China, Guangzhou and Chengdu... not quite at the panda part YET!

I will preface this blog with a link to Brian's (my fiancé's) blog as he wrote quite a long detailed explanation of the day; http://virtuallylife.blogspot.com/2012/04/china-good-day-part-1.html ... however this post will be my point of view :)

Brian and I took the MTR (subway/metro) from Hong Kong to the boarder of mainland China (Shenzhen).  Once through customs, found our way to the train station, and hopped aboard a train. When I say hopped, I mean, fought our way through crowds, waited in line, and sat on the floor, because there were no seats, for our train.

There is a lot of prejudice in Hong Kong against Mainland Chinese people.  We kept hearing it from students, adults, teachers and people alike.  Half the time, the people telling us that mainland Chinese are dirty and rude, were people who were in fact FROM mainland China, but now identified as Hong Kong-ers.  Every time Brian or I said something about someone cutting us off, or being rude, or dirty, the students would say, "oh they're mainlanders".  We couldn't figure out the blatant hatred.  I think we figured out where it comes from.

While we were waiting for our train in Shenzhen we witnessed multiple actions that would be deemed as rude or dirty. One in particular.... a girl came over, just a ways away from us. She started to eat her sugar cane.  She would bite off a big chunk, awkwardly chew it, as it was too large to fit properly in her mouth, and spit it out into her hand. She would then throw it on the clean marble floors, RIGHT next to a bunch of people who were, in fact, sitting on the floor.  She continued to do this through two sugar canes until there was a large square foot pile of chewed up-spat out remnants. She then proceeded to wash her hands with about 3/4 of a water bottle.  There was now a stream of water, sugar cane, and spit running towards the poor bums of some girls.  As she emptied her water bottle, she threw it on top of the pile and simply walked away.  Brian sat there for a good 20 minutes with his mouth a gawk unable to comprehend how someone could do that.

We boarded our train to Guangzhou.  Guangzhou really is nothing to talk about.  Our hotel was really nice, small, but really nice and clean!!! The rest of the city seemed to be pretty dirty and the people, not overly friendly.  

Our Hotel in Guangzhou

The Hazmat type hoods provided in our hotel!!!! I think it was for a fire, but never quite sure!

After we left Guangzhou we flew to Chengdu.  As previously mentioned, this was our main mission of the trip.  Get to Chengdu, hug a panda.  We arrived at our hotel.  It was ok.  Apparently pretty nice, and appeared pretty expensive (although we had got it very cheap from an online hotel booking thing).  The thing is, just when we walked in there were men smoking in the hotel lobby, men spitting on the ground IN the lobby.  In China, there are no smoking or non smoking rooms... our room had a whole bunch of little burn marks in the carpet where the cigarettes had fallen.  But, it was a room, a shelter, it was cheap, and close-ish to the Panda Sanctuary.

I really had no desire to even go explore Chengdu. It just felt dirty, and grey.  We pretty much went to sleep and got excited for the next morning.

*PHEW* finally.... a chance to catch up on the blogging

So as some of you know, Brian and I decided to venture into mainland China for about a week. The main purpose of this trip? Well Brian discovered a Panda sanctuary that would allow us to hold a Panda...and well, there was no arguing or discussion afterward. That was our mission, everything and anything else was simply secondary. We arrived home about 2 nights ago, but between, catching up on sleep and catching up on e-mails... blogging was unable to be completed. Today I was able to edit a billion pictures so that both Brian and I could finally post some blogs with pictures.... So here we go... To start, a slight rant about the driving in China.


To all Mario Kart enthusiasts,

Have I got the opportunity of a lifetime for you. Have you ever thought... MAN, I wish Mario Kart was real? .... That rainbow bridge looks too cool!!! Go to ChengDu!

