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!

hmm...November already??

Well, apparently I'm less faithful at writing my blog this year. Sorry! I guess things are just more comfortable here this year, and we're just used to life in Beijing. So maybe it doesn't seem as 'new' anymore. Well the highlight of this past month was definitely my parents' visit! What a fun time to have them come and experience our life here! It was so great just to show them the local places we shop, and get to know some of our friends and community. They probably weren't used to the amount that we eat out! It's quite convenient and most importantly CHEAP to eat out rather than cook for ourselves. Don't get me wrong, I do cook dinner at least 4 nights a week :) But my mom insisted on cooking dinner for us sometimes, which was a nice treat. Especially since she ventured to the meat section of our market (which I had yet to step foot in!) and buy some good cuts of meat and seafood! If you wonder what my mom thinks of us biking around the city, she said that she will keep praying for me everyday! :)

Other excitement would be that while my parents were here Pepper was taken away to get nutured! We were fairly certain Salt was pregnant. And then while Pepper was gone for his surgery we think she had babies! No sign of them until just a week ago. So they are 4 weeks old now. We've seen 3 of them. 2 gray, 1 black (with a white nose like Pepper). They are quite small and very cute! Of course, they are quite timid as well, because they were born in a burrow! We did manage to get a picture of one the other day.

We enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner with other Canadians! Our dinner included all the regulars: turkey, potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, and pumpkin pie!

School continues to be busy, as usual. It's always fun to figure out how to do things with new staff and students. And of course, my students are a little wild this year. But I still enjoy my job! We've just finished reading Little House in the Big Woods! We even made butter!

I hope you're all enjoying the Fall weather. The leaves are just starting to turn here. BYE!

A few pics of the past month...

Camping Gang


International Family Day

We went to a wedding of a friend and fellow Canadian

We went to a themed birthday party: Dress up as your favorite musical character. Here are Todo and a Tree from the Wizard of Oz

October already!!!

Oops! Again, time has slipped by me. I'm sorry for not updating earlier. My parents are visiting though, so that's one less reason to blog :)

So, September is already over! What did we do besides work? We had one day off for Moon Festival (?) and were invited camping with friends. We went to a gorgeous spot in a deep valley, camped right beside the river with basically no people around - which is a rare treat here in China. Because of the Olympics we weren't allowed to have an open flame fire (even though we were about 2hours outside of Beijing). So we used hot coals to cook our food, and spent our evening eating and playing 2 Truths and 1 Lie. Great way to get to know people!

The highlight of the trip was Simon trying out the electric fly swatter on his face! AND swimming in the river, which was interrupted when a black and red striped snake swam right in front of Scott!!! The fun in the water was over with that! Definitely a memorable camping trip.

We also had International Family Day this past month, which is always a highlight for us. Us Canadians worked really hard this year and were able to make it 2nd place in ticket sales after the koreans! WOO-HOO!!! The Timmy's coffee, our crepes and waffles with maple syrup, and NHL Hockey on Playstation were major draws to our room! We definitely had the most people hanging out in our room, which was lots of fun.

My parents arrived that same evening, and we've been busy hosting them since then. Besides working for a couple of days last week, we've been to the Temple of Heaven, Olympic Green, and Summer Palace. They've also ventured out on their own to see Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and the older Hutong area of town. Tomorrow they actually take off for a few days to Xi'an, where they'll see the Terracotta Warriors, and various other attractions there. I'll be by myself for a few days because Scott is away for Enrichment Week. He's in Qingdao with the Grade 8 class.

Life goes on here...
-my students are still quite a struggle for me this year.
-My mom has been taken me to the back corners of our market next door to where the seafood is! She's been enjoying the cheap prices of all the food.
-Pepper, our male rabbit, was nutered
-Salt, the female, had babies on the same day (we're fairly certain, but can't see them because they're deep in the burrow)
-and thanks to technology it doesn't feel like you are all so far away!

Enjoy the Fall weather!!

First holiday!

Yes, we're back to school but thankfully we have a long weekend to enjoy right now! The beginning of this school year still seemed as crazy as the last. I'm not sure if that's because I've been trying new things in my class....but certainly my new students have contributed to the craziness. They are a different bunch from last year. More hyper, active, talkative, and certainly immature right now. Oh well....they'll mature. It's dawned on me that I only remember my last bunch as being mature, but that's because that's how they were at the end of the school year. I don't really remember what they were like at the beginning of the year.

I only have 12 right now, but I do think they're generally more difficult to manage than last year's class. I found out that one student was diagnosed with ADHD and is on medication! So he's actually doing better than he did last year, but is still a challenge. But the end of this week was good. We've been in school for 2.5 weeks now. I'm not really sure where the time has gone....it just flies so fast when we're busy.

So we have Monday off for Mid-Autumn Festival....Moon Cake festival really. And tonight we were invited to go camping! So we leave tomorrow, just for 1 night. We're excited! We love camping! And we're going with some friends from church that we've been wanting to get to know better. And then on holiday Monday we're going to the Paralympics! We'll be watching 5-a-side soccer.

Most of all I'm looking forward to my parents' visit! They arrive in 2 weeks!!! Yay!!

That's all for now!
Thanks for reading :)