Paul's a procrastinator...

He should be doing some work right now, but it is 9:00 in the morning on a Friday, and he has the next three blocks off. So instead of marking and inputing grades, he is sitting on his couch, trying to summon the will to do some real work. So far... no luck.

He has the three blocks off because all of the students at the Junior High are at a seminar right now, where a famous author from one of Beijing's most prestigious universities is lecturing on how to become better students, how to become more self-controlled and how to work towards becoming an international elite. Heavy stuff for kids as young as 9, but a really cool opportunity at the same time.

Tomorrow (Saturday) all the teachers will be working in order to make up for the time we will be away on our May holiday. Apparently we get 8 days off in a row, but we are only supposed to have seven, because there are only seven Chinese traditional holidays that are being replaced by this one long break. So in order to get our time off in consecutive days we are working Saturday. However, many of the students are leaving to go home tonight so classes will be pretty empty tomorrow. It looks like we may be doing a review day or working on our aural English skills by watching an English language movie.

By 8:00 tomorrow night we will be winging our way towards Beijing. We are spending the night near the airport there before taking off in the morning to Guilin, the first of our stops in Southern China. We will be exploring the region around Guilin (which is a fairly modern, unspectacular Chinese city, set in an otherworldly landscape of Karst mountains and river valleys). We will be basing ourselves in Yangshuo (or Yangshou not sure which spelling is correct) and biking, rafting, boating, rickshawing and hiking around the Li and Yulong river valleys. We will be exploring ancient villages (some thousands of years old) wandering through rural markets, and will get a chance to watch farmers plant their rice fields with the help of water buffalo powered plows. We may even make our way to the Longsheng area to see the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces where years of labour have converted entire mountain ranges into terraced rice paddies.

Unfortunately, the one drawback to this area is that you have to share it with hundreds (possibly thousands) of other tourist (mostly Chinese, but Yangshou is also big on the foriegn tourist trail). Menus may include traditional dishes like beer fish and stuffed snails next to oreo milkshakes. Also, it looks like rainy season has started a month earlier then usual, and that for the entire time we are in the area the weather will modulate between damp and downright stormy.

Anyways we are definitely looking forwards to the trip. Here are some photos we haven't found the proper post for, but think you should see.

In fact the English contest was ungelivable.

We dedicate to providing top-rank education and services for all the students regardless of their races and nationalities.

Everyday at our house.... dryers rock.

Kaifaqu

I love Englih too.

Testing out an ancient Chinese technology

Since we arrived here in China Paul has been talking about setting off fireworks. We finally had a chance on Saturday, as the sun finally stayed out for a whole day!!!  So after Kristen hit an in-field home run (at the ladies softball game) and Paul returned from his Man-date with Timio (a bromantic walk to the market and lunch afterwards), Paul took his limited Mandarin off to the fireworks store. We spent about 200 ¥ on fireworks and texted our peeps. We made it down to the beach just in time for sunset, with some snacks, our Frisbee and some drinks. (As far as we can tell, there is no law here about drinking in public, spitting in public, urinating in public, etc. Its all good!)

When we arrived we saw these sweet bikes that Cam got all excited about. They look like a pedal golf cart and hold four people! We are definitely going to try them soon.

After we ordered some food to the beach we started off with the lame ones.

Then we got the Big Boxes! All in all a great night! And one we would have been arrested for at home!

Belated easter post

Happy Easter from China!

Kristen's socks brought to her by the Easter Bunny!

Enjoying some Easter sunshine on our porch.

Appetizers and drinks brought by the Easter bunny. He must have good sources, because the brie cheese and garlic crustadas were excellent.

Easter dinner: homemade shepherds pie with real cheese...mmmm.

The video isn't rabbits, but it is cute furry cuddly rodents... so... close I guess.

Is that a male lion?

This weekend, we got to spend a bunch of time with some native Chinese and it was great to ask them questions about life in China, Chinese traditions and how they view the world. Some of the kids were really excited to talk to us about our lives, about how they view China's future and explain how many people in China view some of the extremely touchy subjects that we in Canada often hear about. In any case, it was great to hear what they had to say, and to find out more about China. Tianjin is also a pretty typical Chinese city: dirty, lively, smoggy, bustling, vaguely industrial, decrepit and sparkling new. Visiting with the ultimate team gave us a chance to explore a Chinese city with twenty guides who had no problem explaining things to us as we walked along.

