Yes!! Here’s something brand new!!

Max and Julia's baby daughter!

She is about a month old now, and this picture was taken about a week ago.  She is soooo sweet! Mom is doing great and dad is over the moon.  As is typical here in China, both sets of grandparents are very ‘hands on’ with the care of both mom and baby.  Max’s parents have come up to stay in M & J’s home for a few months to help out and J’s mom and dad live in the apartment building next door. Lots of help!!  Of course baby is going to be horribly spoiled with all that attention, but don’t we all wish we could be?

This semester has been pretty busy for me with classes 5 days a week and private students on Sundays.  They are all winding down though and I will be done by the middle of June.  It’s going to be a very long summer as I won’t be travelling anywhere this year. Hopefully I can pick up some more private work to keep me out of trouble.

The advent of summer also means hot weather and, of course, street barbecues.  It’s nice to have our weekly ‘laowai’ dinner out on the sidewalk, relaxing in the early evening with good food, great company and cold beer!  We still can’t figure out how they make the beer so good so cheap!  (We’re just happy they do!)

Anyway folks..I’m going to say goodbye for now, and as I always do, I’ll try very hard to come back and write something. Take care everyone and remember…if someone does something nice for you, pay it forward cause we’re all in this together.

Love you all x0x

Jilly        Life is Good

At the end of July I went home to visit the family.  I had 6 weeks holiday in total, so I had 3 weeks at home in Canada and 3 weeks in England visiting family there.  Unfortunately, both places had their stresses for me.  At home, I needed to renew my mortgage, insurances, driving license etc., all before the end of July which was a week after I arrived.  The trip to England was full of mixed emotions.  I hadn’t seen family there for about 4 years, so I was looking forward to having some happy times with them.  But it was also when my brothers and I had decided to finally bring our mother’s ashes home to be buried with our dad. It was what she wanted, and we had promised we would all go together, but never really got around to getting ourselves organized before I came to China.  Unfortunately, big brother Alan had some medical concerns and wasn’t able to join us.  It was just a few close family members, saying a few loving words to finally bring mum and dad together again.

At Walton Lea

Janet and I had a few lovely days together hiking along the coast of Wales and other days out exploring the nearby countryside.

Back to China at the beginning of September found me being moved from my humble home so it could be renovated.  I was told it would be about 3 weeks, which was fine with me.  Unfortunately, it was a little over 2 months! During that time I had no internet access, so I was a little bored with nothing new to download.  The pile of 14 new books I had acquired, and hoped would last me a year, were all read by the time I got back into my fresh new home!

My work schedule when I came back was very light…only 2 classes a week!  The slightly annoying part was that they were all from the same company and the company didn’t want them staying at the college, so they housed them out at a facility at ‘Swan Lake’.  This is a very old complex about 40 minutes from the college, so we were picked up by a driver at 7am and brought back after lunch about 12:30 or so.  Thankfully, it only lasted 5 months.  They wrote their exam just before Spring Festival in January 2011.

My Spring Festival holiday was spent in England again. (Canada isn’t great in February) I stayed with Janet and Rob in Manley, and 2 or 3 days a week would go into work in St. Helen’s with Jan, and then meet up with Marian and her hubby John to spend the day wandering a car-boot sale or garden centre with them. It was a lovely relaxing holiday, and I really enjoyed seeing everyone.

Since arriving back here in Dongying at the end of February, I have had lots of free time again waiting for a new class to arrive.  A new group came in last week and they will be here for 5 months, as per usual for the BFT (Business Foreign Language Test) training course.  I have only seen them twice but so far they seem very enthusiastic and interested in improving their English.

We are still holding our Wednesday night ‘laowai’ dinner get-togethers, often with between 15-20 foreigners meeting up to share experiences and just have a good old chin-wag.  I guess there isn’t anything else newsy to pass on, so I’ll say goodbye for now.  I’ll try very hard not to leave it so long next time.

Take care everyone…love to all xox

Jilly…Life is good

Summer is also the time of year that we say goodbye to many of our foreign friends here in the Dong.  Most teachers only stay for a short time in each place..one year usually, and then either go back home or move on to another city.  A few (like myself) choose to stay put in one place and settle for awhile.  One long term teacher was Ashley Martin from Toronto area.  She has been here for a couple of years but decided to go home last week.  She will be missed by many.  My new colleague, Mark, that joined the college last November is also going home to Ireland at the end of the month; we are really going to miss him here.  One lady I am truly sad to see go is Vera Olah. She and her husband Alex are from Australia and have been here for about a year.  Unfortunately we didn’t meet them until January, but we made up for lost time and have been fast friends since.  By September there will be a whole crop of new faces to get to know, new phone numbers to exchange and information about the best places to eat and where to shop will be shared.

