From Hostel to Hotel The temperature in Yunnan province was quite pleasant 15-20 degrees during the day and down to 5 degrees at night. Seldom wasteful, Chinese people don't bother to heat their homes during this time of the year. We spent a number of nights in hostels, but now we were longing to be warm and enjoy a hot shower. So we agreed to book into a 4 star hotel in Lijiang for just one night , to get cleaned up. The rate was still ridiculously cheap by North American standards and only twice that of the hostels. So [View Full Entry]

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Escaping Teda Chinese New Year We were warned - leave town - Chinese New Year in Teda is loud and loud, and not much else. Ever the ideallists we decided to embrace the noise in order to have the proper Chinese experience. It was loud. Fireworks are all day, everyday, every place...it seems to be especially popular to light them in the alley that our bedroom faces. They get louder at dusk and at midnight, but really only quiet down from 2am - 4am. I think it must be some kind of desensitization training for living in a war zone. [View Full Entry]

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A five minute ferry ride from the city of Xiamen, Gulangyu is an island still transitioning from its colonial past. Its a fine example of China's cultural resilience. The look is still European, but the vibe is entirely Chinese. A Brief Overview of the History of the Concessions The Opium Wars were a terrible loss for China, not only because it legalized a terrible drug addiction and cemented a bankrupting trade imbalance but it opened China to European concessions. These concessions reflected the social darwinism of the time, as Chinese citizens were not allowed entry. Th [View Full Entry]

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Making New Friends Anywhere and Everywhere Battling colds most of the fall, I boarded the plane to Sanya feeling as though I was right on the edge of getting really sick once again. Mind over matter, not 24 hours after the last day of school ended, Craig and I were off to the Tianjin Airport. Our destination was Sanya on Hainan Island. Warmth, tropics, moist air (it has rained/snowed here maybe once in the last two months), we couldn't get there fast enough. Fortunately, flying within China is cheap and easy. We were even pleasantly surprised when the plane took [View Full Entry]

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I remember thinking about how nice it would be to move to China and be free from our many commitments back home. Teaching in the private system should allow me more time for my personal life, more time for leisure. I guess the answer is that Craig and I are workaholics. If the school doesn't fill up our time, we will find other ways to make ourselves busy. This story will end with my completely exhausted body getting on a plane to head south to Hainan, to recover. Beijing Trip #1 - Adventures in Transportation Craig and I have decided to [View Full Entry]

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There is nothing like a long weekend! We decided we were ready to try a few more adventures. We hopped on a bus Friday night and headed to Beijing. Our First Time on the Bus We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the bus. There were even seatbelts!!! They don't sell more tickets than they have seats, so nobody was standing. And, they showed us Chinese action movies the whole way there. Action movies are great because you really don't need to be following the dialogue to figure out who the good guys are vs the bad guys. Lots of [View Full Entry]

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I want to get back into the habit of documenting each week's adventures. I have a hodge podge of mini-adventures from the month of October to share with you and then next week we should be back on track! So I apologize if this blog is all over the map. Thanksgiving We did celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving at "The Parrot" a Western Restaurant. Its buffet style, but they actually put full turkeys on each table, so you get to carve it up, fight over the drumstick and such. It was hardly just Canadians. Our own table had two Aussies and one American [View Full Entry]

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Everyone knows that teachers live for the summer. Well this summer was a little hectic for the two of us, what with packing up our lives and moving to China. Then we started work August 4th and "poof" what happened to the chance to relax, and recover from 2006-2007? Starting work August 4th was actually a relief after such a crazy July, but I can't deny as September slipped by I was ever so relieved that we had a whole week's holiday on the horizon. The first week of October is a national holiday. My travel agent Lily recommended we stay [View Full Entry]

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The bonus of the service component of my job is that I get invitations to community events. The first event Craig and I have been able to attend was last Monday September 24th, 2007 - The Mid-Autumn Day Tea Party. This was Craig's first time out with me representing the school in the community, so I think it gave him a taste of some of what I have been experiencing. You walk into such an event having no idea as to the proper etiquette, really having no idea of what to expect and you just have to stay on your toes. [View Full Entry]

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Our anniversary fell one week after we arrived in China. We were still jet lagged, had been in our apartment only days, and I had caught a nasty cold. We made the decision to postpone a celebration. This past weekend we finally felt settled in enough to venture away on our own for the weekend. It was actually crazy to have so much time to just the two of us, as most adventures here are group events. We didn't go far, but it was an amazing weekend. We just hopped on the light rail and headed in to Tianjin. The Astor [View Full Entry]

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