New Year Break

Just a few pictures from the few days we spent with our friends who live outside Beijing.

Feb.

The days grow longer and warmer
We wait with anticipation for bright days that were former.

Goodbye to mitts and hats
And it's not longer the year of the Rats!

The noisy fireworks have come to an end
It lasted two weeks! Big fire downtown might change this trend.

The rabbits run and play
Baby Spice (now an IT) saw the vet for a day!

Students for a basketball tournament arrive
3 nights they'll make us a family of five.

A cyst on my neck has appeared again
More antibiotics, shrinking we will attain?
Otherwise surgery will soon be down the lane.

We strive to hide God's word in our hearts
We know He alone takes care of all life's parts.

Suspended?!

The constant bickering and petty fights between the boys in my class came to a breaking point yesterday. Imagine two boys who have a love-hate relationship. They can have fun and play together, but can also easily upset one another. And now add a new student to the bunch, who seems to egg each of them on. Well they went to art class and they were out of my hands. When I picked them up, I heard from other students that there was a big fight. Apparently the boys had been rolling on the floor fighting. I said "that's enough, I've had it with you too, we'll be talking to the principal about this." Of course they just said "Oh sorry JW" and "It's ok"...."Ok teacher, no problem now!" But that's what they try to get away with.

Anyways, I won't ramble too long....but, I told the principal what happened (and she knows what goes on between them, and she's dealt with them before), so she decided to suspend them for the rest of the day. They could not believe it! At least they know now how serious we are about this, and that we won't tolerate it. Unfortunately one of the boys took it so hard he was hyperventilating! When he wouldn't calm down for almost 1 hour we had to get the counsellor to talk to him. Part of the problem is that his parents are both in Korea (Dad is sick in hospital, mom visits him), and the two kids are here beging cared for by a driver and a nanny! So yes, he's unstable. That family needs to be together. It's actually quite normal here for families to be separated. Dad's working somewhere else, kids studying here. But somehow, it still seems better than all the divorce and broken families in N. America.

Well China is gearing up for it's New Year celebrations. Fireworks are already going off occassionaly. Most chinese schools are already out on holiday. We don't have any big plans. We'll just try to help the rabbits survive the fireworks :)

Happy new Year of the Ox!!!

to Manila and back

Another perk of being a teacher: 2 weeks Christmas break. A perk of being an international teacher: work 3 more weeks than take 1 week of for chinese new year! And we enjoy the perks as much as possible. This year we again joined my filipino family for Christmas. Again there was too much eating, but we were stronger this time. Our "No, I can't eat anymore!" was a little bolder, and we made a point to swim and walk places as much as possible. We also left the luxurious homes for 5 days to travel with a cousin and her husband to the mountain province up north of Manila. Great trip! Besides the driving through twisty, bumpy, winding roads, we had an awesome time. There was hiking, 3 hrs. of caving, climbing Mt. Pinatubo (volcano that errupted in '91), and even a stop in a beach town where we did a jungle walk (very light compared to everything else we'd done). Overall, a very satisfying time.

Back in Manila it was a few more days of shopping and eating before we left for Shanghai. We flew in and out of Shanghai for a cheaper flight and also took the chance to visit a cousin of mine I'd never met before from my swedish side. Really great time with them her and her husband.

The bunnies have grown while we've been gone, and the city is getting geared up for Chinese New Year. Most schools here will be off for almost 1 month! We only get a week off. We think we'll stay around just to save money....but we'll see what happens :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!

spoiled :)

I do admit that sometimes I feel spoiled here in Beijing. Here's my confession: right now there is someone else cleaning our house! This is actually the first time we've hired someone to come and clean, but boy am I excited. We haven't hired someone to come once a week like most people do, but we found out that there's a company you can call to have someone come whenever you need. This time of year is of course hectic. It's Saturday and I spent the morning at the school, just cleaning things up there, putting away the piles of things that accumulate, and trying to be organized. And the truth is, our place hasn't been thoroughly cleaned in awhile. Usually we just kinda do a surface clean. So this is a treat, especially since it's only about $2/hour!

I also feel spoiled with the health care I receive. I guess we pay it monthly on our paycheques, but I don't have to fork out cash in advance. The clinic I use has direct billing, and the doctor really is generous with anything we need :) Dry skin? He's got the solution! Their mentality is that we're paying for good health care, and he gets paid by our insurance company, so we might as well get all we're paying for! Did I mention I have a big gall stone? I don't have any symptoms because it's just one big one. As long as it doesn't bother me, which it hasn't, then it stays. And I'm not supposed to eat chinese food! Well, I haven't completely stopped, but I've definitely reduced the intake of the spicy, oily foods.

In two weeks we're heading to Shanghai for 2 days and then Manila for about 10 days! Should be a nice warm Christmas. Once we come back in January we teach for 3 weeks and then it's Chinese new year! But I don't think we'll go anywhere this time. It's too expensive and crazy to go anywhere that time of year. We'll just stay and experience the fireworks 24 hrs. a day for about 7 days :)

Happy December to all!

