New Year's adventure

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After a fun-filled four days in Hong Kong, we returned for three days of classes before the New Year’s break. We decided to be lower key this weekend and booked two nights in at the Kempinski hotel in downtown Dalian. Almost like booking a hotel in your own city but comparing downtown Dalian to Manjiatan is like comparing night and day.

Classes were out at noon on New Year’s Eve so all the staff could attend the gala New Year’s party. It really isn’t a party, it’s a stage show featuring the staff in various song and dance numbers and the odd skit. It’s mostly in Chinese but still enjoyable. The enthusiasm and talent of “ordinary” staff members is incredible. After the show we rushed out to the school gates where our trusty driver Jack was waiting to drive Marion, another Dianne and the two of us to the Big City.

We had booked a package deal that included a 200RMB credit at any hotel restaurant but it turned out we lost the credit because we were upgrade to Executive class which gave us access to all the treats in the Executive Lounge on the 22nd floor. Seemed like a good deal to us. The rooms were fabulous. The bed and pillows were to die for. The shower stall was bigger than our whole bathroom in the apartment. And to Dianne’s great joy, it had a beautiful bath tub. The lap of luxury. Turns out one of teachers goes there once a month for R&R. I don’t think we will do that but well will certainly return to the Kempinski at some point.

New Year’s dinner was held in the German-like pub in the basement of the hotel. Lots of fun. We were joined by another staff member and many others stopped by our table during the evening. We discovered this was a popular spot with the young crowd. (We are known as the fossils). Even though we were having fun we had to crash before the New Year came in.

The biggest laugh of the night came at Dianne’s expense. Her dinner was served on an unusual shaped plate and, at one point, when she put down her fork, it became unbalanced and fell on the floor. Our server was there in a flash with a replacement. A few minutes later, the same thing happened. The server was back again, this time with two forks in case she dropped it again! When someone pointed out the band was getting ready to play, Dianne stood up to get a better view. The server was back with more forks!

Our server had some English and did a great job of dealing with these crazy Canadians. When it came time to pay, she prepared separate bills for the other three as well as a combined bill for Dianne and me. I tried to give her my credit card but she indicated she just wanted me to sign. She asked for something else, so I printed my name as well. Obviously that wasn’t it and she didn’t seem that interested in my credit card. Oh! It is my room number she wanted. Lots of laughs all round as we finally got sorted out and paid up. More on this later.

The Executive suite breakfast was so relaxing. It was a shame to have to go outside! But shopping duties were demanding our attention so we cabbed over to a gift shop we had found out about at the school Christmas Party. They had provided some small gifts for all the partiers at reasonable prices so we decided to give them some business as a thank you. We certainly said Thank You! There were many items of interest, too many in some cases. We had been looking for a stuffed dragon for one of our granddaughters. The gal that was helping us said they didn’t really have anything like that. There was another clerk in the store and he just quietly left, jumped on his motor bike and headed off. Ten minutes later he was back with a big bag containing two sample stuffed dragons! This is pretty typical of the service here. They may not have it but they’ll get it! The four of us spent a fair bit and as we were leaving we got to take sample gifts from the “gift tree”. Many thank yous and good wishes. A successful shopping trip.

We tried several other places including an English book shop but they were closed for the holiday. We were forced to return to the hotel where it was Tea Time in the executive lounge so we sat around and, in effect, had lunch. The girls wanted to go swimming so I just sat in the lounge and read my book. I switched rom Tea Time to happy Hour without even leaving my seat, except to pick up some more goodies. The girls came back and joined the Happy Hour. It was tough to tear ourselves away but we did have to go to dinner!

January 2nd started out with another nice leisurely breakfast, this time in the hotel dining room. An even bigger selection although not as exclusive a setting. We returned to the Arts and Crafts centre where the other Dianne had to pick up some purchases. Who should we run into but the gal from the other gift store where we had had so much fun the day before. Turns out they also have a location in this monster centre so we just had to spend some more money. And I thought we had bought all the stuff we needed the day before! We even managed to buy some prints and had them framed while we waited. Full service places.

Back to the hotel to reorganize ourselves and then check out. We discovered we hadn’t lost the 200RMB allowance and because we had charged it to our room, our New Year’s Eve dinner turned out to be half price! The others had paid cash so they couldn’t use their credit. Bonus for us! Outside was our trusty driver Jack who whisked us off to Metro (Costco equivalent) to do our grocery shopping. Four people plus purchases plus all the groceries we bought. We couldn’t believe how much stuff Jack can pack in his car. Jack’s the man! He even helps carry all the stuff into the apartments for us.

One of the best features of this fabulous two day treat was that we got home on Friday evening and still had two days to get our final preparation done for the term end. We didn’t even mind spending the rest of the weekend working because we had had such a wonderful time.

As I write this (obviously a while ago as I am in Canada now), we are in the final phase of Term 2. Report cards are finalized and in for printing. Final meetings tomorrow to determine who moves to the next level, who has to repeat, who teaches what in term 3 etc. My replacement has been identified so I get to relax until Dianne figures out a list of jobs for me to do. I have already pointed out to her office staff what it will be like in term 3. Unfortunately for them, they haven’t seen the end of me.

Saturday we have a final staff meeting for the whole school and Sunday morning we had off to Canada for a whirlwind tour. One highlight will be meeting our new grandson who was born after we left for China. Another will be visiting with Dianne’s parents. We use Skype to keep in touch with our kids and grandchildren so it will be nice to sit around and get caught up with family who don’t use computers.

Then it’s back to China for Term 3. With any luck, I will have more time to keep these blogs a little more current. I still have one from September to write!

I have had some time to investigate things …. like Google maps…. if you wondered just where in China we are, click here. This should bring up a map of the immediate area with some points of “interest”. If you use the zoom out control you should be able to see where we are in relation to Beijing, Dalian, Korea, etc.

If you are reading this blog entry second hand and would like to have your own, original email... just drop me a line at [e-mail] and, of course, if you are tired of these ramblings, you can unsubscribe on the web site or drop me a line at the same address.

Cheers!

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Photos

A subset of fossils
There are about a dozen teachers who can be said to be of "a certain age" and they are collectively known as the fossils. When the librarian retires I believe I would have been the oldest teacher on staff. That is not why I "retired". Here is a small group of us having a great time New Yar's Eve the German pub.

Luxury in Dianne's eyes
We haven't been in a place with a bath tub for five long months, says Dianne. She really enjoyed this tub. And I liked the shower stall which fills the back of the picture. It was huge.

Lap of luxury
The bed and pillows were to die for. We couldn't believe how comfortable they were. And we were actually warm. The apartment and offices are pretty cold these days so it was a treat to be warm.

Yes, that is an ice rink
This is the view from our hotel window. A typical clear, cold day. We have had almost no precipitation in the last few months. Usually clear at night which contributes to the cold. But it makes it easier to create outdoor ice rinks. Pond hockey is a popular sport among the younger teachers.

Executive privilege
We can't remember if this was breakfast, morning coffee, tea time or happy hour. Who cares? We had such a good time it doesn't matter! The room was beautiful, the service impecable and the food and drinks delightful. Can't wait to go back!

Will that be cash or Chargex?
This was the first of the two stores we met Brenda. Her English was pretty good and "20% off" was her mantra. She was a great sales agent for the store. You get a sense of the crowded shelves with an amazing assortment of gifts available. Lots of fun but from my picture you'd think I was being asked to part with my last RMB.