Summer road trip almost here

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Its hard to believe we have only been here four months. It's feeling more like home every week and we have done so much without even leaving Wuhan during that period. Next year we will have a whole country to explore now that we have settled in and are feeling more comfortable getting around.

In two weeks, we will be heading back to Canada for our summer traveling adventure. We leave here on June 27, stay overnight in Dalian, China and then fly on to Vancouver. We leave Dalian at about 1:30 pm and arrive in Vancouver at 10:30 am the same day. We plan to get to Princeton by bus on Monday, June 30. We'll pick up our motorcycle that has been stored all winter and then head south to Las Vegas on July 3 to begin our third cross-country trip in four years to visit friends and relatives. We'll arrive in Quebec on July 25 and spend a few weeks in Eastern Canada before flying back to China from Montreal the third week of August. This journal will turn into a North American road trip blog for the summer months!!

Our Grade 10 marks are back for the BC Provincial Math Exam our students wrote a few weeks ago. Eight of them got 100% , there were a few 99s and most of the rest got 80s or 90s so we were very happy for our first year's results so far. They are very hard workers and many stay up till the wee hours of the morning doing homework and studying for exams. It is lights out at 10pm for the residences but they have told me many times that they work in the washrooms after that, where the lights stay on all night!! Students are not only learning the material but also struggling to learn all the English vocabulary that goes with each course.

Last night we returned to the Aloha restaurant for ribs, tacos and milkshakes. The taxi driver had a good chuckle as we ended up taking a long way back home after missing one turn. However, we know the city well enough now that we were able to tell him how to get us back to Vanke despite our mistake.

Today we went to an area we have been to several times but were told about an Chinese antique market on one of the nearby streets we hadn't seen. As with everything else, the place was huge with countless shops and tons of beautiful stuff to look at. There were some more contemporary things available but most of the stores were selling old pottery, paintings, jade carvings, and incredible old intricately carved wood furniture. Everything was too expensive, too huge and heavy or too fragile to take with us. But much of the old pottery was very tempting to an ex-potter like myself. Outside the main shop area, other vendors had numerous wares for sale on blankets on the ground.

Tonight we are off to our weekly party...hmmm...what's the excuse this week, let me think. Oh yeah, Mandy turns 25 this weekend.

Well, that's it for now. Words and pictures will pick up again once we begin our summer trip, I'm sure.

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