The brand new Canadian Teachers have arrived and are ready to take on China :)

They looked quite perky for such a long flight & bus ride back to the campus, lol! It was great to see them again after our brief meeting in Moncton more than a month ago.

After their arrival and a few minutes in their new apartments, Dad, Mike, Dick & I took them on a walking tour of Tongzien...to give them some idea of the way it's laid out. Showed them the landmarks like the restaurant street, computer market, Century Mart, and eventually to Big Pizza where we took them for supper.

After our meal, we took them over to the Century Mart for neccessities...towels, laundry detergent & hair dryers were the top items on their lists :) And we kept them out until 8pm so they wouldn't be tempted to sleep the day away.

It was the beginning of a string of busy days for them. The next morning, Friday, they were all on a bus at 7:30am to go have their medical tests for their stay in China. Mike, Dad, Bryant & I went in later to meet the bunch at Jianguomen for an afternoon tour of Beijing for beginners :)

We took them by the Friendship Store, the place I get my digital photos done, then over to Paul's for lunch (he's from Cape Breton) to Jenny Lou's market, then by Ritan Park, to the Silk Market for their 1st hardcore bargaining experience, and eventually back to catch the bus back to the school.



They were so funny as we waited for the 649 bus; Darryl started taking wagers on how many buses until ours came. Nobody won since no one claimed # 13 on the second time around with the numbers, lol

Saturday was another early day...8am meeting time to go to the Great Wall at Simatai :) I was the tour leader for the entire group (including all the returning teachers since they've never been to that section). Three hours on the bus to get there but worth every second! Still gorgeous & challenging for my second time.



They say that Badaling is the most touristy, Mutianyu is the most beautiful, Simatai is the most challenging & Jinshanling the least visited. Every teacher I spoke with felt like they had really challenged themselves at Simatai...some had a fear of heights (like me), some had never been that physical before, and some were just in awe of where they were. Three days before they were in Canada, and now here they were, standing on such an amazing structure.

Grace & I even went down the Flying Fox! Both of us are terrified of heights, but we just set our minds to doing it...and we did! We screeched our heads off the whole way down, but it was such an experience :) Mike told me later that he was impressed that I was so brave. Adrian back home can tell anyone that I used to get shaky just standing up on a chair, lol!



Last year, when I walked the Simatai section, you used to be able to go to Tower 14 (but it was such a hot day and I was so nervous, I only went to #12 and had to head back)...but now you can only go to #12. There was some kind of accident and three people from Beijing fell to their deaths. I can understand the closure...the view from #12 was scary!



After the wall, we all met up at the base for a late lunch, then off to bargain for some souvenirs...what do you expect? They're new :) Darryl hassled over hats like he'd been doing it his entire life. Also, one of the new teachers for the Canadian International School is my SJB/KE principal's brother John.



So here it is, Sunday...finally one day off for everyone before the big startup tomorrow. Everyone did their own thing. Mike went in to the Century Mart for groceries, then he did laundry...all the while I slept in and did nothing, lol

Later on, Mike & I went for an evening bike ride around Tuanli...eventually meeting up with some of the new teachers for a meal at The Little (a favourite restaurant from when I was here in 2003). As we ate, these two little girls would come in every so often and say some English words, make faces with Darryl and run away :) so cute!

Towards the end of dinner, the little girls came back and dragged Darryl & I out of the restaurant , down the alley to an empty store where some locals were dancing. The girls pushed us together and giggled as we danced. So we ran back to the restaurant, paid quickly, then took everyone back to join us for more dancing :)

Between Mike & I, we have four left feet! It was hysterical! Mike took his hat off to dance, so one of the little girls wore it until our songs were over. The five of us had a really special time :) As we wandered back to the school, I ran into two of my Korean students from last year too! We hugged and they told me how happy they were to be back. They are drawn to China much in the same way as the rest of us. There's just something about this country.

