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Published: August 28th 2011
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Home Sweet Home
Where I started my journey to China. My home on Mitishto Bay, in Thompson, Manitoba, Canada. Okay, the blogging Gods are mocking me. Let's try this again. I had, just, JUST written about how well I was managing on this blog site, when, WHAMMO and poof! My words were M-I-A. SIGH. I luckily only lost about 6 sentences. Still. It's enough to make a girl a LITTLE cranky. LoL Take 2.
SO, I have learned how to make maps and paste them into the blog body. Now, that may not sound like an amazing accomplishment to you, but hey! It IS pretty amazing, I'll have you know! It is a miraculous occurance. And I am darn proud of myself. Ha ha ha. C'mon now, and laugh with me. Or at me. I don't care, just laugh! And do me the favour of checking out the map. After I created it, I looked at it for a loooooooooong time, thinking about just how very far away I am travelling. I cannot help but think the world a smaller place when I am about to traverse it in a day. That is crazy amazing, isn't it?
I currently sit in terminal 66 at the Vancouver International Airport awaiting boarding for my long flight to Beijing.
Amazing sky, Grand Rapids, MB
THere was just something about the quality of the sky. Azure blue and those lovely puffy clouds. We will, with luck, leave on-time, at 3:00 am Pacific Time and we will fly straight over the Pacific Ocean (gulp!) and arrive in one of the world's most ancient cities in the very early morning there. I will wait there for a couple of hours, and then board another plane, the last, thankfully, to my final destination, the coastal city of Xiamen. I think I'll be tired. Ya think?
I had a wonderful flight from Winnipeg. The seats on the plane seemed larger than usual somehow, not sure why, but I enjoyed not feeling like a sardine. I had very nice seat companion, an Indian man who was travelling to Australia. He had recently emigrated to Canada and had a degree in Chemistry. As soon as he learned I was a teacher going to teach English in China, he wanted to practise his English, and asked me for tips, specific things he could do to improve his speaking skills. I dìdn't mind his questions at all (a teacher never lets an interested learner get away from her-it's such a rare occurance!) and such a gentleman he was! I helped him orient himself once we arrived in the Vancouver
terminal and we went our separate ways after a polite exchange of ''Nice to meet you. Safe travels. *smile*''
As I am sitting here, the previously almost deserted and dark terminal is starting to fill up with Chinese speaking people. I am charging my Blackberry at the charging station and simulataneously blogging, since I have hours to kill and lots of work to do to this blog! HA! Even the seats in this airport are cushy. Nice! I had a text from a long-time friend, Jay R, originally from Edmonton and a former co-worker from our Edmonton Venture Marketing Days who may be able to meet me in Xiamen in October when he comes for business. I am looking forward to a rendez-vous with an old friend (I think it has been about 20 years since we last spoke) and also to his take on China. He does a lot of business in China and travels back and forth quite a lot.
There are quite a few people sacked out on the chairs having a snooze before the bustle of boarding and settling in for the "midnight" flight. The sing-song of the Chinese language is everywhere and am
thinking that this is just the first of what will likely be a collossol linguistic adventure in immersion. LOL
I think it's time to attempt uploading some photos. Let's see what happens, shall we? Over and out.
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Jeni
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Have a safe trip!
Thank you for adding me to your blog.. I had no idea you were going to China to teach, so to read about it was a bit of a shock, but I am envious of you. What a wonderful experience you should have... I can hardly wait for all your updates and to see the pictures I'm sure you will be taking. Love and miss you lots!