Yes. You're looking at it. hehe

I haven't posted in years! oi. A lot has taken place in that time...Mike & I returned very quickly to living in Canada in late November 2008 (I was 7 months pregnant at the time)...we came back because my dad was in a very bad state :( and was later diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma. Everything was so difficult for him for so long :( Prolonged fevers of 41 & 42 degrees, months of chemo, multiple transfusions, learning to walk again, daily injections. He faced so many challenges...

But with all the lows, came some amazing moments! Our daughter Chaisy was born on February 24, 2009 and my dad got to meet her. And not just meet her & love her, but to know her & watch her grow! My dad's been in remission since July 2009, and it's been the most amazing 2nd chance for him, and for us all. Every day to come that we have together with Dad is all I could have hoped for. :) I hoped for so long, every day that he would make it through.

The doctors & nurses were stunned that he came back from the absolute worst case of Hodgkins they'd ever seen - he had temperatures so high (42 degrees) for so long, that the nurses didn't understand how he survived. Dad is the toughest person I know.

My dad, Chaisy & I took a trip to China in October 2009 to spend time with Cynthia. It's was a very special family reunion with her...it was hard when we left China originally because we had to leave her behind. Together again in China ~ we hoped & dreamed for that day to come and it happened! My Chaisy Chunchun got to meet her Yummy Yummy, and Cynthia & Dad got to be together :) Dad then returned to his beloved China, to live, love & work, in November 2009, almost a year to the day that he was medically evacuated back to Canada.

And I've been doing a 365 project with Chaisy ~ I have taken a picture every single day of her life so far ~ you can watch her adventures here. She's our 'Made in China, Produced in Canada' baby :)

I will try not to neglect my blog again, but who knows? I promise I will try to post more...promise! :)

It's been 5 weeks since my last blog (...sounds like confession?)

Mike & I are leaving for Inner Mongolia in a little over two days. We're going to see the grasslands and the desert. Wheee! Vacation!

I've been putting all my pictures on Flickr & Facebook...if anyone really wants to know what I've been doing, go to my Facebook page :) It's all I have time for these days it seems. My life will slow down soon...maybe?

My two months home in New Brunswick were extremely busy (the way I like to be I suppose), but I had a great time with every single thing I did, and enjoyed every second! So busy that I only made one blog post in that whole time! I did take pictures of everything though, and I posted them to my Flickr site for all of you to see. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did experiencing the moments... definitely a time in my life I will always look back on and smile :)

Yesterday was my 1st full day back in China, the start of our 3rd and final year here. It started really, really early for us because we only slept a few hours. Mike & I have a little bit of jet lag, as usual :)

But we used the time to accomplish quite a lot. We sorted, organized & cleaned our apartment...for 7 hours, lol Then my dad came for a visit to catch up on what he missed while I was still in Canada and what I missed while he was here in China. We mostly chatted about Cathy's wedding and all the upcoming prep for our new school year.

Later on, Mike & I went in on the bus to Tongzien for groceries at the Century Mart. Phew, what a quick adjustment we have to make from Saint John weather. Saint John - 14 degrees, Beijing - 36! We got tired just waiting for the bus, hehe

We made plans to meet up with Dad and friends at the Tuanli BBQ for some yummy food. I had green peppers, garlic, lettuce, broccoli & cauliflower skewers - all spicy of course, and everyone else had skewers of lamb, beef & chicken. Mmmmm, I'll admit that one of the things I missed most about China was the local BBQ :) Dad, my friends, the people-watching & the BBQ were tops on my miss list...

My first day back in Saint John was quite full. My flight arrived at midnight, and I went to bed around 2am, woke up at 7:30, then procrastinated for a while before showering...I ended up out in Mom's yard taking pictures of everything in sight. Nature! Her gardens & flowerbeds! hehe... Mom & I eventually went out shopping for vegetables & fruit, then met Cindy back at Mom's place at about 1pm.

I've got news! Cindy's pregnant again! So cool...she wanted it to be my surprise when I got home :> She's at 3 months now and she's already popped out. It's harder to keep it secret the 2nd time around, but easy to keep it from me since I couldn't see her from Beijing, lol!

So Cindy, Mom & I went to the Jade City Restaurant for lunch...yum, spicy Chinese veggies, wheeee! Then Cindy & I took off for SJB/KE for a quick visit after that. They were really excited to see us both, especially since the two of us have now resigned our jobs. I got to play with Matthew for a while, see Rose (she’s skinnier than ever!), and wish Mr. McC a happy retirement. Cindy & I will go back another day this week before school ends though, so I hope to have more time to visit with all the kids...we had arrived just in time to see most of them of to their buses, oops.

