Recently in Suzhou and School Category
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Zhong Guo Jia Yuo! Go China!
Today, the olympic torch came to Suzhou. And I, officially, have olympic fever.
However, prior to the torch arriving, both Suzhou, and I had some serious preparations to do.
Yesterday, a couch surfing friend (Jenna) came to Suzhou to surf my couch, and help me prepare for the torch to arrive. We bought stickers, flags, head bands ad tshirts. And yelled Jia yuo! jia yuo!
Zhong Guo Jia Yuo! Go China!
Today, the olympic torch came to Suzhou. And I, officially, have olympic fever.
However, prior to the torch arriving, both Suzhou, and I had some serious preparations to do.
Yesterday, a couch surfing friend (Jenna) came to Suzhou to surf my couch, and help me prepare for the torch to arrive. We bought stickers, flags, head bands ad tshirts. And yelled Jia yuo! jia yuo!Even Gina joined in to help us all get amped.
The following day (now we are back at today, sorry) Jenna and I got up painfully early, to brave the unbelievable crowds in an attempt to sneak a peek at the burning symbol of ultimate physical accomplishment.
The crowds got thicker and thicker ,and by the time we got to the street where the torch would pass us, the crowd was thousands deep and most of the good vantage points (trees) were already spoken for.
But we managed to squirm through a mob and get out on a corner. It also helps that I am at least 3 or 4 inches taller than the average person here, so I could see just fine. And for the next ten minutes or so, we joined in on some chanting of Zhong Guo (China) jia yuo (add gasoline)... Go China!
It was so fun to see all the people around me so proud and excited. And it was certainly fun for them to see a laowai (old whitey) all dressed up in 'I love China' gear and chanting with them. I think I might be on about a million Chinese people's cell phone cameras after today.
Then the police around us got even edgier, and I knew it was coming.... Zhong Guo, jia yuo...Zhong Guo, jia yuo!
More pushing, more chanting, people taking pictures galore. And there it is! the guy in the red and white surrounded by the blue-clad running guards.
Then he passed us and it was over. Just like that.
But the chanting did not stop for a while. And neither did the great high and excitement we all felt to be a part of something so rare and special!
100_2733.MOV
The following day (now we are back at today, sorry) Jenna and I got up painfully early, to brave the unbelievable crowds in an attempt to sneak a peek at the burning symbol of ultimate physical accomplishment.The crowds got thicker and thicker ,and by the time we got to the street where the torch would pass us, the crowd was thousands deep and most of the good vantage points (trees) were already spoken for.But we managed to squirm through a mob and get out on a corner. It also helps that I am at least 3 or 4 inches taller than the average person here, so I could see just fine. And for the next ten minutes or so, we joined in on some chanting of Zhong Guo (China) jia yuo (add gasoline)... Go China!It was so fun to see all the people around me so proud and excited. And it was certainly fun for them to see a laowai (old whitey) all dressed up in 'I love China' gear and chanting with them. I think I might be on about a million Chinese people's cell phone cameras after today.Then the police around us got even edgier, and I knew it was coming.... Zhong Guo, jia yuo...Zhong Guo, jia yuo!
More pushing, more chanting, people taking pictures galore. And there it is! the guy in the red and white surrounded by the blue-clad running guards.Then he passed us and it was over. Just like that. But the chanting did not stop for a while. And neither did the great high and excitement we all felt to be a part of something so rare and special!
100_2733.MOV
http://torchrelay.beijing2008.cn/en/
I received this email from my mum this morning:
"Hi Honey; Could you pls enter into your Blog about how far you are away from Chuengdu (earth quake center). And let everyone know you are okay. I got four calls yesterday and 3 already today from people concerned about you. Thnx, Mom"
Awe..... someone out there actually cares!?!?!
Yes, I am OK. In fact, no one here even felt the earthquake. It is terrible that so many people died, especially the children in the schools. However, I don't think it's as bad as the American media is so talented at dramatizing.
My classes are all raising money to send their way and all of us here are just counting our blessings.
Chengdu is at the very center of China as can be seen in this map. I am on the East Coast right between Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing. It may not look very far on a map, but to get to Chengdu would be about a 18 hour train ride. As you can see from the scale on the map, it is about 1,500km from Shanghai.
If anyone out there would like to send money or clothes or food to the victims and their families, feel free to email me and I will do my best to transform your wishes into something useful.
"Hi Honey; Could you pls enter into your Blog about how far you are away from Chuengdu (earth quake center). And let everyone know you are okay. I got four calls yesterday and 3 already today from people concerned about you. Thnx, Mom"
Awe..... someone out there actually cares!?!?!
Yes, I am OK. In fact, no one here even felt the earthquake. It is terrible that so many people died, especially the children in the schools. However, I don't think it's as bad as the American media is so talented at dramatizing.
