Lounging warmly

As has been the case this winter, the wind is again howling outside my window and causing a pretty serious draught to creep across my floor. I swear I can almost see frost building up on the hardwood. In the few places where a hot-water pipe runs underneath, you can see the wood buckle. Daheishi was not built for temperatures below -5.

I only have 4 more real teaching days remaining before I'm free for vacation. Tomorrow's day has been shortened by one block because of our parent-teacher conferences int he afternoon, students leave for a long weekend on Thursday and classes are cancelled that day, and Thursday night I'm hopping on the night train to Harbin to enjoy New Years Eve on the train and a weekend at the Harbin Ice Festival. Should be lots of fun. Darren and the rest of the hockey boys are going to be busy with games all weekend, but I've found some other recruits to hang with for the weekend and face the freezing cold with. The forecasted average temperature for the weekend is supposed to be -30, and much of the time will be spent outdoors. We'll be busy checking out sculptures and buildings and scenes made out of ice and snow, and will bravely face the chill with cameras in hand.

I'll admit to you all that I'm currently testing out my first pair of velour-lined long johns that are ready and willing to take on the chill of Harbin. Whodathunk I'd ever say that I'm excited about velour, well, anything?!? Not this guy! I also got a new toque this past weekend, and I'm packing as many socks as I can fit in my bag. Ice Festival, here I come!

After returning early Monday morning (5am on the train), there are only 3 remaining teaching days for our ESL classes before semester finals are written Thursday, and on Saturday I'm officially on nearly 7 weeks of paid vacation. I called the company through which I booked my flight to Shenzhen (near Hong Kong for Leg #1), and there are no refunds/changes allowed on my flight (because of the cheap cost). This means that I wait until the 15th to leave Dalian, or bite the bullet and just cancel the flight and book a new one for the 10th.
Advantage #1: More holiday time in a warmer part of the world.
Advantage #2: Be able to meet up with a friend, Justin, in Bangkok and spent some time on the Thai coast (which is currently not in the plan)
Advantage #3: Did I mention I'll get an extra week of holidays???
Drawback #1: Cost ($100 cancellation, slightly more expensive new ticket, more vacation time which means more money spending)

Drawback #2: ????? Ummm.... is there any?

The funds are in alright form, but this extra cost is a bit daunting. Then again, this is the first time I've ever been in Asia, and I never know what the future will bring, so I might just do it. I'm gonna wrap this up so I can go check on flights!

Below I'll attach a few of my favourite pictures from Christma weekend. Enjoy. Ciao for now...

T

Joining the Dalian Ice Dragons for some Boxing Day Shinny

Mitts!

The Christmas Day Gang

Christmas Booty

Acquiring breakfast necessities

The tidings of the season

It's Sunday morning. The Christmas weekend is winding down, and we're just turning on the TV to stream the Montreal/Toronto as we have a bit of a lazy day before I return to the rural lands of Daheishi and Darren begins his Sunday marking load. I have a stack waiting for me at home, but for now, I'm completely ignoring the reality and just focussing on enjoying the remaining hours of the long weekend.

Christmas in China was a lot better than I expected. Not only did I fill my belly with plenty of turkey and ham and stuffing (oh my!), but we had a couple of great holiday outings both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We even had a white Christmas (a mini-blizzard appeared Friday morning) and got to play/watch some pond hockey yesterday!

I got to Kaifaqu on Thursday night about 5:30, and got ready for our Christmas Eve outing. About 30 people arrived to share a monstrous turkey dinner at Damon and Shannon's, and followed it up with an awesome "Furry Christmas" gift exchange. The gift exchange was probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen and lasted for nearly two hours. My gut was sore all day Friday from the laughter. The food was great and it was a lot of fun to hang out and have a big get together. As there usually is in the late 20-early 30-something crowd, there was even an engagement announcement for a couple of the teachers who work at the high school with Darren and Mandy. The night was wrapped up with a couple games of Crokinole and some turkey-induced sleep.

Christmas day greeted us with a real mini-blizzard! I thought it was just really foggy or hazy when I woke up, but after putting on my glasses noticed the big fluffy snowflakes falling down! It was a great little surprise for my first China Christmas, especially since there's barely any snow here at all throughout the winter. After getting mobile, we spent the morning opening gifts, drinking coffee, watching The Grinch and going on Skype with our families. Darren and I braved the snow for a bit to get breakfast sundries, but after about 3 minutes the appeal of frolicking in the snow wore off and we dashed back to the apartment. D&M and I all received Vancouver 2010 Olympic mitts from our respective families, which was pretty awesome and totally unplanned. Thanks for all the stuff, Mom and Dad! The Timmy Ho's coffee will be well-enjoyed, as will the rest of the stuff. Maybe not the puppets, though. Don't ask. 

