It was bound to happen at some point… The hospital.

Posted on April 21, 2012 by jhor138

Well, I got home from Bali eeeeearly Sunday morning, and less than 48 hours later I was admitted into the hospital. Welcome home!

You may know more about me than you ever wanted to after reading this post.

All day Monday I was not feeling well and had a horrible pain in my right side. By the end of the day I was really not well and Katie was nice enough to take my last period class. I ended up being sick and couldn’t eat anything. At about 7pm, Qun, friend of ours who lives in the building came up and tried some accupressure stuff on me (ouch!) and made me drink 2 cans of warmed apricot milk (ask me how happy I was about that… but it didn’t stay down anyway). I went to sleep only and woke up in pain at around 11:30.  Poor Katie. I knocked on her door and woke her up, I was on the floor, couldn’t stand. The roomate of the year called BCCSC veterans Thom and Qun and between the three of them they managed to get a driver for me to the hospital and came along with me for the ride.

Now, can I just say, that when you are in a lot of pain and on your way to a hospital in China for the first time, it is a liiiittle nerve-wracking. I had no idea what to expect.

We arrived at Beijing United Family Hospital and I was immediately wheeled into emergency. Turns out, it was actually pretty comforting. BJU is an American hospital (George Bush Jr was actually treated here when he was in Beijing) and it actually felt like I was home. All of the signs in the place were in English, barely any Chinese. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind being surrounded by Chinese, but this was not the time to have no idea what was going on. The nurses were all Chinese, but spoke decent English. My main doctor was an American. Funny man, all business, no bull. I wasn’t sure how to take him at first but I liked him in the end. My other doctors were Chinese, but all were trained in America.

Anyway I was wheeled in and the place was completely empty. I pretty much had the whole place to myself. Before they would even look at me, I had to put down a 2000RMB deposit. Katie was nice enough to take my card to the ATM and get it out for me. It was a really weird thing to be seeking medical care and having to be so concerned about money. Definitely makes you appreciate Canadian health care.

The nurses did the typical triage thing and then the doctor came to see me. The doctor asked me a bunch of questions and together we decided that maybe I was just really dehydrated and constipated from vacationing in the heat. He concluded that perhaps we do some blood tests and perhaps an enema was the answer. Can I just say, it’s funny now, but at the time, I was not laughing. For any of you who have never had an enema, pray that you never have to. Turns out I had not one, but two before we decided that maybe that wasn’t the problem. Probably too much info, but you were warned!

Side note, health staff are always concerned when a patient comes into emerg, but when you tell them that you are a Type 1 diabetic, it’s like your the severity of your condition just got multiplied by 10. Then to make things interesting, not one nurse had ever seen an insulin pump. So it was interesting trying to explain that. The doctor clearly knew what it was and how it worked, but had not seen one in ages.

Anyway, when the results from my blood tests came back, it turned out that my white blood cell count was more than double what it should be. Of course, my mind immediately went to the worst and I decided I had cancer. It was at that point that Katie started telling me I needed to call home and tell my mother what was going. I assured her that that was a terrible idea, poor momma would have had a heart attack and I wouldn’t have been able to give her any answers. Anyway, the next step was peeing in a cup, going for an x-ray and an MRI (try explaining your insulin pump can’t be exposed to x-ray or MRI..ugh). The first wasn’t a big deal, but of course, my bill was going up exponentially with the x-ray and MRI so Katie had to get on the phone with insurance to get it all pre-approved. I also had a consult with a surgeon who decided that he wasn’t needed. The total bill ended up being 16,000RMB.

My entourage went home to get some sleep when we found out that I was going to be admitted, with plans to come back in the morning. In the end, nothing showed up on any of the images, and the doctor hooked me up to an IV and I got 3 bags of saline and 2 bags of antibiotics and sent home with a bunch of drugs and an appointment for Wednesday evening. No final conclusions were made. I was sent home about 2 hours after everyone left.

Of course, getting a cab home was a nightmare. The first cab refused to turn on his meter so I told him to get lost. I didn’t care how sick I was, I wasn’t about to get ripped off. The next cab wasn’t really sure where he was going but I eventually made it home.

When I went back to my appointment on Wednesday the doctor decided that it was PROBABLY just a kidney infection and to keep going with the treatment I was subscribed. He did blood tests and found that my white blood cell count had returned to normal.

Anyway, I taught about 4 classes after Monday. Thank goodness for all my wonderful colleagues who covered classes for me. What a first week back.

My body: a mystery wrapped in a riddle.

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Baaaali Holi-dayy!

Posted on April 2, 2012 by jhor138

Another long one that I am too lazy to reread and edit. Enjoy!

After Thailand, it was time for Bali. Katie went back to Beijing to see Dan. Nick flew home to Canada. Mel and I hopped on a plane for another paradise destination. Marcus also decided that since we were packing up and heading to Bali, him and his brother should too and they ended up sitting next to us on the flight over. Our flight left very early in the morning so wake up time was 3am. Brutal. To make things worse Mel was sick as soon as we got to the airport and whatever bug it was stayed with her for the next 3 days.

When you arrive in Bali, you have to buy a visitors visa before going through customs. It costs about $25USD. Of course, we had no cash, and the ATM there didn’t accept my Canadian debit card, so I had to be escorted passed customs to use a different ATM so that Mel and I could get in (remember, she had her cards stolen in Patong). Anyways, we eventually made our way through customs. Got our luggage and made our way out of the airport. We were heading to Ubud for 3 nights, and the guys decided to stay in Kuta during that time, so they had already left.

When we got outside, it was disgustingly hot. Poor Mel looked like she was going to die. She had to sit on the floor most of the time we were waiting to get through customs she was feeling so sick. So, we got outside only to discover that our hotel airport transfer was a no show. Ubud, our destination was a 2 hour drive from the airport. A sneaky cab driver, good ol’ Johnny,  must have seen the despair and vulnerability on our faces, because he took us for a ride. And not the kind we were looking for. He told us he would take us to our hotel for 200,000 rupiah (about $20CDN). According to my Lonely Planet, this was about the right price for a drive to Ubud, so we gathered our belongings and got in the car. Anyway, he drove for about 30 minutes, winding through Kuta (I had studied a map of Bali enough to know we were no where near Ubud), and he asked us to give him the money because we were almost there. I think my response was somewhere along the lines of “Um, no.” Anyway he gave us this big long story about how there is a hotel in Kuta with the same name as the one we were booked at in Ubud and he thought that was where we were going, and he couldn’t drive all the way to Ubud. We told him he had better get us there and his father ended up driving us. Which all sounds pretty comical, except that we ended up paying 600,000 rupiah for a drive that should have cost us a third of that. Oh well, you live, you learn. And poor Mel got to lay down.

Now, if you have read Eat, Pray, Love (I hated it, in case you were wondering), then you probably think you’ve got Ubud all figured out (and yes, I did see Ketut’s compound, but I did not go for a visit). Ubud is, from what I can tell, very different from the rest of Bali. It is inland, away from the beach, and a quiet, quiet place. We were there during some sort of religious holiday, so that may have had something to do with it, but it really is quiet there. Anyway, we drove up to our hotel, and were a little scared, it looked kind of dilapidated. We quickly learned that we were at the back entrance, and a quick walk through the grounds showed that we were staying a  really nice place. We got all checked in, and Mel went to sleep for the night. I went out and sat near two pools until it started pouring rain (for the record, visiting Bali during the rainy season is not something I would recommend, it rains, hard, and a lot). I grabbed some dinner by myself at the hotel restaurant and fed some of the lingering cats I don’t think the servers were too pleased, but I really didn’t care). I gotta say, Ubud was great for getting some reading done.

The next day, Mel was feeling a wee bit better so we went to the restaurant to grab breakfast. This was exciting because it was pretty much the reason we chose to stay at this place. It is right on the edge of Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary (the balcony of our room overlooked it) and it said in the reviews that the monkeys come in every morning and try to steal food from the buffet. Upon checking in, we were warned not to leave anything outside on the balcony or by the pool because the monkeys would steal them. Anyway, we went to breakfast, it wasn’t very good, neither of us at much, and we spotted zero monkeys. So disappointing. We then decided to hit the pool for a swim while the sun was shining. This was when the show started. There must have been about 10 or 12 monkeys hanging out by the lower pool and they were hilarious. Fighting. Knocking over lawn chairs. Drinking out of the pool. It was quite the show. I was satisfied.

