Sigh. Could it really be that I have only 13 more days in my beautiful Chinese adventure? Well, 13 days in Xiamen, more or less. I will stay a couple of days after work to pack up and say my good-byes. Then it's off to Beijing to finish my amazing adventure (s). Life has settled into a routine here.....work on Friday afternoons through the evenings till 8:30, then all day Saturday till 5:40 and also Sunday mornings 8:30 till noon. Then another class again on Monday night from 7-8:30. Tuesdays-Thursdays are adventure days! LOL I go to spin classes twice per week and do run/walk at least one other day of the week. Jim, Diane and I and sometimes more of us, lol, go mountain climbing on Friday mornings. Joyce and I pick up groceries and ... read more

Oink, oink. That is the sound of 2 little piggies, Joyce and Carolyn. Once upon a time, on a Monday afternoon in October of 2011, there were 2 little piggies. There had been 3 piggies but one of the little piggies (Dawna) had to go back to Canada prematurely. LOL These 2 women, erm, I mean piggies, craved bad, bad food. Fast food. Greasy fried food--especially deep fried potatoes--mmmmm. With ketchup. Burgers with strips of bacon and loads of cheese. Mmmmmmm. LOL Ice-cold full sugar Coca Colas with which to wash down all the oily treats. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Sweet, cold, real ice-cream sundaes loaded with nuts and chocolate syrup. Mmmmmm. Latte made with real whole milk froth, served up with fashion magazines and in air conditioned surroundings. Ahhhhh. Armchairs into which they could lounge and stools for ... read more

*Note--I have been trying to publish this blog for about 3 days but the Travel Blog server and our Chinese internet have NOT cooperate. I have not been successful in removing some pictures that double downloaded either. ARGH. Just sayin'. Whew! The weather Gods are teasing me. And not in a good way, either. The last 2 days have been cooler and oh-so-crazy windy. I am not talking slight breeze here. I am talking GALE force howling winds! The kind of wind which blows doors shut with loud crashes and rattles the screens and single panes perilously. The kind of wind which dances the curtains round wildly and the kind created to wreak havoc with your "hair-don't" and you don't mind cuz it never looked good to begin with! LOL With those more normal temps of ... read more

Today, the many of the people who are "Tianjiao" gathered to bid Dawna adieu and we chose to do it in my favourite Thai Restaurant--the one whose name I don't know, cuz I cannot read Chinese! Ha ha ha ha ha--funny! I call it the red chile pepper cuz that's what's on the sign outside, with all that Chinese. LOL All the teachers--Rich and Diane, the 3 Amigas--Dawna, Joyce and I, Jim, Alan and Charles plus some of the office staff--Andy, Rhianna, Vivian and Sarah joined us, which was awesome! We ate WAY too much, and it was all delightfully lip-smacking......I even got to have my favourite Tom Yum Soup, or Thai Hot and Sour, and then after our Thai meal Dawna and I, we crossed the bridge to the Carrefour store and had ourselves a ... read more

For me, there is much which is magical about the sea. So far, my love of the ocean has only included the stretches of the Pacific on British Columbia and California's coastlines--Long Beach, BC is one of my favourite places and Malibu, CA is hard to beat. And as lovely as both of those are, however, Hawaii will always be my most beautiful Pacific destination......and with which I was completely captivated this past June. So maybe my love affair is not with oceans in general, but rather the Pacific, to be specific! LOL What a tongue-twister! The good news is that I have a lot of oceanic exploring LEFT in my world and something to look forward to! Anybody else IN for this adventure of exploring oceans with me? So you know, I am recreating this ... read more