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Published: December 21st 2008
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Merry Christmas to all
From Dianne and Peter Wilson! Here we are at our Staff Christmas Party last week wishing you and yours all the happiness and blessings of the Christmas season. May we always remember to share the many blessings we have received with those less fortunate. Well, we are still at it here in China! It has been quite a time since my last blog entry and all of a sudden, it is Christmas. We haven't done much in the way of Christmas decorating this year and have been so busy it hasn't really seemed like Christmas. It's cold enough with the winds we get but, with no snow to speak of and no decorations or music around the place, it doesn't seem like Christmas is approaching.
We went to a pot-luck at friends who had gone all out for the holidays so Dianne decided we will do better next year. The two Santa hats were given to us by a staff member to wear at a student Christmas party on Tuesday night where Dianne and I will be doing a choral reading of ‘Twas the Night before Christmas. The flowers were a centrepiece on the table at the staff Christmas party held at a hotel in KaiFaQu. The dinner was a regular ‘western’ Christmas dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and all the usual Christmas treats. The caterer runs a business outside the hotel and he had spent 9 years in Vancouver so he knew
Our decorations for 2008
This is all we did! Flower arrangement from the Christmas party and two Santa hats for the Student Party next week. "There will be more next year" says Dianne. "Humbug" says Peter. what Canadians were looking for. I am sure some of the hotel staff were wondering what was going on.
Christmas has become quite an event in parts of China, especially the big city malls although we don't spend much time in them. When we did a rare shopping trip this past Friday, there was an assortment of Christmas carols playing as we strolled through the mall. It did seem unusual to hear all the old familiar tunes, many in English. The biggest surprise was the number with a religious theme. Or maybe Jingle Bells sung in Chinese.
Decorated trees are everywhere including a big tree in the restaurant where we had dinner. Not so noticeable in the more rural areas like the town near the school.
We have managed a few excursions into the centre of Dalian. With a couple of gals who had been here before we managed to find of the malls where they make clothes to measure. It is absolutely astounding how fast they can whip stuff up. And the stalls are so small. I don’t know how they can pack so much stuff into such small areas. Fitting rooms? When I was waiting to
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!
This photo was taken while we were walking through Metro, Dalian's version of Costco, where we do our bulk shopping once a month or so. Lots of Santa pictures in evidence as well. No Santas in the malls asking kids what they want him to bring, at least that we have discovered. The kids in schools do understand the concept of him bringing gifts. When I asked them what they wanted forChristmas, one student immediately replied "Money!" Ah, the Spirit of Christmas! have a couple of shirts made, the customer in front of me wanted to try something on. So the stall owner takes out a big sheet and holds it up. The customer tries the garment on, decides it fits and gets dressed. The owner drops the sheet and completes the transaction. Next! Quite a system. Our pictures of this mall didn’t turn out well. We’ll be going back for more so will try again.
Dianne and I were invited to a Chinese wedding party for one of her teachers. They had the official party and the civil ceremony some time ago in the city where their families lived. This was a party for the friends and co-workers where they live now. It’s too expensive for everyone to travel to one place for a combined ceremony. Dianne got to make a speech which her assistant translated as we were the only westerners at the lunch. Lots of people spoke English but then lots didn’t. It was interesting to see the different traditions.
The campus is expected to double in size hopefully by next year. There is a mad frenzy of building across the main road that passes the school.
Dalian architecture
There are many interesting buildings in downtown Dalian. We hope to get more time in the Spring to investigate Dalian proper which is about an hour by light rail transit from the school. Buildings are going up at an astounding rate. This will include new housing and we will have to decide whether we want to have a new and bigger but more expensive apartment or keep the cozy place we have now which is less than five minutes from the office. Dianne can see her office window from our current apartment. But that is a decision for the spring. Meanwhile the administration is wrestling with how to organize the new campus - many decisions, some of which involve Dianne as head of ESL.
Term 2 is coming rapidly to a close. Two four-day holiday weekends are followed by a week of review and a week of exams. Then it is the annual five week winter Holiday. Many are returning to Canada for the break while others are heading south to visit countries such as Thailand. I know of a couple who are going to Europe. Some with younger children stay closer to home. The wife of one of the other teachers is about to give birth to their first child. I suspect they won’t be venturing too far from “the nest” during the holidays.
And the last piece of news
Hmmmmmm?
One of the challenges is knowing exactly what a store sells. We think we had been here before with some other teachers but is this really the same store? There is often nothing to tell you for sure so you just walk in and take a look. Luckily, this was the right one! before I turn this over to Dianne for her comments is that I won’t be returning to the school as an ESL teacher for term 3. It’s a very complicated situation but the bottom line is that the nature of the work is too hard on my eyesight. I don’t think it is causing any further damage but the reading, marking, record keeping etc is just too hard on the one eye that I do have. I am hoping I can find some part time involvement to keep me busy; something where I have better control of the environment so I can rest the old peeper when I get tired. Dianne has been pretty good at finding little projects for me in the past so I am sure I will keep busy without the time pressures imposed by the school system environment. I will miss the interaction with the students but not the effect of wearing my contact lens too long each day.
AND now, a few words from Dianne! As Peter mentioned at the start, it has been a long time since our last blog entry and pictures. We are both really looking forward to connecting with family
Tourist Information?
Maybe if you are Chinese or Russian. The words on the outside were just about the only English we could find. Luckily we didn't need any information. and friends in January - February. It will be hard to fit in everything that we want to do when we are home! Even our list of small things to purchase (Mrs. Dash’s spices, free trade coffee, chocolate sprinkles …) and things to dig out of storage (pyrex measuring cups …) keeps getting bigger. The plan is to pack two army duffle bags in the suitcases so they can be filled with items for the return trip to China.
Let’s hope that the cold weather that has hit BC and Alberta is over by the time we get home. As I write this, we have more ice covering our windows and the wind is blowing like crazy. Yesterday (Saturday) was much nicer for our weekly 15 minute walk into Manjiatan to visit the outdoor market, the little “supermarket” and the “chicken” lady (when she sees us coming, she beams and says “chicken”. I have one of her carcases simmering on the stove right now - more yummy chicken soup coming up! As we walked home, we passed a man all bundled up in a thick jacket and wearing a hat with warm ear flaps. He was carrying a homemade
Street scene
The light rail transit from where we live travels to downtown Dalian and drops us near the train station. It seems no matter what time you go, there is a crush of people going through this tunnel under the tracks. Street vendors are everywhere even in the colder temperatures. switch and walking beside his ox pulling an old wooden cart laden with “things”. Contrast this to the picture of the high-rises in DaLian! China, truly, is a fascinating country although we have only seen a small corner of this vast country.
We hope that all of you have a very blessed and peaceful Christmas. When you are away from home as we are, you really appreciate the importance of family and friends. We have known for many years that the importance of Christmas is not about spending money on gifts and rushing around in a frenzy but about time for others - living in China has really highlighted that for us. We hope that you can feel our love for you from afar. May you take time over Christmas to pause and reflect on the many blessings of living in an amazing country like Canada.
Until our next blog entry, love from Dianne and Peter
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