We left the school after about an hour & a half, then went back to my mom's, but Cindy & I sat in the driveway and talked for a while. And when I eventually wandered inside, Chester was there playing crib with Mom. Of course he was getting his arse kicked, all the while I ate two containers of strawberries and watched the carnage. Not Mom's strawberries (they're not in season yet), but not bad. :)

I tried my best to stay awake, but nope, eventually crashed and fell asleep for 3 hours...I had set the alarm on my phone, but of course it didn't go off because the darn thing was still set to China time, lol...silly Kirstens need the most love!

I woke up and realized I needed to do something physical or else I'd be awake all night, so I went for an hour's walk around my mom's place. It was so beautiful & breezy. The sky was blue, streaked with wispy clouds, with a little sliver of the moon starting to come out. Watching the sunset as I walked was so nice. The orange sky of the sun mixing with the blue, then turning pink as it went further down was special to see. And the air! Breezy cool coming from the water down by St.'s Rest Beach, so it smelled like a mixture of the sea and the marsh moss :) And the birds were chirping, and I could hear the squirrels chattering in the bushes... I never knew I could appreciate such a simple walk, and I'm sad that I will probably eventually take it for granted. It's inevitable when you're anywhere for any length of time :(

Now we're in for the night, and I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring. I hope to wake up early and go for a walk, just like Dad & I do in Tuanli (except a little later than 3am! lol)...but after that I'm just going to wing it. I have two months, so I want to try and enjoy the little moments...going for groceries, walking around the city, seeing people as I go. I don't want to be so busy that I forget this time home. I've felt like the last few months in China have been so hectic that I'm forgetting all those special times that made me smile. Working with "the babies" has made me forget those good moments, and see so much of the not-so-good, so I will not let that define me from now on. I will remember and feel fortunate, just like my tattoos say, and be grateful for every second from here to whenever.

As I was saying goodbye to Dad and my friends Cynthia & LI at the Beijing airport, I was sad and a little teary, mostly because I was leaving so much of what & who I care about, but also happy to be headed to the other part of my life that I love and miss. I really feel torn between two places and two sets of people that have been so wonderful to me, and I ache being away from them equally. I’m not looking forward to July 2008 when I’ll have to walk away from China, from what has become a very special part of me.

With time I will adjust, maybe even forget some, but I really hope not. I hope. I hope to always remember. I know that all of my experiences in China have reached inside me and changed me in so many ways, and have brought out so much in me that I never knew I was capable of. I value all of the positive & not-so-positive times that I’ve had in my China life. I cry when I think about it now, how sad is that? Leaving China (possibly for good) is a whole year away! But if I don’t start thinking & planning now, I know it will be so much harder. It’s like an addiction I suppose (since I don’t have any)…like smoking, etc…cold turkey? or gradually weaning yourself away? I want to do the 1st option! I want to live, breathe and savor every second…I feel it would be an injustice to China & myself if I chose otherwise.

I leave in less than an hour for the airport, yay! I'm just so excited to be getting home, seeing everybody, doing nature stuff, and helping Cathy with the last details of her wedding :)

I've been so busy here with work that I haven't blogged in so long...I was in charge of planning & managing the annual Awards Banquet & Grade 12 Prom (all my free time was not really mine, lol!), plus I went on a trip with Mike to Sichuan Province...pandas are so cool! We also had special dinners to attend in Beijing, shopping to do for home...too many things!

Pictures are up at my Flickr site of all our escapades from the last two months. I hope when I have down time in NB that I can post the stories to match the pictures...*hope*

love you love you! Can't wait to see you :>

Remember way back when, when I mentioned that Mike & I got to be wedding photography models? Well, we got the pictures back :)






I look so girly! Ick! (actually, it was kind of fun to dress up and to do something different) ...and the company that we posed for is giving us a small album of pictures and one large framed shot as a thank you gift. I think they did a great job :)

You can see all the shots in this photoset, wheeee!


And tonight, Mike, his parents & I will be going to see a Chinese acrobats performance and having Middle Eastern food for dinner...it's like a double date, lol!
I hope to have some cool pictures to show you tomorrow. There's going to be belly dancing...

It was that time of year again...A Golden Week holiday in China.

We had from April 30th-May 7th off from school for a nice break. Mike & his parents went to Qingdao & Suzhou, while I went to Taishan, Qufu & the Jinshanling Great Wall. I've been to Suzhou twice before, so I set off on my own little hiking adventure. Well, not really little, lol!