Later in the morning it was still not raining and Mel was feeling up for a walk so we decided to explore around for a bit. Ubud is one of Bali’s bigger cities, but it is still super small. We first went to Sacred Monkey Forest. Before we even got through the gate a monkey had climbed up Melissa’s purse and onto her head. This place was crazy. Monkeys EVERYWHERE, and they are all searching for food. Within about 3 minutes of being in the forest a monkey had crawled up onto my lap, and stolen our map our of my purse. I snatched it back from him, eliciting a mean hiss followed by him attacking my arm and biting me. He wouldn’t let go until I finally pushed him off. Luckily, he didn’t break the skin.We spent about an hour walking around the park. There are small temples scattered around the forest. Baby monkeys exploring around. At one point the monkeys decided it was time to go for a swim and they all started fighting and pushing each other into a fountain. It was both entertaining and a little scary. A monkey managed to get in my purse again and stole a bag of M&Ms. He took off before I could catch him. Mel had a seat and a monkey jumped up and took the bottle of water right out of her hands and proceeded to dump the water everywhere and run away with it. Her finger also got bitten in the process.

After monkey forest we decided to go for a little walk and ended up at Ubud Palace. This is where the lives and it is nothing like Buckingham palace. It looks much like the many temples that are scattered around Bali and you can roam around inside the gates. On the way there we saw many people randomly parading through the streets in traditional costumes (for the holiday). There were offerings everywhere on the sidewalks and streets, it was almost impossible not to walk on them. Unlike Thailand, they just put their offerings on the ground rather than on a pedestal. Mostly just flowers and rice. It was pretty cool, but as soon as we got to the palace Mel was sick again and decided to head home. I stayed, took a few pictures and then went to a market across the road. An old lady guilted my into buying a dress from her for 30,000 rupiah (about $4). After that I decided to head home but it started pouring rain so I stopped at a restaurant with a covered terrace and had lunch.I stayed for about 2 hours just sitting there eating, reading my book and listening to the rain. When it let up, I ran home before it could start again.

Our last day in Ubud, Mel was finally feeling herself again. We went for a walk and wandered around pointlessly for most of the day, then treated ourselves to an awesome spa treatment. For 350,000 rupiah (about $40) we had an hour and a half of just loveliness. Oil massage, herbal compress massages and a herbal bath. Could not have asked for a better ending to our first stop in Bali. We had a nice dinner, watched a movie in bed (of course, it was pouring rain, again), and hit the hay!

Our next stop was Kuta. We had the hotel arrange a drive for us this time and the price was MUCH more reasonable. Our driver was really friendly and took us to this Balinese coffee place at a traditional Balinese home. A traditional Balinese home is really neat, it is more like a compound. There are a number of buildings (for sleeping cooking, children, praying, etc) and monuments to honor gods and ancestors. It was neat to see. This place also sold coffee and teas. I bought some really good lemon tea, but the really interesting item they had there was called Kopi Luwak. A luwak is an animal that is a lot like a weasel. These little critters eat the cherries off of coffee bushes and then bean ferments in their stomachs. When they poop it out, people collect them and make coffee. Sounds disgusting, but they make a big deal of it there and it is really expensive.

The day was actually kinda nice. Not much rain, so when we finally made it to our new home and settled in we went for a swim. The new place was nice, close to the beach and again, had 2 pools. The main pool was filled with obnoxiously drunk middle aged vacationers that were enjoying the poolside bar a bit too much so we hung out at the smaller pool. After that we got dressed up and decided to find a nice place to eat. There are two pretty famous streets in Kuta, Poppies I and Poppies II. They are little side lanes known for their nightlife, so headed that way and ate a restaurant called Poppies (what else?). Kuta is kind of a run down, dirty place, but a super popular beach destination for young travellers. So when we walked into the restaurant we were surprised to find a little paradise. You enter a gate off of Poppies 1 and go into this beautiful garden courtyard that doubles as a restaurant. Food was great, but the most exciting thing was my Pina Colada. Not only was it possibly the best I ever had but it came is a fresh hand carved coconut. It was carved into a traditional Balinese-looking mask. A real piece of art.

Day 2 in Kuta, we finally met up with Marcus and Gene again. By now, they had rented scooters and gotten their Balinese drivers licenses, so they came to pick us up and brought us out to a villa in Canggu where they had friends staying. The drive there was awesome, rice paddies everywhere. We spent the afternoon hanging out at their private pool then we all went back to Kuta for dinner and a lovely evening out!

Day 3 was awesomely awful. Marcus and Gene had made a local friend, Ketut. He is quite the great guy and offered to take us up to Git Git Falls on the northern part of the island near his hometown for the day. It was about a 3 hour drive each way. So we all hopped on scooters and headed on our way. Disaster 1: Marcus and I ended up with a flat tire. Luckily we broke down almost right in front of a little fix up stop and were back on the road in about 20 minutes. Questionable experience 2: Our lunch stop was a small, roadside Babi Guling restaurant (suckling pig). I ate a cheese roll from Circle K. Disaster 3: About 1.5 hours into the trip it started raining, Balinese style. Pure downfall And for some reason Gene had thought it intelligent to remove the ponchos from the scooters before we left. Ketut was nice enough to lend me his, but wow, so freaking cold! But, we were determined. About an hour away from the falls, we found a place that had 3 ponchos for sale. Melissa got one. Stacey got one. And Marcus and I ended up with a ridiculous one made for 2. We also bought some ridiculous looking knitted hats to keep us warm under our helmets. What a sight. By the time we made it to the falls we were all freezing and soaking wet. We made the short hike to the falls which were, well, disappointing. They were muddy because of all the rain, since none of us were in the best mood, I don’t think we really appreciated them the way we normally would have, but we walked around and took in what we could. Marcus got me a cool beaded bracelet from a little girl selling jewelery to pay for school. We hopped on our scooters and drove the 3 hours back to Kuta.

Day 4 in Kuta was Mel’s last. We spent the day just the two of us. Bought some drinks and hit the beach for the day. It was quite literally the only day that Mel was in Bali that it did not rain (it was sunny every single day after she left.. I didn’t tell her that..). Anyway, we hit Kuta Beach. As one of the most famous beaches in Bali, we had high expectations but were actually disgusted. The beach is covered in garbage. No exaggeration, it’s hard to find a place to sit that isn’t covered and the water is just littered with it. I was told that it is because of the way the tides run, garbage washes up and collects here from other parts of the island. This day was pretty hilarious though, because at one point we actually had a line up of people to take pictures with us. It was way worse than it usually is in China. There were some really cute girls from Sumatra that were all covered from head to toe who came and asked for pictures but then stayed and had good conversation with us. They thought it was hilarious that we were darker than they were and that we were laying in the sun in bikinis. They just couldn’t understand why people would WANT to tan. Really really sweet girls. We stayed at the beach until sunset. I will say that Kuta Beach was cool because unlike the beaches in Thailand that are packed with tourists, many of the people here were locals. There were probably 50 kids and teens playing soccer behind us. It gave it an authentic feel.

We had our last meal together at Bubba Gump’s. Kinda disappointing did things to me that Mel is sworn to secrecy about. Marcus and Gene called after we had gone to bed (around 930, sad, I know) and wanted to say bye to Mel, so we got dressed and went out for a couple of drinks.

Next morning, Mel had an early flight. I walked her out to the cab and we had a sad, teary, huggy goodbye. It would have been pretty sentimental if the hotel guards hadn’t been making fun of us the whole time. I went back to bed and ended up sleeping past check out time. Oops!

The rest of my trip was a whirlwind. I spent three days at an AMAZING, 5 star resort, with a pool on the beach in Seminyak. It was really quite awesome. I spent one morning laying at the pool, watching the waves, finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy, had spaghetti delivered to me at the pool for lunch. It was truly heaven.

Ketut planned another day for us, this time in a van, no scooters! We went to the Bali Zoo. It was a small zoo, but kinda cool with some Balinese charm. All the important animals and a neat set up. They have a lovely orangutan, Jack. You can throw him bananas. He eats them, but then angrily throws the peel back at you. It was pretty entertaining. Then we made our way to Mount Batur, an active volcano. The plan for the day was to go swimming at the hot springs, but they were expensive and had been turned into pools, so we passed on that, but the volcano was pretty impressive.  The last time it erupted was 1992. There we some pretty spectacular views and some awesome rice paddies along the way.