After spending a day in Guangzhou, Brian and I flew to ChengDu. We arrived around 9:00 and found a taxi, hopped in, and gave him the address to our hotel. Little did we know we’d be on one (of a few) death defying 40 minute drives. As we zoomed along at god-only-knows-how-fast, we found ourselves on a bridge that had colourful lights everywhere. The lights were all over the outsides of the bridge, spotlights shining up the cables on either side of us, and on the arches above us. Along with the excessive number of lights on the bridge, all of the surrounding buildings were lit up like tacky christmas trees. Every building from banks to office buildings looked like a casino in las vegas. If you are ever wondering about a business to open up, some sort of florescent tube lighting business in Chengdu would be very successful!

The driving in Chengdu is absolute chaos. There is NO order, and no structure. Lines on the road are completely useless and ignored, traffic lights are genuinely a suggestion at best, and there are so many bikes and scooters that, if you are a pedestrian, they are by far more dangerous than the cars... they go on the road, the scooter lane, and the sidewalk if they feel the need. Each side of the road has about 3-4 lanes, which ends up being about 6-8 cars wide. The intersections, then results, in having about 24 cars side by side, and countless scooters and bikes mixed in. As I mentioned, traffic lights being mere suggestion, the chaos that ensues is simply terrifying. If roller-coasters give you an adrenaline rush, you aint seen nothing yet. What I can’t seem to understand is how there aren’t a hell of a lot more deaths-by-scooter or even just accidents. I honestly couldn’t count the number of times we almost sideswiped someone or vice versa.

After a few days away (separate post) we returned to Chengdu yesterday so we could catch our flight home this morning. On the drive to the airport we saw, not one, but two people taking their suv’s onto the sidewalk (with no regard for pedestrians or scooter-ists) to get around MAYBE one car. We saw multiple people drive the wrong way... no no, you heard right... they were driving the WRONG way dodging oncoming traffic and honking as if the other people were in THEIR way..... and then.... WE drove the wrong way. We were driving across a overpass, and in the middle of said overpass was some construction (no signs or anything, just driving along and BAM a hole in the road with a couple blue flags around it), so the traffic, including our driver, thought that it was only fair to take over one of the oncoming traffic lanes.

I seriously wish I had video or something to portray the actuality of insanity that is the driving in Chengdu, oh wait I do... just pop in Mario Kart, and play the rainbow bridge on the hardest level - imagine about 10 times the number of people, and some scooters on the sidewalk, and you’ve got it.

Rugby, Rats and Rinks! (actually it's Ice skating, but I wanted to keep up the alliteration)

Last week, Brian and I headed to the Hong Kong 7's Rugby game with some students... It was a blast! The rugby was fun to watch, especially watching the Canadians win.... but it was more fun just being with a bunch of kids, all hanging out together and having a good time.



There are about 91 pictures that I have edited from that evening, so I won't post them all, but there's one of Brian at the game with his free HSBC hat.

About a week ago now, Brian and I stopped off at our favourite thai food place to get some pad thai for dinner. It's GREAT pad thai and it's relatively cheap (about 6 bucks).... so I often go there for a quick-no-think dinner. I ordered from the not-so-gentle man who 'runs the front'? He's the meanest, rudest man I think we have actually had to talk to.... he does not smile, he will NOT talk to us, even if we try our broken chinese. You'd think that the fact we come into the restaurant about 2-3 times a week, and he clearly knows who we are, he might, just might, crack a smile... but NOPE!.... Anyways, as I'm standing waiting to pay, something catches my eye. I glance over to what looks like a thick wire under the shelving unit by the cash register. I watch as this 'wire' moves, and then darts out of site...... I immediately know it's a rat, and turn around and start walking to where Bri was sitting at the front (near the exit) of the store. Now I understand that most of these restaurants probably back onto an ally way, or that they're probably not quite up to north-american standards.... but i don't want to SEE a rat..... knowing that they MIGHT or could be back there is enough..... I tell Brian I saw a rat. He says "how big?". As I explain that I could only see it's tail, Brian glances over to where I am talking about and jumps. He turns to me and says.... oh, it's a BIG rat. We see Mr. Sunshine himself simply flick his wrist at it, as if it were a pet dog that wandered into the wrong room. There was no panic, no surprise, just a simple.... flick of the wrist to shoo the RAT back into, yes, that's right folks, the KITCHEN!

