Jade n Wayne

So, we have 4 months to go as I write this. Recently, I've had many conversations about the little things that are really special about Daqing/China. As we've all been here for a while we've all noted that we're starting to get used to the things around us - that to anyone who may just arrive would be very interesting and exciting. These little things are also things we will likely forget in time. So, I'm going to start a little compilation of curious and interesting things I don't want to forget. Food: Fruit kebabs covered in sugar. There are people walking around with their carts. Sitting on the back of their carts is a round cylinder type thing with fruit kebabs sticking out of it. The fruit kebabs have been rolled in a toffee and ... read more

Beijing 24th - 30th July On Friday the 24th at about 8pm we commenced our journey to Beijing. Our mode of the transport was the hard sleeper on the train. The hard sleeper is a thin/hardish mattress on one of three bunk beds in the train. Other than the soft sleeper this is a really great way to travel somewhere. The way we figure it is, if you're going to be asleep you may as well be travelling somewhere at the same time. By the time we reached Beijing we had been on the train 13-14 hours, of which 8 or so of that was sleeping. Wayne and I were travelling with Christina who is from Canada and who also works for Joy school in Daqing. She is such a champ! I couldn't have hoped for ... read more

Our Journey So far So, from the beginning. On around the 7th May 2009 we received confirmation that we had a job waiting for us with Joy Children's Language School in Daqing, China. After a week of rushing around preparing our belongings and making trips from Toowoomba to Brisbane to secure our documents we finally received our Visa's on the 12th May. On the 13th May we flew to China. After a 8hr flight with Singapore Airlines we arrived in Singapore. Each seat had it's own TV screen and remote. You could watch movies, play games, learn languages, look at exactly where you were flying and at what height. I had beef stew (which had red wine in it for lunch and salad) and a chicken something pie for dinner, as well as refreshments the whole ... read more