Last Blog

                I am happy to say that this will be my last China blog.  I am so excited to come home and see everything.  I think I have a self inflicted stomach ache because my stomach is in knots I’m so excited. 

                We had our last weekend in Wuhan and ended with a bang.  Our night started early at our last banquet style Chinese dinner.  Usually there is too much food, but this time was excessive.  You could have fed two other tables with the amount of food that was left at our table.  It was a good meal though, no frogs or turtles this time.  Anyways, the dinner was really good and we all had a good time.  The last week we all voted on fun awards about the other staff, like best dressed, most sleep deprived, most motivated, etc.  Well…I won one of the awards by a landslide with another girl in the office: “Best Relationship with Skype.”  Hehe, it was pretty funny.  I knew it was coming.  So that was good.  After that we all got together and Bryn and Chris’s for one last rooftop party.  By the end of the night everyone was a little pooped to go out since we started the night so early. 

                The next day was a little rough, but we all managed to get together again in the afternoon at Gail’s house.  It was really nice to have a BBQ.  This is one of the things that I’m so looking forward to when I get home.  We all brought our own meat to grill and a side dish or dessert.  I don’t think that I’ve eaten that much in a long time.  I was so ‘uncomfortable’ as my students would say.  We didn’t stay too late as we were all exhausted from the night before.  

                Yesterday I ran some errands around Wuhan.  I needed to pick up some stuff for my camera at computer city and bought another battery for my computer for the long flight home.  Next I was off to Tailor street to get some fabric for Brad and his photobooth…and then I ended my day with a manicure and pedicure J 

                When I got home I just packed and packed.  All I have left out are my clothes for the next couple days and that’s it.  Not that our apartment was jam packed before, but it looks even emptier now.  Bah!  I am so excited to come home.  I can’t wait to see and visit with everyone. 

See you all on the other side of the Pacific J

-Taryn

Shanghai and School’s Out!!!

                The Shanghai weekend was quite the success.  However, It was not very beneficial for my sleep.  As anyone who knows me well I do not bode well with sleeping in vehicles…never mind a train!  We were on a sleeper train with hard beds to Shanghai…it was less than pleasant.  We got there and started the girls weekend.  We got to the hostel and dropped off our bags and then went to the spa.  It was nice to all go out for a fun little outing like that.  After that we were off to Tao Bao to do some shopping.  I was on the hunt for jerseys, a dress for tia, and some gifts for home…all were successful, along with a few purchases for myself ;)  Somehow Anneli and I (the girl who’s stagette we were going for) are always shopping/bargaining buddies…we don’t know if this is a good or bad thing, as we always end up bringing out the most bags :S 

                After shopping we got into our coloured outfits and trucker hats.  We went out for a nice Thai dinner where Sanya had some games for us to begin with.  Anneli had on a veil and white outfit, so we did cause quite the attention…and the fact that we were a group of 18 female foreigners always attracts attention as well.  After dinner we went to a sports bar where many of us felt extremely old.  I know, I’m young, but the people in this bar were all around 17-18…it was a little off putting.  So, after Anneli completed some of her tasks on her list we went to the club we went to the last time we were in Shanghai.  This was a much better scene…loud music, dancing, free drinks, what else could you ask for?  The night ended with everyone in tack.

           

     The next day we headed to Element Fresh, which is a western food restaurant.  I know we’re coming home soon, but everyone always enjoys the comforts of home.  After breakfast we were back to shop for pearls and silk gifts.  I was quite successful with that as well.  I got a bunch of pearls to give as gifts, silk scarves and some silk ties…Riley asked for colourful ones…I don’t think he realized what he was getting into!  Once we were all shopped out I decided I needed to do something touristy in Shanghai, so we went to the bund and walked for a bit.  After Annali took me to get authentic Shanghai soup dumplings.  Once we were done we met up with the other girls on the later flight at the hostel and were on our way to the airport.  It was weird that this would be my last flight into Wuhan.  Driving home from the airport it really hit me that I was coming home soon.  Shanghai was really our last big thing to look forward to before going home.  The other weird thing is the fact that I’m starting to make plans with people back home!  I can’t believe I’m almost there. 

             

   It was our day of teaching on Tuesday.  My English class that I’ve had all year long were super cute.  At the end of class I thanked them and made a little speech and they all clapped when I was done and then had this big photo shoot with all of them and their cell phones.  I felt like a celebrity.  This continued to happen in all the rest of my classes of the day.  I took a class picture and they all took pictures with their cell phones with me.  It was a good and sad feeling all at the same time.  It was nice to complete my first year of teaching, but I’m sad to say goodbye to my students.  They are the ones that have really made this experience for me. 

