June and counting

Some of the taxi drivers outside the compound who wait daily for fares...the guy looking at us on the chair is Mr Li....he is a good driver and has taken us to our golf sessions
This was from one of the shows that the kids got to go to...well done....a little sappy with the boy finds family after leaving to live in the big city theme....costumes and lighting were good...but they ( the audience) talk throughout the performance...weird

Girls playing poker...some of them were tour guides and some worked in the shops....
The rubbish that you see every where....and this is just a small area....there are some massive areas where the rubbish just piles up...such is China


Well folks, I almost tore up my contract for next year and you may not believe why.....Detroit is out of the playoffs but we wanted to have a Slingbox version of the playoffs and our principal would not allow us to have it projected on the wall.....whenever they want us to be Canadian to their advantage, they bring out that card...but when it is "you know it is China", they use that....I wish they would make up their mind....especially the principal....anyway we are able to watch the playoffs...and I didn't really give a rat's......because Detroit was gone...just the principal of the thing

Tomorrow is memo day...that is how the principal communicates and it is a joke....so we are making a joke out of it....funny...

Talked to Jay yesterday and had a chance to see the new grand daughter....she is cute..and content and funny...can't wait to hold her...and play the grand dad role....

Have been enjoying the last few months as the year moves to its end.....there will be a graduation prom which is similar to ours.....

My sore knee is still there...I am hoping it will clear up...or I will get it checked out when I get back home...also want to have my pinkie checked out as well...got it jammed when I played a soccer game.....Bob wants to start training for the fall...He and I may go into the 1/2 marathon in the fall in Beijing....we'll see...

Went out golfing....at least I thought I was getting better....well not.....shot my worst in 5 years....seems that driving does not improve your game....at least not mine....Don did well...we got lost and went to the wrong course....the Japanese course....we thought we would play one round until we found out it was 1200 rmb per person.....about $180....walked away and eventually found our group....shot 108 with some mulligans.....so much for the clubs....ah well, I looked good when I showed up....good course...we played at guest members rates....abut 600 RMB ....I think that it is still high....the clubhouse was ok but not like the other one....but you still had your own caddy per 2 golfers....we were playing with three in a party so I had my own as I was slicing all the time and the girls had to go from side to side looking for our balls....

Still haven't got my debit card working.....pin number not coming for at least a week....man!!!...still some issues with our cheques and getting paid on time....they have a hard time to admit that they screw up and no one takes the blame and no gets canned.....hard to believe that you couldn't find another cousin to run the banking.....nepotism....

Signed up with the Beijing Hash House Harriers...a Drinking club with a Running problem for a weekend away at a beach resort of sorts..they are not so serious runners that go out running every Sunday, rain or shine, for various runs.....it is a world wide organization and you can find them in many big cities so if you go there, you would be able to meet up with people of same interest....we'll see how it goes...something like the Running Room.....speaking of which.... I have to get a new set of sneakers as mine are done and will be going up in smoke with me when I go

Will be starting to wind down at the school and am starting to think of what to pack and what to leave...we have to clean out our rooms so will fill some garbage bags with stuff that will stay...Am going to pull the tourist stunt I think...go into the basement of the Yashow Market and buy a bit suitcase and then go from floor to floor and fill it up with what I think I will need or want and then just fill the remainder with clothes and such.....I will be bringing 2 sets of clubs back with me with whatever I can stuff in the pockets

Jennifer says the Riders play 3 games when I am back so should get to see a couple of them....one thing I miss is the news about them...but keep posted on CBC as my home page...

Actually am trying to get my own place here...in case anyone decides....hint, hint, hint....to come over for a visit, they would have a place to stay for free.....remember the flights can be cheap if you keep an eye open...lots of things to see and do and it is fairly inexpensive for many things here and I wouldn't charge much for Room and Board.....just kidding.....give it a thought....

New Sign....The Pleasnty of Surprise Groping.....saw that on a shop.....I think it was leather or something....go figure.....Don't Drive Tiredly......on the Knock off Pings.....Frim Grip.....Ahh well we would have the same trouble translating into Chinese....if we even could....

