Xian on Spring Break

Hi there, just got back from a trip to Xian, home of the famous Terra Cotta Soldiers. 
We had a good time, actually saw some sun and ate some non-oily, non-spicy Muslim Chinese food.

We stayed at a "5 Star Hotel" - the Chinese version of course.  There were no English channels on the TV (the satellite was "broken"), the room had a thermostat but no heat or a/c (engineering was consulted and it might come on at 11 PM), there was a gym that opened from noon to 5 PM and our tour had to start at 7AM with a 6 AM wake up call.  As we waited in the lobby, we were told the driver had some personal business and might be there around 8 AM.  So, I guess it isn't just the Du...

Pictures always tell the story better than I can so here are some snaps from Xian...

 Bike riding on the old city wall- it was pretty cool - yes, cold too.  The wall was built originally in the Quing dynasty, of course has been rebuilt, but makes a nice contrast to the ever present sky scrapers.

View of the local market from up on the wall - they sell everything from fruit, veg, and meat to toilet paper.

                                Local butcher - notice his cigarette - no refrigerators around here!

                                                     Who is that guy?  Where is Ronald?

                           Certainly a plus (and not easy to find) but ALWAYS bring your own TP.

Every tour has to take you shopping, many times.  This was where we could buy life size soldiers...they even ship them home for you, for a price of course.

The real deal - the picture doesn't do it justice.  Every face is different, they were smashed up by an angry mob 3000 years ago and every night at 7PM the Chinese work on putting more and more of them back together. 

The farmer who was digging a well and found them... we were very "lucky" and he was there that day, he signed our book and for a mere 20 RMB took this picture with us.

                                 People come from all over China to eat at this restaurant. 

A typical one child family -notice the boys trousers... they don't wear diapers, they wear split pants and just do their business whenever and wherever they are, usually on the sidewalk.  Guess it saves on landfill but watch where you walk!

Guess that is it for now, 71 more days but who is counting.  Bye for now!

Life is a Beach (clearly not in China)

Hello to all, it has been quite awhile since we posted but all is well here in the Du.

No, this isn't the undiscovered secret of Chengdu - We just got back from a wonderful trip to Boracay in the Philippines.  The beach was clean and white, the water was clean and it was a great place to spend Chinese New Year.

It was pretty fun getting around on the trykes - not speedy and there were traffic jams during "rush" hour (happy hour).

We did have to come back to the Du of course and while it is warming up - it sure isn't the beach.  Here is a picture of the playground at school.
(Well, I guess not - the picture was "loading" for the last 15 minutes while I folded some laundry (yes, sometimes we even do domestic chores - but not often!)
Not sure if the problem is the computer - it is slowly dying (not starting, making noises, not loading) or the internet being shared by the entire high rise apartment building, or the blocking of all things internet by the Chinese or most likely a combination of all of these factors. 
So, the blog hasn't been as frequent as from Cambodia (who would have ever thought I would have had better internet in Cambodia!!!).  Our emails may be more infrequent as well, owing to the factors above. 

But we are thinking about you and are looking forward to coming home for a brief stint this summer.  We will be home between the end of June and the middle of July - firm dates to follow when we get our last days of school sorted out... another long story. 

The good news is we won't be posting from the Du as of next school year - as some of you know, we gave our notice well before Christmas that we weren't happy living in Chengdu and wanted to move on.  We went to the International teaching job fair in Bangkok after the Christmas holiday and landed jobs as ISS (International School Singapore).  Marilu will be the elementary literacy support person (out of the classroom!) and Simon will be teaching grade 4.  We are excited and pleased with the school, jobs, and moving to Singapore.  It will be far more civilized than the last two places (Marilu is much happier about that - Simon is going along with it) and much easier for you to come and visit.

Again, sorry about the lack of pictures but the computer was about to fly out of the window if I saw the loading circle for much longer and as lame as it is - right now it is our main link to the real world, the next world (Singapore) and most importantly - all of you.

Take care, start looking at those holiday plans to Singapore - gateway to Malaysia, Indonesia and beyond...
All the best,  Marilu and Simon

The Hawaii of China - NOT

Greetings to you all and welcome to the new version of the blog.  We have finally learned how to blog in China - not an easy process and one that requires some getting around what they call the Great Firewall of China - lots of blocked information and sites. 

We are settled into our  new surroundings and well into the school year routine.  So it was with great anticipation that we set out on our first full week of vacation - It was the National holiday and all of China is on the move.   We got airline tickets (no easy feat) and booked a timeshare trade at Hainan Island.  The Hawaii of China.  We read our guidebooks, we planned beach time, we dusted off our diving licenses and bought super strength sunscreen as we have lost all color here in the gray of Chengdu.  

We arrived at the airport and there was a balmy wind (gale) blowing as we stepped off the plane and onto the bus for the 20 minute ride to the terminal - they do seem to park at the next town and drive you into the airport here.  We collected our luggage and met the man with our names on the sign (first class travel for us this holiday!)  Then we waited, and waited and finally tried to get a taxi to no avail.  An hour later the family with 4 screaming kids from the plane came tooling up with a mountain of luggage.  We took off for the hotel van and proceeded to re-enact scenes from the 3 stooges while trying to get all the luggage and people into a vehicle designed for 5. 

Never mind, we made the resort - wind blowing, palms swaying - we are on vacation!

After a lunch and beer which we had to hold firmly so as not to lose it to the wind, we headed to town.  BIG mistake - that would prove to be the only day it didn't rain for 7 DAYS.....


The resort was like many things here - great in theory, a nice if crumbling facade and no depth.  There were 3 buildings, one occupied.  As the storm got worse, pieces of the other buildings would fly by our window.  There was a good gym, we spent many an hour there, a decent BBQ buffet (we ate more hotel meals than we ever have in our lives) and we learned a new card game. 

This was the "rest of the resort" - all the bars were closed or "broken".  There were no books to read (we came dangerously low on reading material) and as you can see the facilities were not quite up to the 5 star rating:

To be fair it was one of the worst storms to hit the island, by the end there were 1000s evacuated and we really didn't think we would make the airport. 

We tried to leave early but couldn't get on a flight out - everyone else beat us to it - the last two nights were like being in the hotel in the "Shining" - it was us and a staff of 50 Chinese... kind of creepy. 
But it wasn't like we were heading out to the beach

We were ever so happy to get back to Chengdu - that didn't last long - but the moral of the story is do more research on those time share trades and don't believe the advertising. 
  Until next time!   Marilu and Simon