No, it is never a dull moment here! I have been seeing an eye doctor at the local hospital. We went to the hospital the other day for a follow-up eye exam for myself. We also decided it would be a good opportunity to get our eyes examined and buy glasses which we both desperately need. It is easy since all this takes place in the same general area of the hospital, including purchasing glasses. When we walked through the front door of emergency, the once familiar nursing station and greeting area was hidden behind a wall of people, cameras and [View Full Entry]

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Hetvegere 2 napos kirandulast terveztunk a Pekingtol kb. 100 km-nyire delnyugatra talalhato Shi Du-hoz. Annyi szepet hallottunk mar errol a helyrol, hogy muszaj volt megneznunk! A nev jelentese "tiz gazlo", ugyanis az itt kanyargo Juma folyo 10 termeszetes kikotot formalt a Taihang hegy volgyeben. A terulet oriasi: 300 nkm. Odajutas: termeszetesen 917-es busszal... :-) Persze most is rosszra szalltunk fel eloszor, de mar megszoktuk - viszonylag zokkenomentesen odaertunk a vegallomashoz. Leszallva a buszrol, hirtelen kinaiul magyarazo ferfiak gyurujeben talaltuk magunkat, amiben csak az volt az erdekes, hogy hozzank beszeltek. Kiderult, hogy magantaxisok, akik ertunk vetelkednek... Egyikuk nyert, beultunk hat a bordo [View Full Entry]

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On a bit of a whim, we decided to stop off at the town/mountain of Wudang Shan, on the way to Xi'an. It proved to be a rather difficult and stressful diversion. Firstly, the convenient travel arrangements which I'd researched were scuppered by the recent earthquake in Sichuan province - the line we needed was being used as a supply route so passenger services were reduced. We thus arrived at 1 in the morning, and took the first grotty hotel which was offered to us. The following day we tried to follow Lonely Planet's rather vague advice to reach the mountain [View Full Entry]

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Its hard to believe we have only been here four months. It's feeling more like home every week and we have done so much without even leaving Wuhan during that period. Next year we will have a whole country to explore now that we have settled in and are feeling more comfortable getting around. In two weeks, we will be heading back to Canada for our summer traveling adventure. We leave here on June 27, stay overnight in Dalian, China and then fly on to Vancouver. We leave Dalian at about 1:30 pm and arrive in Vancouver at 10:30 am the [View Full Entry]

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We safely arrived in Yichang, a fairly nondescript town with what seemed a disproportionately large Red Light District (we were looking for an internet cafe, honest). Our plan was to book a Yangzi river cruise to Chongqing, but in the end we opted for one which would return us to Yichang. The main reason was that this was considerably cheaper (by a factor of three in fact). The disadvantage was that it was a cruise designed for Chinese tourists, not Westerners. Despite the low cost, our six-bed cabin was, as ever, furnished with China's favorite two items - a TV and [View Full Entry]

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Rumour has it that there are people reading this blog that will be arriving in Wuhan in the new school year. I thought I would give a little run-down on the cost of living here for their information as well as those friends and family who are keeping in touch with our adventures. I have made references to various things over the last few months in previous entries but will try to cover a few areas of expense in one sitting this time to give everyone an idea of how cheap it really is. To begin with, you have to [View Full Entry]

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Our final Saturday night show of Robin Hood was once again a great success, apart from a few last minute technical difficulties. Most students were present and many parents as well. The afternoon began with singing performances, reading theatre, and short skits by the winners of the English Arts Festival. The play was the grand finale of the afternoon. The kids did great and the parents were impressed. "Amazing", as one parent commented (in Chinese, of course, translated by their son as I attempted to talk to them briefly). After the show, a bunch of us who have been involved, most [View Full Entry]

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Once upon a time, we decided to treat our students to an American cultural experience outside of the classroom. We decided to throw them a prom. After watching Back to the Future one night, we settled on “Enchantment Under the Sea” as our theme and we went from there. Alexes painted a backdrop, Dan put together a kickin’ playlist and we had a student help us book a large room on campus. Everything fell into place. We made tickets (though we didn’t charge) and taught a lesson all about dances in America. We even had a prom court. We had each [View Full Entry]

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We have both been so busy this past week I haven't had time to write much in here. I thought I better make a small update for those who are going through blog withdrawal. Last Friday night we hosted our first party at our apartment. We had about twenty people and put on a little spread for everyone. I bought a BBQ and set it up on the balcony. It wouldn't be that much of a deal anywhere else but trying to get the message across in the store that we were looking for one was, once again, an adventure. As [View Full Entry]

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"Air raid sirens, and car, train and ship horns wailed and people stood for three minutes in silence on Monday to mourn the tens of thousands who died in last week's earthquake. The moment of grief was observed across the vast country of 1.3 billion people at 2:28 pm, exactly a week after the devastating magnitude-8 quake struck Sichuan. The death toll is estimated to be above 50,000. The silent tribute was the first of its kind for citizens killed in a natural disaster." (from the Chinadaily.com) The Monday morning flag ceremony at the school was a sombre one as all [View Full Entry]

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