National Holiday Week

Hey Friends,


Here in China it is National Holiday Week.  This is one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.  I, of course, am going to join the madness and hop on a plane tomorrow afternoon to go to Guilin!  I am ridiculously excited to explore some more of this country!
I am not planning on bringing my laptop along with me, so I won't be posting next week - but be prepared for an onslaught of new photos when I return.  I am buying a new camera tonight, to try and capture some of the sights next week.  Here are a few photos from the net of what I will be seeing!
Enjoy your week!

Guilin for 2 nights

Yangshuo for 4 nights

One night in Shanghai!

Bicycles and Brunch

This weekend was absolutely beautiful in Jinshitan!  I was recovering from a sick week (deathly Chinese cold) and so I wanted to just relax and stay close to home.  It was the perfect opportunity for that; it was warm enough to be out and about, but finally not humid!  

I spent Saturday market shopping, and then I bought a bike.  Sunday I went to a delicious brunch, and had some comfort food.  I spent the afternoon marking and organizing.  The dreaded first report cards are already here, but at least my my weekend was lovely!

Here are a few photos from my weekend rides.  Apparently I was quite a sight, because I had a car full of Chinese people stop their car and pull out their cameras.  They yelled at me to stop... but I didn't have time to model.

 The trail to the beach

 Golden Bay Bridge

Cruising past the beach

See?  China can be gorgeous!

My sweet new bell, for passing those crowds of tourists.

My new bike, which I have dubbed Melly (short for Melinda)

Working for the Holiday

Hey Friends,

Unfortunately I don’t have any fantastic China stories to update you with, and that is because being a teacher has been taking up all my time.  This past week I had to work for six days to make up for holiday time that I will have off in October.  Although it is a strange system, having the week holiday will be worth the two long weeks we are putting in now.  I only had one day off - and I spent it sleeping, shopping for groceries, and catching up on marking.  Admittedly not the most exciting use of my time.

My most exciting purchase was a brand new french press and a bag of beans from good ‘ole Starbucks.  I am not a fan of the chain back home, but it is really the only option for real coffee here in China.  I was not warned that I would be missing out on my morning cup until I got here!  I spent a ridiculous amount of my pay on my precious grinds, but I know that my quality of life has been greatly improved by the addition.  I am sure my students are equally as grateful.

It actually seems like much longer, but I have been in China for a month now.  It is hard to believe that it was only a month ago that I was living in Vancouver and completing my B.Ed!  In honor of being one month out of school, here are some photos of Ms. Boone’s classroom.  It is pretty stark right now, but hopefully once some quality student projects start coming in it will look a bit more homey.  

What my slacker students see from the back row

What I see from my lovely podium

A present from "Happy Teacher" Day (inside there were delicious sugar cookies!)

Buffets of Bullfrogs and Black Mountain

My life in China just keeps getting busier!  The life of a full time teacher is definitely hectic.  I finally have my blocks settled - 3 classes of English 12, and 1 class of English 11.  I will be doing non-stop marking until June!  The kids are still wonderful though!

(I will do a post showing pictures of my classroom and office area another day.)

I had a fabulous weekend exploring the local areas, starting with a delicious meal out on Friday night.  About 30 of us teachers went to a Japanese buffet place, and ordered about half the menu.  We had two personal chefs cooking up the hot food in front of us, and about 5 waitresses delivering plates of cold food every few minutes.  It was incredible!  I am not even sure of what everything was, but I know I did have bullfrog, crab, many kinds of sushimi, duck liver, abalone, and sea cucumber.  I ate a ridiculous amount, but I wanted to try everything!

Our Personal Chef

Delicious Sushimi!

The next morning Brad, Jonathan and I went and hiked Black Mountain.  There was a little temple at the entrance to the trail, which we stopped to visit, and then we went up and over the mountain.  It was beautiful, and we were all grateful to escape the city for awhile and enjoy a bit of peace.

The view from Black Mountain

Hiking on up

On Sunday I went to a make-shift church at someone’s home.  They stream sermons from the States every Sunday morning.  After church I went to the beach for awhile, but unfortunately it got quite cloudy and cold the moment I arrived.  I didn’t last long!  This week will be very long, as I am teaching six days in a row.  Saturday school is in session, in order to make up for the days lost on our extended holiday.  I still enjoyed my Monday though!  Clubs start this week, so after school I attended the first Model United Nations meeting.  I am very excited to be part of this club, and I will even get to attend a conference somewhere in China with the kids!  They are avid learners, and super self motivated.  The other club I am sponsoring is Japanese Dance Club.  Need I say more?