As for me, I am getting very, very excited to be going home in a couple of weeks.  It has been two years since I saw the family, although it doesn’t feel like that long.  I am really looking forward to seeing all the changes in everyone and seeing what’s new around town.  There have been a few babies added to the family since I left as well!!  Can’t wait to meet them!  Before coming back to China (yes…I’ve signed on again!) I will travel to England to see my other family there.  I can hardly wait!

Well, I must be off.  I have had a particularly busy week and I have a full day of Judging an English speaking competition tomorrow and I need to clear up dishes and organize my things for morning.

I hope you are all well and happy and enjoying life to the fullest (or at least as best you can!).  Take care everyone…love you all.

Life is good.

Jilly?

I have had a very easy and quiet semester since the Spring Festival holiday.  Most weeks only 2 classes and the 4 hours at the English Club.  Nothing at all like last year when I had classes every day all day!  I’m not really sure which is worse…being completely knackered or completely bored!  I really would like to be busier though. Our Wednesday night laowai (foreigner) dinners are gathering quite the crowd at times.  Now that the hot weather is here we tend to frequent the local sidewalk barbecue places, so when you get 20 foreigners sitting out beside the road eating, guzzling beer and chatting up a storm, the locals start to gather. Some of the old folks even bring chairs to sit and just watch!  You have to remember that Dongying is a very small city and there are not a lot of foreigners here.

One interesting attraction is the roving street market.  It’s kind of like our local farmers market on a Saturday morning in Barrie……times about 2000!  This huge gathering of vendors moves around the city so that every five days it will be back in your neighbourhood.  You just need to mark your calender so you remember the date, and you can browse market stalls for hours with bargains galore.  This is where the locals do their shopping and it’s easy to see why.  No supermarket or department store prices here.  Chris and Michael and I had a wander for a couple of hours and just when we decided we’d had enough, Vera and Alex (more Aussie friends) called to say they were on their way and would I mind showing them where it was.  Chris and Michael bailed and so I waited for the new troops to arrive and went back and wandered some more.  They brought along a new Russian teacher named Lilia as well, and she and Vera stayed long after Alex and I gave up and went home.  It was after all, 32°c, so I wasn’t real happy out in the sun.

Chris and I took another little day trip down to Zibo.  It’s a manufacturing city about two hours by train from here.  It also has great street markets, and they were in full force on that day.  I was very pleased with my purchases (which I can’t divulge because they are for home) and we went to visit our favourite old man with the kegs of icy beer on the side of the street.  He always remembers us, and gets out two stools for us to sit and relax on, out of the sun, so we can enjoy our pint.

As I said at the top of the page, we are in the middle of another holiday.  Wednesday is Dragon Boat Festival, so in order to have three days off in a row, we did our classes on the weekend and have Mon., Tues., and Wed. off.  I’m rather glad of that because the really hot weather has arrived and it’s going to be 37°c tomorrow and 40°c on Wed. afternoon.  I would be melting in the classroom.  Anyway, we were going to go to Taishan (a kind of Holy mountain) but because of the weather and it being a holiday, there would be at least a million people there..we cancelled the plan.  To celebrate, we are going to treat ourselves to an early morning (7:30) breakfast at the DongSheng Mansion.  Mmmmm….bacon…french toast…pancakes and syrup!  Can’t wait!

Well folks…I guess that’s about it for now.  Not very exciting I know, but it’s all I’ve got for you!

Take care everyone; I hope you are all well and happy.  Love to you all? x0x

Jilly    Life is good.

Well, it’s the middle of April and I still don’t have any classes here.  Now I am told May for sure.  In the meantime, I have baked my way through 5 kilos of flour and given the proceeds to my foreign friends so I don’t eat all those goodies!  On the upside, I have finally mastered the art of baking in a toaster oven without burning everything to a lump of black charcoal!

