Most of our colleagues at Maple Leaf planned on hitting the beaches of southeast Asia and other tropical places, but how can we leave China without experiencing the ultimate Chinese festival?? Spring Festival (Chinese New Years) in China was the goal for this year's winter holiday. That plus our good friends from Calgary wanting to spend some of their travel time with us set the agenda for our five week winter holiday. Richard and Buff arrived on January 13 -it was so great to spend some time with friends from home and show them where we live and work. They loved the small restaurants and local markets despite little or no heat in the -15 C weather. Good thing they brought down jackets, gloves and scarves. Little did we know that they would be still ... read more

There is so much to see here, so much incredible history and in two (or even three) years, it is not possible to see it all. So we decided that we'd never get to see the Terra Cotta Warriors unless we did it on a weekend. It is about like going Calgary-Toronto for a weekend, doable , but busy. Having only decided this on Wednesday, Rick booked tickets and a room on Thursday and we took off on Friday after school. Arriving there in the late evening, we enjoyed strolling around the Muslim section in the old city. There are about 30,000 Muslims who live in this area, so it is hopping with vendors, food stalls and small restaurants, people, animals (live and not so live), lights, kids and noise. The hotel we booked was in ... read more

National Holiday week! Even though we had only been in school for a month, it was great to have a holiday. We left right after school on Saturday trying to beat the throng of students and other teachers heading for the airport. Thankfully Autumn was there early and did a fine job delivering us to the airport. After a fairly short flight, we arrived in Shanghai. The central tourist district, called the Bund, is where we stayed and arriving at night showed it at its best. After checking into our hostel, we went for a stoll along the embankment. This walkway along the bank of the Huang Pu river, was ablaze with lights like we have never seen before. The Bund used to be the financial centre of Shanghai, and now is the main tourist centre ... read more

Summer was great - family, friends, relaxing- all the things that summer should be. We spent most of the time in Calgary staying at the Baxendale hotel (Calgary location). It was good to be back golfing, getting a few rounds in with Mom and several with Rick. (game hasn't improved much!). We also went hiking in the Kananaskis, took in the Kensington Salsa Festival and the Chinatown festival, and had visits to Fairmont and Edmonton. Rick also flew to Minnesota to play golf with brother Fred and wife Dianne. We had visits with all the Baxendale siblings over the summer, Barb, Bob, Diane and Nancy; as well Rick got to visit with his brothers Dave, and Fred, sister Pat and sister in law Barb. It was wonderful to spend 3 weeks with Geoff in Calgary and, ... read more

It has been a long time since we have sent an e-mail; life has been speeding along here, and it seems like time for an update. April is here and it should be spring, but we are still waiting for it to warm up. We hear reports of warm weather in all the places that we have friends and family, but we feel like the giant behind the wall (Selfish giant garden wasn't it...or was it the Great wall??) It has been an interesting month (aren’t they all) at work, with many budget and job cuts happening. Rick was initially quite concerned about where he would end up in this major shakeup, with teaching being the only option offered. He was initially ,needless to say, reluctant after being away from the classroom for almost 30 years. ... read more