A Very Merry Jinshitan Christmas

So Christmas was quiet around here (to say the least). We missed being home to celebrate and the things that was missing the most- besides all our family and friends - was... Christmas Music! I have never realized how ubiquitous Christmas music actually is. EVERYWHERE you go at home there are holiday sounds to be heard. Heck, even the hard core rock stations in Vancouver give up once an hour and play a holiday song.

This year a lot of our traditions were not possible (where do you think we can buy GOOD scotch in China... and really candle light fajitas aren’t the same when you don’t have a Christmas tree to decorate after). So because of this we decided to implement a few Jinshitan Christmas traditions of our own.

The first was a relaxation policy. We lounged in our jammies for hours and watched some Christmas movies that one or both of us had never seen before. There are some real gems from the early 60’s claymation era, Including Kristen's new favourite "The Little Drummer Boy". Before we started watching Paul told Kristen that near the beginning the parents get stabbed and burned. Kristen responded by tersely replying, “this is a Christmas film those things can’t happen”.

Paul did a very quiet I told you so dance about ten minutes in!

The second new tradition was a very nice 2 hour walk along the coastline. As usual we took our camera and were not disappointed. We found a trove of statues. For no apparent reason there are a bunch of life sized animal statues next to a minor attraction here in Jinjy!

HI HO Silver, away!

Paul joins Siegfried and Roy

This is yet another one of the beautiful abandoned buildings in our town, and yet they keep building new ones....?

So cold the sea water is frozen

 We also were fortunate enough to have friends who decided to host a Christmas dinner. So on Christmas night, off we went to a very good approximation of Christmas dinner. Will made an EXCELLENT turkey, Trevor sat on his veggies on the way over  and the mulled wine was quickly drained by one and all. Over all it was great!

On Boxing day we got up and went off to work. Kristen had extra TOC blocks because there were others who decided they were going to have a boxing day... thanks guys!

So, our first Christmas abroad was... interesting. Not nearly as "christmassy" as being home with friends and family, but we definitely managed to make it fun and special.

It's Beginning to look a LOT like Christmas

Well, its December which means 2 really good things have happened here lately!

1) PAUL SHAVED HIS HORRIBLE MOUSTACHE OFF!!
2) Kristen was FINALLY given permission to decorate the house!

This is our INCREDIBLE advent caladar from IKEA. I hope you all have one. There are little boxes which you hide goddies in, so it could be lame chocolate or it could be ferrero rochers!!!!!

This is our tiny tree and stockings!

This is how excited Kristen gets when she is allowed to put up Christmas stuff!

Perfect for our Chinese Christmas Tree, Rice Lights, no joke they came with the tree!

There have been some negitive things as well, mostly weather related. We keep being mocked by the chinese staff who think being born and bred Canadians, we should not bock at the DongBei wind that rips through our part of china.As you all know that is SOOOOO not the case!

This is lake Clear water which is the "lake" part of our Lake-View aprtment. It has been there since the category 4 storm last year. It is so cold most of the water has evaporated. But what was left froze and then was smashed by the middle school kids since they are not supervised during PE class. THe little monkeys tore up the brick from the sidewalk to do it.

And this is Kristen's new work attire. You will notice, Hot for this season, thick tights, under a pair of insulated ski socks, all neatly hidden under dress pants. YEA, IT'S COLD!

Aint no rest for the wicked

This past weekend was full of sporting events for us. Kristen went off to Beijing with her Volleyball team to play in a tournament. They were supposed to fly out Friday night at 10pm but true to its reputation Dalian airport muck-ed it up and they didn’t leave until 4am. 9 hours of trying to rest in a freezing cold airport on chairs or floors or wherever. When they finally arrived in Beijing it was to late to go to the Hostel before the first game so instead they went looking for breakfast. They found Michael a stout German man how owned a brand new bakery. He served up fresh and free treats for the whole team basically saving us from killing each other.

The first day was long and tiresome but each game the team got better and better. We finally won our last game on Saturday.

