China Christmas

My first Christmas away from home was very interesting.  Not like anything that’s I’ve experienced before.  Thursday was a shortened day at school.  In the afternoon the students put on a Christmas concert.  The teachers opened the concert singing ‘Must be Santa.’  We all danced around wearing Santa hats.  It was pretty funny.  It was a really neat experience to see a lot of my students doing some pretty amazing things.  One of them played this traditional Chinese instrument and she was amazing.  Again, just nice to see the students out of the classroom to see their other interests.  

That night we had to finish our Christmas shopping.  Well, I had to buy for Robyn and she had to buy for me.  So we split off into partners, I shopped around with Mike and Robyn shopped around with Tara.  We set a limit of 200 quai on each other, which in China is quite a bit of money.  I was able to buy her a lot of stuff including some hilarious Chinese ear muffs with bunnies on them, and a huge foot warmer for under her desk.  After that Tara showed us to this Thai restaurant that overlooked the city circle.  Following dinner we went back to our apartment and got Christmasy.  Mike came over, we put on some Christmas music and proceeded to wrap our gifts.  It was a fun night.

The next day we were pretty lazy getting ready.  Did some skyping in the morning and then we were off to Hankou in the afternoon.  It was FREEZING though.  Snow was blowing sideways and it just chilled you to the core.  There were six of us girls planning on going.  In the end it only ended up being 3 of us.  The other girls couldn’t find a cab to take them all the way to Hankou and after 45min they gave up, as they were icicles.  We wanted to take this 1 quai ferry to Hankou, which probably ended up taking us longer to wait for the ferry, but it was an experience.  We missed a ferry by a couple minutes so we were right up front waiting for the next one.  It was freezing cold, that’s besides the point, but once the gate opened to let us in everyone started screaming and pushing.  So Robyn and Laura started screaming as well as I ran ahead to get seats, which is what everyone wanted to do.  They ferry wasn’t more than five minutes, so it was funny that people were so concerned about getting seats.  Once we got to where we wanted to go we went to a nice Thai restaurant, haha, yes, again, different one though.  The owners sister was there helping and she spoke English, so she kind of watched over us the whole time, it was pretty cute.  Once dinner was over, we headed back to Lindsay’s house where everyone was.  It was very festive, she had a nice big tree and lights everywhere.  We had some Christmas drinks, and had a big countdown at midnight (I know, it wasn’t new years….but whatever) and then we sang Christmas carols together.  It was really fun.  I know it wasn’t the traditional Christmas that I am used to, but it was so nice to be surrounded by friends on Christmas eve. 

                The next morning we woke up and did some skyping.  Then the boys came over and we opened presents that we got for each other.  Once that was all done and the tornado had come through the living room I got started on breakfast.  We had a nice, civilized Christmas breakfast with the four of us around the table.  I couldn’t have asked for more.  Had a great morning with my ‘China Family.’  By the time we were all done trying to talk to everyone back home we had to start cooking for Gail’s house.  She was having all the staff over for a big Christmas dinner and a present exchange.  Dinner was amazing.  It was potluck and everyone did really well.  After dinner we continued with some drinks and the yanky swap Christmas exchange began.  There were so many of us fitting into her living room, which I think made it even more fun.  Everyone was pretty into it and there were some great steals going on around the room.  We left pretty early that night and came home to skype again.  Haha, it was just one of those weekend when you really felt you needed to talk to people back home.  It’s great that we are able to do that instead of having insane phone bills trying to talk to people back home.  It was really cute though.  I still got to be part of our family tradition at home reading Twas the Night before Christmas.  I read it over skype to my family all sitting on the couch.  It was pretty cute. 

                Sunday was a very lazy day for us, and again talked to people at home, as it was Christmas for them.  Once we were done we made a nice dinner, put on pretty woman and sat in front of the TV.  A well deserved long weekend.  It was nice to have a good group of people around to enjoy the holidays.  Definitely one that I will always remember, that’s forsure. 

                This weekend coming up will be another eventful one I am sure.  We are heading to Hong Kong Thursday night.  There is a huge group of us going there to celebrate new years.  It should be pretty fun.  Mike got us tickets to this fancy night club there, so this way we know where we are going and we won’t have to stand in line anywhere. 

Anyways, I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas back home!

-Taryn

Snow,Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Baking

The last week flew by again after the whole power fiasco.  It ended up being an ok week.  Wednesday we experienced our first Wuhan snow which was pretty exciting for all of us.  The students asked me if it felt more like home for me, haha.  I said yes, a little.  It got so cold here though all of a sudden.  We were in 18 degree weather one week and then -5 the next.  Not quite like home in that sense.  I told the students that back home it gets gradually colder, instead of all of a sudden being colder. 