                We’ve started exams and I’ve supervised 3 and only have to do one more…I was the first teacher to hand in all my marks…so I’m pretty on top of things.  I did some work for my course today and then helped the grade 11 English teachers mark their exams.  I was the little scantron machine for them and marked all of their multiple choice questions so they could focus on the hard part, marking the writing.  Now, I am sitting here writing my blog!  I think I’ll probably write one more on my very last day of work here, as I know I’ll have no work to do.  My desk is all cleaned out already….so yeah, fun times for me J

                We’ve got a bunch of wrap up stuff planned with the staff this weekend, so that will be nice to have a little last hurrah with everyone. 

                Ok, I should stop procrastinating from my school work now!  Until next time!

                -Taryn

Puppies, Playoffs and Papers :S

                Only two more weekends left in China.  It’s getting down to counting the days instead of weeks now and everyone is excited to come home.  I’ve almost eaten everything out of the cupboards and prepared some frozen meals so that I don’t have to cook the last few days that I am here.  I have some cans of tuna on reserve as long.  I’m starting to get organized which is good.  It’s our last full week of teaching.  Next week we have classes on Mon and Tues and then Wednesday we start exams.  This is when we have to finish all of our report cards and the teachers that are coming back next year can make some plans for the next school year.  I predict that I’m going to be watching a lot of movies on my laptop :S  I’ve already entered my comments and work habits on the report card system. 

                Friday ended with our usual street hockey game, where I managed to score a goal, which is always satisfying.  It was a little drizzly, but it was alright.  The humidity at the moment is just gross.  I woke up the other morning to go on my run and it said current temp 28, feels like 39.  It’s just aweful.  You don’t know if you’re sweaty or just wet…or both! 

                The next morning Ewan had us over to watch Game 5.  It was nice to get together with a bunch of Canadians and watch a hockey game, kind of felt like you were at home and not in China.  The only issues was sometimes the streaming was a little slow.  It was a good game, a little stressful though.  The only problem now is that games play in the morning here and during the week the whole teaching thing gets in the way of hockey watching!  Hehe, I think for PE we’re going to set it up on a projector…it’s sports…it’s Canadian…we’re justified to show it!

                One of the guys here found a puppy on Minzu (the road the school is on) this week so he’s been bringing it to school and to some social events.  It is too cute!  It was nice to play with an animal for a bit. 

                I’ve been working on my paper for what seems like forever now.  I forgot how fun it was to write papers.  I actually did kind of forget though.  I tried to just start writing it….big mistake.  I was able to put myself back into the student mindset, find all my sources, pick the quotes and support that I needed, then go from there. 

A couple days later…..

                My paper is now done, I just have to do a bunch of formatting stuff and include a bunch of pictures.  My goal is to email it off tonight.  I’m halfway through this course now, which is nice.  I’m going to try and do my best to do the most I can before I get back home, as school is going to be the last thing that I want to do.  If I can get all the readings done before I leave, and just have the final paper left that would be the most ideal situation. 

                School is starting to get a little crazy.  All the students that have failed are wondering what they can do in the next week to improve their grade?!  It’s pretty funny.  I tell them that they need to make a time machine, go back in time and try harder.  All the students that are failing in my class should not be failing, they simply don’t put the effort into class that they should be doing. 

                I’m starting to slowly pack up my stuff which is surreal to me.  It seems as though I was just at home stressing how I was going to pack for a year.  This is easy now.  My parents took home all my big stuff, so it’s just pack up what I have, and then I’m good to go.  My Christmas legs are starting to get really bad now though.  I’ve been keeping busy though, and that’s that I need to do.  I have my marathon that I’ve started training for and my class.  I can’t wait to do runs at home though.  This morning in order to get 10km in I had to run around the outside of the track 22 times :S  Not really the most exciting thing.  I’m dreaming of Rocky Point, Mundy Park and even Como Lake, which used to seem boring to me. 

                This weekend we are headed on our last weekend trip.  There are 18 of us girls headed to Shanghai for a bachelorette party.  I’ll get my last China shopping fix in which I’m pretty excited about.  After that my next plane ride will be my flights back to Canada J  It’s nice that we don’t have a long layover.  I believe that my flight out of Wuhan is at 8:50 in the morning and I get back to Canada at 9:30am the same time I left, so in total just over 15hrs to get home. 