Jumping like our life depends on it.......lol

Finally heading to the hostel around 6pm we checked in showered and took off for a dinner with some of the other teams at a Japanese restaurant. Kristen had never drank Saki before and having been awake for almost 40 hours, and only eating sushi for dinner it did a serious number on her. She almost passed out at the dinner table along with a couple of her teammates. So instead of hitting the clubs they went back to the hostel for some much needed sleep.

Kristen is on the left hand side WAY WAY at the back

On Sunday the team was up and back on the court at 11am “rested” and and playing much better as a team. Kristen got her first block and first real kill and a nice head cold/sore thorat just to round out the morning. After 2 games the team thought they were finsished and headed off to the showers, only to find out they had to play for 3^rd and 4^th place. The final game was the best yet, and the girls came of so close to taking it but ended up fouth. By that time there was only enough time to shower eat and rush off to the airport to literally run to our gate and catch the plane home.

Posing like we are 12....

 All in all a lot of fun. There were some bruises, skin burns, and many hours missed sleep but everyone had a great time!

11th Annual Dalian China International Winter Swimming Festival

Early upon our return to China the administration put out the word about some cool stuff that only happens in the first semester, a number of which were things we have not yet had a chance to experience. One of these events was an international outdoor swimming competition held in OCTOBER. It sounded like a lot of fun while we were sweating it up at Pro-D in August and Paul decided to sign himself up!

The morning of October 22 was chilly but sunny. We piled into a transport and were driven to the start of the “parade” route. To our surprise there was a VERY official opening ceremony and the entire thing was being televised on 2 stations. To Kristen's chagrin there were tourists and reporters all over the place wanting to snap photos of our group of strange white people all decked out in red and white. In a very odd role reversal Kristen hung back, playing  the shy kid, while Paul was holding the flag out in front wearing his '87 Canada Cup jersey smiling and posing with everyone who requested a picture of him. He was even approached by the coach of one of the Chinese swim teams about making some contacts in Canada so their team could do a swim tour….wtf is a swim tour? As the opening ceremonies really got underway there were the usual speeches that no one listened to, dancers who should concentrate their energies on other things, (and should definitely wear costues more appropriate to women of their age and build) as well as cross-dressing pop singers and ballroom dancers. The entire things was capped off with an outrageous amount of fireworks and piles of old people running into the ocean wearing speedos, t-shirts and socks for the polar bear swim. It was an odd day.

Paul leading the Canadian contingent.

Ballroom dancers in front, elderly cheerleaders to the left, dancers to the right.

The swimmers marched in wearing their matching gear... they take odd amateur sport quite seriously in China. Cold water swimming falls in that category.

Probably toxic, but it looks pretty.

The next day, Sunday October 23, dawned, sunny but freezing and windy... like REALLY windy. Paul was scheduled for 3 races and was told to arrive no later than 8am, but once he was there found out he didn’t swim until 11:30. So we sat around looking at the Russians and had them try to convince us to join the “Bering Strait” Swim club, which basically is a group of people who jump in the Bering Strait and seeing how long you can stay in before your body overrides your brain and you jump out. Apparently some members of their team had recently swam from Russia to Alaska and were looking to get another group together for this summer!

The races were held in an outdoor pool that had recently been filled with unheated and unfiltered sea water! The water temperature was less than 4°... yes, ONLY 4 degrees above freezing!

 

Anyways Paul’s first race was…interesting. He was the last one off the block (he didn't understand the Chinese words for "take your marks") but was first out of the turn. He led his heat until the last few meters when his muscles cramped from the extreme cold -and lack of training- and he was over taken by the guy next to him. He came out of the water in mild shock which we later found out happened to ALL the other Canadian contestants. We went home and had some lunch and a nap. Then Paul went back for two more races! All in all he ended up 5^th in freestyle, 6^th in the backstroke and 5^th in the breaststroke. Not bad for a guy who hasn’t swum competitively for almost 10 years!

Speedos and parkas

Just a little chilly!

Some of the older dudes were pretty impressive.

