Christmas Eve/Day

The picture to the left is funny...but pretty hazy...actual haze around it but that is the fault mainly of the camera... there is a small triangle info sign out there that says WC...Water closet or bathroom..I guess you just walk out as far as you dare and do your thing.... Steve Kirsten and Mike..and the hang glider that we went on....notice the white parts..that is the snow and then in the distance and to the sides nothing.....



Well, another interesting experience.

Spent an evening trying to get my cell phone issue with Rogers cleared up...I actually think I made some progress...but we shall see.

Talked with my daughter for about an hour on Saturday night too. Every thing is fine there...they are getting ready to celebrate Christmas at home as a couple for the first time. They will have several people over for Christmas day.

Doug is working in Alberta for a while..... they have borrowed my car for the trip to Grand Prairie I think it is. Hope the old bugger will hang together for Doug...I need another 36 thousand kilometres on it so the trips should help.

Went to Nanshan for a day of skiing on Christmas eve. Set my alarm and then missed it. Steve had to come an wake me up....5 minutes later we were on our way. A trip into Beijing for breakfast and then a 1 1/2 hour trip to the ski hill..and that is what it is.....a big hill. Weird. You drive for the time and there is absolutely no snow anywhere and then poof you are at a hill that has snow on it.....man made. There is no snow all around ...just on the "mountain" and around the buildings involved with it...

The resort was good...we had skis and everything rented so it was a quick trip through all that and then onto the hill for a day of skiing...lots of neat stuff..their spelling sometimes something to be desired...skies instead of skis...makes for interesting reading...you really begin to appreciate what you have in Canada when you see the ski runs...but the snow was good albeit not natural and not powder...there was a lot of it....a good base, according to Steve. Lots of people in the afternoon as the day got on...but I am not sure if the lineups would be any longer in Canada or the US...the runs were shorter. They had a luge like toboggan run..I didn't go on and a hang gliding ride that I did go on but wasn't all that exciting.....Dinner was provided...people from all over the world..Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, Ireland, South Africa, Italy, France, Australia...

Skied until about 4:30 and then went to a Hot Pot restaurant for our Christmas eve dinner...our table started up a couple of Christmas carols and many other joined in....kind of neat..

Got on the bus and headed for home....our bus broke down...several of the people on ours were able to crowd on to the other one and many of us were asked to stay behind...actually many of us volunteered..we played cards...some drank beer (they were able to get some from a town close and brought it out to us)...had pee patrols while waiting for the return...

After about 1 1/2 hours, the bus returned. We sang carols and any other songs that we could remember the words to for the trip back in....some good memories...actually...unique to say the least... all for about $65.

Got home at about 11:30 and then spent an hour doing some emailing and chatting on Skype to Merle in Medicine Hat. She will be spending Christmas with her son. ...

Woke up Christmas morning....to no snow...in acountry that doesn't celebrate it but sells it. Had the last of my Sugar Pops as my morning present....

Will do some work this afternoon...try to get some marks assigned to the right people. Have to chat with Mark Chapman to see if we are going to get the train tickets to Shanghai today...that may take an hour or so....

Have a good holiday....Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you all. Hope to have some more postings soon.

Dec 23

Guess the secret to this blogging is to try to do something everday regardless of what yuo have in the way of pictures...haven't been on since the twelfth as Denis said. So, I will recap soome of the stuff.... if I can remember.

This week seems to be especially hard on the staff as Christmas finds all of us away from home. We seem to cope well

Friday, Dec 15 we headed in to Beijing, I got myself busted..actual had a guy do a bust of me...sort of looks like me I think...

