Early November

Sunday, Nov. 9

Tom took a Chinese friend with him to Shenzhen to try to get his computer fixed. When our shipment came with our brand new computer a couple of months ago, Tom plugged it in and “poof” it blew the motor. Apparently, you had to switch it in the back over to 220V. Something we failed to realize….never assume the automatic.

While Tom was away, I went with a couple of ladies to get a coffee and then have a pedicure for about $7.50US. It is so nice and relaxing. It is fun to feel a little spoiled.

We had to go to work tonight for a social as part of our Professional Development.

Friday / Saturday, Nov. 7-8

We had the day off so we went to Hong Kong to pick up our visas for India. We got there at 9:30 when they opened and paid the fee. We were then told that we had to come back at 5:00 to pick them up. They didn’t explain that to us when we turned in the application last month. It was very frustrating not to know that. Thankfully, we had planned to spend the night, but it was still irritating We ping- ponged back and forth between 3 stops on the Metro. After we left the Indian Consulate, we went to our hotel which was 2 stops away. We checked in and then went to a big mall to purchase a camera. We had a great salesman. His name was Funky Lo. He was great. He showed us many features on the Cannon IXUS 860 IS. He cracked us up!

After a nice lunch in a French Deli, we went back a stop because Tom had to go back to the dentist for some gum repair. Then we went back another stop to get back to the Consulate to wait in a long line to pick up the visas….at least it moved quickly. Then we went back to the other stop to have a really nice dinner (to celebrate our 14th anniversary….Nov. 19). We went to a place called Jimmy’s Kitchen. The name sounds like a little diner, but it was a very nice restaurant. I had Epicurean Scallops and Tom had Beef Wellington. Both meals were fabulous!!!! We then pinged back to our hotel. It was very nice.

The breakfast the next morning at the hotel was fantastic. They had both eastern and western style buffet and made to order omelets. They even had nice sliced Swiss and Brie cheeses (a very expensive item in China). We went up on a Tram to Victoria Peak. Tom does not like heights, so he did not go out to look at the view once we were at the top. There were a ton of shops up there from cheap stuff to very expensive. I found a nice shop to get gifts to take with us for when we go to India for Christmas. Once we left there, we went across the street to a nice park. They had a nice restaurant there that looked out over a pond with a waterfall. We had Italian food. It again was very good. We were both tired and decided to take the early ferry back which left at 3:15. We accidentally took the wrong directions. There are two central ferry stations. One is called the Central Pier. We had to walk quickly about ½ a mile to the Central Station. Then we were running. We made it just in time. They were actually holding the ferry for us as we were running down the stairs. I was so hot and sweaty….but we made it with all our purchases stuffed in our now heavy backpacks.

Wednesday / Thursday, Nov. 5,6

Wednesday and Thursday we had to say at the school until 8:30PM for parent/teacher conferences. They were only 15 minutes long and all ours went very smoothly. One Korean family said they would like to invite Tom and I over for a genuine Korean meal. I’m looking forward to that. I snuck out for ½ an hour on Thursday to go with Suji to get a Starbucks…just needed a good break. I had a 4 hour stretch of no conferences and yet, we had to stay!

Sunday, Nov. 2

We went out to dinner with our friends Mike and Suji from Virginia. They just got back yesterday from being in the US for 3 weeks taking care of arrangements for her father’s sudden passing. We took them to a Brazilian restaurant that is just across the road from us. We had heard from our Brazilian students that this was the best restaurant to go to, but we didn’t know what to expect. It was an all you can eat BBQ and salad bar. You go to the salad bar first and get all your side dishes. Then they come around with various cuts of meats just off the grill. We had several cuts of beef, chicken, pork, lamb, shrimp wrapped in bacon, pineapple, and corn on the cob. It was all sooooo good. We had a good time with them and were able to let them relax and laugh.

Saturday, Nov. 1

The School had their “Autumn Fair” today. It is the same as a huge Halloween party…(including a haunted house) they just don’t call it that. Tom volunteered to be one of the targets for the “wet sponge toss.” He’s such a good sport. We both volunteered to be hall monitors for an hour and then to clean up afterwards. Everything went very smoothly. There was a great turn out and it seemed like everyone was having a great time.

Friday, Oct. 31

Since my class missed dressing up like a character from a book last Friday for Spirit Week, we dressed up today. I dressed like the BFG (The Big Friendly Giant). I had a bald head and big huge ears. The giant gets his English all mixed up. I talked like him all day, and the kids loved it. (Yes, I was looking reduncalous, but it was fun!)

October Happenings

Friday, Oct. 24

I took my class to Fairy Lake Botanical Park about an hour from Shekou. The bus ride alone was an experience. While driving on the freeway, our bus driver missed his exit. So what did he do? Well, the only natural thing….he started backing up the bus!!!! It’s pretty scary that it didn’t even freak me out. We backed up about a hundred feet, and finally the other teacher sitting next to me in the front seat who could speak some Chinese, communicated to the driver that going backwards was not safe with a bus full of children. He needed to be driving forward and just take the next exit. He argued with her for a few minutes until she told him that his boss would not want him to be driving unsafely with children. He quickly put it back in a forward gear. It was amazing that the other cars were not even honking at him.

The park was very nice. We visited the cactus area, the shady plant area, and the petrified forest. They have transplanted these petrified trees from all over China and made a little forest there. It was pretty cool.



Thursday, Oct. 23,

I was walking home from work and ran into about 10 ladies from work. They were going to have dinner at a “hot pot.” They asked me to join them, and I decided to be spontaneous and let Tom fend for himself. I was so glad I did. I had so much fun. Three of the ladies that came were Chinese and did the ordering. We went into a private room with a big table with a hot plate in the center. The waiter brought in a big shallow pot divided into two parts filled with soup broth. Stella ordered all kinds of vegetables and some very thinly sliced raw beef. One half of the pot was for the meat. Everyone put some veggies and beef in the hot pot and in a few minutes, it was ready to eat. They also had various sauces for you to blend. I copied Helen Du. We mixed soy sauce, some vinegar, sesame sauce, mashed garlic, and mashed ginger. It was great. They had several slotted ladles to take out your veggies and meat. We put what we wanted on our plates and put sauce over them. It was sooooo good and very healthy!!!!




Monday-Thursday, Oct. 20-23


We had Spirit Week at school. We had to dress in school colors, have “crazy hair” day, dress backwards, and Pajama Day. I had a punk rock black wig and black glasses. A lot of people didn’t realize it was me. All day long I was calling the kids “Dude.” Every other word was “Dude!” One kid in my class actually shaved his head to look like a soccer ball! Pajama Day was my favorite. We took it easy that day and ended with the kids laying on the bean bags and me reading from The BFG. It was good to have a fun week.


Saturday, Oct. 18

I went to Dong Men today with a group of ladies from work. Five of us shared a taxi and hung out together for the afternoon. Our main purpose was to go to a huge fabric warehouse to buy material to have some clothes made. We had a lot of fun. I bought some material to have a blouse, skirt, and a pair of pants made. You had to bargain for the price of the material. It was pretty funny. One guy kept trying to get me to buy some plain cotton material for 23 Yuan a meter. I stuck to 20. He yelled at me, “OK!” He thought I was a good bargainer. He had to climb on top of some material and do a balancing act to get out the bolt I wanted. Now, I need to take the material to the tailor.