alex was just ... read more
January 14th 2010
So, we have 4 months to go as I write this. Recently, I've had many conversations about the little things that are really special about Daqing/China. As we've all been here for a while we've all noted that we're starting to get used to the things around us - that to anyone who may just arrive would be very interesting and exciting. These little things are also things we will likely forget in time. So, I'm going to start a little compilation of curious and interesting things I don't want to forget. Food: Fruit kebabs covered in sugar. There are people walking around with their carts. Sitting on the back of their carts is a round cylinder type thing with fruit kebabs sticking out of it. The fruit kebabs have been rolled in a toffee and ... read more
October 16th 2009
So, things have been a little quiet on the blog front of late. I think I used my quota of time and energy on the Beijing blog. Luckily Im starting to feel re-enthused! The average week for Wayne and myself consists solely around where and when we are teaching. With only 1 full day off it's hard to fully embrace any quality down time. In saying that we do have some down time and have good memories. On Mondays I aim to sleep in and attempt to go with as much as the flow as possible. This goal can be hard to consistently obtain as Monday is an ideal day to also get all of those chores out of the way so the coming week can be as carefree as possible. A Monday many months ago, ... read more
July 22nd 2009
Our Journey So far So, from the beginning. On around the 7th May 2009 we received confirmation that we had a job waiting for us with Joy Children's Language School in Daqing, China. After a week of rushing around preparing our belongings and making trips from Toowoomba to Brisbane to secure our documents we finally received our Visa's on the 12th May. On the 13th May we flew to China. After a 8hr flight with Singapore Airlines we arrived in Singapore. Each seat had it's own TV screen and remote. You could watch movies, play games, learn languages, look at exactly where you were flying and at what height. I had beef stew (which had red wine in it for lunch and salad) and a chicken something pie for dinner, as well as refreshments the whole ... read more
June 19th 2009
Bonjour everybody! Everything is still going great over here on the Asian frontier! Except for the ridiculous amount of rain we have been experiencing. Pretty much everyday it absolutely downpours for hours. I can honeslty say the amount of wet could be comparable to home. One of Jeff's co-workers was talking about how in parts of China it is legal for them to sent rockets into the atmosphere which release some type of certain chemical that induces rainfall. I couldn't explain it to you in any further detail then that, but supposedly a small group of farmers have been trained on how to launch these rockets themselves in an effort to prevent drought. Whether or not this is true, it was an intriguing story and possible explanation of the amount of rain we have been getting. ... read more
June 13th 2009
Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay of the newest blog entry, I've been too busy living and enjoying life! The computer that I have access to here has been having some technical difficulties as well and likes to shut down by itself without warning. But enough with the excuses, here it goes... I believe I left off mentioning the Foreigner Olympics so I will carry on from there. Just for a quick refresher, the Olympics are where all of the foreign teachers (about 25 in total) from the various schools across the city come to have fun and compete in different sporting events against each other. Now what great day wouldn't begin with a trip to McDonald's?! Although breakfast was supposed to end at 10am, we arrived at 9:45 to discover that it had already switched ... read more
June 7th 2009
I have completely lost track of time, and I love it! After all, I am on holidays. I woke up at 6am the other morning and was shaved, showered, fed and ready to go by 6:30. It was just too bad that everyone else in the city wasnt, including Jeff and Niki! The sun here starts to rise very early, around 3:30am because the entire country of China shares one time zone which is pretty different from home. I guess it's just another thing to adapt to. The last few days have been pretty laid back, not that I'm complaining or anything! We have cruised the city marketplaces and malls on a couple of occassions, absorbing the culture every step of the way. The malls here are enormous and most of them are very high class. ... read more
June 4th 2009
After a 8536km plane ride overseas to Beijing, 1058km plane ride north to Harbin, and an hour and a half train (couldn't find the distance on Google) up to Daqing, I'm finally here! With the help of a couple movies, 3 meals, and a few hours of snoozing, the first 10.5 hour flight went by quite quickly. When we landed in the Beijing airport the plane was greeted by an 8 person team of people wearing facemasks, gogges, and white laboratory coats that walked down the aisles holding a little pistol like device to everybody's forehead. Not only was this unexpected, but it was a little unnerving seeing how it appeared to be right out of a science fiction movie. I was told the purpose of this was to measure our body temperatures to ensure that ... read more