Military Camp for the Grade 10's begins tomorrow...it's where they learn all their class formations and school rules. The Canadian teachers supervise the entrance placement tests and do the marking. The school year and all the work begins with a big bang! :)

The breathtaking Simatai Great Wall Photo Album :) Someday, I'm going to think back to these times in China and wonder...did I really do that?

After a really scary night for me, Mike has arrived safely back in China. The reason it was scary...I had a dream that his flight from Canada had problems. So vivid that I woke up and checked the news on Yahoo.com. And what do I see? A flight from Canada had cabin pressure problems! Luckily, it was not Mike's plane and it was a flight headed to the States (and all those people are fine). That dream was very, very scary :S

Mike's flight was mostly uneventful, except for the guy who was taken away by the authorities when it landed . Hmmm, what was he up to? Mike's feeling tired, happy to be on land, and happy to be with me :>




Tonight, we're going for jiaozi with Dad & Bryant to celebrate our reunion.

Mike leaves for Beijing in about 4 hours :) Here are the events of the last few days, lol...

The Int'l Department head guy has this habit...whenever he sees me, he tries to act very important and likes to remind me of all the details that need to be taken care of. Only when he mentions them, I then have to tell him I've already taken care of them. He rattles off a list and I say "done...done...done...", lol

Anyway, the other day he tells me that "your husband is arriving on Saturday, so arrange a car to pick him up"...As usual, I said I had already done it, and that I was going to meet him at the airport. Then forward to yesterday... The Int'l Department secretary informs me that the head guy has arranged for me (and only me) to do entrance testing of the new students on Saturday, at exactly the time I'm supposed to be picking Mike up. Funny!

The man has a love to mess with people, that's the only thing I can think of. Actually, I think he's a bit envious of the relationship Mike & I have. His girlfriend is very, very high-maintenance, lol. But he's just as bad. When I was in Korea with him and the girlfriend, I took their picture at one point, then he made the comment "you always get a great picture when you have two beautiful people in it"...gag me! yuk!

So, Dad has told me that family is most important, so he'll cover the testing while I go to the airport. If it bothers head guy, too bad :)

Yesterday was also the Closing Ceremony of the BCCSC Summer Camp...I took some cute pictures of my students...but Flickr is not cooperating, I'll try to post them later.

Mikey! Soon! Wheeeee!



Okay :) I added pics of my Korean students

Two weeks after we were married, Mike headed for university in Fredericton.

Two weeks after our 1st anniversary, I headed to China.

On this, the day of our second anniversary, Mike is in Canada & I'm in China.

Will we ever settle in to a "normal" married life? Nah... :)

After a busy morning of work, I hurried back to the apartment for a special phone call from Mike. He had purchased a 20-minute phone card specially for today. I know, I know...we've only been apart for a couple of weeks, so really how can I miss him? I found a way...

We talked about everything & nothing, lol...watching each other on our webcams until our time ran out. Then we just chatted and looked at each other on MSN :) It was hard because my chest was hurting the whole time, and Mike kept typing sweet things & recording special messages for me to play.

A funny little thing was we both sent each other the exact same e-card from Hallmark! We both chose the one we thought was the least mushy & sentimental...we had a good laugh over that.

I know back when Mike booked his ticket, he was thinking it wouldn't be too hard to be apart today...that we'd be together on the 19th and it wouldn't be much of a deal...but now, here on August 14th, it hurt. For both of us.

I'll be honest...I was really down. So I called Dick, asked him if he would like to have jioazi (dumplings, my favourite!) with me. I drowned my sorrows in green peppers & egg jiaozi, cabbage & black bean jiaozi, and celery with lily. Then he took me to the store for an ice cream when we got back to the school. A nice friend to help me when I'm down. :)

The plans are all set. Mike arrives this Saturday, and I'll be there with my fantabulous funky sign with his name on it. I'm sure he'd have no trouble spotting me even without it. It'll be hard to celebrate the anniversary with a jet-laggy Mike, but I'm sure he'll try his best!