After putting on our recently-purchased Christmas sweaters, I tagged along with D&M on Christmas day to Justin and Holly's (I got to meet these two fantastic people at a friend's wedding this summer) where we again spent the day watching classic playoff hockey games (1982 Chicago/Vancouver and 1986 Edmonton/Calgary), listening to Christmas tunes and filling our bellies yet again with all the food and drink our bellies could handle. It was a good way to relax on Christmas Day, and stayed warm while the icy wind blew outside. After about 8 hours of constant eating, we returned to D&M's apartment and wound down the night with some Wii (Darren's present to Mandy... and himself, methinks) before lights out.

Yesterday proved to be another relaxing day. The sun was shining and some of the boys from Darren's school were strapping on their skates down at the pond for some Boxing Day shinny. Although I've never been a skater, I tagged along to watch and show my graceful moves sans-skates. It only took me about 5 minutes before nearly cracking my head on the ice, so I went to the sidelines to take pictures and hang out with the "booster club". I haven't strapped on skates since 8th grade, so I wasn't feeling too confident about making an attempt without pads and a helmet. Maybe next year.

The rest of the day was low-key, and found us enjoying an awesome Thai curry, some more Wii, and Darren and I ended the night with a massage at the massage place attached to the main floor of his apartment.

And so, here we are on Sunday. It's going to be another quiet day of food, coffee, and I'll be heading back in the afternoon. Another 3 days of teaching this week before a New Years performance at the high school, and then we're off to Harbin for New Year's and the winter Ice Festival from Thursday night until Monday morning. I then teach Monday-Thursday, and two days after that I'm free to go on my vacation! I've already booked my Hong Kong flight, so I might try to change it and get out of Dalian 4 or 5 days earlier than planned.  Freedom and adventure is on my doorstep. Hope you're all well back home.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, all. Lots of love from China.

T

A couple of quick things

It's about 7:20am on Thursday morning. The sky is gray and cold, but my little-Christmas-tree-that-could is blinking happily in my apartment window. Only two classes remain today, and other than hammering out a bit of marking for my Grade 9s this morning, I'll be running off with my ugly Christmas sweater (pictures to come) to Kaifaqu for Christmas dinner with friends. I got an email from my mom today with pictures of our home in Alberta (always decked to the nines in Christmas decorations) which made me really happy but a bit homesick. I think this is the first time I've really thought that I'd like to be back home. But I also know that I'm going to have a great weekend of food and drink and sleeping and reading and drinking all the coffee I can get my mitts on. And I finally get to open my package from home which still remains unwrapped and "under" my tree.

The Grade 7 Christmas concert was a success, and although I wouldn't say my kiddies sang like angels, they did a great job. I'll put up some pictures in the next couple days (I'm still waiting to receive a few).

I also made my first obvious Chinese-speaking blunder in class yesterday. First, a disclaimer: I still have only learned a few words of Chinese. It's sad, I know. It's not easy to practice on my own, and the voice lessons often put me to sleep. Anyway... I try to use a few Chinese words in my classes when I give directions for work. So I've learned my numbers and I can say "sentences" and "paragraph" and "homework", so even the weak students have no excuse for not completing their assignments. Chinese is a language that has many characters. However, when changing Chinese characters into Pinyin (Chinese written in the Roman/English alphabet), many of the words are spelled exactly the same. The difference comes in the TONE with which they're said. Like asking a question by making the final tone in a sentence rise in English, Chinese has rising, falling, flat and dual (falling, then rising) tones for their words. So, the word "ma" can literally have at least 4 meanings. Yesterday, intending to tell my delightfully cute grade seven students that they needed to write 10 sentences and it was homework, I asked them to do the following:

"Please write 10 oranges."

Not knowing what I said, the kids started giggling and laughing at me. This is common when I try to speak Chinese in front of Chinese people, but the laughter was different. Luckily, one of my star pupils put up her hand and waved me over to her desk. Pulling me closer to she didn't have to shout, she explained. So, I got the kids to all help me say "sentence" instead of "orange" and to know the difference. SO funny. I couldn't stop laughing about it all day.

At least I didn't say anything inappropriate!

I'll probably write more later, but for all the people back in Canada, I miss you all tonnes and wish that I was there celebrating Christmas with you all! Especially my family. Lots of love from the land of the Reds...