I was lucky enough to get 2 extra days in Bali thanks to an overbooked flight. I spent my last 2 nights at a hotel on Poppies 1. We went to Tanah Lot, an amazing sea temple of a bed of volcanic rock. On the way there we got caught in traffic behind some religious ceremony. This was biggest one we came across, but it was not uncommon to get caught behind a religious street ceremony when we were driving around. Anyway, Tanah Lot is really beautiful and breathtaking but has been turned into an incredible tourist trap. Vendors and salespeople everywhere. The guys managed to find a reptile place in the middle of it all and we got a picture with a huge, massive python. That is now 2 pictures that I have with my most feared creature on the planet. God I hate snakes.

The morning I left was really difficult. Anyone who knows me knows that I rarely find people that I connect with, and Marcus was one of those people. It was really hard leaving him (yes, I even shed a tear, pretty crazy). I always seem to find the most amazing people when I am away from home or on vacation. Just my luck.

The flight home was exhausting. I had another long stopover in Singapore, but was too tired to even explore much of the airport. I arrived home at around 2:30am Sunday morning.

Back to work on Monday. Yay.

Overall, I think Bali is an absolutely incredible place. It is impossible to escape the culture and the awesomeness of this place. The people are SO friendly, and do not take their “paradise island” for granted. Although I would not necessarily advise someone to go during the rainy season, I am so happy with my destination decisions for this year and can’t wait to see what next year’s Spring Festival vacation brings! 🙂

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Is this real life? Singapore & Thailand

Posted on January 19, 2012 by jhor138

Part 1 of the trip of a lifetime!

Please note: Due to the length of this post, editing was omitted. I apologize in advance for any spelling or grammatical errors, as well as if some things just make no sense. Enjoy!

Day 1 – Singapore

We arrived at Beijing Capital at 10:30 Friday night for our 2:50AM flight on Saturday morning. Turns out we couldn’t even check in until 11:50PM. We maybe jumped the gun a bit on that one. Now, flying does not make me the least bit nervous, BUT getting through security always makes me a bit anxious. This is because not only do I have an insulin pump attached to me, but I also carry an extra one with me on trips, and it CANNOT under any circumstances go through an x-ray. Security does not like this. Anyway, China was pretty good about it, just read my translated letter (which they seemed to find funny… Lord knows what it actually says?!), then swabbed it for traces of illegal substances and let me on through. Time went by pretty fast and before we knew it we were on our way to Singapore.

Singapore is amazing.

First off, just being out of China, is a real treat. You forget how easy things are other places after being there for so long. Anyway, Changi airport is one of the top ten airports in the world, and its no wonder why. It is simply amazing. We had a ten hour stopover.

First things first: Burger King. They have BK in China, but this was a real treat because we ordered in ENGLISH, AND got exactly what we asked for, AND I even got extra salt and ketchup (sounds easy, but try telling the Chinese that..). It’s worth mentioning that I encountered very few language barriers at any time on this entire trip. Thailand and Bali are very tourist friendly and most people speak at least basic English. I did however keep wanting to try to speak to people in Chinese.. hard to break that habit.

Changi has 3 terminals and each has at least one garden to explore. The first we went to was the Butterly Garden. This is a green house type garden in Terminal 3 and is just beautiful. Second was a rooftop cactus garden (with a bar) in Terminal 1. On the way home I plan on checking out the 2 other gardens in Terminal 2.

The best part of the airport is that if you have more than a 5 hour stopover you get to go one of two FREE tours of Singapore. The tours are 2 hours and there are two available, Colonial or Cultural. I was hoping for Cultural, we got Colonial, BUT you can’t really complain about a free tour. So, we went on a free tour! Next year, I will at some point be returning to Singapore. It is beautiful. So clean. Like, pristeen. I have never seen anything like it. Lots of English speakers. Beautiful to look at. Beautiful weather. Laid back atmosphere. Friendly people. Awesome country.

Singapore fun facts:

  1. Chewing gum is illegal.
  2. There are 4 official languages, English is one of them.
  3. About 20% of the 6 million+ population is made up of foreigners.
  4. At any given time they have more than 600 ships in port (cool to see when you are flying in).
  5. It only became an independant country in 1965.

Upon returning, Katie and I got ourselves a Singapore Sling, because, well, how can you not when you are in Singapore?

Eventually, it was time to make our way to Thailand. Changi only does security at each gate, rather than at the entry point of each terminal like most airports. So about 30 minutes before takeoff, we made our way through, only to find out that our flight was delayed for 2 hours. Eventually we made it to Thailand, at about midnight…

Day 2, 3 & 4 – Rawai Beach, Phuket, Thailand

Arriving at the Phuket Airport was definitely interesting after spending the day at Changi. The airport was old and rundown, the walls were water-stained and the plaster was falling off. After a quick stop at customs we grabbed our bags and met our driver. The drive to our hotel in Rawai was about 30-40 minutes. Driving up was kind of cool because reception was actually outside. The desk just had a little roof over it and a back wall, everything else was open. We got the keys to our little poolside bungalow, settled in and quickly went to sleep.

Waking up the next day, Katie had some good news for me, our friend Maggie from BCCSC was going to join us for a week or so, and Katie’s brother was going to come join us for our entire Thai adventure. The rest of the day was spent exploring Rawai. The beach was kind ‘meh’. Pretty to look at, littered with longtail boats, but not great for swimming. We spent some time hanging out by our hotel pool for most of the day. Now it has to be mentioned that with my insulin pump, getting in the water can be a little intimidating. It is SUPPOSED to be waterproof, but in 3 years, I have gone through 3 pumps, all of which have been destroyed in water. I am happy to report that my pump survived many water-filled adventures throughout my trip. In the evening, we explored a little local market where you could buy lots of trinkets and tons of fresh seafood. Places like this probably would have been more shocking if I had not just spent 5 months in China. For dinner we went on a walk on some back streets and came across this totally out-of-place restaurant in the middle of nowhere called Norbus. So weird in Asian countries how there is no separation between poverty and wealth. It’s also worth noting that we adopted a pet cat for our stay at this resort. It was strange having a cat around that was actually friendly because cats in China are generally pretty evil. This lovely little thing hung out with us in a room quite a bit.

Next day Katie and I booked a day trip to Racha Yai (Raya) Island. Had a little money scare because the first 3 ATMs we found didn’t work, but the 7/11 ATM pulled through for us (there really is a 7/11 everywhere you go in the world). Early morning speedboat out to a little island off the coast of Phuket. It was the single most beautiful beach I have ever seen (Patok Beach). No one lives here, just one or two resorts. No vehicles. The sand was literally like walking in baby powder, white and so fine. Clear blue water. Fun waves. We had a midday snorkeling tour. The boat brought us to the other side of the island (Kon Kae Bay) where there were some fish. Not sure if it’s because the Great Barrier Reef ruined snorkeling for me forever, but it was pretty disappointing. Dead coral and a bunch of the same fish. Then it was time for lunch. It was a little walk to the restaurant, and we saw 2 huge monitor lizards on the way. Lunch was provided, my first Thai food experience. We sat with an awkward Chinese family. I ate a lot of rice.

A couple more hours on the beach and back home we went! Kate and I played around in the waves for a while. One particularly large wave washed the D&G sunglasses right off her face, never to be found again. Sad moment, but she did a good job brushing it off. Best part about this island was the dock. It was just a long, plastic, floating dock attached to the beach and it moved with the waves. Like I said before, the waves here we pretty big and pretty strong so it was quick entertaining watching people trying to balance themselves. That night Maggie joined us! We all booked Thai massages, but Katie and I had to change ours up because we were sooo sunburned. Best aloe massage ever.

Also, I like pineapple. New discovery.

Day 4, 5, & 6 – Bang Tao Beach, Phuket, Thailand

Next stop was Bang Tao Beach. After settling in to our new home we hit the beach. This beach was much more touristy than Rawai. It was really long and lined with beach chairs. For 100-200 Baht ($3-6)you could rent a chair for the day. This beach was great for lounging, but the water had a lot of garbage in it. So we sunbathed on the beach, then hit the pool at the hotel when it got too hot and we needed to swim. Day 1 in Bang Tao was nice and relaxing. That evening we hit a restaurant and ate on a patio the extended out onto the beach and nearly into the water. It was a beautiful was to end the day.

