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Published: December 21st 2011
Christmas is only 4 days away and we are quickly preparing for the end of the term, guests to arrive, move to a new apartment and leave for 5 weeks of travel. You make ask "How do you have time to write a blog?" Well, I need some time to decompress as these next 10 days will be very busy.
We will travel to Shanghai on Friday to meet up with Laurence, Pete's friend traveling from Indianapolis, and Laura, Pete's sister, who has spend the last 2 weeks traveling around Cambodia and Vietnam. This is our first time having guest in China and we are looking forward to it. I hope we can live up to being good hosts in such a different country. I look forward to showing them all the things that are our daily life here in China but also seeing China through their "Virgin" eyes.
We will spend the weekend in Shanghai celebrating Christmas and Laura's 30th birthday on Monday. Then return to Hangzhou to see the places of interests, as our students would say. Laurence will return to the US on December 30th and this is the same day that we move back to our apartment we lived in last year at Hangzhou Wanxiang Polytechnic.
We didn't teach at this school this term as they only had 1 teacher position available and it didn't work for the 2 of us needing jobs. But the school has created a 2nd position for both of us to teach there in the Spring Term (starting Feb 20th). We are giving up our apartment in town, to enjoy a 5 minute walk to class instead of the long bus ride each way to HDU. We will gain that closeness of the teachers at WXP (Wanxiang Polytechnic) instead of the large university feel we have now at HDU. No position in life in every perfect but we do think we will enjoy our Spring Term more than our Fall term. Of course it has been hard saying goodbye to my students I taught this term but we still will be in Hangzhou and can meet up with them if they wish.
After our move to our new/old apartment on December 30th we fly to Shenzhen on December 31st and will cross into Hong Kong to celebrate New Year's Eve with Laura there. We will be in the area until January 5th when Pete and I fly to India for 22 days and Laura will fly back to the USA after traveling around Asia for 4 weeks. We hope to visit Shenzhen to see old friends, day trip to Macau and see our favorites around Hong Kong.
We hope to blog as best as we can during our travels as I am sure India will be a whole different world than we have experienced before. We will then hit up Yunnan province in Southern China visiting Kunming and Dali, which we haven't experienced before for 5 days before returning to Hangzhou on February 3rd. The Spring Term will begin on February 20th so we have 2.5 weeks to catch our breath, get settled into our new/old apartment, plan for the new term and enjoy our last semester in China.
The weather is holding up here in Hangzhou as it hasn't snowed yet. Yes, a White Christmas reminds me of being in IL for Christmas but snow here just means cold and staying in 1 room in of our apartment where the heat is.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all who read this as you have a special place in Pete and I's heart.
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Denise Haley
non-member comment
Merry Christmas
Sounds like a great holiday! Have fun with your guests and on your travels! Merry Christmas :)