Saturday, was the Olympic tour. We headed in early and took our clothes in to CIS as we would change there and then go to the China World Trade centre for the banquet. It was quite a tour , albeit short. Got to see the T and F venue, I will show a couple of pictures of that...and the stadium that will host the water events....diving swimming and water polo I think. There were several of BCCSC guys but most of the bus was CIS peoplel. Found another massage place that won't kill my calf muscles....at least that is what Fred says. I will be checking that out in the new year when he gets back from his Christmas holidays. My camera doesn't do justice to these places....look at Eve's

Had a little time to kill before the dinner and went to a set of shops. Found a place to take my stuff to frame and got a few things. On the way back Don and Eve and I stopped at a second hand store ...Don was looking for some extra memory on his computer and stopped and talked with one store person ( a lady) ..after a little looking, haggled for a price and he said 100 hers was 400..Don just walked away..30 secnds later she said that he had damaged it because it had fallen on the floor...we just kept walking and she had the guard called just like that and athen there was another one and he was talking on his walkie talkie to get more...we had no idea what the hell they were saying but we were sticking firm to our 100 or nothing..then they wouldn't let us go... Don gave her 100 and was prepared to leave it alone...I took it back and was walking away and they wouldn't let me ..things were getting a little testy to say the least ..finally Don just said let her have it and chalk it up to experience....once they had their fist on the 100 they were happy...maybe a scam..who knows....As Eve said, wecome to the other side of China....I said ....I guess we know how it feels to be on the minority side in another country now...


How is this for a nice fishie tank...not sure what type of shark's in there..also the Macdonald arches ...they are every where
Me and the camera are having issues..too light on the outside and I don't know why....will try to get to the settings...








The fundraising for dinner for the Candian Chinese Business council...with its Christmas dinner. wasn't very much and it wasn't very much of a dinner either...those ones where you eat and then have to go to Macdonalds to get something to fill the rest of the 2/3 of your stomach...did have two desserts and did win something...a couple of shirts....the grab bags aat each chair had some freebies so I took the two extra chairs freebies...now have a couple extra calculators...
I think Eve has a couple of shots of us with our tuxes and Santa hats on ..we enjoyed ourselves...but then again we usually do..

There was no dance so the young guns at CIS wanted to go out to a bar...I was game...along with Chris and Grace...so we headed out..needles to say we stayed out too long....Grace and Chris left at about two and I was able to direct the cab driver home in my usual drunken stupor at 4:00 in the morning....needless to say, I should have slept more...but couldn't as I had to see a student 12..I was tired and didn't accomplish much that day....

Sunday night , we supervised at the Grade twelve dance and it was a hoot. Don and I had our tuxes on and the rest of the staff was dressed up as well. Don and his cowboy hat sure steal the show. I f you want to see daily pictures, Eve has a site, seaspray7.livejournal.com and you can usually see all of what we are doing there. But the kids enjoyed themselves and had the place decorated to the hilt...they sold roses...a couple of boys cornered the market and bought 100 themselves...and there were a lot of Santa hats...

Monday...the day of teaching was followed by a trip into CIS for a turkey dinner. They weren't ready for us so we ventured over to a bar, no heat, and ordered drinks. Lo and behold they were readynow..we cancelled our drinks, except for one and went over and had a good supper. There was no place to sit but we still had a good time.

The rest of the week was normal...if there is such a thing...On Thursday evening, a bunch (the majority of us)...got together for a choral practise and went out singing carols..we started off in the library....noisemakers , of course (oh by the way, the English staff caught hell a few weeks agobecause some of the kids were actually trying to take books down off the shelf and read them..go figure)...then we went to the adult cafeteria ( a tough crowd), then to the Korean restaurant wit fewer kids but more enthusiasm, them to the major cafeteria and then to the taxicab drivers and then to the restaurants that we frequent....all in all a really good time and the people clapped for us and came out to see us ...it was cool...after that we went to the dumpling restaurant for some....took Jacques our French Chinese and he ordered a whole wack of stuff..beautiful restaurant....upstairs.....perhaps they wanted us out of the way as we still had our Santa hats on....

