Our life in Jinshitan

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I spend such a lot of time describing our travels on travel blogs - it seems like all we do is travel. The Chinese teachers in my office just shake their heads at the amount that we have seen in two years. One of them told me a saying in Chinese which basically means that when you borrow a book, you want to read it quickly; when you own it, you savour it slowly. We are definitely borrowing China for these few years and want to see as much as we can of this amazing country.

But most of our time is day to day; work, shopping, sports and I guess what everyone does no matter where you live. Now in our second year, we are into daily life in small town China. It is still fun to shop on a nice day, but on a cold December Saturday morning with the wind howling, you really wish you had a car and could head to IGA! The weather is finally warming up, though and just yesterday I left my big down mitts at home. There is no heat in either our apartments or the school though, so it is still chillier inside than out in my office. Rick , lucky guy, has a toasty warm office where he can actually take his coat off during the day.


RIght now, it is midterm exam week- a real treat because it is a change of routines. Every week is a five day week - no time off for staff meetings, performances, track meets, or anything else (all of those take place after school or on Saturday). Actually it is good that way because you end up not expecting long weekends. But this is a treat - except for the marking, report cards and new term planning. Report cards are easy - no special programs for any kids, no individual program plans, just a mark and pick two comments from the code back. You have to supervise a couple of exams, but other than that the week is yours for marking and planning.

Rick is loving his sports - hockey just finished up with a final (well second) road trip to Shenyang,which is about a 5 hour bus trip north east of here. They had a great time, but he wasn't used to the late nights- hockey until 11:00 pm, then the banquet and party. Both nights that fellow that shared his hotel room got in at 6 am. One night he fell asleep in the bath house!

He is also playing baseball. This league is considerably more organized than hockey- I think there about a dozen teams - Chinese, Japanese and Korean. I didn't go to the first game, but he said it was very formal with bowing and hand shaking beforehand. It was very cold and windy, plus they were there an hour and a half early to warm up. Maybe next time I'll go! They won their first game so everyone was sore but happy. Rick has been feeling a bit achey to say the least, but his consolation is that the 30 year olds are just as sore as him!

Last weekend we went 'mountain climbing' close by at Da Hei Shan (Big, Black Mountain). "Mountain climbing' in China always involves crowds - hundreds of people- and it always seems to involve hundreds of cement stairs. This was a fairly good hike, about 3-4 hours up and down. When you see the last and steepest part, which looks like the Chilkoot Pass from far away - you soon realize that the steps go right up to the top of the mountain. Too funny. We are going to try it again next month and see if we can get to it from the back way because there appeared to be dirt paths back there.



The one big piece of news we have is that we have signed new contracts for next year with the school. It involved a lot of thought and soul searching about staying or going back to Canada - friends, family our house in Qualicum.. But here there is constant learning, travel, challlenges and adventure. (and money!) One big factor in the decision was what kind of jobs we would have here - I am happy with the ESL job, but Rick is not interested in teaching another year.

As fate would have it, the asst. ESL director (our friend, neighbour and relative) - Dianne and her husband Peter are heading back to Canada, and her job therefore came available - perfect for Rick. He had verbal confirmation of the job, but then the position of vice principal also came up. Wanting the vice principal job, he suggested that I apply for the ESL job, so here we are with new contracts - me as Assistant Director of the Language Elective Progam and Rick as vice principal of the Boys campus. How fast things change!

We plan on a trip to Peace River this summer as Rick has a doctor's appointment (it is a 3 year wait in Calgary!), so are looking forward to seeing friends there. It will be only for a couple of days, so hope to meet a Tim Horton's again to see some of the Good Shepherd staff, as well as get together with the Croakin 4 for some tunes if possible.

Also on the books is a trip to Halifax to see Geoff, who has graduated from Dalhousie this year. He knows that I am very upset not to be there to see him graduater, but Chris is going to be there with him - they should have a good time and will enjoy a couple of pints, I'm sure!

Anyway, I need to finally get this off. Before you know it we will be on holidays again and will have more pictures.
Bye for now!

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Photos

The Dragons
Waiting for the bus to take the team on the final road trip of the season. Dragon team members are easily identified by the classy black cardigans. The more 'patches' earned (by attending tournaments), the classier the cardigan!

Dragon Rookies
Jiamisu was Rick's first hockey game as a Dragon, so he was initiated with the rookies. A special waiter's shirt was worn all night, with a badge saying 'My name is Rick, how can I help you?" All of the Chinese loved Rick's hair colour. It looks like he had a special friend!

Team Picture
You will have to look for Rick - I think in the back row, left hand side.