Our second day in Bang Tao was reserved for ELEPHANTS! We spent the first part of our day by the pool, indulging in french fries. By pick up time we were more than ready to go. Knowing that we were going to go on an elephant trek later in trip, we each only spent 15 minutes on the elephant this time. Her name was Anna and she was just lovely. We were not allowed to wear shoes on her. Stepping onto her was weird. I sat on her neck/shoulder blades and she took me for a lovely stroll around a lake. I have to say, elephant shoulder blades are quite hard on the bum. Her hair was really cool, kinda like little black wires sticking out of her. When we were finished we got to hang out with her and her little baby boy. He was bad. He kept throwing dirt all over himself and at one point he even managed to escape his chain. It was pretty amusing. We fed them some food and off we went.. We found a nice restaurant on the beach to watch the sunset, then found another restaurant to have dinner at. This place was neat because the table was on the beach, toes in the sand. On our way back to the hotel, Katie and I sent off a sky lantern. Just one of those things you need to do if you’re in Thailand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_lantern). Middle of the night, Katie and I took a car to the airport to get Nick! Next day, we packed up and headed off to Patong Beach.

Day 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11 – Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand

Patong. Patong is exactly what you expect from Thailand. Lots of young people. Lots of beach time. Lots of massage parlours. Lots of bars.

Up to this point, other than the elephant ride, I was finding Thailand a bit.. boring. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, and relaxing, but when I travel I really don’t enjoy spending A LOT of time at the beach or by a pool. A day here and there is fine, but it was far past time to mix it up.

We did spend our first full day there on the beach. This beach was the best we had seen so far (other than Patok). Nice water, nice sand. Lots of stuff going on on the beach. We were quite sunburned (yes, still) and a lovely lady was going around with fresh aloe leaves in a cooler offering aloe scrubs for 150 baht (about $5). We all got one. She rubbed you down head to toe, hair included. It felt pretty amazing but you looked like you were just covered in snot. I found it kinda comical.

On our second full day we booked a tour of Ao Phang Nga. This is what you picture when you think of Thailand. If you are a faithful viewer of The Bachelorette or Amazing Race, you would know it. It is a beautiful bay full of huge rock formations. We got a shuttle to our speedboat, which was seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Here we hopped on and headed out! The crew was awesome, we had Jack Sparrow as our captain and Ali Baba as our main guide. Ali Baba developed a bit of a crush though and got a little creepy by the end of the day.. Our first stop was Ice Cream Cave. It was a beautiful cave that actually looked like it was made of melting ice cream. We walked around a bit. Bats sleeping on the ceiling. Very cool. Second stop was Hong Island. Here we got off the boat, but into a canoe with a guide. We explored around some of the rock formations, and into some caves. These were pretty neat because once you were inside the cave, they were open to the sky, so you were essentially just surrounded by rock. We spent about 45 minutes here and then back onto the boat! Third stop was James Bond Island. This place was cool, but definitely set up as a tourist trap. The island was featured in the 1960s 007 movie, The Man With The Golden Gun. I got sucked into the trap and bought a bracelet. It’s broken now. After that we hit up Panyee Village. This is a floating village in the bay. The whole thing is on stilts. The restaurant was clearly there specifically to cater to tours as it was way newer and better taken care of than the rest of the village. After lunch we checked out some cave drawings. Kinda cool. Then to finish off the day we hit up Lawa Island for a swim. Lawa Island is a small island in Phang Nga Bay. Very pretty, nice views. That evening we decided to explore a bit and Katie and I ended up going to a fish spa. For 10 minutes we put out feet into an aquarium full of tiny fish and they ate away all the grossness. Strangest feeling ever. As a VERY ticklish person, it was a real struggle not to keep flicking them away. Not sure I would do it again, but it was worth trying once.

The next day we had to switch hotels. It was getting to be around time for Chinese New Year and places were getting booked up, including the place we were staying. We called around and found a place, packed up out stuff and headed over, only to find out that they gave away our room. Awesome. Luckily, we found a place a building or two down the street. That afternoon it was time to go to the airport to get MELISSA!!! 🙂

Never in my life have a paced around an airport like I did waiting for that girl. And never in my life, I think, has anyone taken so long to get off a plane. I think the people around me were starting to think I was up to something, and then.. there she was! You have no idea what it is like to be away from home and every person you know in the world for as long as I have and then to see someone you know walking up to. I was puuuuumped. Poor girl had the worst flight schedule I had ever seen, took her almost 48 hours from Halifax to Phuket. Yuck. But she was a good sport about it. Took her to the hotel, got her settled. Went for a swim. Grabbed some foods. Now, we didn’t want her getting jetlagged, so we all decided to go out. Off to Bangla road, we ended up at a ping pong show. Something that Thailand is famous for. Something that can never be unseen. We were all a little traumatized. It has very little to do with ping pong. Later we were all grabbing some food when a little girl about 7 or 8 came up selling leis made from fresh orchids. Now normally, there are so many street vendors that you ignore most of them. This girl came right up to our table and spoke surprisingly good English. The thing that stood out about her though, was her black eye. She was pretty good at avoiding telling us how she got it. After joking around with us for a while and winning us over, I’m pretty certain we all bought a lei we really didn’t need… So, after successfully keeping Mel up to a respectable hour, we hit the sheets, only to discover that our new hotel was in a party zone and we had to listen to deafening bass until about 230am. ZZZZZzzzzzzzz.

Next day, we hit the beach so Mel could start catching up in the tanning department (we did afterall, have a week head start). After the beach, we both had our first official Thai massage. Now a Thai massage is very different from any massage I have ever gotten before. You are twisted and stepped on, and put into positions you never thought you were capable of. It’s kind of like forced yoga. Pretty painful while it’s happening, but you feel pretty good after. Overall, it was a pretty relaxing day. We hit the beach bar that night for some dancing, but were in bed by 10 (early morning coming).

Last day in Patong, Mel and I went back to Ao Phang Nga. I was more than happy to go back, and surely she couldn’t come to Thailand and not go there. Oddly enough, it was a pretty different experience. The tides were high (they were low the first day) so the tour was pretty different. We couldn’t get into a lot of the caves at Hong Island, Lawa Island looked almost completely different, and the bats at Ice Cream cave were no longer sleeping, they were flying around like crazy, and we got dropped off at a different location at James Bond Island. Kinda cool to have both experiences. Great day. After arriving back on land we discovered these fish, that when the tide goes out, get stuck in the mud, but they have legs, so they can crawl back into the water. Weirdest looking things ever, kind of like giant tadpoles when they are halfway to becoming a frog. Ali Baba offered to drive us home… We quickly disappeared.

Our last night in Patong we had to have a good night out. We went to the beach bar and onto Bangla Road. It’s pretty fun to dance in the sand. At the beach bar, we met up with a guy who worked there that Mel and I had met the night before, Marcus. He is from Australia and was traveling Thailand for 2 months with his brother. They were about 1 month in. He ended up becoming a pretty big part of the rest of my trip. This was also the night that Mel had her wallet/watch stolen and I became her sugar mama for the rest of the trip. Gotta love Thailand.

Sleep. Next day, 1pm boat trip to Phi Phi Island.

Day 11, 12,  13, 14 – Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

Next day we packed up and caught the 1pm boat to Phi Phi Island. Phi Phi Island is a beautiful paradise of an island. Tiny little place, no cars, packed with tourists. It was almost completely destroyed in a tsunami December 2004, but has been mostly reconstructed since.  We were expecting a nice speed boat to get there, 1 hour trip. Nope. 2 and a half hours downstairs on a crowded passenger ferry. It was awful. We debated before we left if we should even go, we couldn’t find a place to stay, but we decided to give it a shot anyway. The guy at the ferry station booked a room for us. When we arrived, another guy was there to meet us, but to tell us they made a mistake and had no place for us. We did eventually find a place, but only for one night. We had to move places the next day. The first place we stayed was weird. Nice big room for all four of us, but the place was just like a big, depressing, concrete slab. By the time we settled in and got dinner I was pretty exhausted and just went to bed. Next day we got up and headed straight our next hotel (2 nights). Like I said earlier, there are no cars on this island (it is realllly small), so it was about a 20 minute hike to our next place. When we got there we had to climb a small mountain up to our room. The rooms were cheap, and as plain as you can get without it being a hostel, but the view was spectacular. Phi Phi is so beautiful, you could see the beach from the room. We spent most of the day at the beach, got a real nice sunburn (ouch!). Nick and I spent almost the whole day in the water. The bay was super shallow for a long ways out. We were just surrounded by longtails. It was awesome. At 5pm I went to get Marcus, who decided to come join us. 🙂  That night we all went to the Reggae Bar. This bar was pretty cool because it had a muay thai (thai kick boxing) ring in the center of it and offered free drinks to people who volunteered to go up and participate. Marcus had the first fight of the night and won. Nick had a monkey break his Ray Bans. After that we headed to the beach for some dancing and then home for the night.