Friday, headed in on the bus and went to the Culture Club to make a down payment on a couple of tours during the break. Then Angie and I and Mike headed to the Dug and Goose a pub for some refreshments and wine, women and song...well women and song anyway.... no Smirnoff twisted so I had a couple of Slinapore Slings but they weren't up to my standards...so switched to a Vodka drink...the music was good and Angie and Mike and I were able to convince a couple of Chinese women to dance as well...stayed until about 1 and then came home to beddy by this time to get some sleep...with nothing to do tomorrow except catch up on some work at the school....so was the plan.

Morning came about 9 and I wanted to get the air tickets from Shanghai to Beijing on New Years so that Angie and i can be back here in time for the 2nd as we don't get a long holiday...back to work on the 2nd...well that was a rigamarole....I had to go to Beijing to get the tickets or have them delivered and they didn't know where they could deliver them in Tongzhou so with a lot of language problems, I finally realized I had to go to Beijing....a three hour adventure from start to finish....finally found the place........my good orienteering skills helping out and some horsepoop luck ...waited around their office for about 20 minutes as the only secretary was dealing with another customer....my time took about 5 minutes max...got away...went and picked up my golf clubs that needed to be changed...hopped the bus...got back.... went out and did some grocery shopping at the market, came back home... made supper....Denver sandwich....got some work done at the school and started to get ready for the skiing tomorrow at Nanshan or something...Snow Jam Ski Day 11....Christmas eve....chance to win some stuff .....Hot pot Christmas eve dinner....Wish me luck.

Merry Christmas to Every One of you....I do miss you ..especially at this time of the year.

Another ordinary week

Wow something new this week

The sky was so polluted with smoke you could hardly see 50 metres ahead of you. I took a picture of it at night. Also have a picture of a Christmas tree all lit up. They probably have more decorations around here than at any high school in Canada...ironic... The other shot is at night as I walk to my dorm....there is a row of stree lights and right at the very end is a Christmas tree...you can hardly make it out but it is there....a.s you get closer it become clearer...a little taste of home....










Ifyou look real close on the right hand side, there are some students standing about 10 metres away. And that is a cars headlights that were about 7 metres away but off to the right.






A new stadium in Tongzhou, football and it was just having the finishing touches put on it by the workers....I always like to get a picture of those guys...they are happy go lucky characters....I have a picture of the inside, the workers and the little guard who prbably gets paid minimal to stand there all day and not let people in......except foreigners who want to take pictures.










The students have been finishing off their football (soccer) playoffs this week. Some quick players here. All the teams in the semifinals were the ones that I teach....I joked that I must have been inspirational to them as a sports fan....I don't think they got it. Tomorrow is the finals. Will have to take that in...the kids get a kick out of it....even have taught them the lean ot the left lean to the right yell....gave them a bonus mark if they came out and yelled it...in English of course.

We are having a get together with all the teachers and all are looking forward to us trying to sing the 12 days of Christmas...I was hoping to find Metros Ukrainian 12 days of ....or Doug and Bob's....Strange hearing all the songs being played in English in stores...and to see Christmas decorations for sale.... here in a supposed non Christian land...but apparently they use Christmas as a time for immediate families to get together and Chinese New Years as the whole family to come together... interesting...what our Christmas is too...There has been a lot of decorating going on here..many are nostalgic for home...including me.... Music was blaringout of this place and all sorts of Christmas decorations around.


Will be going skiing Christmas eve....with Steve, Kirsten and Mike if we can book in. There is a whole day of skiing and then a hotpot for the supper...different than your normal turkey dinner...will let you know how the skiing and meals and stuff goes....may even take a few pictures.... we have a gift exchange, just in the Canadian group and then with the whole teaching staff...got a name and didn't know whether it was a boy or a girl as it was in Chinese....funny eh??..oh well, did find out eventually that it was a lady...now we can only spend 15 rmb or about 2 buck on the gift...not that hard to find something for that price...

New Years is going to be in Shanghai....Bob and Mark and Angie and I will be going on the train down and back and will stay at a hotel for the New Year. Bob is hoping to get a cruise on a boat for that night as he is interested in the fireworks from the water....we'll see.