Just to warn you...next year's anniversary won't be normal either. Cathy gets married on the 18th of August, lol! But at least we'll be in the same part of the world!

Have you ever seen that episode of the Simpsons where Homer wants to buy illegal fireworks? Here's the rundown:

Homer goes shopping for fireworks at the Li'l Valu-Mart, with a clerk that looks almost like Apu.

Homer: "Hi... ummm... let me have some of those porno magazines... large box of condoms... a couple of those panty shields [quickly] and some illegal fireworks [back to normal] and one of those disposable enemas. Ehhh... make it two."

Shopkeeper: "My apologies, sir, but the sale of fireworks is prohibited in this state and is punishable by a f... [the last customer leaves] Follow me."

The clerk shows Homer into his stockpile of fireworks.

Marge goes through Homer's purchases. "I don't know what you have planned tonight, but count me out."

Okay, now picture the same scene when Dad & I go in to a shop that sells CD's. We walk in...Dad's on the prowl for DVD's like always, lol...the girl in the shop says "hello, hello...are you looking to buy some DVD's? wait a moment..."

She calls some telephone number, then waits...eventually we're escorted through a back door, down a hallway, through some more doors to a small room that looks like an old cleaning supply closet. It is filled with DVD's! Dad actually giggled! It felt like cloak & dagger stuff. I could not stop laughing, I felt so evil!

Mike arrived back in SJ sort of safe and definitely not sound, lol! He told me everything hurts...he spent a lot of the time doing very physical stuff: boating, tubing, keeping up with little cousins, etc. Says it's the hardest workout he's had in a long time. He promised me an e-mail with more details, but hmmmm, I'm still waiting.

I just finished teaching the Korean students for the last period of the week. I knew I was going to have a crazy class...Friday! last period! what would you expect? So I took along fun stuff to do. I gave them fruit, vegetable & sea life vocabulary words and they had to sculpt them out of clay. Most of them are quite artistic! Plus, I snuck some other work in there too...we read a story about ocean animals to go along with the vocabulary. I finished off the hour by dividing the class in two, and had each group work as a team to complete a puzzle. One group had a spy running between the two groups telling his they had tons of time, don't rush, lol! They're a very cute, bubbly group...

Our two-year anniversary is coming up on Monday...just another ordinary work day for me, not sure what Mike will be doing... We'll celebrate in our usual understated way when Mike arrives on the 19th. He'll be jet-lagged, so really what can we do? I'll just be happy to have him in the same time zone with me!

This Saturday, Dad & I are meeting at the Jianguomen Starbucks, then heading to the Yashow Market for DVD's and misc. items...maybe I'll get Mike a tool for our anniversary? Yeah! Buy a man something handy, then wrap it in duck tape & newspaper, wheeeee! If I do a really good wrapping job, it'll amuse him for hours!

Hey Everyone!

The last few days have been a mixture of busy, boring, exhausting & lonely :S

On Monday, Dad & I went shopping at Wudaokou in the Northwest corner of Beijing...took forever to get there (like always) and it was such a sticky, humid day...no need to join a gym here. Just go for a walk and feel the pounds slide off you! That's the secret to all the skinny Chinese people. Since I got back to China, I've lost more than 10 pounds...

Yesterday, I taught the group of summer camp students from Korea. They're...a handful, lol! I have sixteen of them, ages 10-16. The little ones are so cute! Some of them have a lot of English, some have hardly any. Hmmm, makes it a challenge! And I had them for an hour. That's an ordeal in itself! Try keeping 10 year-olds who barely speak English on task for an hour...and the 16 year-olds wouldn't stop telling me how beautiful young Canadian teachers with brown hair are, lol!

The painters are finishing up the window trim in the office today, then I'll be back in there moving furniture into the final spots & washing everything down. It's all coated with a fine layer of dusty paint from the sprayer they used. I'll be wiping that stuff off for the next year I'm sure. Blah!