The nest day we booked a day cruise. We toured around the Phi Phi Islands for the day. First site was Viking Cave. This is a cave where they harvest swallow nests to export to China for birds nest soup. Yes, birds nest soup. A terribly expensive delicacy that only China could come up with. Next we went into this beautiful bay. Normally the boat we were on couldn’t go into here but because the tide was so high, they decided to go for it. All was good until we were on our way out and got stuck on some coral. Everyone on the boat had to make their way to the front to shift the weight. It was an amusing exercise. Next we jumped off the boat and did some snorkelling. Another disappointing snorkel, but they had some canoes too, so we explored around a bit and that was fun! Next stop was Maya Bay. This is where Leo D filmed the beach. So beautiful. I can honestly say that before this day I had never in my life seen so many shades of blue. To end the day, we had dinner on the boat (yucky Thai veggie fried rice) and watched the sunset over the ocean. It was incredible. That night we all took it easy and went for massages.

Day 14, 15 & 16 – Kata Beach, Thailand

We took the 8 am boat back to Phuket. Once we got back, we split ways with Marcus and headed for Kata Beach. We got a shuttle from the ferry station. The shuttle was supposed to take us to our new hotel, but the lovely man decided he couldn’t find it and kicked us out when he figured we had passed it. SO that was lovely. We lugged all of our bags around, and luckily, it was only about a 10 minute walk to the hotel (once we found out where it actually was..). Upon arriving, we found out that the hotel had no rooms for us. Please note that this was the THIRD time we had booked a hotel, gone there, and found out we had no room. So after another frantic search we found a decent place.We spent the rest of the day at the beach and went out for a nice dinner together 🙂

On our second last day in Thailand we booked an elephant trek. This was an hour long trek that took us up a mountain to a spectacular view of Kata and Karon Beaches. Best part was when mine and Mel’s elephant decided he wanted to eat a tall branch and jumped up on his hind legs. Slightly scary, but good times. Our guide went picture happy with Mel’s camera. He also picked some flowers for us. Also, I love elephants. After the trek we hung out and fed the elephants and ton of food, including full pineapples, which I found to be pretty impressive. Then we spent some time with  a few gibbons they had there. I tried feeding one a banana, and after shunning me a few times he finally took it and threw it on the ground then grabbed my flowers from the guide and ate those. We held hands through the cage for a bit. It was pretty romantic.

When we got back to the hotel, we hit the beach for the rest of the afternoon. I got bored and decided to walk around Kata for a bit, ended up getting lost, and finally making my way back to the other end of the beach.  We went home and got ready for dinner. We were waiting for a cab in the lobby when Marcus showed up on a scooter. He decided to join us and was gonna follow on his scooter but it wouldn’t start after we left and then he couldn’t find us. We ended up at this brutal restaurant with no service, but ended up joking around about it with a German couple. I took it upon myself to get the cutlery for both or our tables and it ended up being an alright night. After dinner we went to this random market down the street and then got a tuktuk home. Marcus decided to come pick me up around 10 and we drove around for about 2 hours looking for a shirt Mel had wanted but forgot to buy in Patong. We got there too late and everything was closed. He bought me a rose and we ended up hanging out on the beach until the mosquitos got so bad we had no choice but to call it a night. He dropped me off and headed back to Patong.

Our final day in Thailand! Crazy how fast 15 days can go by when you are having fun. We got up, had breakfast then hired a car to take us to Big Buddha. Big Buddha is a buddhist temple that sits on top of a mountain overlooking Kata Beach. It is a huge, massive Buddha. As we were getting into the car the driver warned us that our tank tops probably wouldn’t be allowed, so we went back inside and changed into tees that covered our shoulders. It was a cool drive up the hill. Elephants and monkeys along the way. This was actually the only time I saw wild monkeys during my time in Thailand. When we arrived we were given sarongs to cover our legs (we were all wearing shorts). The Buddha was pretty impressive. Beautiful and made of alabaster. The view was spectacular. There were some people praying and some monks around. It was a really cool experience. We got KFC on the way home.

To finish off a great Thai vacation, we decided it was time to hire a longtail and go for a ride. For 1200 Baht, we rented a longtail to take us out for an hour. We didn’t care where we went, we just needed to get on one of these boats. So, we got on and headed out. We followed the coastline for a good half hour when the boat came to a stop. Our captain got our a loaf of bread and gave us each 2 slices so we could feed the fish. For something so simple we were all quite amused. Leaning over the boat, taking pictures and videos, trying to touch the fish. It was fun! On the way back we got a cool view of Big Buddha too. It was well worth the money and a perfect way to end a great trip. That night we had a good dinner, then got mani’s, pedi’s and massages. After that I got a pineapple and chocolate crepe. Delicioso! Then it was time to pack up and get ready for a 330am departure.

Thailand Extras

  1. I discovered I like pineapple. Who knew?
  2. I had spaghetti at least 25 times while in Phuket. I rated each one and should have kept a log.
  3. Drivers in Phuket are crazy. In Beijing, there is so much traffic that although the drivers are crazy, they have no choice but to keep the speed reasonable. Not so in Phuket. 140km/h is pretty typical. I thought my life was over a few times.
  4. The weather was insanely perfect. It rained maybe twice, for about 2 hours. 30 degrees and sunny everyday. Paradise.
  5. $1CDN = ~30baht. Stuff was ridiculously cheap. We didn’y stay at any hostels, almost all of our hotels had pools and were near the beach. Max $50/each per night.
  6. Phuket is packed with geckos. I woke up to one on the wall near my head in Rawai.
  7. You can get a massage anywhere and everywhere, including the beach. You cannot escape the women offering “MASSAAAAAAAAAAGE!”
  8. In Thailand almost every house and business has what looks like a little dollhouse on stilts outside. This is where they make offerings to their ancesters. This usually includes incense and food. Fanta is a popular gift, as well as full plates of whatever they might be having for dinner.
  9. Thai massages are painful. Coconut oil massages are much more enjoyable.
  10. When in the sun all day every day, the infusion set from my insulin pump leaves some pretty amusing tan circles on my abdomen.

I think that just about covers it!

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Christmas in Tuanli

Posted on January 13, 2012 by jhor138

December was a CRAZY month. It was also a month that I had been dreading since the moment I signed my contract back in March. As it turns out, it wasn’t that bad.

Christmas was a huge part of my lessons in December. When these kids go to school in a western country, there’s no way they will be asking what the big deal is, they’ll know. We did all kinds of Christmas vocabulary, I read them A Christmas Carol (a 60 page version), we made cards and, the piece de resistance, we watched The Santa Clause (which they loved).

The English department also puts on a Christmas concert. A few classes did performances (carolling, A Christmas Carol, The night before Christmas, a magic show, etc). It was great and really felt like home. The Canadian staff (looking good in our Santa hats) performed Jingle Bells and Rudolf. Good fun!

We had a little get together for the English department in the Canada Club. It was the kick off for Secret Santa and we had lots of sweets and watched Christmas Vacation.

My birthday of course is also in December (the 21st). It was surprisingly great. The weekend before, a bunch of us went out into the city for a nice dinner and a few drinks, and Katie and I got a hotel room (a soft bed, yay!). I also had my first street meat experience that night, chicken on a stick. Bonus, was quite delicious and didn’t kill me. On my actual birthday, I got a surprise I never expected. One of my classes planned a big party for me! When I got to the classes, the lights were all out and a student was waiting for me by the door. She covered my eyes and led me into the classroom. The whole class sang me Happy Birthday (IN ENGLISH!). When she uncovered my eyes the class was decorated, all the desks had been pushed to the side and in the back of the room was one of the biggest, most beautiful cakes I have ever seen and lit up with candles. It was amazing. The other classes all wished me happy birthday and I even got a few little presents. It was really great. That night, Katie made me a cake, and a couple people came over. It was really all I could have hoped for and more. I Skyped home with the fam jam (they sent me an eReader!). Needless to say, I went to bed a happy girl.

The Canadian staff were given the 23rd off for Christmas. That evening, the school hosted their annual staff Christmas/New Year party. Lots of food, cake, snacks, entertainment and prizes (everything from shampoo to iPads). I left with a real pretty scarf 🙂 I was feeling pretty down after that, it really started to hit me that I wasn’t going to be home for Christmas. So I went for a walk around campus and went to bed kinda sad that night.