Trying to make arangements for the trip to Thailand. There are so many options and hotels and beaches and activities...that it is hard to make a decision. Will be going to Harbin to see the ice sculptures and also to Xi'an again...it was fascinating and Merle would like to see the warriors as well so it will be worth it.

Have been told to start getting your exams ready just a couple of days ago....they teach to the exams...they don't seem to teach ...to think and use your imagination and creativity and analysis....questions like Why and What do you think ....may floor some of them because they want to just regurgitate or copy exactly word for word.....have a hard time doing their own thing...so I have been a bit of a unknown quantity as I don't even know what I am doing some times...how can they be expected to follow some sort of pattern..hahahahabut they are getting a little better expecially my better class....I laugh with them a lot because they can be so serious and .....even worse they don't catch my jokes or "digs"...

Place is going to be soemwhat deserted for the Chinese New Year...several people are going home...I am expecting some may not even come back...????..Bob is going to Florida to golf with his buddies....Angie is going home to Halifax and I think Mary Ellen is going to Moncton...others are all over Southeast Asia...

This weekend is going to be busy...Olympic sites tour....a bigwhig buffet with Tuxes....then the Sunday Don and I are taking tickets in our Tuxes for the grade 12's dance and then another supper for the owner of the place...may have to get the darn thing cleaned...before we take it to the bar...and we will do it....I may even have to show off my Rider green toenails....oh yeah I
forgot to tell you about them....

Well, I am a metrosexual....as the new term goes....had my nails done and then decided to get my toenails done....what a hoot....had the two German ladies beside me giving me strange looks at first...but I am secure enough in my manliness that I can handle this..at least that's my story... will include the picture here...oh yeah those are my bear slippers...

Had a couple of frustrating days trying to book and get the lecture theatre here to show some movies....laziness or incompetence....or both...but basically you are on your own to get the stuff running but they don't want to show you how to do it as then they are out of a job...also the equipment is out of date...needs an upgrade and we put in a very strongly worded letter to the powers that be to get something done.....Not holding our breath.

Had a meal tonight for 7 people and the cost was less than 9 dollars for all. We didn't have been so it was fairly cheap....beer is about 35 cents a bottle and a fairly sizeable one at that.

Think I will have my external CD player for my lap top so that I can have some tunes at home and wake up the neighbours with Stompin Tom eevery now and then...Gord and Neil too....kind of miss my stereo....the music here is not my can of soup.

Finally got some work on repairs to my cel phone...they said that it could not be repaired at the repair shop so I would have to return it to the dealer who.....get this......could repair right at the desk...I went there in August, the 8th to be exact, they questioned my warranty and then sent it away for 4 months do do basically nothing to it....Rogers incompetence....I am not a salesman for them....in fact probably I will go over backward to do the opposite....and they are still thinking they will collect money for service from August until December.....another good fight to fight....and I am ready willing and able....after I get my phone.....oh yeah, they wouldn't give me the phone number of the manager but would take a number and she would phone me...My reply...I don't have my cell phone how can she phone me!!!!!!!!!

Signing off for now...like MacArthur..I shall return

Holy Christ it is December

Messed that up right off the bat..hit enter and it did so I had nothing to go on the blog.

Weather here is turning colder so I now have to wear my Columbia Jacket and eeven had to put on some gloves the other day....But...we are going golfing tomorrow at 9:00 ...need to try out the new clubs to see if they just hit the ball further into the rough or water or trees....Had to go buy some LongJohns as it could be a little chilly...some fire engine red ones I can use as flags when I am finished with them...

Have been making plans to go to Thailand for about 10 days in February...Anyone have some good ideas about where to go and what to do...will spend a lot of the time in Beijing with Merle Davies, a good friend from Medicine Hat who will be over here.

