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Published: March 26th 2009
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Grandma and Kyle
Dianne was in heaven! A new grandson, Kyle, to share her love of reading. Back from Canada a month ago, where does the time go? Well, for me it is same old, same old. Not all of our bags made it back so I had to take an unscheduled trip back to the airport to pick up the missing two cases. Luckily the principal was coming in about the same time so the school van was making a run to Dalian to pick him up as well as some school supplies at Metro. I got a ride to the airport and our major shopping centre too. Bonus! The downside was that on the way back to the school he mentioned that "we" were unable to get the replacement teacher we wanted so I would have to teach half time this term. And the term started the next day!
The course is "Canadian Studies", something I supposedly know something about. Dianne had done the course overviews and planned things pretty well. It just meant three of us had to get together to decide how we would actually deliver this stuff to the kids. It has worked out pretty well considering the fact that I wasn't planning on working at all. Still looking for a teacher
Grandpa and Kyle
Grandpa got to bore a new member of the younger generation with computer stories. A captive audience. for the fourth term but.....
Our Canadian holiday went very well and much too fast. We managed to see most of our relatives and will see the others in the summer break. We got to meet our newest grandchild, Kyle Joseph, who is a real sweetheart. We had met on Skype but the real thing is much better. We spent some quality time with all the kids and really enjoyed ourselves. It was almost like we hadn’t been away. Except Jamie had really grown!
Our one disappointment was that we didn’t get our kayaks in the water on either of our stops on Pender. The weather was just a little too iffy. One day we could have gone out but then we would have been putting things away wet which didn’t seem like a good idea.
Dianne has been a big hit over here. Those of you who knew her in her work environment know she is tireless in her support of her staff. This has been particularly significant at Maple Leaf where the new teachers (not just me) constantly bombard her with questions. But her office staff was particularly amused one day when I told them
Russell, Heather and Kyle
Russell and Heather are having quite a year. A new to them house, a new son and Russ on parental leave so they can share some great bonding time together. about the lengths she went to to support her teachers. Last Saturday we were having a slow start, lying in bed reading our books and sipping coffee. Finally it was time to get a move on, so I went into the bathroom to put in my contact lens. As I did so, I heard the telltale “plink” of a plastic lens hitting the ceramic sink. This is not uncommon so I carefully felt my way around the sink, under my eyelid, my eyelashes, cheeks, pockets of my housecoat etc etc. No Luck. Hmmmmm… As soon as I called Dianne, she knew what the problem was and rushed to my side to start the search. She went over everything again, twice, in fact. Then it was down on the floor with a damp piece of Kleenex wiping the floor carefully to make sure she didn’t miss anything (and discovered that we needed to wash the floor!). No Luck! So while she was checking one more time, I stood out in the hall thinking about what I was going to do. I do have two back up lenses so that isn’t a problem but do I order a new one from Canada
Steve, Tara, Maya and Jamie
Steve and Tara with their growing family. Steve is really busy managing his restaurant so Tara is going to take the summer off to enjoy the kids. Wish we were there to enjoy them too. (I had researched this before leaving town)? As I was pondering my options, I casually looked out into the living room and, to my horror, realized I could see the large print on a magazine on the coffee table. I shouldn’t even be able to see the coffee table! The lens was not only in my eye, but on the cornea where it belonged. Dianne was so glad we didn’t have to pay for a new lens that she didn’t shoot me for wasting her time. What a relief….
We were supposed to start our semi-private Mandarin lessons last week but they were cancelled because one of the teachers died of a heart attack just before school the day they were to start. The teacher was only 47 but the family had a history of heart problems. He had been at the school for some time so it was pretty hard on the staff. He taught Grade 10 so many of his former students were still in the school. We had been told that just about everything would happen while we were here but we didn’t expect this. Very sad. His wife is also on staff.
Dianne has been
Christine, Greg, Lise and Claire
The Nehrings are always busy too. But the girls have been supplying us with art work to put up on our walls here is China to make it feel more like our Canadian home. trying to clean up many years of accumulation of “stuff” in the office and store rooms. The Chinese don’t mind making many photocopies of books, charts, stories etc but they hate to throw anything out. Consequently there are piles of carefully wrapped material stacked whereever they could find a place to put it. It is carefully labelled, but in Chinese so the first step is to have one of the office staff go through everything and label it in English so it can be evaluated. Quite a job. I almost don’t want to stop teaching because I know what I will be doing if I do!
But we are making a real effort to get out and about. We got down to Dalian a couple of weeks ago for a “sleepover” at the Kempinsky Hotel where we celebrated the birthdays of a couple of teachers. We got to walk around town and finally tracked down the Catholic Church. Services are in Chinese and Korean so we get to choose one. It’s at least an hour and a half each way from the school. Our plan is to head back down at Easter. One of the local teachers asked if
Dianne and Peter in Dalian
The skyline of Dalian makes a nice backdrop for this picture taken on a stroll we took through Labour Park on our Kempinsky weekend. they allowed foreigners. I thought that an odd question but apparently some churches are for Chinese only and others are for Foreigners only. Freedom of religion is relative I guess.
You may wonder why I say finally tracked down the Church. Well, addresses aren’t that easy to find here, at least not for westerners. The maps are all in Chinese to start with and even if you find a map with English, the street signs and names on the buildings are all in Chinese. One of the teachers hosted a pot luck supper in Dalian. Her directions, instead of telling us an address, were: From the An Shen mall (“everyone” knows where that is) go one block towards the Qing Gui, turn left and go half a block up the street. The door to her building is between the two barber poles and it’s across the street from a foot massage place. We found the place with no problem!
One of the teachers took a Google Map and identified all the walking trails in the neighbourhood. We had taken one of trails accidently and had pictures on a previous blog entry. There are a couple more on this
Instant trees
One of the things that fascinates most westerners is the Chinese love of artificial trees. We had seen many of these "cement" trees on our travels but never one that was "growing". On our walkabout in Dalian we came across this one being built. It looks like it is ready for its cement bark and then will be a full fledged tree! entry as we continue to explore. This weekend Dianne chose to work on her cleanup because the wind is howling. Bright sunshine and very pleasant out of the wind but in exposed areas it is brutally cold. The temperature in Dalian is listed as 3C but the wind is 40 kmh and it feels much colder. We are not looking forward to tomorrow’s flag ceremony. It will be a memorial for the teacher who died and, if the wind keeps blowing, it will be doubly difficult.
We just booked out trip to the city of Chengdu and the nearby Panda Reserve for the Spring Holiday so there should be some interesting pictures from that trip. You can check out the highlights of both places through Google.
Oh yes, and did you know that Ikea has now opened a store in Dalian right beside Metro (the store where we shop for “western” food items)? We went there a few weeks ago on a Saturday morning at 10:00 am. Fortunately, it was not crowded. We have talked to other teachers who have gone later on Saturdays or on Sundays and the crowds were amazing. Ikea is Ikea - whether it
Catholic Church
The Church was built in 1926 and looks like Catholic Churches pretty well anywhere. The statues inside have a distinct "western" look. We're looking forward to travelling back to Dalian for Easter where we will likely attend the Korean Mass. The homily will be interesting I am sure. is in Canada or China!
That’s it for now. See you next time!
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