                Anyways, that is all for now, I will give an update after Shanghai…and probably one more while I’m bored during exams period since I won’t have anything to do besides pack up my desk. 

Can’t wait to see everyone!

-Taryn

Homework :s

I am putting off this paper I am writing.  It is kind of painful.  I have no written a paper in awhile and I forgot how much fun it is...!  It's funny how it's equally as bad on the other side.  I always tell my students when they whine and complain about writing a paper that they only have to write one...and I get to mark 25, nice trade off. 

Anyways, thank goodness I have a lot of free time in the afternoons or else this course would not be fun.  I'm two weeks ahead in my assignments but I really want to get this paper done before we go to Shanghai as it is due on the Monday after we come back.  Twelve pages just seems a lot more daunting than it used to.  My goal is to try and have most of the course done before I get home.  I've already entered my comments and behaviour marks for my report cards and won't have any marking to do that last week of school so I'll have all day to do my work.  I should be able to get all the readings done, and mabye have to do my final paper when I get back to Canada.  Who knew you could learn so much about Preschool?!  Oh my goodness, I know that doing this Diploma will only be beneficial to me in the long run, it's just funny how I keep finding myself back in school, you can never really be done, can you.  I'm sure I'll want to do my masters in a couple years as well, just a constant cycle that seems never ending. 

Anyways, I think that is enough distracting myself for now! 

Xiamen Pick-Me-Up

                So, I’m waiting in the airport for my flight back to Wuhan (yay, lol) and I’m so glad that I decided to take this weekend to just chill out and relax.  I didn’t do a smidgen of work or homework (I’ve started my Early Childhood Education Diploma, for those of you who didn’t know…so yes, I am officially a student again).  I’m two weeks ahead in my course, which is kind of my goal.  The course is 13 weeks and I want to finish it by the time I get home, or very soon after.  Anyways, back to my weekend of leisure.  I arrived Friday night in Xiamen to the gorgeous Seaview Resort.  It was even nicer than the resort that we stayed at in Sanya in October.  It was actually very comparable to the Fairmont,  which was nice.  I think that I’ve been having a lot of bad ‘China moments’ lately, it was nice to have a good experience.  All I did that night was lay in bed and watch English TV and go on the internet…all luxuries when you are living in China J

                The next day I had my wonderful breakfast which filled me up until dinner time.  I spent the day lounging poolside and just soaking up the sun…literally, I got quite the tan in two days.  I’m sure that my students are not going to be impressed with me, but whatever, hehe.  After the pool I had a LONG shower under my luxury rain shower which I could have stayed under all day.  I ventured out on the grounds and then across the street to the beach.  The beach was so picturesque, and you could tell that this was a big destination place for Chinese people.  The beach was lined with brides and grooms taking their wedding photos.  It was a little ridiculous how many there were.  It was nice just to walk along the endless beach and enjoy the sun, wind and water.  After my stroll I went for an awesome seafood dinner at the restaurant in the hotel.  Following dinner I treated myself to the spa and then called it a night.

                Today I took advantage of having a good internet connection.  I woke up earlier, had breakfast and then watched the Canucks game!  It was so nice to enjoy the whole game, and what a game to watch.  Brad and Dad were at the game too, which means I have a playoff towel waiting for me when I get home!  Can’t wait.  After that I took more advantage of my lovely internet and talked to riley for awhile and can’t believe that I’m discussing airport pick-up.  I’m so excited to come home, I think that this experience that I’ve had here is really going to make me appreciate what I have at home, and I’m going to look back at this year as a blessing, even though it doesn’t seem like it at times.  This weekend made me realize that I’ve got to go to so many places that I’ve never even heard of, nevermind thought of going to, so it’s quite neat to think where I was a year ago and where I am now. 

                I spent the remainder of the day at the pool and beach again.  Had to soak it all in before it’s back to work tomorrow.  Two more weeks and two teaching days.  My last unit in PE is Volleyball outside…which is going to be torturous if the weather is hot, but at least it’s a sport I love and am knowledgeable about…unlike baseball, hehe.  We’re starting to prep the grade 10’s for their English provincial, and then my drama kids will do a movement unit and end off with their music videos, which are always entertaining.  We just finished off their commercials, and some were so funny.  I’m so glad I took videos of them. 

                Whelp, only a few more blogs until I’m back to the homeland and you can all just talk to me in person about my adventures!  Can’t wait!