Got a few days extra early leave so will leave here on the 11th with a 6 hour layover in Calgary so will stop and hopefully see my sister....will enjoy the extra days ....should find out soon also if I have made the first rounds of Olympic tickets......would be nice to get them all but I don't think so Dick....only 3 teachers coming back for next year....Bob and I and the son in law....not a lot of confidence in the principal anymore....over manages....petty stuff that one should never have to worry about....secretary stuff that teachers do......seems a waste of talent

Will add a few pictures and then post this...If I put in the same ones..well do darn bad.....

Talk to you in about 1 month.....maybe personally....

Pictures and comments

Well I made it without too much of a heart failure....I am sending this stuff to you now and will add to my blog in written form when I get the chance...let me know if you are getting this as a couple of people have said that they do not get it any more.....Eve has lost her blog entirely....not sure whyFengtai Stadium...where their professional football team plays..only 1/2 full and a good sized stadium......maybe 12,000 people.....this is a complex...behind us is a set of 3 fastball fields..one will be the site of the Olympic women's fastball competition......I have played on the field just beside it....they are quite well set up....the one of ours has only a 225 foot home run fence so it is well within some of these guy's home run power...not mine...
We attended a live performance for the 10th anniversary celebration of the school....apparently it was a long running one....also they don't be quiet while the performance is on...so it gets loud out in the audience.....we were on a military base and had to go off the base to get clearance to come back in....all right within the public busing route...a little upsetting to us as we were paraded off the base, got clearance and then were paraded back....apparently, no one checked to see if we needed clearance......duh...
These are a couple more of the taxi drivers.....they just wait outside the gate and play cards or checkers or something to wile away the time.....Mr. Li......is the one to the very right ..he is one of the better ones...none speak English so that can be quite an adventure....
Another view of the market from a different angle....I just turned the camera 90 degrees and got this picture....and the crowds are almost always like this.....farmers set up their goods and some have permanent stalls
This is outside the market on the way back to the complex....just more stall....temporary....athey set up the umbrellas so that they are shaded from the sun...the end stall is one to fix bikes...and he moves back and forth every day....
No I didn't screw up...this is looking down from the wall ...straight down...to where the sea meets the water...a photo op
Even more so... but again I haven't mastered the technique of this thing and don't want to spoil my track record.....it say that the three guys in here have just decided that they need to have a picture for posterity and that they will stand here until they get it right......
Ok.....so I needed this one like I needed a hole in my head...anyway....I had to venture out a little ways to have this done...poster boy....
The fellow in the red shirt is Eric our good taxi driver....he has been a good fellow....he helped me even when I got lost on my bike and had to phone him to ask where I was
in the farmers market just a couple of blocks off the campus....just a row of buildings..but there is a butcher shop, bakery, several small shops that sell hardware, clothes, nuts, plants....all sorts of stuff...cheaply...

The crew...along with Rosamund the other white person.....Zest is between us in the back....he was the fellow who asked me to come with him....
The drinking session along with the dumplings and all the trimmings.
This is the principal's husband and he was the drinker of Bijou.....the rocket fuel you have to stay away from...and he was going full tilt...the fellow was the navy pilot and my buddy after I beat him at arm wrestling.....
Where the wall meets the sea...a bit of a atourist area and getting to be more of them all over.
The picture......me trying to create a unique picture and then not turning it around so that you would see what I was actually photographing

This was a little unusual..the store in the background was having a reprimand session by the owner of the store...or maybe a pep talk...not sure which..right out in public....all lined up in their uniforms and ready to go to work.
The guy to the left was suspicious of me taking pictures I know....but if you look at the dish in front of him..you will see why I wanted to take the picture....frogs....and frog's legs...and they also had live fish....they would kill and scale it right in front of your eyes so that you would know that you are getting the real thing I guess

This is a garage....Hard to believer hey....well if you look closely, and if my camera was focussed correctly, you would see that they have dug a hole in the earth as their pit.....and the guy drives the car in and they work on it

This is the teaching staff that I spent two days with in Shanhiaguan....as their poster boy....Rosamund also came with me and she was as much as a hit if not more...was quite enjoyable and we had to drink a little beer to be in with them if we really wanted to be..the lady in the middle is the principal and was at one time a gymnast...the others are all staff ...I think they all taught some English...