                We had a very good Christmasy weekend.  On Friday night the government put on a show for all of the foreign teachers that work in Wuhan.  We had a bus pick us up from the school and take us to the venue.  Traffic is so awful here though that it took over an hour and a half to get there.  It was ridiculous.  The concert was worth it though.  They had some pianists, violin, dancers, Peking opera, Acrobatics and these crazy hat throwing people.  We were all really impressed by the show.  It was also nice to kind of dress up and have a civilized evening out.  After that I was pooped as I didn’t really have time to eat dinner before the show and we had quite a busy week. 

             

   The next day I was up and ready to do some marking.  I was a little behind due to the power outage on Monday, as I had already sort of pre-designated this evening in my  mind for marking.  I did my best until the sun set, and marking by candle light and flashlight can only be funny for so long.  Anyways I was able to get quite a bit done, go on a run, cook some dinner and then head off to Laura and Emily’s for our own ugly Christmas sweater party.  It was a really fun night,  Everyone enjoyed the Bailey’s that we made and everyone was able to find some sweet sweaters.  Robyn and I went all out, of course, how could I not?!  So we had matching sweaters which we added some Christmas bling to, funny glasses, and I made some bows to put in our hair.  It was a good night and we ended up just staying there the whole night until 3am.  Not really what we expected, but it was a nice change from going out to the bar. 

                The next day the girls had to pick up their new year’s dresses from tailor street.  They are amazing.  I think after seeing those I’ll get some fitted dresses done before I leave.  Spending New Years in Hong Kong is going to be an amazing experience and I can’t wait.  I can’t believe it’s only next weekend.  After that it was off to Gail’s for some Christmas baking J  I was so excited for this.  I was able to make my favourite cinnamon cookies.  We did a little swap as well so we were able to get all the goodies that everyone had made.  There were 7 of us girls there, so it was a fun little afternoon of baking.  I was so exhausted though that I came home and just crashed.  A very busy weekend, just as this weekend will be.  Thank goodness we worked that Saturday earlier in the year so that we were able to have this Friday off.  Gail is having the staff over at her house for Christmas (it’s massive) so it will be nice to be around everyone for the holidays.  I believe on Christmas eve a bunch of us are going to head into Hankou and hop on a ferry and have a little adventure.  A very different Christmas for sure, but I know that it will be one that I always remember, no doubt about that. 

Merry Chirstmas!

-Taryn

Wine, Bailey's and No Power

                This was yet another great Wuhan weekend.  Friday came very quickly again and we had a fancy event to attend, hehe.  The wine tasting was awesome.  Mitch is so great about putting on events like this.  He reminds me of Brad and the Silly Hat Party’s.  He takes it all very seriously and makes sure that everyone is having a good time.  He was very organized with worksheets for us beginners who didn’t really know what was going on.  He had a very descriptive list of the wines and then you had to guess which was which and then rate them from your least to most favourite.  There was even a good spread of cheese and chocolate as well.  Good times.  After that we went to Claires for a bit, and then everyone wanted to go out, but a few of us tried to sneak out just to hang out…well when we got there Laura discovered that she left her purse at Claire’s with her keys in them…haha, yes, so we had to go meet up with everyone so that laura could get into her house at the end of the night.

                The next day was a very busy day on the bus.  Instead of making our two usual stops we took three stops: Computer city, Tailor Street and Metro.  I got a new mouse at computer street…a cute pink one J and then the mall by there has the only grainy bread that I’ve found in china that doesn’t have a sweet taste, so I stocked up on that as well.  After that we went to Tailor Street.  The girls we’re going to Hong Kong with needed dresses for new years, so they got those all measured and ready to go.  I’m getting my Aritzia blazer copied in a light grey colour with a super cool striped lining, so I’m pretty pumped about that.  After that it was off to Metro to do a quick grocery shop. 

           

     Later that night we met up with Laura and Tara in Vanke.  Ann and Matt were having a housewarming, since they just moved into Vanke and had a pizza making event to celebrate their new oven as well.  I was extremely jealous!  I want to bake so bad right now!  It’s killing me!  But it was fun, I got to make my own pizza.  After that we went to Tara’s to prep for next weekend.  We made up some home made Baileys for an Ugly Christmas Party they are hosting.  Once I saw how she made it…and we only had one blender…and a huge mess was being made, I took over.  Haha, as per usual when it comes to anything with cooking involved.  They didn’t seem to mind, as there was only one blender.  It was a fun night.  At one point Laura just looked at my face while I was putting one of the batches together and goes, “you really love this, don’t you?”  and I simply replied, “yes, just ask Robyn.”  Haha, but really, it was a lot of fun for me, and the others enjoyed being the testers of each batch that I made up.  Good Girls night.