                Miss you all,

-Taryn

June tomorrow

I wrote this yesterday....but lovely China internet would not let me connect to my blog :S       

         I am so happy to say that it’s June tomorrow.  I’m so happy that I’m going home in about 4 weeks.  Yes, school is fun, but I think that everyone is just at that point in the year where they are kind of done with teaching and the enthusiasm has really dropped. 

                I officially won my hockey pool at work, with thanks to Mike Wilson J  I won 600 RMB, picking 100% of the teams in all the playoff rounds….just one more to predict right.  That is also making me so sad at the moment.  This is the time of year that revolves around playoffs and swim club…and right now I can’t really be involved in either.  It’s really hard to watch the games here because they play in the morning our time during the week, which means I’m working.   It’s just not as exciting to see the score on highlights or on updates on the internet. 

                After this week there are only two teaching weeks left, and then it’s exam time.  I am getting way too giddy to come home at this point though, I need to settle down and focus on what I have left here, but it’s so hard to do so.  I keep seeing pictures of little Tia and of my little swim club kids and it makes me miss home so much! 

                This weekend it was one of the secretaries birthdays so we all had a surprise party for her.  We all went to KTV and she had no idea that we were all there, so that was really fun.  The night ended not so great, but I’m not going to get into that.  We may need to find a new spot to hang out for the next few weekends :S  but I guess that’s alright, there really aren’t that many weekends left.  I have decided to go on a trip this weekend to Xiamen.  It’s a tropical place and I’m just going to chill out at this resort and hang out by the pool and what not.  It’ll be nice to have a little vacation before I head back to Canada to work…hehe.   I know, everyone thinks I’m crazy, but I’m actually excited to get back to the pools.  I never thought I would miss it this much.  Hopefully the summer gets better at home though, I’ve heard that we’ve been having cool weather, as opposed to the average of 35-38 that I’ve been having here :S

                On Saturday I tried to go see the new Pirates movies with a few people…we saw a movie…just wasn’t the right one, haha.  We had pre-bought tickets (that’s what you do here, you pick your seats when you buy tickets, it’s actually kind of a nice system if you have the time to go before hand).  Anyways, we pre bought tickets, said “Pirates” and when we get into the theatre there is a long preview for a movie….hmmm, no, wait, we’re not seeing Pirates, we’re seeing Kungfu Panda 2.  It was too funny.  Only in China would you end up in a different movie than you thought.  It was kind of fitting to see Kungfu Panda though, as it is based in China and there were some Chinese jokes.  Oh well J

                Anyways, I will have to update after my tropical weekend away! 

Miss ya’ll

-Taryn

Auntie Taryn, Vacation and Home Stretch!

                First off, I am sooooo excited that my brother had his little baby Tia.  She was born the Thursday before I left for vacation so it made it even more exciting for me.  I got sent a picture right away and she is super cute and very Asian looking J.  It was a little sad that my parents were in china when this happened but we all did get a chance to Skype with her in Xi’an in our hotel room.  It was nice to share this experience of seeing her ‘live’ with my parents.  This does make me want to come home so bad though so that I can hold her. 

                Anyways, the vacation was a whirlwind and is still kind of continuing.  Mom and Dad arrived in Wuhan last night, so I will still have a different dynamic in my life for the new few days.  It’s kind of strange having them here and they finally get to see all of the things that I have been referring to for the past 8 months. 

                Let’s start with our first destination and I’ll go day by day of the many activities that we were able to do!  The first day we were out of the hotel by 8am.  Our first stop was the zoo to see the Pandas.  Something which I still hadn’t done in China so I was pretty excited to see them.  They were soooo cute!  They ate their bamboo and just munched away almost like a human would.  We didn’t spend long there, but I’m so happy that we got to go.  After that we were off to the Summer Palace.  Let me just say that even though I have been living in China for 8 months I had never seen so many Chinese people in one place.  It was their Labour day holiday so it was absolutely packed.  We walked along this long corridor which was at least 1km at shuffle pace.  It was quite the site as it’s a very big tourist attraction so you could see orange and blue flags waving everywhere and groups of people wearing matching hats.  After the summer palace we were off to the Forbidden city.  It was the second time that I have been there now, but  it was a much warmer day than the last time that I was there.  We also went into this clock museum on sight which was spectacular.  I know that sounds so lame and weird, but some of the clocks were so intricate, they must have taken so long to craft.  The day ended with a lovely dinner and a much needed nights sleep as we were about to have a very long day ahead of us.