Today was the start of Mid Autumn Festivals and so many of the students brought me mooncakes as a present today.  They are little tiny cakes that are filled with various things.  I have eaten one today with red bean paste, some with nuts, and some with pineapple.  One of my students, named Apple actually, gave me one as a gift and when I asked him the flavor he said “sperm.”  After a brief conversation to clarify - I believe what he gave me was a cake filled with seeds.  I understand his mistake, but was a bit taken aback!  I have yet to eat that particular cake...

Jenn and Jonathan atop the giant crab.  Jinshitan decorates the beach with various giant sea creatures.

There was supposed to be a lantern festival down by the ocean tonight, but there was no one there.  I am hoping that the ceremonies will be another night this week, but maybe we were just a little too early.  The fireworks were still lovely (although I will admit that I am going to get sick of fireworks).  In China fireworks are lit for every special occasion throughout the day (think birth, death, store opening, 11:11am, 12:34 pm, etc.) and it doesn’t matter if it is 7 in the morning when no one can see them in the bright morning sky - they will still be lit.  It is starting to lose its magic.

Fireworks on the beach

Mark and I enjoying a good meal

Enjoy the update friends :)

My Apartment

Here is where I am living!  It seems nice from a distance, but in reality it is China style shoddy.  I am continually wiping up plaster that seems to fall from one area of my wall, some windows seem unable to close, and there is a wee bit of a hill where my living room ends and the kitchen begins.  I am content though!  I barely have any possessions, so I have spread out the best I can.  This is my first time living alone, and so far it is quite lovely.  It is great to know that if I want to hang out with everyone they are only a few steps away.  Living on campus is a bit of a throw back to first year uni, living in dorms.  Except this year my dorm is much cleaner, my rent is half the price, and you don’t have to sign in your friends! Although there are guards with guns at the gate...

Enjoy seeing my new home!

My Entrance

Living Room (I use the TV area as a drying rack)

Track Outside

My Little Bathroom

My Bedroom

My back Patio

A New School Year

I keep on forgetting that I am not just in China to try out new food, but that I am here to do a job.  Teaching began on Thursday, and the school was, in a word, chaos.  None of the teachers had their block assignments until 7 in the morning, and class began at 7:40.  Internet is not super reliable here, and I believe that their programming system got so behind that they were frantically planning until well into the night.  I was placed with two blocks of English 12, one block of English 11 and one block of Info Tech (computers).  I was shocked at the info tech, as I had been told I was teaching Drama - and had made no plans to teach computers.  Moreover, I could not access the plans online, and I do not own a PC, which is the computer system that they wanted to teach.  I made them draw pictures of the computers they saw in front of them, and label the parts.  It was a grade 10 class, so their English is fairly non-existent.  I ran an hour long computer class without ever turning on the computers.  Golden.  Apparently what I did was actually valuable, but they (thankfully) took away my IT class the next day.  Now I am waiting to get another assignment.  I am fairly content with two preps for now though!

The kids are amazing, and are often waiting in class by 7:15.  They are eager to learn, and very sweet.  At times they fall asleep in class, but I have been making them stand up to jog on the spot.  It is a common problem in the school because they live in dorms and stay up all night playing video games.  I am really enjoying the classes so far, and I am excited to get to know them better.  I am really excited to establish my own routines and systems in the class.  

Unfortunately I have not been taking very many pictures lately, because my iPhone was at China mobile for three days getting unlocked and set up.  The whole thing was quite a sketchy process, but I can now communicate with others, Woo!  I need to buy a camera, but I am not ready to splurge quite yet.  I also have my eye on a bright pink bike with a basket...and that just might come first!

I spent my weekend relaxing and exploring the area.  I got separated from my group in the city, and so I really needed to orientate myself to find my own way home!  It worked out well though, and I even bartered for a new pair of shoes all by myself!  


I am now in a nice routine for my days.  After teaching a few of us usually go to the market or a restaurant for dinner, and then buy some supplies.  It is easiest to just buy food every few days, because fruit and veggies go bad quite quickly.  Plus, it is just enjoyable to amble through the market in the evening!  Tonight I had the strangest food.  I wish I had remembered to take a photo!  It was this thing that looked like a bunch of spaghetti noodles put together, grilled, smothered in hot sauce, with an egg cracked and cooked on it, folded like a crepe, cut up and mixed with a grilled hot dog (very popular here), and then mixed with a scoop of sugar and a few squirts of coke. I had to have it because it was so ridiculous. It actually was delicious though, and very spicy! Plus it cost .75 cents for my filling meal.  You just can’t argue with that!

Life is crazy, wonderful, new and ever exciting here in Jinshitan! 

(Check out my old posts again, I have been able to add a few photos!)