T

The week of Christmas

I can't understand how Christmas has just crept up on me. I've been talking about it for weeks, I've been watching the movies, I've been listening to the songs and I've been shopping for the presents. I'm singing Christmas carols in my classes to prepare the grade sevens for Tuesday's Christmas concert. But still, in all this holiday preparation and indulgence, there's still a lot lacking in the yuletide season here... and now it's only 4 days away. CRAZY!

Don't get me wrong,... I'm really excited about the big Christmas dinner next Thursday, and opening the package from my family that has been whispering annoying taunts since receiving it almost a month ago. I'm happy that I have some great friends to celebrate with. But it's still a bit of a challenge, as it's the first Christmas I'll ever spend without family. Even though I didn't make it back to Alberta last year, I still had family from Victoria around me and was able to spend some time with the family of some friends, too. And experiencing this rough last eighteen months, it'll be strange not having a real Christmas over here. Even when seeing the Christmas stuff in store windows around town, it still doesn't feel like it's really that time of year.

I did, however, indulge in some retail therapy to help with this lack of Christmas cheer... I picked up a new hoodie at the local sportswear store (I've been ogling it for a couple of weeks since I first saw it) and decided to get it yesterday. I also picked up a few things for the family (which won't arrive until sometime in January... sorry!) and got some foodstuffs that I was missing at home. I also got kidnapped again yesterday afternoon by Darren. I called him to say a quick thanks for hooking me up with a great tailor in Dalian, and he happened to be in the same area of town as me. We met up and he convinced me that we needed to head back to Kaifaqu for some drinks and all-you-can-eat Japanese food that cost less than $10 Can. How can I turn such things down? I haven't had sushi in months, and even though it doesn't need to be uttered, I made up for that in my one sitting last night. Even dessert was included! Tempura bananas and ice cream? I'll take two, thanks! I was so hungry that I ordered one final spicy tuna roll AFTER dessert had been dropped off. What can I say? I was dedicated to the a.y.c.e. experience! I also cooked up a pretty awesome meal tonight of edam and pesto-stuffed chicken breasts accompanied by a sort of sauteed veggie combo of purple-fleshed sweet potatoes (I thought they were yams, but delicious nonetheless), bell peppers, broccoli with fresh garlic, oregano, some chicken stock and black pepper. Not bad for cuisine in a frying pan in China.

Other things missing from China that would help make an awesome Christmas: Peppermint tea/Mochas/chocolates/schnapps. The smell and taste of chocolate mixed with peppermint is a vital sensory experience for this season. However, can I find ANY peppermint tea in this whole city of 6 million? Nope. I'm sure it would help if I could read Mandarin, but you'd think that one supermarket would carry it or someone would know where to get it. But no. Not the case. And they don't have Peppermint Mochas at Starbucks, and there's no candy canes or After Eights to be found either. Terrible and sad state, I tell ya.

Alright... I have to do some Sunday night grading before I turn in. I hope you are all having a delightful transition from work to holiday play as Christmas nears. Happy Holidays from the real red state...

T

Santa Claus is coming?

The countdown to Christmas has been on for a while already, and so I thought I'd share my first two pictures of Christmas for 2009. As obvious as they may seem, they're just to show off my Charlie Brown-ish Christmas tree donated by D&M to help make me feel a bit more holiday-like. Thanks guys! They're not exciting, but they're the beginning of the season for me.

"The weather outside is frightful..."

T

The struggle...

I've been struggling for weeks. At points, I was becoming hopeless. It just didn't seem like luck or skill or the eyes of the heavens were going to turn in my direction. I just didn't know if I was going to be able to survive the pursuit long enough to attain my goal.

But tonight, the stars aligned.

I've been beaten... No, embarrassed in my weekly badminton matches for the past 4 or 5 consecutive weeks. I've been playing a security guard (he's probably around 22 years old), that works at the school, on Wednesday nights at our school gym for some friendly competition. We've also been meeting up with a couple of grade 9 students, playing a few doubles matches and throwing in a couple of singles matches as well. Typically, the guard and I arrive a bit earlier than the students and get in a match before they arrive during their dinner break, and then stay afterwards for a second game once they boys have to leave. In our first game, I beat him in front of about 5 of the female grade 9 ESL teachers and he left a bit miffed and definitely embarrassed. I had only gone to the gym to play the hakky-sac (sp?) version of shuttlecock with the teachers, and grabbed a racket for a while before we left to play with some students and the aforementioned security guard. It was unintentional, but a fun victory for the token white guy in a country that celebrates badminton as a national sport.