This is the on site bunk house for the workers...I had a look inside....not a lot of room...about 8 guys to a shack...not sure if there is any more that a bunk there either....one of the places would have to be a cook house.....but not sure where





This is the old reliable truck three wheeler....which carries everything and I mean everything as some other photos have suggested.

This is the start of a construction project close to our school. It is going to be a school and a hospital..so we are old. In December this was a sort of forested woodlot.....
Now look at it...there are three cranes.....the rolls of wire are part of the rebar system I think...there is a machine in there that whack the wire off at certain lengths and then it is rigid and used in the concrete...which by the way they are always pouring..with the pumper trucks....almost 24 7 but not quite..
This is what I mean....look at the scaffolding....it just keeps going up
And up....where the rebar is now, there is scaffolding that is about 4 storeys high now.....and just across the street from us, there is an apartment complex going up.....more like townhouses and that was just bare land about two months ago.....I don't know who pays for it or how it is bid or anything like that....but these guys work..hot sun.....cool days...doesn't seem to matter...constantly tying rebar and setting up scaffolding.....


Signing off...no I still have not signed my contract.....maybe tomorrow....seems like they forgot....

May

Well the time has come the walrus said.....I have decided as of May 10th to stay another year....haven't signed the actual contract yet but I think that will be just a formality......it is especially difficult for my mother to understand but we talk so she is ok with it..

I start playing softball Sunday May 13th....the Canadian ambassador will throw out the first pitch and I may have something to say to him after my Friday experience....listen to this.....I had a few hours to spare so I decided to go to see our Canadian Embassy....I showed up at the front gates.....locked of course.... and presented my passport and asked to see someone from the embassy....not for any particular reason..just to talk to someone from Canada perhaps...I had also heard that they had a library and that maybe I could borrow some books or pictures to show the kids at Shanhaiguan ( the place I was going to teach??? for the weekend).....The guard...nice....do you have an appointment..no I would just like to see someone ...I am afraid you can't see someone.....but I will phone my boss to see if you can get in....then he did and he told me after about 3 minutes of conversation that I would have to make an appointment to see someone...I was a little miffed...but since it really wasn't a emergency or I wasn't under arrest or anything to leave but I left with a little note....I will be contacting my MP oh, that means my Member of Parliament.....and I did and I am waiting for a return message from David Anderson...to see what the heck went wrong here.....

Spent the week sort of recuperating....went to the Water Museum.....we will be taking some students there as part of the Water/Wetlands project that they are in.....not much there....I think the kids will be bored in about 10 minutes.....of well..a chance for them to get off campus....

Also got all my shopping done that I had put off for a while....and all the stuff that was in my room that I had accumulated over some months.....sent it all to Jennifer....it was a very good and quick time at the Post office...I didn't know it but the next day was a holiday and I arrived at 5 to four......they closed at 4 that day.....I tell you, that was the quickest that I have ever seen anyone in any post office work....we were out of there at 4:05...all the paper work done, all the wrapping done, the weighing done, the paying done and the labeling....they helped with all of that....I only hope that everything gets there in one piece Jay..

Also went out to the driving range and hit some golf balls....we have a package deal of 12,000 balls for RMB 3000. ....we hope to have a weekly hitting of balls for the group here....Don, Bob and I have paid and we are hoping that another teacher, Matthew, will do this as well...anyway, another thing to break up a week.

Teaching was a blast on the weekend...Zest (the Chinese English teacher) had asked me to go with him for a day of teaching and some sightseeing....He wanted a couple to people to go but no one was able to go from here....I asked if Rosamund (the lady from the Italian Embassy) would be ok ...since she did speak English and she was available...he said it would be ok so she came with us and it was interesting to watch as she became a teacher.....

The trip started off poorly as on Friday.....we go our tickets and there were no seats left so the 4-5 hour trip would have to be done standing up....not a good start...but by the third stop Rosamund had a seat and after the 4th I had a seat so we were good for the last 1/2 of the trip.