While you folks back home were celebrating Easter, here in China it was the Qing Ming Festival.  This translates loosely to “tomb sweeping festival”.  A three day holiday for the whole country so people  may pay their respects to their dead ancestors.  Graves are swept, cleaned and decorated.  Imitation money is burned and food is left by the grave.  Some relaxation for the family is also in order for most people.  Mark and I spent the Saturday with my friend Joy and her son Leo and her niece Katie.  We began the afternoon with a picnic lunch from KFC at a small man-made lake in East City.  We then took a taxi out to a place called Swan Lake.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned this place before; it’s a huge reservoir on the outskirts of the city.  The size of it is, in itself, unbelievable to me…60 square kilometers…but even more unbelievable is the fact that it was all dug by hand!  All that ground was dug and moved by thousands of workers.  Remember, labour is cheap here; if you don’t want the job..someone else does.

Now the name Swan Lake is a bit deceiving I think.  I have been here half a dozen times and except for seeing a few swans in the distance one time, the only swans you see are in the very small zoo on the man-made island.  It is said that this place is on the migration route, but I think it’s wishful thinking on the part of the tourist bureau here.  There really isn’t anything pretty about the place, mostly concrete and kitchy stuff for kids to spend their parents money on.  The children did enjoy it though, and that’s what’s important.

This past weekend was more fun.  I went with Chris to visit his young Chinese mate, Michael in his home village on the shores of the Yellow River.  We took a city bus to the edge of Dongying and waited, without success, for one of the small local buses that serve the countryside villages.  They are usually quite regular, but on that particular day, after waiting about 20 minutes, one came by that was so full we couldn’t get on!  There is always a long line of mini taxis (those little three wheeled cars) for those people that don’t want to take a bus or live where the buses don’t go.  We had our doubts that one of them could actually move if we both got in, so we opted for a proper (though still small) car.  The lady driver had to call for directions to the village, and half way there Chris had to call Michael to direct her the rest of the way.  What an adventure!

Once in the village, we met up with Michael and were introduced to his father who was busy in their shop.  It’s kind of a combination food store and farm supply shop.  We went for a walk to the home of Michaels’ aunt and met his grandma and “little brother”. Little brother or little sister is what they call their cousins.  I think it’s a way to help an only child feel like they have a bigger family. I took a few photos in the house with grandma; she was a little concerned that they should pay me for taking them! She was apparently 80 something years old, but no one knew for sure.  She was very sweet, and I couldn’t help but notice her tiny little feet that would have been bound when she was a girl.

We left auntie’s house with the little guy in tow to go for a walk down to the Yellow River.  Normally it is quite wide and fairly fast running but because of the lack of rain in the west of China where it originates, the level in it and many of the other rivers and lakes in China are terribly low.  In fact, in the south west, an entire lake has completely dried up, leaving 20 million residents around it’s shores without water.  The government is trucking in water and drilling wells to help with the problem.

The boys played their own version of “pooh sticks”.  No bridge to drop them off, and they were standing on a 10ft high bank with the low water about 50 meters away…so the little guy would pull up a dead corn stalk from last year, hand it to Chris, and he would throw it as far as he could towards the water.  A couple actually made it!  The stalks also proved to be good “swords” for mock sword fights. Needless to say, Chris is the little guys’  hero.  He follows him around like a puppy.

Back from the yellow river, we were given a lovely lunch of local Black fish, in the back room of the shop.  It was really tasty with fresh steamed bread to sop up the broth with.  After lunch we walked around the village meeting and talking with the locals.  The village is very small, with the main road about 500 meters from end to end.  The small lanes the intersect all along this road are perhaps 100 meters in length, so everyone knows you if you live there.  We visited an older couple who were known for welcoming the locals, especially the children, into their humble home.  When we arrived, there were five or six children all up on the “kang” which is an elevated bed, about six feet wide, watching TV.  The open space beneath the bed is heated in winter to keep you warm at night.

It was an interesting and very enjoyable day out of the city.  Although the day was quite cold and windy, it didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the adventure.  The people were very friendly and welcoming and Michael has a smile that could warm anyone’s heart.

I guess that’s it for now. Oh…while I have been writing this, my boss phoned and told me that I have a class starting next Monday!! Yippeee!! I can’t wait to meet them!

Take care everyone and keep smilin’.  Love you all?

Jilly

Well, not much to write about lately.  I am still not teaching yet since our break before Spring Festival because the workers are apparently very busy catching up from the lowered production during the holiday.  I am told that the shit will hit the fan in April when the new BFT class arrives, the English Touring Competition arrives and another small group will also arrive.  I can’t wait to get busy!!