Well, since I beat him the first time, he's regularly shown up at the gym to play with me on Wednesdays. And every single Wednesday that he's shown up, he's whipped me. Sometimes, it has been utter humiliation. Other times I hang on and get close to a win and end up on the wrong side of the score. However, today I was on my game. Not only once, but I beat the guy TWICE! He actually left when I was winning 10-7 in the second game because apparently he needed to start his basketball game with some other teachers. But clearly he left out of frustration and the reality that I was going to inevitably take the game.

Anyways...

The month of December has been (and will continue to be) a ridiculously busy month. The weather's cold, and I've been spending my nights marking exams for the past couple days.  But they're done for the timebeing, and I'm taking it a bit easy this week with my kids. We had our company Christmas party last week and I proceeded to stuff my belly with turkey, stuffing and sodas while watching the kitchen staff gawk at all the female Canadian high school teachers strutting their stuff on the dance floor. I also brought home an "adopted" faux Christmas tree that is now sitting decorated (Charlie Brown-style) in the front window of my apartment with the blinking lights shining for all to see. Thanks D&M! There's still no snow but the chill is in the air. It's kinda like a sans-snow Alberta December... crisp and cold with some wind and often the clearest blue sky in the country.

Other than my badminton victory and the regular monthly busyness, I'm in countdown mode. My grade sevens are performing their Christmas concert on Tuesday, next Friday is Christmas, the following Thursday night I'm heading to Harbin (one of the coldest places in northeast China) for New Years (on the train, and then to the Ice Festival), and after that there's only about 10 days of classes before the students write exams and I'm off for vacation. The (extremely ambitious) plan so far is as follows: Dalian -> Hong Kong -> Bangkok, Thailand -> Chiang Mai, Thailand -> Chiang Rai, Thailand -> Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -> Kota Kinabalu, Borneo (Malaysia) -> Kuala Lumpur again -> Siem Reap/Angkor Wat, Cambodia -> HoChiMinh City, Vietnam -> Hanoi/Halong Bay, Vietnam -> Beijing -> Home. I might be trying to pack too much into a 5 week excursion, but it'll be worth it I'm sure. The trip to northern Thailand (Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai) is all about the hiking, as is the trip to Kota Kinabalu. I might even have a place to crash in Kuala Lumpur with my friend Jilly's parents! So excited. I'm hoping to also connect with a contact in Bangkok so maybe I'll have a tour guide. We'll see.

But off I go for now... lots of love from this side of the globe...

T

Standing out in a crowd

So, there's only 6 foreigners who work at my school. When we have a school-wide event, the white folk stick out like crazy. If you single us out to perform something in front of a crowd, we become even more of a spectacle. Feels strange, like being a part of a circus act. Alas... Cirque du Soleil, I am not.

This brings us to today... There is a traditional sort of track meet that is often put on throughout China. It's called the 1-2-9 competition, as it takes place on the 9th of December (the 12th month). In the spirit of this tradition, all the foreign teachers were asked to participate in the school-wide relay races that were being held on this pseudo-historic day. I was one of the first to be asked, and since I love competition, I signed up (all the while assuming that the other male foreign teachers would do the same).

"I'm too fat and slow," replied one. "I have an injured ankle," said the other. What was the response from the dean of our ESL department (Michael)? "I'm too old." The only other male ESL teacher didn't get asked, apparently because he's a bit chubby. So, there was me.

I was under the impression that since it was a relay race, that we needed to have at least 4 people (4x100m). After hearing about the lack of response, I thought I was off the hook. But, as with everything in China, my assumptions were WAY off base. It turned out to be a combined co-ed race that was actually a 12x100m relay. There were 6 females and there was supposed to be 6 males. We had to recruit students to participate since I was the ONLY male teacher represented by the English department, and I was the only foreign teacher participating. Needless to say, I heard more people use the term "waiguoren" (literally means "foreign person") around me (with pointing and questioning looks, including a massive number of Chinese teachers) than I've heard in the entire time I've been in China.

Still, I embraced my stubborness and got on board. I took my place at the 100m mark and waited for the baton. I ran my heiney off, hoping to avoid total embarrassment. Luckily I kept up with (but definitely did not outdo) the rest of the teacher-participants from the school. I was congratulated by the English department and by the students, who were apparently impressed. The one bonus about being a foreign teacher at this school? Most of the kids seem to automatically think the world of you, and even if you have no idea who they are, they go out of their way to say, "Hello, Teacher" in the hallways. Most don't know my name, and my own students rarely use Mr. Mrak. It's always, "Hello Teacher!" Took some getting used to, but again, This is China.