The day after the races, there was a ceremony that was attended by the athletes, and dignitaries like the vice minister of sport. Paul thought that all the Maple Leaf teachers who swam were going, but he found out (at the event) that it was just him, some of the administrators and a few of the Chinese teachers. The evening was a true Chinese experience. Pop singers, children performing Kung-fu, hostesses wearing full princess gowns and a full Chinese buffet. It was a wierd and wonderful experience. We got to enjoy some delicious Chinese beer brewed in Hong Kong, and some baiju (sorghum liquor) that was made in Jinshitan. We eventually stumbled home, and went to sleep, sore from the swimming and a little tipsy from the night out. 

Take a look at that glittering # 7 on his waif-like body

Happy Halloween

One of the Big events here at the school is the teacher's Halloween Party. Almost all the teachers go and have awesome halloween costumes made. Here is a small sample!

Kristen as Alice

Hey Sport! Paul as The Great Gatsby

Wonderland Friends, The Caterpillar (Mark) and the Mad Hatter (Jennifer)

Pop (Sara), Crackle (Morgan), and Snap (Brittney)

There were some home made costuems too! Indy (Kyle), Rambo (Will), Kung Fu Panda (Charles)

The woman who inspired my costume! Lauren as the mad hatter! She made that amazing hat out of paper mache!

Final Phase

The train ride to Lanzhou was the most uncomfortable of our trips. We spent the first few hours trying to negotiate with other passengers in order to get a full berth to ourselves. It took a while, an a lot of weaving our way through train cars, but we finally managed to amass the tickets we needed through bartering, trade and cajoling. By the time we all got into the same berth, we had a few beers and fell asleep.

We woke up in Lanzhou and spent the minimum amount of time getting from the train station to the south bus station. From there we began a 3 hour long bus ride to Linxe, a mostly Muslim town to the west of Lanzhou. We had a brief layover in Linxe, before we caught another 3 hour bus to Xiahe.

Dapanjie... literally the best part of Linxe. Literally translated it means "big tray o' chicken"

The terrain on the way up to Xiahe reminded us a lot of Kamloops. Dry hills, lots of rocks and the odd patch of green conifers. However, the yaks, the mosques and the hills blazing with red, orange and yellow fall colours broke the illusion from time to time.

Could have been the interior of BC.....

.....Although there are fewer mosques and fruit stalls in Kamloops.

Fall colours were in abundance.

We got into Xiahe in the afternoon, and walked from where the bus let us off (the side of the road) to our hostel. Immediately Paul began to feel the effects of the altitude, and pretty soon everyone was feeling a little loopy. Xiahe is 3000m above sealevel, and the thin air can sometimes make you feel drunk (or give you headache, cramps, nausea or violent vertigo... luckily we were only mildly affected).

Xiahe is the home of Labrang monastery (or lamasery if you want to get technical) and a few thousand monks call it home. These are monks of the "Yellow Hat sect" of tibetan Buddhism, and it was pretty clear from the get go that we were in a special part of China. The town has an interesting mix of people: Han Chinese run many of the shops and businesses, the "Hui" or "Uigher" people (Chinese Muslims) make up a substantial portion of the town, and Tibetan people make up the rest. As we approached our hostel, we started to see more monks in their robes, and more and more Tibetans in their traditional clothes.

Monks have to get their robes somewhere.

Stylishly dressed pilgrims arrive to worship just as the monks in their yellow hats are taking off their boots in order to enter the building. We felt underdressed.

That evening we took a walk (clockwise, as the lamaist tradition dictates) around the shorter pilgrims path - or kora- that circles the monastery. Along the way, we spun the prayer wheels (wooden or metal wheels with prayers on them... spinning them in a clockwise motion is supposed to be the same as saying a full prayer) and so accumulated good deeds. We made some friends with the grubby but oh so cute Tibetan kids running around, and listened to the monks chanting on thier rooftops.

Spinning the prayer wheels.

Making new friends.