This one is a girl Lion because there is a baby under her foot!

The one with the ball under its foot is a male lion... apparently the ball is not symbolic of the obvious. There is a story that goes along with the lion statues... we are endeavouring to figure out what the heck it is. Our guides couldn't remember it.

Outdoor piping in Tianjin

The crazyness that is Chinese urban planning.

There were signs everywhere in Tianjin that warned drivers about the dangers of smoking while driving, talking on cellphones, driving sleepy etc. Any guesses as to what this one is?

Tianjin...Snack capital of China

Tianjin is famous for its food. Apparently, all of China knows about Tianjin because of its snacks. In particular the baozi (a kind of dumpling) are extremely sought after, but edibles are a huge reason that Tianjin is on the map. That and the fact that one of the worlds fastest trains currently runs between Tianjin and Beijing. Oh yeah there is also the fact that 42.1 million people live in greater Tianjin municipality....


42,100,000 people.


Anyways, we were there for ultimate, but that didn't stop us from sampling the snacks while we were there.

Breakfast at a street stall that served 25 of us (plus the regular customers) in less than 15 minutes. It was impressive and delicious. The bread thing is a deep fried savoury bread that you dip with the tortilla thing in the soupy thing. The soup is kind of like a wonton soup with delicate dumplings, egg and cilantro. WONDERFUL!!!! I couldn't even try to pronounce what it was called, and I wouldn't have known what to order but the kids helped us get food.

Kristen eating her breakfast of smelly tofu in a bag covered in unidentifiable brown sauce. Needless to say, Paul had a better breakfast and Kristen ate mostly bread.

Got to meet the locals at breakfast. The teachers didn't do much talking but everyone was very friendly to us even though we couldn't say much back.

One of the kids was nice enough to buy everyone popsicles... It was hot (27 or 28 degrees) and so Paul decided to try one. No chance it would actually taste like corn right?

Wrong. Exactly like frozen buttered corn on the cob covered in a cheap styrofoamy tasting cone shell... Not Paul's favourite popsicle ever.

Who coveres delicious fruit in a mayonaisse dressing? Answer: The Chinese in Tianjin. Its a salad so it has to have dressing right? Oh well, at least they put sprinkles on it.

Paul finally decided it was time to try chicken feet... hey all the cool kids are doing it.

Yep thats part of a chicken foot sticking out of Paul's mouth. Not the best thing he has ever tasted, but....  doable.

Kristen on a culinary adventure of her own. Thats jellyfish she is slurping up. Surprisingly crunchy.

The Feast on Saturday after the tournament's first day. the tables were groaning with food (somewhere between fifteen and twenty dishes by the end of the night) so we got to try a bunch of different things.

The Tournament...

To get to the airport, we hitched a ride with the shopping bus that was taking teachers in to Kaifaqu... we pretty much overloaded the bus. Teachers weren't super happy, but there really wasn't another way to get the students to the airport on time. Mr. A in the grey hoodie up front is one of the other assistant coaches.

Our group was split onto two planes. Due to a two and a half hour delay to the second plane there was a lot of waiting and we weren't able to  get into our hotel until almost two on Friday night. Made for a rough start the next day. In order to keep the kids occupied, Mr. B. taught them how to play hackey sack. Some of them got pretty good by the end of the weekend.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to play Ultimate in an old soccer stadium that construction workers were repairing, that had a mostly burnt grass field (literally burnt... not sure why) but which provided a pretty decent break from wind (at least  the first day).

Two of our boys playing against each other when we mixed our team with the national champions. There was no way we were going to win, so we forfeited and mixed our teams up to play a fun game. They were called "BIG BROTHER" and were mostly ex-pats. Definitely were an ultimate machine and so much fun to watch. They gave our kids some pointers and our kids basically have some idols to look up to.

Construction was going on all around the stadium. There were times when a disk would catch the wind and end up less than an inch from the diamond cutting blade of a concrete saw... China.