Taishan is the most sacred of all China's mountains, and it's 1545 metres...6666 steps to the top! I also toured Confucius' hometown Qufu, and hiked an amazing section of the Great Wall when I returned. Hopefully in the next few days I'll have time to blog about all the hiking I did...it felt really great to get out on my own, and just see all the beautiful Chinese scenery.



All my pictures from Taishan, Qufu & Jinshanling are up at my Flickr site.

And my year's winding down...5 weeks until I return to NB :) miss you guys,

love & smiles,

Kirsten

Things have been getting better as time goes on with work and everything. I'm just trying my best to ignore the not-so-nice things...it's hard sometimes, but I'm trying.

On Sunday, April 15th, I went hiking with Kendra & Olivia (friends from work) on the Incense Trail on the outskirts of Beijing. The mountains were full of cherry blossoms, and it was a beautiful day for a hike. Click here for the photo album :)



And on Friday night & Saturday, Mike, Bryant, Dad & I went on the BCCSC Spring staff overnight outing to Shidu (a couple of hours drive from the school). The mountains were gorgeous and the wandering about that we did was a lot of fun :) There were so many things to do...temples to visit, cable cars, pole rafts, a suspension bridge, a zip line, trails to hike, and amazing views. Here's the Shidu photo album :)



Today is a busy day for Mike & I...we're doing a lot of running around to get prepared for Mike's parents. They'll be arriving in a little over a day :) Mike's in Beijing now getting some groceries, and I'm here tidying the apartment (no time tomorrow since we'll be working). And there's laundry & vacuuming to be done...argghhhh!

We can't wait for them to get here :), but they're arriving during a busy week...the awards banquet is Thursday night, and there are so many details left to be taken care of, plus we have a staff meeting Tuesday after school, a goodbye dinner Wednesday night for one of our co-workers and we have to work next weekend to make up for two days we'll have off over the May Holiday Week. Hmmmm, how to get everything in?

Tomorrow, Mike & I will be working in the morning, then running to the Century Mart for any last minute parent items :), then a bit more work, then to the airport! Wheee! I'm so happy for Mike that his parents will be here and they'll get to see China together. With all the photos we've taken and blog stuff we've written, no one really understands what our life is like here until they come to see for themselves.

I’m writing this to explain why there won’t be many posts for the next little while on this blog. Problems have come up in my life (personal, work-related, etc) that have made things very difficult. I will probably still take pictures and add them to Flickr every so often, but I’m not sure about writing stuff down and putting it here. I’ll probably just keep my blog entries to trips I take here & there.

Once again, I’ve become pretty cryptic, I know. But I’ll explain it in this way – words, written & spoken, have a lot of power … more than some people realize, and sometimes you just can’t take them back. Too late, the harm has been done.

There are people in this world who's first thoughts are 'me, me, me' and those that think 'what can I do for others?' ...I hope the second group far outnumbers the first...or is that just wishful thinking?

Hi everybody!

I still haven't caught up blogging about my work trip to Shanghai & Nanjing, and as usual, something has come up. Life's busy as always and I don't really have time to write it all down at this moment...hopefully I will later tonight.

Yesterday, Mike & I spent the day as wedding photography models in a seaside town called Qinhuangdao, a three hour drive from Beijing. I wore a real wedding dress (actually two)! and makeup! with fake eyelashes! LOL! I thought that in August 2004 that I was able to skip all the frilly, fussy stuff for our wedding...but no! It's inevitable, lol! Try as hard as you can to avoid it and it comes back times 10 :)

We did it as a favour to a friend from school, and we had a great time playing in the sand & chilly water (think Mispec, only colder!). They're going to give us a CD with all the pictures, an album, and one large copy of the best shot for being their models. Too funny! I hope you all don't make fun of the hair, I think the style is so not me :)

Anyway, I must get back to...everything I have in my to do pile. I'll post more of our fun day at the beach, plus SH & NJ when I have the chance...with pics of the photoshoot to follow sometime. I can't wait to see how they turned out!

love ya, Kirsten

this picks up where the last blog entry left off :) :



I’m so happy I went! I really enjoyed wandering around the grounds. The landscape was mossy and green, and everything looked so weathered and worn. I took so many pictures! I hardly ran into other people as I walked about, so I took my time enjoying the spring plum blossoms just coming into bloom, the waterfalls and the views.

I eventually found the bat cave…and it was so creepy! It just kept going down, down, down further into the chilly ground. I was getting more and more nervous with each step, lol. The further I went, the more narrow and short the passage got. The rock formations were cool, dripping water everywhere, and the peacefulness of it…so quiet & eery. With no end in sight, and my footing getting slippery & slimy, I turned back after about 20 minutes.

