New Year's in Beijing and the End of Another Semester

Chinese sugar treats in Beijing.  It is a piggy!

Although this is late (as seems to be usual this year), I did take a quick New Year's trip to Beijing this year.  This year I had a four day weekend for the holiday, and so on Saturday night Sara and I took the overnight train to the capital.  We had to work on Saturday, so it delayed our departure a bit.  By work I mean that we had to attend a mandatory New Year's gala filled with outrageous performances and elaborate costume changes.  Filled with the joy of having listened to Chinese opera for two hours straight, we loaded our train exhausted and ready for sleep!

The ruins that we accidentally ended up at.

A great shot of my A block boys.

Exhaustion really was the theme of the weekend.  Both of us were totally burned out from a busy semester and a jam-packed Christmas season.  We just wanted to relax before the hectic nature of end of semester, exams and report cards.

This is my E block....smiling at how much they love English class.

On Sunday we spent the day shopping and exploring the art district, and then we went out to our fav Western restaurant.  On Monday we tried to be good tourists, but we got the wrong directions for the subway and ended up in a park instead of a palace.  We explored for as long as the cold weather would let us, and then headed back to our hostel and had a delicious meal of Peking duck.  I will admit that we didn't even last until midnight on New Year's Eve!  We were quite happy to be curled into our beds, reading, nice and early!
*I took a total of about 6 pictures this whole trip.  Ooops.*

We had to say goodbye to Will this semester, as he decided to go back to Canada.  Bye Will!

We returned home on Tuesday afternoon, relaxed and ready to prep our kids for exams.  The semester passed by so quickly - simply because I felt I was so busy the entire time.  We worked more Saturday's than had ever been scheduled before, and the semester flew past in a blur.  I loved teaching IR, enjoyed my group of English students, and was in a good routine of how to manage my free time so that I wasn't too swamped in marking or prepping all the time.  I have included a few classroom shots of my boys for you to get a peek of my daily sights.

The ladies I spend most of my time with!  Like my awesome hat?  I know you are jealous.