My classes are all raising money to send their way and all of us here are just counting our blessings.
Chengdu is at the very center of China as can be seen in this map. I am on the East Coast right between Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing. It may not look very far on a map, but to get to Chengdu would be about a 18 hour train ride. As you can see from the scale on the map, it is about 1,500km from Shanghai.
If anyone out there would like to send money or clothes or food to the victims and their families, feel free to email me and I will do my best to transform your wishes into something useful.
Merry Christmas y'all!
Why is it that during the holidays when you are supposed to relax and catch up on everything, you end up doing way too much and running yourself ragged...all to head back to work dizzy and heavier? One of the millions of conundrums of our culture and society, I suppose.
The last week has been quite eventful. So there are a lot of pics, so this blog will be more like a picture book instead of a novel.
It all got kicked off with a party at Val's on Friday, Dec 21st. To the potluck I brought some mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts...yes, my two xmas favorites.
But the following night was when the fun really began. And where there is fun, there is David. We had another wine tasting, and this time May and I brought Gina. She fell in love with David just as I had on my first meeting with him.
So we decided to invite him out to a foreigner bar after the wine tasting.
The night is a big foggy after this point, but I do know I played a few games of pool against the Chinese snooker champion. And during one of the games I actually sunk two balls against him! Meanwhile, as I attempted to line up a bank shot to the corner pocket with what looked like four cue balls, Gina proceeded to make friends with the entire bar and invite them all to the next day's event...gingerbread making!
That's Chinese food on those plates if you were wondering.
Although I can imagine that learning how to make, cut, bake and decorate gingerbread cookies as an adult would make me a bit more particular about it, I can guarantee I would not have been half as meticulous as the Chinese friends we brought over to join us. But, this attitude paid off for them...their cookies were by far the best looking.
Mine and Gina's, on the other hand, looked remarkably similar to how mine looked when I was 5.
As much as one of the last things I wanted to do was eat unidentifiable foods with my bosses on Christmas eve, that was the next event of the holidays for me. I tried frog. It was good. And while attempting to be a good sport, I probably also tried a few things of which I hope never to find the origin of.
As anyone who has ever attending a social for work can understand, it is an absolute god-send to find someone who not only thinks the same as you, but also has the same sense of humor. Travis is my guy for that here at SFLS. He teaches the university level physics, chemistry and biology. So I am his little apprentice as well as his cynical buddy and gangsta hommie. Somehow we got a hold of this pink dog at dinner and were in hysterics for almost an hour about nothing in particular - just potty humor and other lower class humor regarding this poor dog. Here, we are trying hard to look serious for the camera for two seconds.
Then before I knew it, Christmas morning came. And Santa... the a-hole... didn't come to my house!?!? After chatting with my family on the phone, eating a box of cookies, and catching up on some email, I sent off with Gina to check out a local park. On the way, I stumbled across this. Mmmmm, Christmas breakfast straight out of the most polluted river I have ever seen.
Gina and I spent our morning hiking around Tian Ping Hill. It has a park and a bunch of Maple trees that are just losing their last leaves right now.
The signs were Christmas colours. But that didn't seem to help with our inability to read them.
Not even a half hour into the visit, this weird Chinese guy proceeded to try to make friends with us. He didn't speak a word of English and at first we saw it as a great opportunity to practice our Chinese. But about twenty minutes into it I started getting annoyed. However, that was after he inspected Gina from her big feet to fingers that for some unknown reason didn't match his as well as mine did...he also inspected her blue eyes and red hair.
Why is it that during the holidays when you are supposed to relax and catch up on everything, you end up doing way too much and running yourself ragged...all to head back to work dizzy and heavier? One of the millions of conundrums of our culture and society, I suppose.
The last week has been quite eventful. So there are a lot of pics, so this blog will be more like a picture book instead of a novel.
It all got kicked off with a party at Val's on Friday, Dec 21st. To the potluck I brought some mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts...yes, my two xmas favorites.
But the following night was when the fun really began. And where there is fun, there is David. We had another wine tasting, and this time May and I brought Gina. She fell in love with David just as I had on my first meeting with him.So we decided to invite him out to a foreigner bar after the wine tasting.The night is a big foggy after this point, but I do know I played a few games of pool against the Chinese snooker champion. And during one of the games I actually sunk two balls against him! Meanwhile, as I attempted to line up a bank shot to the corner pocket with what looked like four cue balls, Gina proceeded to make friends with the entire bar and invite them all to the next day's event...gingerbread making!
That's Chinese food on those plates if you were wondering.