I have met some new foreigners recently, which is always nice!  A lovely couple from Australia, Vera and Alex, are teaching at the other college campus of China Petroleum University.  Alex is teaching the Uni students and Vera is at the Primary school located on the Uni campus.  Both are enjoying their  time here, I think, especially now as they have joined our Wednesday night dinner group!  They have been in Dongying since last August, but hadn’t been introduced to many foreigners outside their campus.  One of my former Chinese students, who lived in Canada for some years, introduced them to me.  I’m glad she did, for their sake and ours!!

The weather here in the Dong is up and down daily still.  Some afternoons up in the high teens and then down to 2° - 5° overnight and the next day only maybe 7° or so.  It’s difficult to know what to put on when you go out!!  Still, the sun does shine nearly every day here, so whatever the temperature, it’s still OK.   That is, it’s OK if you are outside….when you are inside, and your combination air conditioner/heater won’t work…well, it is more than a little chilly.  Over most of the winter, we have central heating supplied, but that gets turned off on March 17th., when people then switch to the portable units in their homes to take the chill off.  Mine died last Friday night, and is yet to have it’s new compressor installed…..soooo….I am a little chilly in the morning!!  I won’t complain too much though, because one day, very soon, it will shoot up to 30° and stay there until July when (according to my Chinese friends) it will begin to get hot!!  lol.   But it’s OK.  A little hot weather for a couple of months is easy to endure compared to the aggravation, lack of respect and a measly 2 weeks vacation I used put up with at my old job!!   Bring on the heat!!! 

Speaking of my old job, I was reading the Examiner on line the other day and saw that an old friend/customer from the track had passed away.  Eddie Silverman was a regular visitor, not so much to gamble, but to socialize with the other older guys who were also regulars.  He had a very dry sense of humour, which some of my co-workers didn’t get and we shared many little inside jokes.  R.I.P. Eddie…I know you will be sadly missed.  My sincerest condolences to those who loved him.

Well, it’s nearly 7:30am and I’m not dressed so I had better sign off and get cleaned up in case my compressor arrives at 8:00am!  I hope all is well with you folks out there in cyberspace.  Take care…and be happy.  Love to you all til next time.

Jilly?  Life is Good.

I am chuckling as I write my greeting because I recently read a news story on the yahoo page and as I scrolled down to the bottom I saw there were some comments.  One of them began…”hello guys and gals…” and nearly every comment after that was from someone taking offense to his greeting!!  No one was concerned about the injustice related in the news article…just his “old fashioned/treating us like children/why is the word “guys” first” etc. etc. crap!!  PLEEEEEZE people!!  I have come to the conclusion that there are people out there in cyberspace who really have nothing better to do than scan every article for political correctness!  They are the self appointed “political correctness police”.  So, I would like to make a suggestion.  Lets have the “proper grammar/correct spelling police” edit their comments before being  posted…….. problem solved.  Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts (just remember that all comments have to be approved by the administrator…..me)

Now…the Lantern Festival.  I told you recently about Lantern Festival and how it marked the end of the Spring Festival holiday.  The highlight of the day (which was last Sunday) is seeing the evening sky come ablaze with beautiful fireworks displays put on at various venues around the city, as well as citizens lighting small, red paper lanterns and setting them aloft into the night.  It’s a really magical sight to see.  Unfortunately for Dongying, we were hit with a rare snow storm which began at about 2:00pm.  It snowed most of the day, but we were hopeful it might wane in the evening.  Mark, Chris and I went to one of our favourite restaurants (Little Heaven) for dinner, as it is a short 10 minute walk to Shengli Square from there.  When we finally emerged from the restaurant, we were greeted by even more snow falling, along with a 50km/hr wind!  Needless to say…all outdoor celebrations were cancelled.

Snow here in Dongying is unusual.  Since my arrival in the winter of 2007, it has never snowed more than three times over the course of a winter, and typically the amount is so small that, if I were at home in Canada, it wouldn’t even be noticed!  It’s one of the reasons I like it here.  Winter is so much easier!  Other foreigners though, like my friends from Australia and Chinese friends from the south of China, all think its great fun!  And I don’t really mind as it doesn’t last long and it does look quite pretty for awhile.  The amusing thing is that there isn’t any snow removal equipment anywhere here in the city, so streets, sidewalks, and parking lots are all cleared by hand…..many hands.

