Laziness and time contraints dictate combining Ho Chi Minh City with Guilin, Yangshuo and Xingping. Jerry and I went to HCM City from Feb. 5 th to 10th. Then Jerry stayed on until his flight home on Feb. 23rd. During our daily Skype he tells me he still misses the school lunches and the local markets. He occasionally mentions he misses me, too. During our trip to HCM City (Saigon) we took two tours, one to the Mekong Delta and another to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Mekong Delta tour was a bing bang for our buck, $6 each for bus [View Full Entry]

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Have been savouring the spring festival holiday: home on Jan. 9th, visit with family and friends, off to Black Mountain, and finally back to Shenzhen for the start of a 3 city tour of China. Jerry and I first went to Shanghai, billed as China's most liveable city, then Beijing, hiked 10 km on the wall :), and lastly Xi'an and the terracotta warriors. Shanghai is a wonderful blend of old and modern, surreal architecture juxtaposed against the old, classy buildings on the Bund. Our hotel was a restored 80 year old building which, like Shanghai, blended the old with the [View Full Entry]

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Happy 2009! It's been odd to work through this season with only Dec. 25th off. Folks here have done their best to honour John and I by hosting a Christmas Eve Party where many students 'gifted' us with their amazing talents. We had Jan. 1st, 2nd and 3rd off, worked on Sunday, Jan. 4th, to allow for these days in a row. Bing Bing (aka Benny, my translator's boyfriend) organized a delightful tour for Emily and I including visits to a zoo, a farm, a picturesque lake, Guangzhou (older city and capital of Guangdong, this province) and a crocodile park. I'm [View Full Entry]

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Heading home on January 9th. Can't wait! Copy/paste for your ecard! http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4e6a49774d4449354e673d3d0d0a [View Full Entry]

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Finally had the opportunity to venture away from the city, went on a tour with 17 expats. It was truly a United Nations gathering with folks from United States, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Australia and India. We travelled to the adjacent province Fujian to view the Yongding Hakka Tulou. These are amazing world cultural heritage buildings made of rammed earth, some of them built more than 600 years ago. Many of the Hakku people still dwell in these ancient structures! We spent 3 days viewing assorted ancient places from the Thousand Buddhist Tower to the Chuxi tulou cluster. T [View Full Entry]

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A few tidbits to share...some of Class 4, the 34 Grade 7's I see for about 90 mins a day, and a few pics of my daytrip to Macau with Emily (Yan Ting) and Umberto, an Italian fellow I met in the border line up. He studied Chinese in Italy for 5 yrs. and speaks it fluently, has been working in China since February/08. Class 4 wanted to learn about Halloween, so they made masks and we had a party. You will also see them participating in a morning exercises's competition. Every morning at 7:25 all the Grade 7's, 8's and [View Full Entry]

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Happy belated Thanksgiving! Life continues to move along at a fast pace here in Shenzhen. Finally got my multi-entry visa and went to Hong Kong with the Hudson's. Sadly I didn't take that many pictures as it was a whirlwind trip with not many photo ops. Before that, I went to a theme park called Splendid China with three of my students. As I told Jerry, it's like the Polynesian Cultural Center of China, a collection of ethnic groups here. I was fascinated with the Tibetan building and its occupants. When wandering through an on site temple, we stumbled upon a [View Full Entry]

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Greetings all! I’m coming to the end of National Week off here. On October 1st, 1949, China became a communist state, the whole nation is off for this week and the streets are even more populated. So far this week I went shopping (again) with Emily, played tennis at the Shenzhen University with a parent, ate out (surprised?), went to the zoo with 3 of my students and went to an island on a 50 something foot yacht with the Kan Family and their friends. The shopping was delightful, the tennis was pleasantly exhausting, the zoo was depressing (great company but [View Full Entry]

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Hello all! Hope everyone is well and content. It would be great if you could drop me a line to tell me how your lives are going. Wink, nod. Time for another entry (or so Mom tells me). Hi Mom! Just thought you might be tired of viewing eating out pics. This time it was Joe's birthday and Principal Li hosted a wonderful meal which included Peking Duck, Cantonese style. Hmmm...Well it was mainly duck skin with a touch of meat on the skin. Still, it was very tasty. On Friday we were at the expat area when we stumbled upon [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was Teachers' Day! What an event! My room looks like a florist's shop and I have enough mooncakes to feed an army. (Moon Festival is this weekend.) After classes, all teachers from the primary, middle and high school were invited to a grand evening out at a massive two storey restaurant. The only western comparison I can make is to a wedding reception. Wine at every table and then plate after plate of elegantly prepared dishes adorned with flowers, etc. John and I were picked up by the school van and sat at the head table with Principal Li. Another [View Full Entry]

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