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May 4th 2013
Well a lot has happened just in the past week so I thought the past week's developments alone justified a blog only a little more than a month since the last. Staff at school are in a week long vacation, this was our family's time to catch up on some "need to do's". Firstly, unfortunately during the vacation we learned a couple of pieces of bad news. First I was turned down for the Masters program at UBCO. That was no big deal as sure it would have been a great growth and learning experience but also the debt and time considerations for the next 2 years again was not a huge spoiler for us. I've been personally asked by the University of Alberta to enter into a similar masters program before so I know I ... read more
March 30th 2013
As the summer comes closer Helen, Meili and I have some serious planning to do. Firstly I have applied for a masters program through University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus. This is a correspondence masters purposely tailored around Maple Leaf scheduling. So I would submit assignments electronically most of the time and then on holidays travel to central Chinese cities for cohort meetings. This would be a great opportunity for me academically and career wise; I should here if I'm accepted soon. We are planning to meet up with my brothers family and I think Mom and Dad and Joel, in Germany. There we will travel to and stay at a castle on the border of Germany and the Czech Republic. This will be in July, if Helen gets a travelers visa for Germany and if ... read more
Chongqing and Chengdu for a long march, a tall buddah and some giant pandas
Published: February 6th 2013Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu » Emi Shan
February 5th 2013
Right before our winter holiday I had been selected with a friend and fellow collegue Jeniffer, to teach in a winter english camp in Chongqing. We had a wonderful time during my 1 week teaching stint and extended the outing after to Chengdu. On Friday of the week before last we left on our first excursion of the winter break. This was the first airplane ride of Meili. Although Meili handled airtravel quite well, unlike other babies on board she barely cried, as a new dad I found added stress during the flight. We landed and the school was over an hour late in picking us up. They could have done better for their first impressions. We were then driven outside of Chongqing to a 1200 year old south west connecting county called Youngshuan. This county ... read more
December 25th 2012
Well since our last update much has happened. We were trying to upload some short videos, as some readers requested, but we have not had much luck with videos on the site lately. In november we had a very busy time at school. The yearly provincial government audit took place and each of the 60 teachers were observed, sometimes more than once, by a group of 4 former principles and admin. We were all relieved to find the auditors reports at the end of the week long analysis were glowing. The group found our staff in general to be a very close community; our younger staff kept brining great ideas into the school and the older staff keep continuity and long term goals in mind. Moving into December our school neared the end of the term. ... read more
October 3rd 2012
As we start a new month Helen and I are quite happy. Two days ago we went in for our late 2 month check up for Meili and all of the conditions that Meili had have improved. Her uretor has improved a little, but may still need an operation in a few months, and the heart value is better and will likely completely operate normally by 6 months. As per requested by many of the blog followers, attached to this blog is a video of Meili. We are half way into the October national day holiday. We hadn't planned any outings for the 9 days free but we may now spend a day and a night at a local hotspring destination. So far during the holiday we have been to Helen's Dad's birthday and visited her ... read more
August 18th 2012
We have made it through our first month as parents and Helen and I are doing well. Meili needs feeding every 2 to 3 hours and is fairly restrained with her crying. Since Meili was born we have had worries about her health. These worries were partly a result of overly liberal hospital diagnosis. Today we know that Meili is healthy except for a problem with the uretor of one of her kidneys. We will have a minor and common operation to fix this problem planned for in about two months time. This past month we have been learning the ins and outs of parenting as both Lana, the live in maid, and Helen's mother have moved out. We have still been going to the hospital for check ups and we also got a second opinion ... read more
July 4th 2012
The night before last I was woken up at 2am by Helen running to the washroom. Her water broke. Although it took a little time to convince her this was the case, Helen, her mom and I grabbed the baby bag and were off to the hospital by 2:50. Arriving at 3:30, they quickly whisked her away as she was having contractions in the elevator. She was taken to a delivery preparation room where many more pregnant women were at various stages of labour. Helen's Mom and I were kept outside in the waiting room but by pure luck there was a waiting room inquiry window into the delivery preparation room and as the curtains were drawn there was room enough for me to peek through and see Helen. Hours went buy. I continued reading a ... read more
June 16th 2012
Well I guess since our last entry many noteable things have happened. The 5th annual english arts festival happened at school in the 2nd last week of May and as always the BIT department did the promotions which turned out fantastic. Unfortunately the priniting of the posters did not get done on time and so Helen helped out saving the day by getting a poster printer to print out 10 big posters overnight. The posters and commercials turned out great. We did a photoshoot for Helen and me getting married. This is very customary for newly weds in modern China however the styles and formalities can either be quite formal or relaxed and fun. We chose the latter for our photoshoot and the pictures just came in today about a month later. If the couple wants ... read more
May 20th 2012
The weekend before last Helen got a great idea of going fruit picking at a farm. Fruit picking I thought, what of? I have seen my share of new fruit and other foods in china, be it Durian, 1000 year egg, etc but not Mulberries. Durian smells like stinky feet and tastes slightly better. 1000 year eggs are pickeled eggs. Mulberries are like blackberries only longer and juicier. We made the 2 hour long drive south west of Wuchang, directly south of Haiyang (the third city of Wuhan) with our friends the Johnsons (Anthony 3, Alexander 6, and Rachel the wife of Steve a teacher and friend I work with). There we saw vegitation familiar to me wheat, cabage, pears, and corn. We would be picking Mulberries. We quickly learned that ripe mulberries are sweet and ... read more
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