World's Biggest Annual Human Migration Underway in China

... and we are going to be part of it.

Check the link below.

http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/worlds-biggest-annual-human-migration-begins-in-china/

We will let you know how our Changchun to Beijing train trip goes tomorrow night. Wish us luck!

Term over, bring on more adventures!

Marks are in, desk is cleaned off and it is time for a bit of relaxation and getting things together for our travels. The remaining students are going home today; the dining hall, coffee shop and store will close this afternoon.  Our local gym has already shut down for the holidays.  Teachers are leaving for near and far, some home to Spain, the Philippines, India, Canada and the USA, others for holidays in to Thailand, Nepal, Singapore and Germany.

(If one of the students had written that last sentence, we'd be crying, "Run on! Incorrect parallel structure! Watch those commas!" We say a lot of silly things.)

We will keep you posted.

EE and DEA

Travel plans!

Hi friends.

E at Nanhu Park in September

Thanks to our dear friend E  and Sophia and Gary of Win Win Travels in Yangshou, our holiday is planned.  The internet, Hostel World, Ctrip  (like a Chinese Expedia, ) credit cards and PayPal make this so much easier that it would have been 10 years ago.

So:  Changchun - Beijing - Yangshuo - Xian - Pingyao - Taiyuan (airport) - Changchun.   We might make a quick trip to Haerbin after that before heading back to North America at the end of February. The excitement starts on January 21. Before then we have to make a "dry run" to the train station; train rides during the Spring Festival/ NewYear period are apparently an experience unlike any other. Oh, teach and make up exams (Liz) finish marking (both of us) and make a trip out to Beifang market (the north market) to pick up some clothes that are being made for us (and a certain little girl for her New Year celebration.)

North America? I thought you were going to stay for a year. Is something wrong?

We were, and nothing is wrong. Dean Phillip was doing a year long plan  and asked David if he would be available to teach his fall courses again.  Since we would not do a full year, go home for four weeks then return, the College graciously offered us the opportunity to teach here for one semester, be in Canada for the spring and summer, and return in August!  We can even keep the same apartment, which is perfect.  (The climb up to the fifth floor several times a day is great exercise and it is very quiet.)

Speaking of making up exams, I'd better get them done.  Liz :-)

And then there were roosters

Quick bus trip down to Guilin Lu today to pick up some things at the International grocery store. That sounds like a shiny western type place. Imagine instead a narrow stairway in a row of small shops and restaurant, leading past boxes and bikes and doors to the second floor. There is a  door marked "Sam's Food Market." After you push the doorbell and are scanned by an eye in the  door,  the door opens and you are in a tiny room with two people, a calculator and some bottles of wine, adjoining two very small rooms, one with a freezer.  E. needed some whole wheat pasta. We wanted salsa, tortilla chips and coffee. Score - there was some Campbell's cream of chicken soup as well! Actually the tiny store is very well stocked with the strange things that foreigners want to eat, mostly Americans, Canadians and Germans.

There is another one about two blocks away that is a bit more modern. Between the two we can get most of the things we miss. In the fall the real find was cheddar cheese. Right now, Walmart - or Waldemart - has extra-old Cheddar for less that we pay in Ottawa. Must be a December/January thing.

Anyway, the bus home bus passes several small outdoor markets. At the one closest to home there was one of the ubiquitous three wheeled  bikes with a big box over the two wheels at the back.  These often carry materials for recycling or supplies for the street cleaners. The box on this one was full of live roosters.

(This photo is just a random rooster. The ones I saw today may end up in tomorrow's hot pot.)

December ....

Hello friends,

We have been teaching, celebrating with friends, planning our trip which starts at the end of this month and just being. here are some photos. Descriptions to follow (maybe.) Love, Liz and David

This is snow that fell in early December. We have only had about 10 cm total. It has been well below freezing ever day so nothing has melted. Someone shovelled a patch on the soccer field. Who knows why? This morning at 7 there was a man walking backwards on the rutted and icy track around the field. Why not? That's building 2 where I teach.








Many doors, including the doors to the Teachers' Dormitory are covered with thick curtains against the cold.  In some big shopping centres, you walk though the thick and heavy curtains and around a bit of a maze to get inside.
They are effective. It has been so cold that the plastic "windows"on the curtains have been covered with thick frost.

As you can imagine, there are lots of collisions.




Here is the entrance to the gym - in this little area you can find a hotel (pay by the hour,)  hair salon, grocery store - quite a good one with several butchers and great produce section - coffee shop and the stairs. There are other businesses too, but I have no idea what they are. It's like that here.


"Down a steep and very narrow staircase" from the gym.  There is sun right at the top of the stairs but they are otherwise rather dimly lit.

This is a rather fuzzy photo of the checkin desk at the gym.

Gyms are gyms everywhere. Hand in the card at the desk, smile, say nihao and xie xie and that's it. No need for much language, just change and hit the weight room.

Until you lock your key in your locker on the one day you decide to have a shower and get your gym clothes wet too.  At times like that it is  handy that there are so many students from both universities in attendance: there is often someone around who speaks a bit of English. A trio of kind young women came to my aid.... I did play up the helpless old woman thing a bit.  Staff asked me to write down a list of the contents then handed us the bolt cutters.

In four months, I have only seen other women working out in the weight room twice. There are yoga and belly dance classes, quite a few women use the treadmills and some do stretching and body weights in the "dance room." Some people do stare at the grey haired old foreign woman who lifts weights in a "180 Fitness" DB singlet, but they do it surreptitiously.

As I wrote above, a gym is a gym.  If you know what to do,  it is cool.



And this is why I love China. Step out of cold gloomy stairwell into a sunny day filled with all sorts of different sights and sounds. There are bright red letters on the buildings.  Straw is piled on newly laid concrete - it is there for the winter.

We get rather caught up in the teaching, and that's fine because that's the job .  But just walking anywhere is an adventure full of images that could fill many blogs!