Food and friends...

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Our final Saturday night show of Robin Hood was once again a great success, apart from a few last minute technical difficulties. Most students were present and many parents as well. The afternoon began with singing performances, reading theatre, and short skits by the winners of the English Arts Festival. The play was the grand finale of the afternoon. The kids did great and the parents were impressed. "Amazing", as one parent commented (in Chinese, of course, translated by their son as I attempted to talk to them briefly).

After the show, a bunch of us who have been involved, most for a much longer period of time than the two of us, were treated to a wonderful dinner at a restaurant neither of us had been to before, the Aloha. It was located in another section of town that caters to foreigners and is near a Peugot-Citroen joint venture. In this area there were several western restaurants, a bakery and other interesting shops. The restaurant we went to is owned by a person from California and provides all sorts of Mexican and Western food, including enchiladas, real milkshakes, burgers, and desserts. Across the street was a typical Italian restaurant which we will have to try out sometime. We brought a student with us who had helped out with the sound during the play. He got to experience his first "real hamburger and fries" and was very impressed! He couldn't understand why there was a restaurant like this in China or where all the foreigners had come from that were there. But he got a kick out of all the North American food and tried out a bunch of stuff.

It seems there is a party every week somewhere. And anything will work as an excuse to eat at one of the hundreds of restaurants. I have included several photos of some of our eating extravaganzas. Usually, by the time I get around to taking pictures most of the food has been eaten but you will get the idea. There is always lots of great beer to go around and the wine is not bad either!

This week our new principal for next year arrived and will be sticking around for the month of June to get to know the place. Our current principal, Craig, and his wife, Wendy, will be returning to Canada with mixed emotions. When one of the young students (Grade 5) was asked about the new principal, she called him "the grandpa man". We all got a kick out of that. He said "the man" would have been just fine for an answer!! He has moved into Vanke with the rest of us and is doing the best to learn his way around the place as we all did when we first arrived. Even after only four months here, it is interesting to see a new arrival's take on the place and the things that they notice. Most are very similar to our first impressions.

The final countdown is here and we will be leaving for Canada at the end of the month. We have decided that we won't be doing much shopping in North America now that we have seen the prices here. It will definitely be reverse culture shock when we return for the summer. I went out the other night and purchased a hammer, a bunch of nails, and enough food for supper for the equivalent of a total of $4 Canadian. How can you beat that?

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Photos

The old and the new
I clicked this one from the taxi on the way to the restaurant.

In Front of Aloha
Nancy, Sirius, me, Sunny, Christina