No one seems to mind this very much, as it is a rare occasion.  At this time of year the days are getting longer and the daytime temperatures are up and down like a toilet seat in a co-ed bathroom.  As this is “sunny” Dongying, even if the temperatures hover around zero, it feels warmer and without ice and snow to battle, it’s always a pleasant journey out to do errands or just go for a walk in the sunshine.

Well gang, I guess that’s it for now.  It’s 9:30am and the sun is shining so I am going to get myself organized with a shopping list and head out to the market to buy what I need to make dinner tomorrow night for a few friends.  I suppose it would be a good idea to decide what I will serve before I go…..hmmmm…..

Take care everyone….stay safe….be happy.  Love you all x0x

Jilly……Life is Good.

Well….Spring Festival is drawing to a close and things are beginning to get back to normal here in China.  As I have told you before Dongying is a fairly young city.  With oil having been discovered here about 40 years ago it has grown from a small village of a few hundred to a small city of about 1.5 million.  So it becomes a pretty quiet place during the holiday season for about 10 days, as nearly everyone here has come from somewhere else in China.  The street behind our college is made up of small, family owned restaurants that serve not only our staff and students but also those of the three public schools and their communities in the area.  For nearly two weeks they have been closed and shuttered while their owners make their yearly pilgrimage back to their hometowns to visit parents, grandparents and other family members.  But life is finally coming back to the little street.

My new colleague, Mark, went down to Changsha to visit Brooke.  Mark taught here at the college about 4 years ago, and he and Brooke got to know each other then.  Changsha is in the south of China, in Hunan Province, and so is usually quite a bit milder in climate than here in the north.  Unfortunately for Mark (and Brooke) this winter has been unseasonably cold, with temperatures down to zero c.  That wouldn’t be too difficult except that because of the usually mild climate…no one has central heating.  Keep in mind that the buildings are solid concrete so it can feel colder inside than outside at times!  Needless to say…it wasn’t too pleasant and Mark came home with a terrible cold.  But cold and damp aside…he and Brooke had a great reunion, and Mark had the opportunity to eats lots of western type food…especially cheese!!

As for work…well new classes are beginning to get organized here.  Our first order will be the Shengli Oilfield English Touring Competition beginning on March 16th.  This takes place four times each year, with nice cash prizes available to be won for those that have the best total score in English for speaking and writing.  Mark and I, along with three Chinese English teachers will be the judges for the speaking part of the competition.  After we are finished with the competition, a new BFT class will begin before the end of March.  They will live here on campus for five months and have nothing but English classes for 5 1/2 days a week, including evenings.  Very intense!

All in all it has been a lovely relaxing holiday.  A little of everything for me….quiet times, exciting times, time spent with good friends and some time spent alone.   This Sunday is Lantern Festival.  This is the fifteenth day of the Spring Festival Holiday and officially marks the end of the celebrations.  Red lanterns are hung all over the city; across and along streets, in  the square from trees and in doorways of homes and businesses.  It’s a beautiful sight to see!  Hopefully the weather will cooperate on Sunday evening so we can also enjoy the biggest full moon of the year here in China to show off the lovely Lanterns.  As New Year’s day is for eating “jiaozi” (meat or vegetable filled dumplings), Lantern Festival day is for eating “yuanxiao” (glutinous rice dumplings with a sweet filling).  I will certainly do my part in keeping up the tradition!!  Besides…it’s apparently good luck!

OK everyone, I guess that’s all for now.  I hope this finds you all well and happy and enjoying life any way you can.  Take care….love you all. x0x

Jilly……Life is Good

I am just letting you all know that I can no longer access my facebook account here in China.  That, as well as other sites like youtube and twitter, are no longer available here.  This is very upsetting to me as I used facebook as a connection to all my family and friends at home.  It allowed me to keep up to date with children and grandchildren and other friends and family mambers; to see in pictures posted how they are growing and what activities they are involved in.  It was also the best way for me to share my life and experiences here in China;  to show everyone at home what an amazing  place I am living in.  So it is regrettable to me that this wonderful tool is no longer available.  For those of us away from home, life is a little more lonely without all those little messages and notices delivered each day from those people we miss the most.

I can’t remember ever having a complaint about my life here before.  And although I understand the concerns connected with these sites, it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with the loss of my connection to home.

I am ever hopeful it is a temporary situation, but until a solution is found, I will have to rely on e-mails or messages left here.

Love to all x0x

Jilly    Life is good.