                Sunday was a really lazy day.  I actually slept in.  I went to go on my run but it was pouring rain out, so I kept putting it off.  Eventually I went out around 4:30, by the time I came in just after 5:30 it was dark out.  It was really rainy too.  I think that’s the first rain we’ve had in at least 3 weeks or so.  Apparently the weather is supposed to drastically change this week.  Last week it was up to 18, next week it’s supposed to get down to -5, BRRR!!!  That is going to make for some unpleasant runs in the morning, I’ll tell ya. 

                So, this is a two day blog since I could not post my one from yesterday due to lack of internet connection.  So today I wake up for school when my alarm goes off, I go to turn on my nightlight…doesn’t work, try again, still doesn’t work.  Oh fun, the power is out!  Thank goodness I bought a flashlight the other day and remembered where I put it (that’s the key) and checked it out.  I look across at the school and all of the power is out at the school and the cafeteria as well.  So, we call the principal and he says he’ll be down in a bit.  Well everything looks like normal except for the fact that there are no lights on.  The funnier thing was the cafeteria.  They needed to cook breakfast for the students so from our apartment you could see the candle light flickering and the flashlights. 

                We walk up to the school, greeted by Darrell, we chat for a bit, and then I ask him what’s up, and he simply replies, “Welcome to China” with a big smile on his face.  Haha, so the headmaster didn’t cancel school and we are to spend the day teaching in the dark with no heat.  Oh what fun it is to work in the dark.  By the end of the day my students were so sleepy…so was I, so I couldn’t blame them.  Luckily we had the day planned out and everything photocopied so it didn’t really ruin the teaching day, besides the fact that the students couldn’t see. 

                All of the people living in Vanke had power so they offered hot showers to us, so we took them up on their offer.  So Robyn and I took a lil’ walk over there….since we didn’t really have anything to do at home other than sit in the dark :S.  Laura and Emily we great hosts and let us get all clean.  The funny thing though is once we were all showered Emily gets a text from someone on campus saying the power was back on….always happens that way.  Oh well, we had a good little night and got off campus.  Anyways just another days to remind myself that I am not in Canada anymore!

Later for now J

-Taryn

Deck the Halls

On Sunday we finally decorated our house.  It didn’t take long, but it was pretty fun.  We bought some fake snow to spray on the window along with some window stickers.  I bought a little tree at the store and strung some lights up on it.  Not anything like at home, but it does the trick for sure.  I was also able to find a snowman wreath, which resembles something that I would have at my house, along with a few snowmen to make my own makeshift snowman village.  In Beijing Robyn and I also bought little stockings to hang up.  I bought one with a snowman on it and she has one with a little Santa on it.  When I get home from school tonight I will post some pictures up to show a little glimpse of our Winter wonderland in our apartment.  Speaking of which, it’s still not very winter wonderlandy over here in Wuhan.  It gets very cold in the morning and in the evening, but in the day the temperature is still up around 15-18.  Not quite the winter that everyone is having back at home, I know.  I miss the snow though.  Even though it is a pain in the but getting around it’s still always pretty to look at for a few days before you get sick of it. 

                A group of us have booked our flights to Hong Kong for New Years Eve.  We have a three day weekend so we are taking advantage of it while we can.  I really want to check out Hong Kong Disney, but we’ll have to see where it is in reference to where we are staying.  If not I will have to make a special trip just to go back there J.  For Christmas one of the staff here have a house and she is going to have us all over for dinner.  She has two ovens so I believe that she is going to cook a turkey for everyone and then we are in charge of bringing the rest.  It won’t be like the Christmas I am used to, but at least we’ll all be together with our little Wuhan family.  I think that’s the thing that I am going to miss the most.  Making all of the Appy’s for Christmas Eve dinner all day, then lounging out by the tree and watching all of the moving parts, hehe.  Not being at Popos the next day is going to be different as well, and lastly my traditional Boxing Day shopping with mom will all have to wait till next year, or we could do a Christmas in July or something like that, haha. 