Gray November

'Tis the end of November and all through the town
The city is filling
With gray smoke all around

I guess since it's gotten colder, and the government turned our heat on on Nov. 15, the coal-burning plants are up and running, which means things are pretty dusty around here. Our back patio gets dirtier a lot faster, and the air is just not nice. I really noticed the difference today. We just got back from a 5 day trip to Hong Kong. What a difference! We've been there before, but it was in passing on the way to Manila...so this time I really noticed the differences between these two cities.

We were in Hong Kong with 9 others from our school for a conference for international christian teachers. Great conference! Great workshops, speakers, everything. We stayed at a YMCA camp which wasn't great, but much cheaper for the school. We took the subway various places to go out for dinner and shopping and you just notice how much more civilized the people are. They don't push and shove. They line up properly and follow the rules. There's no spitting, or really any garbage lying around. Yes, it's crowded, but they handle it much better. Blue skies there meant there's a deep blue whichever direction you look. Whereas here in Beijing you have to look straight up to find blue (if you're lucky), and still it's usually hazed over. Needless to say, there's a lot I liked about Hong Kong. Most people speak english, and there's lots of great shopping and food! The whole place is a lot more compact which makes it easier to find things. But the cost of living is definitely more expensive. So here we are back in our gray city, happy to sleep in our own beds and see our rabbits again :)

Speaking of rabbits, we had a traumatic experience about 2 weeks ago. It was a regular Sunday evening and I stepped out to give the rabbits some food when I heard something squealing. It wasn't very close, but I recognized the sound as a baby rabbit! I could tell it was on the other side of our fence, so Scott went out the front and around to the back to see what he could find. My heart was pounding. The only rabbit that was out was Pepper, and he seemed restless, especially when he heard the squealing. Sure enough, Scott saw a ferret (or weasel?) run out of the bushes. Then he followed the squealing noise and found our Pepper Jr. My heart dropped. Scott brought him inside but the back of his neck was chewed up. He must've been carried off. He was still breathing though and for some minutes, I had hope that we could help him. We wrapped him in an old t-shirt and tried to let him calm down. But I realized we couldn't do anything for him when he tried to get up, moving his back legs, but he could not lift his head. It must've been broken. How sad it was to watch him suffer. We made him as comfortable as we could. We knew we were in for a late night. We eventually did get to sleep around 11:30 and he was still breathing. Even in the morning he was still with us, and I was beginning to wonder if we'd have to spend money on him at the animal hospital! Both of us barely made it through teaching that Monday. We were so tired, physically and emotionally. I came home as quickly as I could and he was no longer breathing. I'm glad he wasn't suffering anymore, but it was still quite sad. He was like one of our own. He had been born in our little yard! And he was so cute. We had a little funeral for him that night. Rest in Peace Pepper Jr. Now we just have 1 baby left, plus Salt and Pepper.


Well that's all for now. These next 3 weeks are going to FLY as we get ready for Christmas concerts, parties, and then we go to the Philippines!

Thanks for reading and keeping in touch !

Snow, hiking...

It's slowly starting to get colder here...This past weekend we enjoyed (sort of) a 4 hour hike 1 hour drive north of Beijing. It was great to get out of the city but it was definitely colder than I expected. Thankfully I haven't gotten sick from this cold and sweaty trek, and I think my calf muscles have finally recovered. This hike was unique because we started at a small village in the mountains, trekked to another village in the middle of the mountains, climbed to the summit of one of those peaks, and then back down. It was cool to walk through a village that is so completely different from life in the city. We even saw a donkey pulling a big stone to grind corn. And speaking of corn, the harvest of corn from the whole area was drying on the shoulders of the roads! It was weird, and beautiful. Now we know why there are sometimes stones in our cornmeal :) It even snowed a bit while we were walking through one of the villages. Another point of interest from our hike had to be when Scott decided "straight up here" looked closer than going zig-zag up to the summit of the mountain. Of course the other guys had to follow along, while us wives took the trail. We reached the peak and then couldn't see them because it was such a drop over the edge! We started calling down "where are you guys?" until we saw some heads through the brush. But reaching the top required them to climb basically straight up these rocks with a big drop-off. One wife was screaming over the cliff "Turn around and get back on the trail! You don't have medical!" Thankfully we didn't have any serious injuries. Scott actually emerged completely unscathed. One guy emerged with bloody shins (he was wearing shorts) and the last (and older) one emerged sweaty and covered in bits of trees! hehe. It was a funny sight.

This weekend we'll be enjoying turkey again! Our staff is having it's Thanksgiving dinner. I'm looking forward to all the delicious foods! And in 2 weeks we head to Hong Kong for a 3 day conference. It will be warmer there! Our heat comes on this weekend though :) Thank the lord for government heating!