I found myself at the end of the park grounds (not really an exit, more of a blending into the local residences nearby), in desperate need of a WC. Didn’t need to look long since I’ve been to enough rural places in China to know what the WC buildings look like :) As always, it was primitive & airy, but someone had placed two bricks, one for each foot, to stand over the slit in the ground. Someone’s aim wasn’t so great before me, but I had to go! Can’t exactly be picky :)

After my WC adventure, I took the chance to check out the homes of course. Mossy walkways led me to a gathering place, like an open courtyard, with some local older people chatting…about me. I smiled, said “Ni Hao” and received the same in return. They smiled and watched me watch them :). I took some photos of the little homes and the mossy pots & gardens, then said my goodbyes. I kept going, finding a steep roadway and followed it to its end, which was up on the main road. Then I took a wrong turn and ended up in another little apartment area, and got yelled at, lol! I apologized like crazy, took some wrong turns trying to escape, found my way back into the park. I nearly wiped out going down the steep road. On the sides of the road it was just moss, so one wrong step and I was skating down the hill.

I took a different path on my way back to the entrance and got to see some lovely gardens, the tiny local Buddhist temple, and took all kinds of pictures of the blossoms, trees & ponds. I loved being in nature, surrounded by the colours and scents, and enjoying my moments of peace.

The time came to head back to Chongqing. I really didn’t want to leave this place, but I had other things to see in the city and only what was left of the day to do it. I stood on the opposite side of where I was let off, and soon a bus came along to take me back.

As we bounced and bumped back, ZHAO text messaged me and I lost track of where I was, so of course I got a little worried, got off and realized it was the wrong spot, lol! I ended up walking for about 20 minutes, getting help from bus drivers along the way pointing me in the right direction. The rest of the way back to the city was just as nice as before, and it included a sign that made me smile – A local hair salon’s name was “Your Beauty I Decide”. I laughed about that one for a while :)

Once back in the city, I headed to my next couple of tourist spots. The Luohan Temple was under construction (but I didn’t know before I got there), so most of the grounds were off limits. It was 5 RMB, so I paid and went in, but there wasn’t a map or any English signs, and the layout was quite confusing. I was there about 10 minutes before I just gave up…right out into a taxi. Hong Ya Dong was my next destination.

I have to say that what quite a few people from China enjoy seeing when they’re tourists can be quite different from what a lot of foreigners like to do (at least from my experiences, lol!) ZHAO had an original plan for the day, but I had my own in mind and tossed his out…well…not completely. In case he asked, I wanted to tell the truth and say I went…so I went to Hong Ya Dong.

Hong Ya Dong is floor after floor of super ultra touristy tacky Chinesey souvenirs and snacky foods. And the outside was pretty over the top too. I took some pictures of the outside…once again, I didn’t last long at this spot and hailed a cab. Poor cabbie didn’t know what he was in for…

The taxi driver was originally headed in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go, but I saw his “for hire” light and waved. He motioned that he would turn around for me. As soon as he got to me, a girl jumped in the back. I really didn’t feel like waiting any longer (it had already been quite a while), so instead of letting it go I jumped in the front and wouldn’t budge. The cabbie laughed, told the girl I had hailed him first, so she got out….grumbling. My driver, my new friend! :)

I showed him ZHAO’s note with “Ci Qi Kou” on it, and he realized he had to turn around again. He griped and complained, about what I’m not quite sure (maybe the long drive to Ci Qi Kou?), but he tried to take me…yes, tried. We got stuck in a massive traffic jam going in both directions. No one could move, period. Sitting there for a while, getting nowhere with the metre running, I used my little Chinese to ask him to skip it and go to Pibashan Park instead. Easier said. It took 5 minutes of inching this way and that to get turned around. He laughed the whole time and was a good sport, but I’m sure he wasn’t happy with my whims.

The sky was quickly getting dark and his driving was getting crazier. We got to the park, but he wouldn’t let me go in the dark…he paid the 5 RMB to crive me around and up to the top…to a beautiful view of Chongqing at night. Definitely worth the roundabout trip :).

The driver then wanted to know where to next, and I showed him my hotel card, but he couldn’t figure out what it said (he kept pointing at his eyes, then back to the card). He stopped, asked someone, had a good laugh, then took me back to my hotel. Aw…our misadventures had come to an end. I was sad to say goodbye to my speedy (and crotchety) friend.

So, I had managed to hit (or try to hit) five sites in Chongqing in one day, but the way to and from each one was more fun :). Tomorrow Shanghai. I’m sad to go; I’ve really grown to love Chongqing.