Christmas Eve day I spent in the office, planning for the week and to kepe my mind off things. The night, the Canadian staff all went out for a traditional Christmas dinner at Paul’s (same place as Thanksgiving). It was actually a really great time. Then when we got back we all just hung out in one of the apartments. It was a nice night.

Christmas morning here was the same time as Christmas Eve back home. So I Skyped in on the annual fam get together at my aunts! I got to talk to everyone, meet my uncles new girlfriend, AND I participated in the Yankee Swap! I got a nice basket of maple products that I fully intend to divulge in when I get home (so long as Dad hasn’t finished them off by then!).

While the fam was sleeping away, we made our own Christmas here. Katie made a nice big breakfast for us. Then we relaxed all day, I made a Christmas dinner for myself, Katie, Mark and Ryan (not easy when all you have to work with is 2 hotplates and a toaster oven). Katie cooked us up some apple pies for desert. Then we opened our stockings and watched Love, Actually. After all that was over, it was time for Christmas morning back home. Skyped in with the fam, opened all our presents (Mom sent me a SWEET  lens for my camera) and I even had a present at home (it’s in my bank account now). 🙂 By that time, it was time for me to go to bed, I had to work the next day. I woke up early and Skyped with Pepere and Paula, then headed off to work!

All in all, not a normal Christmas, BUT, way better than I ever imagined it being.

Now, random Chinese funniness. Christina and I were lounging around the staff room, procrastinating because we didn’t want to mark exams. We were chatting about things we missed about home, and a recurring theme was cleanliness. Right on cue, Matt comes in and says, “You guys will never guess what happened.” He had been putting together a theme unit for Jekyll and Hyde. Had a whole case of printouts and activities and set them on the floor of the room. We looked over and….. a cat pooped on them. Keep in mind that this is on the second floor of an academic building, in the staff room. Only in China. Later rumours were that it might have been a rat, but if it was, it was a massive one.

New year is a pretty big deal in China (lunar new year, of course). Every year, the kids get to have a party in their homeroom from 7-9. We are encouraged to go visit them during this time. I gotta say, they were pretty crazy! I sang karaoke in 4 out 5 of the classes. They had strobe lights going, KFC and Pizza Hut everywhere, prizes, games, decorations. It was awesome. Those kids can dance.

So, right now, I am about 12 hours from leaving for my big adventure. I have 31 days off, and I’m spending 25 of them on vacation. Tomorrow, I spend the day in Singapore, then it’s off to Thailand for 15 days, and then Bali (Indonesia) for 10 days. Melissa meets Katie and I in Thailand on the 21st. It’s going to be the trip of a lifetime. Going to try to keep everyone posted, should have lots of stuff to share!

Love.

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December, you make me so happy.

Posted on December 4, 2011 by jhor138

Well, it’s only December 5 and already my “November blues” seem to have vanished!

This weekend was really great. Friday night I went into Tongzhou with Katie for some Pizza Hut and a little bit of shopping, then we spent the rest of the evening on the couch and watched Peter Pan (my first time!).

Saturday I slept most of the day, but the evening was fun! The school got us tickets to a show at the Great Hall of the People. You can hit Wikipedia for some more info, but it’s kind of a big deal that we got to go. The building acts as the parliament building for the Chinese goverment and I guess it’s not often things that go on there allow foreigners in. It is located at Tiananmen Square. Anyway, the show was a bunch of performances put on by people with disabilities (amputees, deaf, blind, etc) and it was really awesome. The performances were very Chinese (kung fu, Chinese opera, ribbon dances, and so on). I was told that there were some goverment officials there. It was a great night. I took a video of one performance, I can’t upload it here, but I will try on Facebook!

It was also great just driving through the city at night on Saturday. A lot of the expat areas and hotels have put up Christmas lights and decorations. It’s really great. 🙂

Today I spent about 7 hours awake, 3 of which were spent Skyping with Mom and Dad. The rest was spent eating and watching 30 Rock. It was a truly great day.

Anyway, not much more to say! Three weeks left of teaching, one week of supervising self study periods, one week of exams, one week of marking (total 6!) then I am off for one month to beautiful Thailand and Bali! And I get to see Melissa! Wooo!

Oh! Also, Christmas cards are starting to arrive. Thanks to Memere and Bill so far! Puts a smile on my face. 🙂

Bye! 🙂

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Oh November, I am not sad to see you go…

Posted on November 28, 2011 by jhor138

I has been almost 1 month since I last posted here.. There are two reasons for this:

  1. It has been a super super busy month.
  2. Nothing overly interesting has happened.

Since my last post I joined a bellydancing class. This dance studio had a sale, 1 year unlimited class membership for 399RMB ($60CAN). I couldn’t really pass that up, even though I have no idea how to bellydance. I have only made it to one class so far (sad, I know). It was AWESOME though! It was a male instructor, Chinese, so I had no idea what he was saying, but I just watched and hoped I was doing at least part of it right! I’m looking forward to going again! Katie and two of the Chinese teachers here joined as well.

Since last post LOTS has happened around school. Midterm season has come and gone. It was crazy. The school makes us write 3 exams per class (an A, B, and C level). So, along with the other grade 10 teacher, we made up our exams. The exams were designed to be 100 minutes long. After of course, I had 150 exams to mark. THAT was a FUN weekend. Following that, I had to make up 150 report card marks. THEN I had to fill out Subject Progress Report Forms for each student. Welcome to the life of a teacher! I spent the whole weekend in bed, surrounded by papers.

Today, we did mock oral English Second Language Assessments (ESLA) with all of the grade 11 students. This is a NB government test the same as many of you would have taken for French Oral Proficiency. The rating scale is the exact same (Unrateable to Superior). We do a mock one now and they do a real one later in the year. For the real one officials are sent from NB. It was kind of fun today though, I conducted 22 interviews, 10 minutes each. It is not often you have a chance to just talk one on one with the students. They have some interesting stories. One Friday we are doing mock writing and reading ESLA. Busy busy!

During a vocabulary test last week, a student would not stop talking. After being warned twice, I took his test and told him he would be receiving a zero. Wouldn’t ya know, he called me the Chinese equivalent of a f#$!ing b!tch! Of course, he figured that if he said it in Chinese I wouldn’t understand, but I’m a quick one! I was not happy, but I have to admit, it did make me feel like finally, I’m a real teacher! 🙂

Another fun story. During class one day, I was walking around helping some students with their work when one of my best students raised her hand and asked if she could ask me a personal question. I said sure:

  • Student: Jessica do you have a boyfriend?
  • Me: Nope! No boyfriend!
  • Student (looking shocked and slightly apalled): Why not? I’m sure lots of boys would want to be your boyfriend!
  • Me: Well, I guess I just don’t really want one right now…
  • Student (here’s the good part): Are you… Are you… a lesbian?
  • Me (caught off-guard and unsure how to respond): No, no, I just, you know, I travel a lot, sometimes that can be hard.
  • Student (looking at me like I’m a dummy): Well why don’t you just find someone who will travel with you?

Now why didn’t I think of that?

Hmmm… A fun part of this month was that I received mail! I ordered a few packages from amazon.cn, and received 2 things from Mom and one from Memere! Nothing makes me happier than getting to my office desk and there being mail waiting there for me. Mom sent me some Christmas decorations and Memere sent me a card and a Christmas pin! 🙂

As Christmas is getting closer, I am trying harder and harder to not allow myself to be homesick. We are quickly approaching a new record for time spent away from home. The summer I spent in LA I was away for 4 months (but I cheated, Mom and Dad visited after 3). So now, it will be 4 months on December 22. The day after my birthday. 3 days before Christmas. And I am in a country that for the most part, doesn’t celebrate Christmas. The school does decorate a bit for Christmas though, and lets us put on a Christmas concert with the kids and do a bunch of other Christmas-y things with them. I have also  found some places to buy Christmas stuff though! They made me happy. I was practically pushing my money at them, I just wanted to take the stuff home. So now we have a little tree and some stockings.  Also, Justin Bieber’s new Christmas CD keeps the smile on my face. But my prediction is that from December 19- 27, I will be a wreck.

Aside from all that, I don’t think there is much more to update on! I haven’t been doing much, trying to save money for my big trip in January! 1 day in Singapore, 15 days in Thailand, and 11 days in Bali. Going to be beyond incredible. All of my flights are booked, just working on hotels now. Katie will be with me the whole time in Thailand, Melissa will be joining me for a week in Thailand and 7 days in Bali, then I am alone for 3 days, and back home I go! Reminding myself about this trip will be my only chance at staying sane through the holidays.

