Advertisement
Published: September 18th 2011
People we love
It was so great to spend our summer at the Baxendale Hotel - Calgary location. Mom was a real trooper and we so enjoyed the time with her- barbecues, shopping, hiking, Dragon Boats, visiting, golfing. She is the 'hostess with the mostest'.Well, I guess our two year adventure in China is now officially three years- who would have thought! It’s a big surprise to us that we are still here too, but doing well and enjoying it.
Summer was great and really recharged our batteries, which we needed. One really great thing about our new life is how much more time we actually spend with family. Funny that being away has brought us so much closer to the people that we love. My only regret is not having my camera closer at hand with all the visits that we had with Rick's family! Thanks Fred and Dianne for the trip to Canada that you made.
Our summer started out with a few days in Whistler with Chris, plus a day trip to Qualicum to check out the house and all our things in storage. How could we ever have thought that all of those things would be important?? The house is in great shape and now has new renters – small world – they are from Peace River! Our last night was in Vancouver and we had great steak barbecue with Dennis, Gary, Rhonda and kids.
Halifax - Lower Deck
Our trip to Halifax was great and we did consume our fair share of barley beverage with Geoff and Zoe. The Lower Deck is a popular tavern with live entertainment and a great outdoor patio. After a week down time with Mom in Calgary, we flew to Halifax to spend a week with Geoff. Despite the fact that he will be in China with us for 10 months, it was great to be there, have a few beers, hang out and enjoy the city.
We ended up spending part of a day with Rachel, a good friend from Peace River who is recently retired and drove down from Bouchetouche N.B. We also visited with Pat and Anna from China/Halifax who invited us for a great brunch. As well we saw Bob Campbell – a friend of Rick and Fred’s from university days- and his wife Deb, where we spent an afternoon relaxing at their place overlooking Halifax harbour. Amazing to have such distant connections all come together in one place.
Back to Calgary where we spent the next month- lots of family, fun, relaxing, time in the mountains, golf - just a good holiday. We were so lucky that we saw all of Rick’s family and almost all of mine except my sister, Nancy. Also happy to see Patrick C. and his kids for a day and a few visits with
K Country with Pat and Dale
We spent a day with Pat and Dale in the Kananaskis. Dale took Rick, Barb and I on a hike along the Upper Kananaskis lake trail, across the rock slide and to the falls; an easy walk but very pretty. Richard and Buff who we spent a month with during our last winter holiday. We were getting so spoiled that both of us were questioning why we were giving it up to come back to work (and how were we going to get by without a clothes drier – love those fluffy towels!)
Everything is always fun in the summer though. We spent a couple of days in the Kananaskis area with my brother Bob and his 3 girls. We really missed you Nancy - you would have been proud of your campers. Rick's sister Pat and husband Dale also fed us a gourmet camping meal and showed us a great hike around the upper lake.
We saw both Chris and Geoff again in Calgary - Chris there for Leah’s wedding and Geoff on his way through to Vancouver. He and his friend Nick did an epic cross Canada road trip from Halifax to Vancouver via Chicago. They had a fabulous time, especially in Whistler with Chris on the homemade party boat barge! Chris is underway on a major renovation on his condo so was glad to get away for a couple of days of fun, I’m
Bob and the girls
Surrounded by girls his whole life, Bob is still the lucky guy to have so many women in his life! We had a great hike and were enjoying the view of the upper Kananaskis lake. sure.
Back in Vancouver/Whistler for our last two days, we again appreciated the hospitality of the Baxendale Hotel -Vancouver. Thanks Jo and Rhonda for another delicious meal.
Good thing that we had a relaxing summer though because it has been full tilt since the day we took off from Vancouver. Both of us have moved into new jobs which have started out challenging but rewarding. The best thing yet is hearing Rick say at supper that he actually enjoys working with the boys! Yeah!
He has been putting in very long days (1-2 am) getting the timetable ready, but that is the challenge of getting a school of 3000 students together. Complicate that with 800 summer school students who need to be tested, placed in levels and inputted in the last 4 days, it is very challenging. Now we both understand the difficulties that previous administration had. It is hard for teachers too, because they did not find out the actual classes that they were teaching, nor the rooms that they would be teaching in until the morning of the first day. Nor did the students know their timetables until that morning. Needless
Leah's Wedding
One of the highlights of the summer was the wedding of Barb's daughter - Leah. It was a close family gathering and we so loved spending time with family. to say it was a bit chaotic.
Add to the chaos on the first day was that we both had wanted to get to school early, but it was a late night for Rick having been at work until well after midnight. As Murphy’s Law would have it, that was the morning that the alarm didn’t go off. At 7:04, Rick realized that we had slept in and by 7:15 we were both at work – him in a suit and freshly ironed shirt!
Things are settling down even after a week and next week should be going smoothly. It is better than three years ago when the timetable was not ready the first day, so teachers had a rotation schedule with the whole student body that included taking them to the beach for part of the day!
The worst thing is the mould that we have been fighting since we returned to a hot, humid and rainy season. I never would have believed the places that it grows, but we think that we are winning the battle.
Geoff is doing a great job of his first teaching job - considering
Barb and Michael
Her first dance with son Michael. that he is a Biology grad with no Education courses. The main challenge for him is that not many of the grade 7 science students can speak English. At least at the high school level they are starting with some English language skills, but he says that some speak none. Science concepts are difficult to explain, so there will have to be a lot of vocabulary first.
The first day he was asking people’s names and found that some had no English names yet. One boy asked if his English name could be ‘Mr. Berry’, to which he replied that he was already Mr. Berry – there couldn’t be two. Another student asked him in at the end of his written work if they could be best friends. You gotta love it.
Both he and Rick are looking forward to the first hockey tournament in 3 weeks in a city north of us called Shenyung. There are a lot of new staff and some keen hockey players – Rick had included in a summer e-mail to new staff to bring hockey equipment if they wanted to play, so people are prepared. Rick has the okay from
Musical family
Diane and two of her daughters, Amanda and Carol played beautifully for the ceremony. both his Chinese doctor and a cardiologist in Calgary to play, so he is trying to get some runs in before the tournament. Oh to be 30 again!
We are back to our regular routines and life seems back to normal- Saturday morning shopping at the market, watching our favourite BBC World News, and spending a lot of time sitting at the kitchen table on the internet. Looking forward to the new challenges this year, meeting new people and travelling to interesting places. We have a bedroom available for anyone who wants to come and visit!
We are sorry not to have gotten up to Peace River this summer, and think about friends from there a lot. Everyone will be getting back into fall routines, yard work, back to school. We still love hearing from people and I will try to get a few more e-mails out this year. Hi to Good Shepherd and Glenmary staff - let us know, Mr. P, how the retirement is going!
More after holidays- love from Gail and Rick
(more pictures below)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.152s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0741s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Lynn
non-member comment
Hi Gail, I was just thinking of you guys the other day and wondering how you were because I hadn\'t seen a post from you, and here it is! Amazing how things work, eh? I was in Nova Scotia this summer too. To bad I missed you. I spent time in Halifax at the beginning of July and again in August before heading home. Hope you had good weather because it wasn\'t all that great this summer. We are back into the swing of things at GSS. GSS hosted this year\'s Faith Day, aka Religious Institute. It was a hit. Lots of preparation prior but worth it when it is all done. The leaves are turning yellow and fall is definitely in the air. I\'m hoping it warms up for another month. I\'m not ready for winter, just yet. Take care and enjoy your time in China.