                The next day we left the hotel at 6:30am to beat the crowds at the Great Wall.  Well, at least that’s what we thought we were doing.  It was still the holiday and the crowds were insane.  The trick was getting higher and higher up the wall though.  There were several towers that you could get to and it seemed that most people kind of stopped after the first or second tower.  We all made it to the very top of the gate that we were at which was really neat.  It wasn’t quite the scene that dad and I were hoping for, but it was still pretty spectacular.  After that we went to a jade factory, which was alright, more of a selling opportunity for the tour I’m sure.  After we had lunch we headed to the Ming Tombs.  This was a very peaceful spot and a lot less crowded as our tour guide informed us that the Chinese believe that it’s bad luck to visit sights such as this.  From there we carried onto the Olympic sight.  This was a highlight for me, being able to see the water cube and the torch.  We’re such an Olympic family it was awesome to see how this sight really was able to bring all of the athletes together as most of the facilities were all in one location unlike the past Olympics that we had in Vancouver.   Phewf, this was a long Day!  We headed to dinner where we were ‘on our own’ and our tour guide suggested a restaurant for us.  I was quite proud of my Mandarin skills as I was able to order for our whole table and somewhat communicate with the staff in the restaurant, all of the people on our tour were quite impressed and I ordered well for the table J.  The evening ended with a…lovely..cough…opera.  I could have done without it, but I guess if you had never experienced a Chinese opera before it is a sight to see. 

                Our last day in Beijing was still pretty jam packed.  We weren’t up as early, but we still had a lot to do.  We started our day with the Temple of Heaven which is one of the prettiest temples I’ve seen in Asia so far.  After that we went to the city museum where there were several large scale 3D maps of the city.  We also watched a movie about the history of Beijing.  Across the street from the museum was Tiananmen Square where we snapped some more pictures.  After lunch we took a penny cab into the country and got to sit and talk to some locals in the old part of Beijing.  It was really neat to be invited into their home and ask them anything about their life growing up in China.   Following the country side we visited a silk factory which was pretty neat and got to see how they made silk threads and silk blankets.  The day ended with shopping at the knock off marked (where I did very well, hehe) and a traditional Peking duck dinner.  Overall our Beijing stint was jam packed and quite exhausting at the time, but looking back I’m glad that we were able to see so many things. 

                The next day we were off to Xi’an.  It’s quite funny how fast paced our trip was because as soon as we got off the plane our bus took us to our first destinations while our bags headed to the hotel.  We visited the Big Geese? Pagoda….I honestly can’t remember, something like that.  After we had lunch we headed to the small geese one where they had a nice garden and a museum.  We had more of a leisurely afternoon which was nice after the fast paced trip that we had in Beijing.   That night we had some free time for dinner.  I was dying to have some western food, so I took note of a subway by our hotel which was conveniently located by a street market, so that is where we spent the night. 

                The next day we were off to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.  This is why people come to Xi’an.  You start the day off by visiting a factory where they make replicas of the warriors and are explained the process in which they are made.  Following that we were on to the site of the Warriors.  It was tourist central as per usual, but it is quite the site.  The large pit is filled with 8000 Warriors which covers the space of 2 soccer fields.  It’s amazing the amount of time and effort it took to build the site.  We spent the afternoon here and had lunch here.  We were able to have a rest in the evening before we went to another cultural show and a jaozi dinner.  The dinner was cute as all the dumplings were shaped like what they were made out of.  The show was also much better than the Beijing Opera, more dancing and instruments. 

                My last destination with the parents was Guilin.  This has been one of my favourite placed in China so far.  It was just so picturesque, which is what it is known for.  Our first day arriving there was not the nicest weather, but gosh it was humid.  We hiked up a little mountain, and visited some caves in the afternoon.  The caves were amazing.  The next day we took a 4hr boat cruise to Yanshou where we did some shopping in the market and then took a trip through the countryside.  It was such a nice day and we ended it off with dinner.  After dinner we got dropped off on our own with another family that was on our tour to Elephant Trunk Hill.  That was another great sight.  That night we just walked back to our hotel and packed up for the next day.  I came back to Wuhan, whereas my parents and the 4 other s that were left on the tour were off to Shanghai. 

                It was weird to come ‘home’ again to Wuhan.  I remember thinking back when I left how far away the May break seemed and now it is all over.  We’re on the homestretch and there is just over 5 teaching weeks left and then exams.  Less than two months until I come home and I couldn’t be more excited.  I’ve kind of been feeling more homesick than normal and can’t wait to see my friends and get back to the pool in the summer.  Anyways, that was a long blog and I will try to post pictures soon!  Missing Everyone J

-Taryn