I’ll let ya’ll know if I think of anything else! I think December will be a bit more exciting 🙂 And I KNOW January and February will be (yay trip!).

Love ya’s!

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Just living my Chinese life!

Posted on November 1, 2011 by jhor138

Hey there folks! I don’t have a lot to share but I didn’t want to leave you hanging for too long (it’s been almost 2 weeks!) so here is a bit about how life is going in China.

I never thought I would say it, but I am praying for RAIN! The air quality for the past 2 weeks has been terrible. It is so smoggy every single day. Sometimes it is so bad I feel like I am turning my lungs black just by breathing. When it rains, it usually results in clear, blue skies for at least 2 or 3 days, so I am just hoping for a downpour to happen soon!.

A couple of exciting, uuber Chinese experiences to share with you:

  1. I did my first market transaction completely in Chinese. No hand gestures, no English, just me and the vendor speaking Chinese. It was for a little pink plant in a pretty dish and cost me 20RMB ($3.10). Keep in mind it was pretty simple Chinese, but still. I was pretty proud.
  2. I was in my first car accident. Don’t worry, nothing serious. As I’m sure I mentioned earlier, the driving here is nuts. In fact, if my parents come visit, the thing I am most excited for is to watch their faces on the drive from the airport. It is that great. So anyway, cars tend to weave in and out and around traffic. We were in a cab, in really bad traffic. We tried to cut in front of a real pretty Mercedes and needless to say, we didn’t quite make it. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Nice little rub. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Back out of it. Flag the Mercedes forward. The end. Neither driver even flinched (spelling?) or seemed concerned. At home, it would have been a big ordeal. No worries here. Just do as the Chinese do: my new philosophy (for some things..)!
  3. After spending a rather excessive amount (by Chinese standards, not Canadian ones, promise) on clothes at H&M Beijing, I finally found a Chinese place that sells sort of normal sized clothes and bought a jacket! It is getting really cold here now (usually anywhere between 0 and 15 degrees) and I needed something warm! The government controls the heat here and apparently usually does not turn it on until mid November, so I guess I will be bundling up for the next couple of weeks!
  4. Not that is an overly Chinese experience, but I went downhill skiing… indoors. Our school has a snowboard club, and they planned an outing and invited the Canadian teachers to join in. For 250RMB (about $40) we got to spend the day at an indoor ski hill with all the rentals included (boots, skis, snowpants, jacket, locker, etc). Now, if you are anything like I was you are probably wondering “How in the heck is there a ski hill INDOORS?” The answer is quite simple: it is a big building. The facility has 2 hills. One is much bigger and steeper than the other. The smaller one is great, just the right amount of challenge. It has a small little jump near the top. The big hill was really steep on the top half, offered a slalom and 2 bigger jumps. It was SO MUCH FUN! It was about an hour drive from where we live. We left at 830 and got back around 6. Great day. Great facility. Only downsides were that the restaurant only served Chinese food, but I survived on Pepsi and some Mr. Noodles that I brought along AND  they had squatters. BUT they were the cleanest squatters I have seen yet and they even provided toilet paper, so I give them props for that.
  5. Another not so Chinese experience: BCCSC Halloween! We had a little party with lots of junk food and some Halloween movie trivia in our gathering place on campus (We call it the Canada Club). Mark was kind enough to organize the whole thing! It was really fun, and most of us dressed up (costume choices are limited in a country that doesn’t celebrate Halloween). I really missed being home to see the trick or treaters, AND the annual Halloween celebrations in Halifax though. Funny how something as silly as Halloween can make a person just a teeny bit homesick (or maybe a lot..).
  6. China has Amazon! And I finally figured it out. Amazon.cn is in Chinese, but if you use Google Chrome it will translate it for you. I should be getting my first package in the mail tomorrow (Lonely Planet Bali and some Hershey Kisses). It take one day for delivery. Pretty awesome. Mostly I am just pumped to get some mail though! Hopefully it makes it here.

Well, I think that’s all for now! I’m starting to try to get my January trip to Thailand and Bali all figured out (I have 1 month off for Chinese New Year). Melissa is meeting Katie and I in Thailand! So exciting. A couple other visitors are pending for after the new year as well, so I am pretty excited! Will keep ya’ll posted on plans!

Love ya’s! xoxox 🙂

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Beijing Foreign Language Festival 2011

Posted on October 16, 2011 by jhor138

So a few weeks ago, I was asked if I could be part of a small skit on October 16th. Today it happened. I have been dreading it since the day I was asked. After working 7 days straight, I really just wanted the weekend to myself, but of course, 7am this morning I was on a bus into the city. It turns out the skit was actually part of the Beijing Foreign Language Festival, and was held at the Beijing Working People’s Cultural Palace (just inside the outer wall to the Forbidden City). There were a number of outdoor stages set up and lots of small performances happening throughout the morning. We were 3rd to go up. First was a country band (from Australia maybe?), then a group of small children who attend an English school (they sang a song and did a little dance, and were ADORABLE). Then it was our turn. With our Canadian VP, Katie and I went on stage pretending to be interviewing as new teachers, and our VP goes on to tell us the story of Yena. Yena is a former student who attended University of Ottawa and returned as a teacher to our school. She comes up and sings a beautiful song, then our students come up with us and sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It was kinda fun. Our school did a few other performances: a Tibetan dance, a hiphop routine, sword tai chi. The students all did a really great job. We wandered around the park for a bit, and there were some really amazing performances. Lots of singing, some kungfu demos, the military police did two performances, and some chinese dances. It was really really neat to see. We also got pulled into a shadow puppet demo by a children’s school. We got front row seats, and they explained to us the story they were about to perform, in English, then did the performance. Once they were finished they yanked us up on stage and showed us how to use the puppets (Wikipedia it, they are pretty neat and a dying art in China). We hit the road after this.

In other news, I got my first manicure today… Went big and got the OPI manicure for 60RMB (yup.. about $9.30). I enjoyed it. 🙂

Also, this week we had a university expo at our school, and over 58 universities attended, many being from Canada. DAL, SMU, UNB, MUN, MTA, Concordia were all in attendance! Just thought it was kinda cool!

Well that’s all for now! Not much happens when you work as much as I did this week. Seee yas!

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Chillin’ in the PRC. It ain’t no LBC.

Posted on October 10, 2011 by jhor138

So things have been sort of slowing down here the last little while, but I now have lots to say and my wonderful Dad told me it was time to write a blog. So heeeeere we go!

A couple days after my last blog, I had my first not so lovely experience in class. I turned around and two boys were having a fist fight. I got mad, they broke it up. So out of character for kids here. Turned out one boy wrote on the others shirt with a pen.

Next, I got myself set up with a fish tank! It’s pink, and heated, and pretty. I have 7 fish. Harriet, Neil Jr. Jr., Flounder, Ryan, Eddy, Monica, and Tim. They make me happy. I sit and watch them more than a normal person probably should.

Last Friday was Sports Day at BCCSC. We hit up the opening ceremony at 7:30 in the morning and it was so awesome. Each class was a team, and they marched around the field in front of us. The older grades really got into it and many of them had uniforms. There was a Harry Potter-esque team with cloaks, a team lead by Pikachu, lots of great looks! The most amazing was a team that walked by, all had cute matching shirts, but didn’t look over the top. Then, when they walked past us they all released birds! It was amazing. I guess one kid’s dad brought in his homing pigeons. So so cool. After the opening ceremony, the competition began. There were individual races, relays, high jumps, something similar to shot-put. It was basically same as field days at home, but classes competed as teams. The events and closing ceremony ended at 11:30am and then we had the rest of the day off! The start of China’s National Holiday.

National Day in China is October 1. The PRC was founded on October 1, 1949. So the week of October 1 is considered to be National Holiday. Which means that we were off from Friday, September 30th, until Friday October 7th. Notice that Saturday and Sunday (the 8th and 9th) are not included, but that’s for the next paragraph!.

So Friday we chilled all day, and went out Friday night! It was fun! On Sunday, we went to the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven has 4 main areas, the most famous being the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. It is just amazing. It was originally built form 1406-1420 and was renovated in the 18th century.

