Blogs from Jinshitan, Dalian, Liaoning, China, Asia - page 2

Merry Christmas - these are a few pictures of our Christmas season. When I look at them, it is no wonder that we feel like we never have any relax time! But so much fun. We have loved keeping in touch with so many friends and family over the holiday season. Hearing news and seeing pictures of babies, birthdays, and homecooked Christmas dinners makes us feel like we are not so far away. ... read more

Sorry about the technical glitch... It turned out it didn't lose the other half and the photos, it just published the first half of the text. I must have hit some key combination that set things in motion, sort of... Anyway, here is the real blog! Tourists in our own town We had decided to spend the weekend of my birthday at our favourite hotel in Dalian. The first problem was that the school’s University Fair was that weekend and Dianne wanted to volunteer to help the students with their registration procedures or any other help they needed. Then we got an invite to the Diwali celebrations from one of our colleagues. Diwali, the festival of lights, is an important Hindu festival and they like to celebrate with family and friends. It was to be held ... read more

National holiday week, and sister Barb finallly arrived - we were so excited to see her. Our friend and driver, Autumn, picked her up at the airport which we would love to have done ourselves, but we were both in classes. Autumn is so friendly and loves practicing her Chinglish, so the hour drive went quickly - she drives fast too! Luckily the weather was sunny , so after we showed her the apartment and had a short rest, we set out to check out the local scene, and to Manjiatan to check out the market. Not much to buy since we would be leaving soon for holiday, but picked some peaches, oranges and a pomegranate, which are just coming in season and so delicious. After that we continued on our journey back down main street ... read more

Big News to Us Well, Dianne finally got her letter from Maple Leaf confirming the job that is available to her next year. Because of changes to the program, there is no position exactly like what she did last year or this year The job title is Assistant English Language Department Director for Dalian Maple Leaf International School. The work will involve many aspects of her previous jobs and, no matter what we think the job will be, it will turn out to be something different. That has been the track record for the past trwo years and we don't see any reason why it will change. So I guess we will be back in China foir a third year. We have started renovation plans for our "cottage" on Pender to make it more suitable for ... read more

We arrived in Bangkok on a Thursday and were immediately hit by the heat and humidity. Must have been in the high 30's everyday that we were there. Going on recommendations of friends in China, we had booked a hotel on Rambutri Street for two days. We did not realize that we were in the absolute center of twenty-something backpacker heaven - one short block from Khoa San Road - the Mecca of all backpackers. New experience for us- we kept thinking of Chris and his trip a couple of years ago - wondering if he had gone here, stayed there, eaten here or done this! As it turns out, he has and he did! Our first order of business was Rick’s appointment, which turned out great. The Bangkok Nursing Hospital is used by many Maple ... read more