Although I can imagine that learning how to make, cut, bake and decorate gingerbread cookies as an adult would make me a bit more particular about it, I can guarantee I would not have been half as meticulous as the Chinese friends we brought over to join us. But, this attitude paid off for them...their cookies were by far the best looking.
Mine and Gina's, on the other hand, looked remarkably similar to how mine looked when I was 5.
As much as one of the last things I wanted to do was eat unidentifiable foods with my bosses on Christmas eve, that was the next event of the holidays for me. I tried frog. It was good. And while attempting to be a good sport, I probably also tried a few things of which I hope never to find the origin of.As anyone who has ever attending a social for work can understand, it is an absolute god-send to find someone who not only thinks the same as you, but also has the same sense of humor. Travis is my guy for that here at SFLS. He teaches the university level physics, chemistry and biology. So I am his little apprentice as well as his cynical buddy and gangsta hommie. Somehow we got a hold of this pink dog at dinner and were in hysterics for almost an hour about nothing in particular - just potty humor and other lower class humor regarding this poor dog. Here, we are trying hard to look serious for the camera for two seconds.Then before I knew it, Christmas morning came. And Santa... the a-hole... didn't come to my house!?!? After chatting with my family on the phone, eating a box of cookies, and catching up on some email, I sent off with Gina to check out a local park. On the way, I stumbled across this. Mmmmm, Christmas breakfast straight out of the most polluted river I have ever seen.Gina and I spent our morning hiking around Tian Ping Hill. It has a park and a bunch of Maple trees that are just losing their last leaves right now. The signs were Christmas colours. But that didn't seem to help with our inability to read them.Not even a half hour into the visit, this weird Chinese guy proceeded to try to make friends with us. He didn't speak a word of English and at first we saw it as a great opportunity to practice our Chinese. But about twenty minutes into it I started getting annoyed. However, that was after he inspected Gina from her big feet to fingers that for some unknown reason didn't match his as well as mine did...he also inspected her blue eyes and red hair.
After he wore out his welcome and we managed to get rid of him, we hiked down the mountain peacefully alone and passed a few cool Buddhist monuments for praying.
From Tian Ping Hill we went to the most Western place we could find in Suzhou....Starbucks... and drank Baileys and coffee for a few hours. Christmas music was playing and we shared with each other some cool Christmas stories and family traditions. And although it was nice, i think it was a bit depressing for both of us. I learned It is better to do things as different from home as possible on days like xmas when you are away from home...otherwise you risk missing everyone too much!
I headed back to the school for the evening as I had been invited to 3 of my classes "Christmas" parties. Basically it was just an excuse for them to get out of night classes and eat a bunch of candy. There was very little Christmassy about any of it due in part to the blind leading the blind, but it was still fun.
I headed back to the school for the evening as I had been invited to 3 of my classes "Christmas" parties. Basically it was just an excuse for them to get out of night classes and eat a bunch of candy. There was very little Christmassy about any of it due in part to the blind leading the blind, but it was still fun.They're really into performing here...even if you suck...so I got to
grind my teeth through more than one unbearable show. Pretty funny too
though.
I kinda felt like a parent because when the kids I taught were performing I thought they were amazing. But when kids I don't teach were performing, I was like, 'lame!'. But honestly, this dance my grade 11's did was not only good, but so racy it wouldn't have been allowed in Canadian high schools
Hope you are all having a great Holiday. It is back to work for me. Although I feel slightly vindicated because I am showing my kids movies all week.
I kinda felt like a parent because when the kids I taught were performing I thought they were amazing. But when kids I don't teach were performing, I was like, 'lame!'. But honestly, this dance my grade 11's did was not only good, but so racy it wouldn't have been allowed in Canadian high schools
Hope you are all having a great Holiday. It is back to work for me. Although I feel slightly vindicated because I am showing my kids movies all week.
I spent the last two weeks with some of my classes organizing Halloween parties, and the day finally came this week! Chinese people do not know about Halloween. In fact, it is mostly an American thing as I also learned when I was in New Zealand two years ago at this time. So as a 'cultural expert' (weird that I am considered this) it is my job to teach my kids about North American culture; and Halloween is certainly a great excuse to have some fun with them! I failed to tell anyone here that as a child I never celebrated Halloween, really. But that didn't stop us from getting dressed up, eating lots of candy, and carving pumpkins.
On Halloween, Jason also had a party in his class. He teaches all the grade 1's in the school, and before heading to his party, I wrapped him up in toilet paper. Sadly, half of it came off before he even got to class....but it had me laughing so hard!
What was more, within about thirty seconds of him arriving to class, his kids had completely ripped it all off. But they are so cute...how do you get mad at these faces?