Some interesting things about the trip.....about RMB 25 ($4)for the trip of about 300km...and it was packed as I said....no air conditioning...only fans that did not run...and they just packed the people onto the train....after the seats were taken....I really noticed the poverty again.....cows pulling the plows or the wagons...people actually hoeing large plots of land......the houses.....geez....one thing I noticed and I asked a journalist who I had made friends with, what were the small mounds in the fields...you would see the field with the nice rows and then see a small mound of dirt with some little ceramic or stone on the top... that was where they had buried someone..just make a pile of dirt and the body was inside it....the bigger the pile the more important the person..... the government has forbidden that from now on but they don't seem to care

The trees have been replanted and they are in neat rows....kind of weird to see...

Had a great time with the people on the train...was sitting with an old lady who was going home to a wedding and was taking some food home.....kind of like an Ukrainian wedding...we kidded around a little...the journalist being my interpreter....also a young girl who was going to become a teacher....really noticed being stared at and listened to....we were the only whites I think on the whole train.....getting out was a sea of humanity.....all the black hair and me with none and Rosamund with light brown...weird

Got through the teaching on the weekend without losing any sanity ......went in to the kindergarten through to grade 9 ish and fielded questions from Do you like China, strawberries, grapes, dumplings, to what is your favourite colour, animal, food, fruit etc to What happened to your hair and to what does a typical Canadian student do in a day.....and I had to show some flags and pictures and Go Riders Go chant....some more potential fans....very polite and automatons at times.....school was a private one...still haven't been to a public one.....need to do that.....because they are getting some English instruction and of course a guest lecturer from Canada...... they pay extra for the education....had a great time with the staff and some friends .....after school and for dinner.....man some of them like to drink.....and we did...I think I held my own but did not get into the rocket fuel they call Bijoe..and it will clean out your innards too...just stuck to the low alcohol beer and was able to survive...the food was excellent.....had to try Donkey dumpling.....somewhat coarse meat...not anything to write home about but I guess I am writing home about it....visited the place where the Great Wall meets the sea...a tourist attraction of course....had a lady with us as a guide helper...very funny lady....she bargained for me and then went down the wall a little further and found what we had for a cheaper price.....about 20 cents......we laughed about that.....lots of stuff.....all made in China.....hahaha

Had an interesting incident on the way home.....we were given a car ride home as the principal, a former gymnast, did not want us riding on the train that was going to be packed with people coming home from the holidays....so she got us a car and a driver to take us back....one stop he got out to get some smokes and then did smoke in the car.....unusual for us to have smoking in the car.....most interesting was the second stop...he gets out of the car and walks to the trunk....rustles around and then changes the license plate on the back and gets another one and changes the license plate on the front........I have no idea why and no one was offering up any reason and the trip just kept right on going.....hmmmmmmm.....recently....just an addition..apparently it may have something to do with speeding tickets....or illegal plates...or both.....the guy was going 140 kph at times....so maybe????

Remember what I said about a place of contrast......we were traveling along a 6 lane highway with speeds of over 150 km and right beside us in the fields were carts being pulled by cow and donkeys.....and that is the stark reality.....

Returned to BCCSC...got my laundry started....sent over some dry cleaning...tried to get some work started...failed.....and am trying to get my mind around stating u[p for the final jog into July...35 degrees today and it is supposed to get hotter.....woohoo....room is somewhat cleaner without the 6 sets of clubs and also the other stuff...will try to keep it that way...only 3 sets of left handed clubs and they are mine...will be bringing at least 2 sets home in July when I come.....beginning to see that as a very important date...will do some last minute shopping and then stuff all of it in my suitcases and get home in one piece I hope.....Jennifer is getting tickets to Craven weekend to see Reba McIntire so that will be a good start...

Will try to get some pictures on this one.....can't download any of my own for some reason so I ask Don to put them on the flash disk and then I fiddle around with them from there...a bit of a pain in the buttocks

Have helped a Korean boy with his math...and he is very appreciative....also had to deal with an incident he was involved in...I hope I set him straight....got a letter from his mom......was quite surprised and she also was quite happy that I had helped him.....I think that is the most satisfying aspect of teaching....forget about the other bull....he still is coming for help and I really enjoy his company....he has a sense of humour.....

Will sign off and try to get a complete set of pictures on the next blog