I cancelled my order, and we walked out as the grumpy man mumbled some sort of rude insulting comment in chinese at us as we left. The worse part about it is... their pad thai was soooo good.... maybe a bit of rat is the secret recipe.... if so, just wish they kept it a secret!

Moving on....

Last week, Brian and I organized some good 'ol North American fun. We took 9 kids (and Dave, one of the other guest teachers) skating. It was a lot of fun. None of the kids (except for one, who had only gone 1 or 2 times years ago) had ever been skating before. They all started by stepping onto the ice and clinging to the boards for dear life. By the end, most of them were getting pretty good, and ALL of them were extremely courageous. They ended up being able to skate around by themselves around the rink. Dave and 2 of the kids left around 6, and by 7:30 (a good 2.5 hours of skating) we had to drag the kids off the ice. Almost all of them made a point of coming up to me and making sure that I would tell them the next time we were coming because they wanted to come again. I also know we definitely broke through to a few of them. A couple of the boys who don't speak much English, made a real effort to talk to us, make sure we invited them back, and to thank us. It was incredible. Afterwards, three of the boys stuck around to try some of this "Canadian Poutine" Brian had talked about. They LOVED it (of course...who wouldn't). It was incredible. The BEST part about all of this, is seeing kids 'come around' and be willing to try to speak English just because they like us and want to communicate with us. I couldn't tell you how good I felt after that day.... I was tired, and beat from standing on skates and holding people up for 2.5 hours, but it felt GOOD.

March Monkey Mountain Madness

Just a quick update for some of you :)

On St-Patrick's Day, Brian, our friend Yolande and her husband and I went to Monkey Mountain. We did a nice nature walk/hike for a couple hours and soaked in some well needed Vitamin D. It was really nice, and a lot of fun. There's a bunch of pictures (posted on Facebook) but I will post them here too.

So Emily and Brian... Hows it going there still???

Well vague and some what sarcastically ambiguous title voice..... I'm glad you asked!

Things are going well here. A lot to deal with... etc. etc. (see last post). We're still getting settled, but things are moving along. I mean hell, It's already over a week into March!!! We've been here for over 6 weeks. We've found the local trough buckets we like the most, or so we think..... found a White Spot... yea that's right, WHITE SPOT!!!! Can't get a triple O burger in Ontario..Noooo, but Hong Kong has like 6 of them or something... so that's kind of cool.

We managed to break through to some students that were.... to be nice and politically correct.... a little.... difficult. We have learned a good way to cope with some of the more lack-of-disciplinary-means classes, is to divide them into smaller groups, separate the troublemakers from each other, and it seems to work. Well, it seems to have worked for the past two weeks we've tried.....

Brian's space week went SUPER well. We had 27 students sign up to go to the space museum. That was cool. These kids were great. One of them clearly wants to learn English, and is pretty good at it, but loves space, just never had the chance to learn about it. So he kept asking us questions and spent the entire walk there talking to me about an app he downloaded to give him a basic understanding of space, and then spent the entire walk home talking to Brian asking him different questions about space. It's SO neat when you get these kids who just WANT to learn. It's even more neat when they want to learn from YOU. It sounds corny, but it really is rewarding talking to these kids.

A lot of them don't have the best life at home... parents are rarely there because they're working, or there are 9 people in a small apartment we wouldn't feel comfortable in with 2, so a lot of the kids like to stay after school... they will stay until we basically kick them out and have to go have dinner.... Which is what we did today... we were there until about 6:00pm just talking with kids, and finally said...we're STARVING, and they still waited for us and walked out with us, and walked down the street to the bus with us. It's neat.

