cassieb
Cassie Bermel Joined: September 3rd 2008
Logged in: June 3rd 2011
Logged in: June 3rd 2011
Travel Blog Posts
beach time
For our first week-long holiday, Lindsey and I planned two adventures. The first was going way down south on the island of Hainan to a small city called Sanya for some beach time. The second was going back to the mainland to a city called Zhanjiang to attend a wedding of one of Lindsey’s friends. They often refer to Sanya as the “Hawaii of China”. That kind of sounded like an oxymoron to me. Having spent quality time on some of Asia’s most beautiful beaches, I was more than a little skeptical. When we arrived, however, I thought the nickname was well suited. Standing on Dadonghai beach, the bay is very similar to Waikiki, with beachside hotels as lush green hills fill in the backdrop. The biggest difference were the lack of people. Being in a ... read more
Empty queues
When we found out that the Expo was in China and what it was all about, Lindsey and I made plans to check it out before we went home for the summer. However, with our busy weekends and constant bad reviews from other teachers who went, we put kept putting it off til it was too late. When we came back to China in August, we decided we had to do it. If it wasn’t our cup of tea, then we could leave early as there were many adventures to be had in Shanghai without the Expo. In Shanghai, we stayed with some friends of Lindsey’s and one of them had extra tickets we could use, as they both had no intentions of going (again with the bad reviews). They also recommended that the corporate pavilions ... read more
After 12 hours on a plane, Sanya and I are finally reunited with Shanghai dumplings
Coming back to China has been a very different experience for me. When I was at the airport in Vancouver, I was fighting back tears saying goodbye to my friend Danny, and then literally turned around and immediately had a smile on my face as I saw another friend Lindsey with all her bags packed to go to China as well. Instead of being nervous and checking out the people, wondering who my future friends would be, I was relaxed with people who I shared the last year of my life with, and who know me and can relate to me in a way that no one in Canada truly can. With all the new teachers already in China, it gave the returning teachers time to catch up and share stories of the summer. This was ... read more
When travelling, most people seem to experience some sort of culture shock. Things are new, routines are different, ways are not easy to understand at first. But thing that gets me is always the reverse culture shock. Coming home to what you know, what you have grown up with, and seeing things in a totally different light. Being back in Vancouver for 2 days, here are a few of the things i notice about my homeland. 1) Canada is incredibly clean. I feel as comfortable sitting on the sidewalk or laying on a porch as i would a freshly scrubbed bath tub. 2) When i walk across the road on a crosswalk, i assume i'm going to be hit by a car, due to the biggest-gets-the-right-of-way traffic regime in China. 3) I cannot not tune out ... read more
gondola ride up
“ He who does not reach the Great Wall is not a true man”. --- Chairman Mao (And here I thought being a true man had something to do with hockey…) I recently had a friend in town for a couple weeks and we decided to go on a weekend trip somewhere before he left and were trying to decide what to do. Our options were going to Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors, going to Chengdu to visit the panda reserve, or going to Beijing to climb the wall. The Great Wall of China won over, because really, how can you visit China and NOT see the wall? Considering I have now been in China for 9 months, I figured it was time for me as well. We arrived late Friday night and got up ... read more
view of the school grounds from the new gymnasium
Life post-vacation in Wuhan has been a blur. Since coming back the weather has been getting increasingly nicer, although everyone keeps a close eye on the weather report, as it is common for it to be sunny and 25 degrees one day, and dark, rainy and 10 degrees the next. I am told, however, that this is very unusual. Last year, everyone was wearing shorts for a month and getting heat stroke by this point. I’m still waiting… Soon after we came back to Wuhan, we were asked to make a decision on whether we would be coming back or not. Some decided to leave long before vacation, some were sure of staying another year, and then there were a few who were flip flopping, not knowing what to do. The major issue was leaving a ... read more
Gilis
After spending two weeks in the Phillipines, we were ready to brave a few more days of travel to head to Indonesia for the second half of our trip. After spending a night in Jakarta we boarded the plane to Bali only to have Sanya disappear! She told us she was in the smoking room but when we went to get her, she wasn’t there. Mandy and I sat like lonely puppies looking out the window getting excited at every person who walked out the door and then disappointed as none of them were our friend. Finally, they closed the door and told us they had cancelled her ticket and we were Bali bound without one of our amigos. When we got to Bali, one of my best friends, Chelsey, was there waiting for us. She ... read more
Manila city bus
I have just returned from a great trip touring parts of Southeast Asia. The upside to working in China and having no time off at Christmas is the 5 week holiday we get in January! As all the teachers went off to various parts of the world, 2 friends, Mandy and Sanya, and I ventured to the Phillipines and Indonesia for some fun in the sun. We headed to the Phillipines first. One of the priorities of the trip for Mandy was to see the rice terraces in Banaue, the northern part of the Lauzon. She read that they are considered one of the wonders of the world and are the most beautiful in all of asia. When we got off the plane in Manila, we decided to tackle that first. The main way to get ... read more
the Christmas concert crew
Happy Holidays everyone! I hope everyone had a great couple of weeks. It sounds like a busy one back home, as I hear about weddings and babies and such. Holidays here were pretty quiet and rushed. All of the offices did a Secret Santa. The best present by far was a China special. One morning, Andrew came to work to find a live chicken in a crate, clucking at his desk. He took it for walks around the school all day, and then I think he had a great chicken dinner that night. On Christmas eve, the school held their annual Christmas concert, and I was surprised all the students were so into it, given it is a high school and all. Turns out, Christmas concerts in China are a little different than in Canada. Thing ... read more
I was so happy to see that white stuff i resorted to self photography
Cold temperatures have fallen upon Wuhan. This is something everyone who lived here last year has warned us about, and we all laughed and said “yeah right, -2 isn’t cold! That’s like Vancouver weather, we’ll be laughing!” Well they’re having the last laugh now. At risk of looking like a complete wimp, I’ll attempt to explain what cold weather is like here. During our “cold snap” it got down to about -3. There is no central heating in Wuhan (at least not that I have seen) so there are only room heaters. At the school, all the hallways are open to the air, which I never thought much about until it got cold. So I sit in my warm office, and then I walk about into the -3 hallways, and then into the classroom, where ... read more