Our team captain with the trophy our team one for "Spirit". In ultimate this is actually a real prize, as the goal of the game is to have fun. Teams take having fun seriously. So seriously that some of the BIG BROTHER players had to buy the sheets of their hotel room after they all dyed their hair bright pink... It is definitely awesome that we got to bring home some hardware, and that everyone at the tournament recognised how amazing our kids were.

Maple Leaf Mallards with some of the students from Maple Leaf Tianjin

Up up and away... for the weekend.



Sweet team colours for the "Maple Leaf Mallards" Ultimate Frisbee team.

 This weekend, Kristen and Paul took a group of twenty students on a trip to play in an Ultimate frisbee tournament. Thirteen boys, seven girls, two other coaches, the vice principal and our protaganists were off to Tianjin on one of the first ever field trips Maple Leaf Schools has ever allowed (and the first for anything other than Model UN).


Paul has been coaching the 50 some odd students who come out twice a week to play frisbee (actually assistant coaching). Somehow, when the fact that female teachers were needed to help chaperone came to the attention of the coaches, Kristen was volunteered to come along.


In order to get permission to fly twenty kids across the country to play in a tournament against adults the head coach (Mr. L) had to jump through some serious hoops. Needless to say, he is a good jumper, and we selected the twenty students who would give us the best chance in the tournament. Our hope was to score at least a couple of points in a game or two, expose the students to some competitive ultimate playing and generally get them excited about the game.


The next few posts are a photo journal of our trip!

I been through the desert on a horse with no name...........

So today there was a wicked thunderstorm! It was crazy around 1:30 pm it got so dark that it was like the sun had set. It was nuts, the hallways in the school do not have lights so it was extremely dark and difficult to see. It didn't rain like at home though. It rained really hard for about an hour, then stopped and thundered and lighting-ed for about 4 hours. Then rained again for like 20 minutes and there was the thunder and lighting again for another 4 hours.

I didn't realize how much of a rainforest baby I really am. Clearly my natural habitat is a temperate rainforest, in the northern hemisphere. All day I pranced around singing "Singing in the Rain", and "Horse with no Name" while everyone else was upset because we have been having sunny days here for a week or so. I had to explain my happiness to the Chinese teachers in my office. They could not understand how I could be happy in the rain. I had to explain that TRUE Lower Mainlanders don't even need umbrellas! Only the tourists in Van City have umbrellas! Anyways that annoying little stress ball that has been following me around for a few weeks melted faster than the Wicked Witch of the West!

I LOVE THE RAIN!

So every blog post is better with a picture! This one is from today. Paul looking very suave, thanks mostly to one
 Mr. Ian Russel!

Props Ian!

Foodies

At home we pride ourselves in trying to make good food using quality ingredients to make good food, but here the story is more about filling our bellies without sickness. Of all the things in China that we have so far been able to adjust to, the food is still something that shocks us everyday. Obviously Paul is doing better than Kristen in this regard. We are constantly finding new things that we never thought could or would be eaten, some is great and some is gross!

These are preserved Sea Cucumbers, mostly eaten we gather to increase the chance of a boy. They are very expensive and in special cases which clerks open for you, like jewellery. Although they will not open them for us!

These are 100 Day Eggs. We call them 100 year eggs. Basically they take fresh eggs and bury them in the ground for 100 days then dig them up and sell them for way more money.

They are sold by the dozen and smell like death warmed over.

Some sort of Tree Tea. Willow maybe?

The top on is cucumber or zucchini tea, the bottom one is a mushroom tea.

These are pastries at our favorite little bakery by the school. Pigs so fat they couldn't even walk.



We tired this one, a hard chocolate shell over a light little cake with TONS of icing to hold it together. Cam, Paul and Kris shared ONE.



This is  a plastic cake. Like all places with food on display it is plastic to last forever and show everyone what the food will look like. We had to take a picture tho for Su-Yin. Happy Birthday Yinny!

These are also plastic, but if you ordered one it would look EXACTLY like this!

This bag contains one loaf of whole wheat bread and reads:
"This product is a kind of the high-quality good food suitable for everyone either young or to give to your relatives or friends"
AWESOME!!!!