Okay...this might shock a few of you, but it's funny to me ... I've been watching the Season 1 & 2 DVD's of a TV show called "Family Business", it's about this guy Adam...aka Seymore Butts, an adult film director and his mother & cousin. Anyway, Mike & I used to watch it on Showcase because we thought it was pretty funny (not for the nudity, lol!) Anyway, it's reminded me of all the condom packaging I've seen here in China...

Mike & I have always gotten a kick out of the English that's used on stuff here in China...they can be quite hilarious! But back to the condom packaging...name brands here include Billy Boy condoms with an enormous happy cartoon penis (including the buddies if you know what I mean) on it... Jissbon has a condom standing there with a pair of sunglasses and a sly smile. There's also a brand called Sixsex that makes me laugh every time I see it, say it three times fast! Small things amuse small minds??

Mike & his parents are on a 12-hour roadtrip to Ottawa! Leah is flying in from Calgary , and they're all meeting up with relatives who live in the area. Mike told me he'll be there for about a week and probably won't have e-mail contact with anyone until he gets back. His parents have a digital camera, so he'd better take tons of photos for me to Flickr :)

What am I up to? It's Saturday and I'm at my temporary desk in Bryant's office. The Canadian English Office is being painted over the next few days, so I got kicked out, lol. But hey, I got to pick the paint colour! Moving's not a problem since I finished re-arranging all the furniture, adding books to the resources, and the general bits of cleaning. I just packed up my laptop, printer, a few office supplies and voom! instant move...who knew I could do with so little?



This afternoon, I'm running a test & interview session with incoming students for the post-secondary program here at the school. Blah, working on the weekend! I already told Dad that since I'm working today I'm taking Monday off. He laughed and said he'll join me...we're going to play hooky and go shopping at Wudaokou in Beijing!

Okay, I've had just about enough of the lil' bugger. He scared the crap out of me THREE TIMES today!

This morning, I was moving more furniture and he scurried past my foot. I yelped and almost dropped the cupboard I was carrying. LI had a good laugh over that one. Later, I picked up a pile of books, and he ran across my fingers, then on to the floor and took off. Yuk!

Then, as my day was winding down, I headed over to my desk...and he came out from under it. Of course I jumped...grrrr! I'm sure he thinks with all the moving around going on that there's no safe place to hide. Maybe he's toying with me, hmmmm... At least he's not as big as my classroom gecko. That sucker's huge!

and today started off so well too! yeah right...

My little habit these days is to wake up at 3:30 am...yes, A.M. grrr! Couldn't sleep any longer. So I sat for a couple of hours reading the news on the internet before getting myself showered and ready for work. I went in to the office at 7, and the plan was to work until 9:30 am...then I took a monstrous chunk out of my finger as I was moving furniture! It's about the size of my pinky fingernail and deep. Ow! Ow! Ow! This has got to be my most serious injury in China yet...didn't need a visit to the hospital though, but man, I bled all over the place!

After all that carnage, Dad & I headed to the new IKEA store to shop for the morning. It's the biggest store in Asia. I picked up items for the office & a comfy chair for the apartment. When we were living in 203, we had two big chairs instead of a couch...so I had moved one into our bedroom for when I wanted to read in the sunshine at lunch. Now, in 303...no chair, just couch :) IKEA saves the day! :>

for more pictures of the sparkly clean apartment that Mike & I call home, click here :)

Home by lunchtime, I was too happy to have my chair, so instead of eating lunch I assembled the darn thing. After my fabulously handy experience (with no pieces left over! wheee!), I grabbed an apple and blah! back to the office.



I honestly lost track of time after that. Six & a half hours of moving furniture and organizing office supplies later, I realized it was 8:30pm and LI (one of our office cleaning ladies) would be coming soon to give me the boot, lol

Next week, I start teaching the Summer Camp students from Korea :) I hope I won't be too busy when Mike comes back in two weeks...I'd like to meet him at the airport :)