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.