The rest of the day didn't go as swimmingly as the race (yet another annoying run-in with my "head teacher" who is supposed to represent the foreign teachers with admin, but completely ignores and contradicts any reasonable question or concern I provide when she asks for my feedback). However, I am still swimming in the celebratory words of the kids and my other fellow teachers. I also got whooped at badminton again (for the 4th straight time) by one of the young security guards at the school that I play badminton with every Wednesday, but vengeance will be mine some day. They'll rue the day, Jerry. Rue the day!!! Until next time...

T

The hours of a Chinese boarding school

The speakers over the track are blaring Britney's "Stronger". The kids are rushing out to line up with their classes, and they'll be starting their afternoon exercise in a moment or two. Even though they have a phys-ed class every day, they also have an organized exercise time where they run laps with their class around the track. The kids also do daily "eye exercises" in the middle of the afternoon, and the school has a built-in nap time after lunch for about an hour

Like any boarding school, these kids have school days that FAR exceed the regular North American public school day. Starting at 6am with morning reading, they are kept busy until nearly 9pm. A 15 hour school day is pretty long. Just thinking about it is making me yawn right now.

I scanned a copy of the daily student schedule so you guys could all see what the kids do every day. You might need to prepare yourself to be shocked.

From the BoHai Sea...

T

My dinner Friday night...

I was pretty excited about the stir fry I made on Friday night, as it looked soooo delicious. So, I took a picture. Soy sauce, garlic-chili paste, fresh garlic, pepper, a bit of oyster sauce and rice vinegar. This was added to sauteed chicken, red and green bell peppers, Chinese mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes, all served over short-grained rice. There was enough for 3 days of meals, but I ate it in two. Gluttony? Per chance. Super tasty? Ummm.... yep!

T

Joy in the simple things

Since coming to China, I found that I'm embracing things I used to revolt against while I lived in Canada. While I was still in Canada, I used to complain and moan about the people who started celebrating Christmas in mid-November (yes, little sister, I mean you and mom). I hated hearing Christmas music on November 30th, and used to despise seeing Costco full of tacky holiday crap immediately after Halloween.

Ironically, now that there's really nothing Christmas-y in China to see (and few people to talk to it about other than the few foreigners I teach with and the crew at the high school), I feel like I'm already starting to get into the spirit. We only get one day off for Christmas, mind you, but I'm okay with that. I have good luck with the way the days are falling this year (long weekend!), so all will work out just splendidly.

I was trying to figure out what Christmas albums were imperative to my childhood, and I had a hard time remembering them all. I also couldn't get it out of my head that there was a Christmas song about a dragon that I remember listening to as a kid. A friend from here (she's at the high school) accused me of being on drugs when I queried her knowledge of a Christmas dragon. After having little luck on google, I started to think that maybe the dehydrated mushrooms I bought from a local grocer might have some hallucinogenic properties. But in one last, desperate attempt to find this song, I had a stroke of good luck tonight. Not only am I not accidentally eating magic mushrooms, I actually FOUND THE SONG.

Click here to listen to it!!!

The albums on my list as a kid (that my parents played every year a gazillion times), you ask? They are as follows:

1) Alabama's Christmas

2) Neil Diamond's, The Christmas Album (Vol. II)

3) Boney M's Christmas Album

Other notables that I remember songs from include Burl Ives', Have a Jolly Christmas and Roger Whittaker's, Roger Whittaker's Christmas Album. I'm sure there was a Garth Brooks Christmas Album, and if Deep Purple made a Christmas album my dad would've bought it. We also had The Chipmunks Christmas album too, if I'm not mistaken. There'll be more Christmas nostalgia to come. For now, I'm gonna go watch Mr. Whittaker once more before watching Garfield's Christmas and going to bed. G'night.

T

Okay... picture time

I'm trying to keep my word. As promised, here are a couple of the pics from the Opera trainwreck... I mean, performance. The performance we did was a song from a traditional HuangMei Opera. It told the story of a husband and wife who were separated and brought back together again. The first picture is of the four of us foreign teachers who participated (two chose to opt out). The second is taken with some of the girls from the grade nine Chinese ESL team. The third and fourth are with friends (Linda in the first and Angel in the second) who teach part of the Chinese-based ESL program that compliments the foreign-language program.

We had to perform for some of the people from the main Dalian office who acted as a sort of selection committee for acts to make up the New Years show... they put it on every year at the high school before the winter holidays start. Although I'm sure you could've guessed, we did NOT get chosen for participation in the fancy affair... nope... our singing prowess was not up to par (although I did get complimented on my singing voice, surprisingly enough). I think the person was on someone's payroll, though).

Oh... and please don't ever accuse me of NOT doing something nice for someone else. I don't think I can get any nicer than participating in public humiliation and self-deprecation. Merry Christmas to you all.

T