One kid who is a little younger has been causing trouble with a lot of the teachers, parents, students, and anyone else you can name. His home room teacher asked Brian to speak with him because he is the only kid in school that plays hockey. He likes us. We asked if we could come to one of his games, and he lit up and started smiling. We had his class today, and he didn't cause ANY trouble, didn't talk out of turn, didn't follow along with his buddies, he was great. So he clearly didn't want to disappoint us. We're going to get up bright and early and go watch his game tomorrow morning, so it should be fun. Then off to bike riding for a couple hours with one of our colleagues/friends.

I have some other things to talk about, but we just got home from school/dinner... Bri went and dropped off the laundry, and we have to get up early tomorrow, so my RANT will have to wait for another day... However, I will upload some pictures to show you what it is actually like... kinda. There is also a particular picture for Jenn and Elle.... Taken tonight especially for you.


Have no fear, the popple made it. It hasn't really gone anywhere exciting, but it sure likes it in our hotel room (that you can see slightly in the background)...but it's HERE... this is proof


On Sundays, it is the day off for all of the people (women) who work as domestic helpers. Most of them live at the homes that they work at, so they take to the streets. It is unimaginable how many of these women there are. They fill up bridges, walkways, stairs, anywhere they can gather, there are groups of women hanging out with their friends and talking, playing cards, sleeping. They lay down cardboard or plastic to sit on and stay there all day until it is time to go home and start the next week of work.









Brian on the Star Ferry that crosses the harbour, with the city in the background.

Somewhat settled.... for now.

Brian and I are trying desperately to find some sort of routine to help with getting settled in. It is very difficult. First and foremost we didn't have any sort of office until today. This meant that we were hauling stuff back and forth from 'home' and leaving it in one of the classrooms in our own little "stuff" pile. Today we got an office. It's a sad little spot, with a lonely desk, and is basically the last room, at the farthest part of the school, used for storage.... but it's OURS! It's actually not THAT bad... Our fellow co-teachers that have been here since September are a little more "set-up" with all the co-teacher stuff... Sue Kim Hin (a separate one room building equipped with desks, white boards, and a popcorn maker - all the necessities of hosting kids and teaching them English)... but the school is doing what it can and make-shifting things for us. They've never had FOUR guest teachers at the same time before... so we're all sort of puttering along to the best of our ability.

We are also having a little more difficulty settling in simply because we have no where to do that. We're still living in a hotel room that is not THAT far from the school, but far enough that we have to wake up early, and make sure we don't forget anything. Not having an apartment closer to the school, also means no kitchen.... which means, I can't cook.... which is really starting to get a little frustrating. Sometimes you just want to boil some water, and make some pasta...... can't! Sometimes you just want to wake up and make some pancakes.... can't! But people are searching for us, so we will hopefully be moving soon!!!!

Brian came up with a Space Week idea, pitched it to the English Department Head... and low and behold we're doing it next week. We will be taking students to see a movie at the space museum, doing some games, building a solar system, all the fun space stuff!!!

Between the traveling, lesson planning, co-teaching, tutorials, etc. etc.... we are also looking into our future traveling. Seems we have a LOT on the list of places to go and things to do and see. Easter here is like their spring break I think, so we actually get about 10 days off. Brian and I are thinking about going to hug panda bears on the China mainland. This summer I'm hoping to backpack around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos for a couple months with Bri... if I don't have to drag him too much! Japan, Malaysia and of course the great wall are also all on the list. It'll be a lot of planning, so I'm going to start looking into it more seriously tonight I think. i'll keep you posted.

The bell just rang, and we have to go teach a space lesson to a class in preparation for next week.

Just some pics

If you read my last blog entry, you'll know that my brother Ben and his girlfriend Katie were just here visiting. We had a blast with them. They have moved onto Thailand, but a couple pictures for you :-)




Us winning third place at Trivia night (again). Ben and Katie were supposed to give us the edge and bump us up to first place, but no such luck.... next week!



Everyone after an AMAZING meal of Dim Sum. From Left to Right: Miriam, Brian, Emily, Ben, Dennis, Lindsay, David and Katie.