My grade 7 overseas class did such an amazing job of their party! We'd been decorating the class for weeks and when we organized the party, I put all the tasks for the party up on the board and each student got to decide what they were going to do. We had two DJ's and about eight kids who brought food. I was expecting cookies, chips, etc, but these kids had their moms drop off huge pans of spaghetti, 20 KFC chicken burgers, these weird Taiwanese blood pudding squares, (which I made the mistake of putting into my mouth and then asking what they were) etc.
Also, six kids volunteered to be part of the pumpkin carving contest. The issue being, they don't seem to have pumpkins for carving here; hence the small size of them.
On Halloween, Jason also had a party in his class. He teaches all the grade 1's in the school, and before heading to his party, I wrapped him up in toilet paper. Sadly, half of it came off before he even got to class....but it had me laughing so hard!
What was more, within about thirty seconds of him arriving to class, his kids had completely ripped it all off. But they are so cute...how do you get mad at these faces?My grade 7 overseas class did such an amazing job of their party! We'd been decorating the class for weeks and when we organized the party, I put all the tasks for the party up on the board and each student got to decide what they were going to do. We had two DJ's and about eight kids who brought food. I was expecting cookies, chips, etc, but these kids had their moms drop off huge pans of spaghetti, 20 KFC chicken burgers, these weird Taiwanese blood pudding squares, (which I made the mistake of putting into my mouth and then asking what they were) etc.Also, six kids volunteered to be part of the pumpkin carving contest. The issue being, they don't seem to have pumpkins for carving here; hence the small size of them. One thing that they certainly could work on is dressing up in costumes. I told everyone they needed to dress up, and those that did not would be wrapped up in toilet paper like a mummy. Ironically, one of the kids in class's father owns the toilet paper factory in town so he volunteered himself to be the t.p. guy. They were much better at wrapping one another up than I was for Jason.
This is Charles, one of my little trouble makers. He is such a problem child and I absolutely love him for it. He brought his erhu to play squeaky, scary music on for the party.
It is times like this when I forget I am in China. And then look a little closer, and am reminded....this is what Chinese Halloween candy looks like!
This is Charles, one of my little trouble makers. He is such a problem child and I absolutely love him for it. He brought his erhu to play squeaky, scary music on for the party.
It is times like this when I forget I am in China. And then look a little closer, and am reminded....this is what Chinese Halloween candy looks like!The party was a compete success. A couple foreign teachers came by and helped us to celebrate Halloween, 'A weird and interesting holiday celebrated in America.' (as on of my older students wrote to me).
Want to talk about weird and interesting? I wish you could have come out with Jason and I on Halloween night. Here are our costumes: I was a girl ghost, he was a 'pot' head. I think these costumes are almost as good as mine and Stevens last year; where I put my snowboarding helmet on and went as an epileptic and Steven wrapped a towel around his head and put a button down shirt on and went as an Arabian business man. I know.. what the...!?! I am a big fan of putting as little effort into a Halloween costume as possible. Yes, this was the bed sheet supplied to me by the school.
We went out to a bar that was giving out free drinks all night to anyone dressed up...Heck yeah! On our way there, we got some of the most incredulous looks I had seen in my life. A man finally stopped us and asked us if we were Muslim. Then we started hearing the word Muslim in Chinese the rest of the way there. They thought I was in a Sari!?! Also, someone asked us if we had any drugs. Apparently the Muslims run the drugs here in China. I don't need to tell you how the rest of the night went. Just... holy smokes! I am heading back to that same bar tonight since their free drinks with a costume policy goes until tomorrow. I'm dressing up as a hockey player (I brought my Canadian hockey jersey here) to drink more free booze. Is it just me, or does free beer taste better?
Want to talk about weird and interesting? I wish you could have come out with Jason and I on Halloween night. Here are our costumes: I was a girl ghost, he was a 'pot' head. I think these costumes are almost as good as mine and Stevens last year; where I put my snowboarding helmet on and went as an epileptic and Steven wrapped a towel around his head and put a button down shirt on and went as an Arabian business man. I know.. what the...!?! I am a big fan of putting as little effort into a Halloween costume as possible. Yes, this was the bed sheet supplied to me by the school.
We went out to a bar that was giving out free drinks all night to anyone dressed up...Heck yeah! On our way there, we got some of the most incredulous looks I had seen in my life. A man finally stopped us and asked us if we were Muslim. Then we started hearing the word Muslim in Chinese the rest of the way there. They thought I was in a Sari!?! Also, someone asked us if we had any drugs. Apparently the Muslims run the drugs here in China. I don't need to tell you how the rest of the night went. Just... holy smokes! I am heading back to that same bar tonight since their free drinks with a costume policy goes until tomorrow. I'm dressing up as a hockey player (I brought my Canadian hockey jersey here) to drink more free booze. Is it just me, or does free beer taste better?