Last night several of us...actually 13, with 3 from Canadian International School, went to the Beijing opera highlights show. It is a combination of Opera and gymnastics/theatrics.....it was quite interesting. I know now that I could not stand a full opera as the high pitched singing almost penetrates into your spine....the gymnastics was quite athletic and some of the choreography was great.....the costumes were vivid in colour and we were able to take pictures and see the cast put on their makeup prior to the performance.....it was 80 rmb which is about $12. The taxi ride was more than that. It lasted for about an hour. The theatre was acutally in a hotel. I would go see it again.










Today we went to the Beijing aquarium. It is a massive building and was quite interesting...most of the writing and information was in Chinese. You can get headsets that translate many of the exhibits but we did not do that. There was an exhibition with dolphins and that was really good. Kris got some good video on his camera and Don and Eve got a few shots on their camera. I forgot mine...woooohoooo. They had Manta Rays, big turtles, sharks, piranhas, and every variety of fish I have ever eaten....well maybe way more than that.

Then we went and did some more shopping...I bought a few more watches ...just for fun...4 Rolexes for 100 rmb and 3 gucci ones for 50. Probably top of the line...nod,nod, wink wink, Say no more, say no more, know what I mean, know what I mean...Monty Python. Also a couple of purses just because I am finding my inner self.....hahahahahaha

Don and Eve and I are going to have our nails done the next time we go to the Yashou market....I figure I will get my toenails painted green..Rideer green...we'll see.

The tour of the Olympics facilities will be on December 16 and I think there will be a lot of people going on that bus...should be really interesting to see all the progress that is being made...I will be especially interested in the Track and Fieldd one as I think that was the massive one that I went by when I ran the marathon...I will have some pictures to post for that. I hope to have some pictures to post onto here but we will see.

We get a long weekend off at Christmas and another long weekend, we hope at New Years....then it is hell bent for January and getting some exams done and some kids crammed to get them through the classes and we are done on January 26 and are off until Feb 26...I think. Some people are going home at that time....some on trips to New Zealand...others all over southeast Asia... Put my big long tie that I got from the school up on the front door and am buying a couple to bulbs to put on Jennifer and Angela's Christmas tree so can have a little taste of home.

After that, we will have along grind until, July 14 whic is the official date for the end of this school year although we may be getting off earlier. No decision about my future will be made until after February, when the administrator will need to know so that he can start his recruiting for next year...

haven't heard from Mark about his new job...hope things will work out. Hope to hear from Jay about the baby...

Got my Webcam working and then it went down...may be that the authorities are not letting out some video as this has happened to many other people...but I have joined the 21st century and hope to get more computer literate as the year progresses....it works if I am just looking at myself but not when some gets on Skype...

Am going down to have a beer with Don so will sign out for now and come back and finish it off.

Been having a heck of a time putting any photos on this blog so I will just add a few that I can and then post this. Got a couple of pictures from the golf course.....the club house.....geez it looks like a temple and inside holy toledo...chandeliers, oak, polished brass, beautiful furniture, sauna, people to help you open your locker, ritzy is the only way to describe it and Bob says that this is not a high end course or club house...golf was over 680 rmb....about 90 bucks for a round and 100 rmb for the cabbies who found your ball and cleaned your clubs and told you where to putt and carried your bag all around the course....all three had to say bye bye to one of my hits as it went way to hell off the course....quite funny actually....we lost to CIS but who was keeping score....clubs didn't make any difference except I looked good....

Next week we have a couple of things happening...the Olympic tour, a bash for the business centres of Canada in China or something like that, then there is a grade 12 dance where I have volunteered to take tickets in my tux and then a dinner on the 22 and one at Paul's ( a Canadian type of restaurant) on the 24th. I may go skiing at the indoor ski facility on Christmas in the afternooneve, at least get some snow feeling. Some people are going away for the weekend, others are waiting until New Years to go away.....not sure what I will do...trying to make some arrangements for Thailand...we'll see...

Enough..haven't had any more luck so this is getting posted. ttfn