           

     Our long break is coming up soon and all of the staff are getting excited about it and planning where they’re going.  We go on break January 15^th which is about a month away.  A month flies by here.  Especially when we are busy.  That last week before the break will be filled with Finals and marking those finals.  So our break will be well deserved.  I think I have my holiday figured out for the most part.  I am spending the first week in Hawaii with Robyn and meeting up with Riley.  After that week I’ll be headed back over to Asia to Bangkok to meet up with Caitlin and we’ll travel around that area until I have to be back in Wuhan to finish up the year.  I’m already counting down the days till the trip (not that I hate my job, but I’m just super excited to see other people than Maple Leafers).  It will be nice to talk to people who are not teachers.  It seems that a lot of the conversations that we have always come back to teaching, which is great, but it will be nice to be around different people. 

                Tonight Mitch and Annali are hosting a wine tasting, so that should be fun.  The bus is going to Computer city, Taylor Street and metro on Saturday, so I think Robyn and I will be going on the bus.  Robyn wants to get a dress made to wear for new years.  Last night we were looking up different things that she could wear.  I think that’s one of my favourite things about living here.  If you want something, you can just get it made for pretty cheap.  I also love the fact that you can make something that you know no one else will have, like my pink peacoat! 

That’s all for now, I'll give an update after the weekend as per usual. 

Happy Friday!

-Taryn

December?!

Well first off can I say that I am still in shock that it’s already December?!  On Wednesday we were all kind of in shock that the year is almost over.  The time has gone so fast.  We keep busy and I think that’s why the time goes by so fast.  This last week as school was really good.  We’ve cut down on the marking which has made everyone in the English office slightly more sane.  There was a while there where we were all staying at the school really late just to get some of our marking done.  It was getting a little ridiculous. 

                This week in Mandarin class we learned a lot.  We’re learning a lot in a short amount of time so we’re doing our best to keep up with what we are learning.  It was pretty neat on Tuesday though as we were able to write a paragraph about ourselves and read it to the class.  I was pretty proud of it J  I even read it to my classes.  They were pretty impressed.  My drama students were the most impressed though, as I’m still getting to know them more than my other students.  Speaking of my drama class.  This week we’ve been continuing our unit on Emotions, so their project at the end is to create a commercial on their own.  So on Thursday I did a lesson on commercials and showed them all of the different types of commercials.  I started off with infomercials and showed them ‘Oxyclean.’  Well, they were absolutely amazed by it.  They also loved how the price kept slashing at the end of the commercial.  Next, I showed them the ‘Slap Chop’….and they were even more amazed, lol.  It was too funny to watch their faces while they watched these things.  It was really the highlight of my week at school.  It’s fun to see someone so amazed by something you saw all the time at home.  And Mom, I showed hem the Excel gum commercial with the little doughnut and they thought it was so cute!  I showed them the Knorr salt one, and they thought the same thing.  Haha. 

                This weekend was pretty jam packed.  Friday the principal and his wife had a little Christmas party at their house for all the staff.  We all brought an appy and I was able to make a semi-7 layer dip.  I was pretty impressed.  It was also Darrell’s birthday the day before so we bought a cake for him as well and had a little celebration for him.  It had been awhile since we were all together as a staff, so it was a fun night.  Of course our night ended up as Vox as it always does, but most of us were there so we got some pretty good dancing in.

                The next day Robyn and I were pretty lazy.  Spend they day Skypin’ and lounging.  In the evening we headed to Lu Xiang to grab some dinner and a Movie!  Yes, English movie J  we went to go see the new Harry Potter movie!  I was so excited.  It was really neat.  When you buy your ticked you actually pick your seat as well.  So instead of people coming to the theatre early to save seats, you come to the theatre earlier to buy tickets and reserve your seat, which was nice, because we bought out ticket before dinner and didn’t have to really worry about getting to the theatre early to get good seats.  It was pretty exciting for us to do something that we would do on a regular basis at home.  So from now on I think we’re just going to go to the English movies that are out.  It was way cheaper than back home too.  For the two of us it was 70 kwai, which is about $5 each.  And the seats were way nicer.  All and all, good experience. 

                The next few weekends are booked up.  Which will make December fly by, and soon enough we’ll be on our long vacation!  Robyn and I bought some Christmas decorations and a little tree, so we’re going to decorate today J  I’ll post some pictures of it when we’re all done.  We told the boys that we would have Christmas morning at our place so we’re all going to buy gifts for each other, so it should be a fun little morning.  That is all for now!  I’ll try and write mid-week.  I’ve been really bad for that the past couple week :S

Miss everyone,

-Taryn