Eventually we made our way to a traditional Tibetan restaurant for some local cuisine. We tried momo (dumplings made of yak meat), tsampa (barley flour balls), paale (fried veggies inside a quesadilla like barley shell), Tibetan bread with milk and butter dip and chomdi (rice with tibetan herbs and yak butter). The food was.... interesting. Unfortunately we also ordered the local specialty of yak butter tea which was basically tea... with yak butter and salt in it. Pretty soon we all had our fill of the smell and taste of yak butter, and left to find our beds.

Yak butter tea is even less delicious than it sounds.

Tsampa on the left (with a bowl of dipping sauce), momo on the right.

The next day Paul and Will woke up early and set off to do the 6km outer kora. They wandered their way to the Tibetan village on the far side of the monastery, and poked their heads down alleyways until they found the tiny path that led them up the hills that circled back to Xiahe. The hike was amazing, as the sun rose over the mountains, breakfast fires burned in the mud lined houses, prayer flags danced with the wind horses and the sounds of the monastery awakening drifted up from below us. It was an experience that rivaled any Paul has had on any of his other trips, and was worth the lack of breath and the early morning.

Tibetan prayer flags and paper thankas (sacred art) were everywhere on the outer kora.

We spent the rest of the morning in Labrang monastery. You can only enter the monastery with a guide from one of the monks, so we met up with some other foreigners and an "English speaking" monk met us to show us around.


This young monk (we couldn't pronounce his name) was crazy. I am willing to give people a lot based on cultural misunderstandings, but this guy took the prize for most eccentric dude I have ever met. He spoke extremely fast, in varying volumes and with a thick thick Tibetan accent. We would catch about one in every four of his words clearly and then would have to guess at the rest. He would look at us and start laughing hysterically. Not only was he odd, but he took a fancy to Paul (and to a lesser extent Will) and took every opportunity to touch, stare at and rub him. Needless to say, Paul became a little uncomfortable as the tour went on- especially when he was invited on a special tour down a curtained hallway that no one else could come on (he declined this special offer).

Just starting to feel uncomfortable....

Paul's tibetan phrasebook didn't have a polite translation for " please stop touching me so much or I may be forced to punch you in your f#*%ing throat."

Despite the oddness and innappropriate affections of our guide, the monastery was an amazing place. Pilgrims were continously circling the monastery, prostrating themselves as they went. They brought bags of fragrant juniper boughs and burnt them in special offering furnaces around the monastery, so the air was redolent with the beautiful smells of their incense.


The buildings were covered in paintings and statues of apsaras and boddhisatvas; yak butter candles lit the pictures of holy lamas and saintly monks; some rooms were full of yak butter statues and displays made each year to honour a certain festival; precious gifts from donors of ivory, ancient texts, jewels and weapons were on display in one room, while traditional tibetan medicine was practiced in another. Bells, gongs, singing bowls and other instruments lined the walls, and monks walked around everywhere in their red and yellow robes.

We were priviledged enough to be allowed into the grand sutra hall while the majority of the monks were gathered together. The sound of their combined chanting, the throat singing of some of the elder monks, the soft clang of bells and the deeper bong of the drums combined with the juniper incense and the light from yak butter candles bouncing off of colourfully painted statues to create one of the most awesome and powerful atmospheres we have ever had the priviledge of witnessing.


We spent the rest of the day poking around in shops, purchasing prayer flags, yak wool and silk scarves, meeting locals and watching Tibetan medicine perfomed on the street. Eventually it was time for us to head back to Lanzhou in a minivan that we had hired for the trip back.

Kristen ignored Paul's suggestion for a souvenier and instead opted for the wool of a yak... in the form of a scarf. He still thinks that they would have gotten more use out of his idea.

Practising traditional Tibetan medicine on the side of the road. The fellow in the sweet hat is hacking a piece of a big cat's foot off with a saw. Nothing like a little piece of endangered species to cure what ails you.

After a night in Lanzhuo, we gathered ourselves together and flew back to Beijing and on to Dalian to rejoin the rest of our fellow teachers and to start planning for our next break.