After the Temple of Heaven, we went to the Pearl Market. Not long after going in, 2 purse vendors decided I looked like a rope and decided to play tug of war with me, one pulling each arm. It was highly amusing. Didn’t buy any pearls because I guess people at the school have a specific vendor they always go to, and we didn’t know who it was, but we will be going back! Pearls EVERYWHERE. Following the Pearl Market, we ventured off to find the Dirt Market (an outdoor folk art market), and after a long trek, we found it! Lots of jade carvings and Buddha statues. Home after that!

Sunday night, we (Katie, Ryan, Mark and I) went to Moon River and walked through a park and along the river. It was just beautiful. All lit up and lined with willow trees. Who knew you could find something so pretty so close to Tuanli? It was a nice relaxing night. We also stumbled upon a random dance class being held under the bridge. It was kinda neat. One thing about China is that everyone seems to be really active. There are always groups of people dancing or doing tai chi and stuff in the streets and in parks. There is even public exercise equipment everywhere (looks kinda like playground equipment) and people are always one them.

Monday, I decided it was time to get away, so I booked a hotel room for myself in the city. I stayed at the Sofitel Wanda Beijing. Beautiful view of some of the most famous buildings in the city. It was pure luxury. You can get hotel rooms very cheap in Beijing, but I wanted to pamper myself (and take a bath!), so I went big, which means I paid what I would normally for a room home and practically got a luxury suite. SOFT bed. TV in the bathtub. Rainforest shower. It was amazing. I went to check in around 1, then ventured off to find a place to go skating. Met up with Ryan and Mark, went skating. Took a rickshaw to Sanlitun and ate a delicious meal at Blue Frog. Explored Chinese WalMart. Then went back to the hotel to relax. It was fabulous!

Slept all day Tuesday. Ryan and I needed to get out of Tuanli so we went into the city for dinner (which ended up being just dessert, we’re healthy like that!). Hung out on the roof at the Stumble Inn until about 1130 then headed ‘er back to Tuanli.

Wednesday was boring, lazy, do-nothing day in Tuanli. Womp womp Wooomp. Thursday, Katie, Ryan and I went into the city to do some shopping. Didn’t have much luck. I bought a shirt at the silk market. Had an awesome Italian dinner at Annie’s, got some delicious dessert at Flour, then hung out on the roof at Stumble Inn again until about midnight. We got a cheap hotel for night nearby.

Friday was getting settled back in because… HERE IT IS…. We had to work Saturday and Sunday to make up for lost time! Yay. Chinese law states that the kids need to have a set amount of school days, so they have to make up a lot of holidays. So for Thanksgiving weekend: I worked. Sunday after work, the school did pay for a bus to take us into the city so we could go to an American restaurant and have turkey dinner. And it was amazing. ‘Nuff said.

Oh also, I am now a high roller. I bought a Rolex watch for 95RMB (about $14), it died. And I am now on to a 25RMB (about $3.90) Gucci watch, so far, so good! I am also the proud owner of “Salvatore Ferragamo” and “Jimmy Choo” purses. Definitely “real”. 😉

This week was the first week I was really truly homesick. I was sick, my blood sugars were beyond messed up, and I just wanted to be home. I’m fine now, and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, but I guess it’s something I’m going to have to get used to. It’s very unlike me, so it was kinda hard to deal with. So, here’s an open invite to anyone wanting to come visit! I promise, you will see a baby poop on the street, but I will do my best to help you avoid squatters!

Also, according to my passport, I am officially a resident of China! Yay 🙂

I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff, buuuut I’ll write it up when I remember! Love ya’s! xo

Also, be sure to check out the pics on Facebook! 🙂 http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.768478062589.2259618.94803199&l=5cb3c6face&type=1

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Just how great is the GREAT WALL?! Great.

Posted on September 22, 2011 by jhor138

After writing great 3 times for the title of this blog, the word is starting to looking weird to me..

Anyway, it’s been a while. Sorry. Lots to say though! Its been about 2 weeks since my last post? Oops! Lots to share. Let’s get started shall we?

Story #1. Last week we went to KFC for dinner. We sat at a table in the middle of the restaurant. We got the usual stare down from everyone in the place. However, one little girls reaction was PRICELESS. This little girl was sitting a couple tables away from us, and when she saw us, she was just freaked out. Probably around 10 years old, I’m willing to bet she had never seen white people before in her life. She instantly threw her hands to her face in utter shock. Mouth wide open. Held the expression and hid behind her mother, while peeking around and staring, all the while maintaining the hand-on-the-face-totally-shocked expression. When they were leaving, Katie was getting ice cream at the counter (yes, KFC has ice cream here!), and her mom went to her, shook her hand, and said, “Hello. Nice to meet you.” The conversation didn’t go any further, but I was impressed she showed her daughter we were normal people!

Story #2. Friday night we went to KTV XinGui (Happy World) for Ryan’s birthday. KTVs are karaoke bars in China. Now, in China, karaoke is more like a sport. KTVs are some of the fanciest buildings, and are everywhere. The way it works is amazing. You go in with your friends, and you get your OWN ROOM! We spent 4 hours there, singing up a storm. It was so much fun. Only problem is, the Chinese take karaoke seriosuly, so if you walk by any of the other rooms, you hear the voices of angels. You walk by our room… just atrocious. But still, a solid time.

Story #3. Saturday we went on an adventure to find Baliqiao Market. After taking the subway from Tongzhou to Baliqiao, and finding out that Baliqiao Market was actually in Tongzhou, we made our way back and eventually found it! This place is massive. Just warehouse after warehouse of random stuff, from watermelon to soccer balls, to cutlery, to pets. You want it, you can probably find it there… eventually. Anyway, we were in the pet warehouse looking at some bunnies and turtles. I was standing, Katie was facing me, crouched down looking at a bunny. 3 kids came around the corner to see us and gathered around Katie, staring at me. They didn’t realise that the person crouched down in front of them was also white. She turned around and said hello and they FREAKED! Running and screaming in all directions. It was highly amusing. They eventually came back though, and we entertained them for a while. One of the kids, a little girl could actually speak decent English! She said hello and introduced herself to us. Her English name is Water. So cute. But hilarious situation.

Story #4. The Great Wall of China. On Sunday, the school had a bus take the newbies to the Great Wall. Now, there are many different places you can visit the Great Wall (according to Wikipedia, the Wall is 8,851.8 km). We visited it at a place called Mutianyu in Beijing. It was about 1.5 hours to drive there. for 125RMB (a bit under $20) you got the lift up, and the toboggan slide down (it’s at the top of a mountain). It was just stunning. Such beautiful scenery. Such an impressive, ancient structure. It was Ryan’s birthday, so it was fun to do something so exciting! Also, a 2nd year Canadian couple came along with us. Matt really wanted to go to the top of one of the towers because he had been there before and knew there was a great view. So we went and checked it out. We were about to head down and he asked Krista (his girlfriend) to take one more picture. She was a bit annoyed, but agreed. They got into position, he got down on one knee, and proposed! It was amazing. She was so surprised. Of course, said yes. It was really just a special, amazing day. They way down was the most fun though. They have a slide built to get back down the hill. It is sortof of like a cross between a bobsled and the skeleton, you sit on this little cart with a break and just give’er down the hill. It was amazingggg!

This week was a fun week at school. I managed to plan a whole class with a Justin Bieber theme (Chinese teens LOVE the Biebs, and T.Swift, so I fit in justgreat!). Also, my grade 10s have a cooking class on Wednesday and brought me food they cooked. Sushi and fish chowder. The fish chowder group made me try it in front of them. That was tough on me. But I think that if I liked fish chowder, it would have been a real good one! Luckily the sushi girl ran off before making me try it. I’m not sure I could have swallowed that one. Phew!

Last night we also had a baby shower for Rod and Jojo (teachers at my school, Rod is from Canada!). They had their baby last week (beautiful baby Allison). It is a bad omen in China to have a shower before the baby is born, so we had to wait! They brought the baby, we played some games, at some cupcakes, it was fun!

That’s all for now! Terry Fox Run on Saturday (yes, Terry Fox.. in CHINA!). Have a good one and love you all! xox

Ooooh! Also,  I managed to order 2 pineapple pies from McDonald’s tonight WITHOUT the picture menu! (for Katie, not me). Yay! Now I’ll be all set if I can just stop getting spoons everytime I ask for salt! 🙂

All my new pictures from the wall are posted here! You can check them out even if you don’t have Facebook (forgot to mention that in the last post): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.768478062589.2259618.94803199&l=5cb3c6face&type=1

PS. Added some pics to the last post too!

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