Now he's a Lumberjack
Now it is baseball season - sure no lack of sports around here. We are just hoping that the old guy's body holds up as well as his spirit!

Dining out
This is our favourite spot for dinner, aka the donkey dumpling restaurant. They do in fact serve very good donkey dumplings, but also a feast of other superb dishes. We can be totally 'chi bao le' - full- including beer, for about $2.00 a person. Such a deal - how can we ever eat out again in Canada?

Our favourite restaurant
This is, once again, the infamous DDR, aka toudo ni (a great potato /egg dish). Not much to look at but clean, great food and friendly staff who don't speak english, but smile and laugh a

Music Night
We have a crowd of old folks that we hang around with. We had them over a while ago for a pot luck dinner and music night. All the Peace River guitar camp song books came out and damn were we good!

Boys campus staff cafeteria
Last year the school implemented basically free lunches - about one cent per meal. The food is not bad on the girl's campus, but on my boys campus it is pretty sketchy at times. Bad when even the Chinese staff don't like it.

Stacey and Lucy
Stacey and Lucy are Chinese teachers with the ESL department. We are so lucky in ESL to work with them. They are so helpful and friendly - my unofficial mandarin teachers.

Official Mandarin tutors
These wonderful young men are my official Mandarin teachers. They are members of the Mandarin Club, where teachers can come three times a week to learn Chinese. This day, they took another woman and I to the market. It was a lot of fun and we learned some tips to help us with our weekly shopping. Leonardo, Justin, Frankie and Ronnie.

Buying Chicken
This fellow was selling chickens - cooked similar to what you would find in a deli. They looked so good- I will sure go and buy one another night for supper.

Quiet market day
The busy market days are Saturday and Wednesday mornings. Everyone brings in their fresh produce, lots of seafood, baking, it is a sight and great food. This was a Monday afternoon, so not much happening.

Tree Planting for Qing Ming
This weekend, I went on an excursion sponsored by the Mandarin Club. I, along with 4 students and a Chinese supervisor, went to a city close to here named Jin Zhou (think of Joe)- the same place that we went mountain climbing last weekend. It is a very old city, having been an important strategic location for centuries due to the fact that it is the narrowest part of Liaoning peninsula. From the top of the mountain you can see the Yellow Sea on one side and the Bohai Sea on the other side.
Anyway for Qing Ming, the Tomb Sweeping festival, people visit the graves of deceased relatives and offer cold food and paper money offerings. Because it is spring, they also plant trees. Mr. Zhong told me that it is a law in China that everyone plants a tree every year, but none of the boys had heard of this! ANyway, it was an interesting trip and we had a lot of fun. James, Mike, Tracy and Boris.

The Summit
This was the upper part of the mountain - it looked like Chilkoot Pass with the line of people trudging up to the top. Once you got up, looked at the communications tower at the top, most people turn around and go back down - a bit anticlimatic! We went overland though and found a way down the rocks on the left hand side - made us feel like real adventurers..

WC
Nice outhouse hanging over the edge of a cliff!

Would You like to live here??
Believe it or not, this is someone's house! We passed it on our way down, and saw the owner, his 4 small gardens and interesting outhouse. Who knows how often he has to go down to buy groceries??

The Pub
This small vendor had tiny stools and sold cold beer - greatly appreciated after 4 hours of climbing on a warm afternoon. Troung, Carrie, Jim, Mike ( and Rick enjoying some peanuts!)

Comments

[karen Zaitsoff]

Hello Friends
Thks. so much for the update Rick & Gail and congratulations on the new contracts. Boy, that sure didn't take long for the change. Looks and sounds like you have been very busy with work, and pleasure---good for you!! We are on Easter break right now so the week off was sooo very nice. I think we can make the last 9 wks. now. Time really does fly. We wish you both a Happy Easter and good luck with your next year. Keep the emails and pictures coming. I will say hi to all the staff from you. Take good care. Ken & Karen:)

[Donna Brennan]

Another year in China - good for you! I love the saying "borrowing China"...you'll be able to see even more sites and have more once in a lifetime experiences. You said you will be in PR for a visit this summer so just let us know when and I'll arrange the coffee at Tim's or at my house. I know there are so many GSS staff that will want to see you. Some of us were counting the school days left for this year and hard to believe but there's only 42 remaining. As always - too much to teach in too little time. We are finally getting spring weather here in northern Alberta. It was sunny today with a high of about +19. Hope it continues but we usually see a snowstorm or two yet in May. Congratulations to Geoff on his graduation. So nice that Chris can be with him on that special day. Take care Rick and Gail. We look forward to seeing you this summer.