Our South East Asia Tour: Cambodia & Vietnam

We just got back from a fabulous vacation from these two countries. I cannot express in enough words to describe our experiences there. Both countries overcame many, many years of difficulties & they are now optimistic about their future, despite the obstacles of poverty & corruption. Both of these negatives we faced with difficulty but it is a fact of life. Each tour guide gave us their personal insights & experiences at each site we visited. I would move to either place in a heart beat! If I would be of any use to them. Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, & Da Nang are great places. Also, just getting out to see the country side was well worth it. We got a good taste of the culture, mind set, & overview of each location. Whether it was tasting local foods like red ants in fish paste, dodging scooters when crossing the streets, watching special celebrations like a funeral procession, examining the architecture of the past (Angkor or Hoi An) or present (Hanoi), it was all an enriching experience. If you want to read my full notes on this trip just send me an email.

Geology Rocks!

Eileen teaches 5th graders or 10 year old students. One of topics she covers in science is geology. Well, for "Open House" the students from each 5th grade class have been putting on a 40 minute musical play called "Geology Rocks!" for the last two years. A former principle had found it and thought it was a great teaching tool. It has been a hit every year & drama is up Eileen's ally! The students learn about geology, sing songs, & act out a story of two young girls looking for their missing teacher, Professor Rock. Lots of fun!

Middle School Badminton & Play

Well, I volunteer this school year to "coach" Middle School & High School Badminton. It is serious stuff over here in China. I was the assist coach last year for the HS team so I knew the admin side but the drills & rules were another issue I had to catch up on. I did have great help from another teacher, a parent & a student who is very skilled in the sport so I wasn't alone. Well after two months of selecting a team & practice we play our one and only tournament & won by one match. Now don't think it was some big time event as the tournament only consisted of two schools. Not many schools in the area have a middle school team I guess. It was a fast & exciting day but I was fighting with a cold so to have the tournament end early was fine with me. However, our bus broke down twice on the way home due to a bad belt. Maintenance it a problem around here. So is safety as our driver pulled over without safety triangles to place in back of the bus! We did get home safely but very late. So I'm planning to write a short article on how to come in first and end up last.

The other event was our Middle School Desert Theater. "Roaring Guns" was a play I selected over the summer break. I was the leader of the MS drama team for two years & wanted to turn it over asap. Well, at the beginning of this school year a group of teachers wanted to be on the team so I quickly turn everything over to them and "pointed them in the right direction" and went on with coaching badminton (a time consuming endeavor). Our school, QSI Shekou, has a way of tasking people with a bunch of extra duties without extra pay so I learned quick not to be over extended. Well this new bunch that took over the MS drama were far more talented & creative than I could ever be so the play was a hit! The students had a great time and everyone enjoyed it.

Back to the Blog

For those out there reading this blog, I apologize for the long delay between postings. We've been very busy with the teaching gig and other activities. A quick summary from the beginning of the school year (August 2010) to now can be summarized in one word, tough. We have new leadership, new team members, and many of the same problems of lack of supplies, policies, facility issues, & other organization struggles. Everyone is under a lot of stress of doing a lot but not a lot of depth to what we do. The new leadership is making changes slowly as they are on a steep learning curve. So much of our time has been taken up with our jobs.

As far a living, we are blessed to moving into a new apartment away from the noise of "party central" which is Sea World. Ah, no more yelling in the middle of the night by drunks and rowdies and though the lay out of our new apartment is just like our last one, this one was remodeled. My only complaint is that the water pressure is rather low. We painted the living room and it is very classy looking.

Our other activities revolve around what we believe. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you much in this area as others still watch over us. All I can say is it keeps us busy and there are always some challenge. The problem with the public media is just that, it is public.

We have taken a trip to Shanghai to visit friends and then did a river cruise down the Yangtze River. Both events were very nice. We will be going to Angor Wat & Vietnam over the winter holidays. This will be exciting and I'm looking forward to it as everyone who has gone to those places loved it.

Here are some photos for your enjoyment.

Summer Vacation '09, Part One

After a long & arduous school year we returned state side for six weeks of R&R. As this is being written we are about half way through what has been a very busy & somewhat taxing summer vacation. Still it has been good in so many other ways.

On the 14th of June we took the Shekou ferry to the Hong Kong International Airport. Even with the concern of swine flu the trip to the airport was so smooth. On the way we traveled in with a couple of teacher friends & made our good-byes once we arrived to the terminal. The 12 plus hours of travel as smooth as can be with one passenger talking our ear off about his guru. We were saved by the dinner that served & ended conversation, a one way conversation. I shut my eyes after dinner to practice my own form of yoga, even though it was not very comfortable.

June 14 - 20 - We arrived in SF and went to stay with Eileen’s sister, Terri, in Modesto. We had a good time with her daughter’s Natalie (11) and Megan (9). We took Megan to FunWorks for her birthday and then we all went to Chucky Cheese for a school fundraiser.…needless to say, our ears are still ringing.

We then spent a couple of days in San Jose with Eileen's other sister & father. We use their address as our home of record & all our mail ends up there. We touch bases with that side of the family then flew to Indiana & visited old friends in the area.

In the Midwest we drove a lot to see friends & extended family in Ohio as well as in Indiana. I can say that it was a good place to come from as the economy has made life there hard. Thankfully, everyone back there is still employed. Most of our time was spent with the Krum family & played w/ our god-daughter. She is talking & walking, cute & very articulate for someone under 3. I also had my health checkup & got a clean bill of health. That was a major relief due to my condition.

Then it was down to Southern California to visit the Andersons & my dad. At the Andersons we caught up with their newest family members (two one year olds) & then took off for my dad’s place. There we went shopping for computer equipment & hooked up the slingbox so we can watch American TV in China, we hope. Also, we loaded up on some clothes.

Now were back up to Northern California to finish out our vacation.

May Day Holiday

May Day Holiday
Hey folks! The last week of April we had a week off from teaching to celebrate a combination of spring break w/ the PRC national holiday called May Day. We went to the nation’s capital and neighboring cities (Beijing & Tianjin). Both places were MARVELOUS! We experienced the best air quality month in 20 years & beat the crowd that came on the 1st of May. We saw the major sights like the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, etc. You never see an entirety of any one item or place. Each of them is so large that you cannot see everything at one time. So you take a bite of the Summer Palace, the Drum Tower, or the Olympic venues & move on.

The Summer Palace was Eileen's favorite with all the weeping willow trees around the lake. We also, rode in a bicycle rickshaw around the hutongs (alleyways of old neighborhoods.)


Getting around Beijing is pretty easy if you don’t mind a nasty taxi driver now & then. The subway is efficient & well used. I mean well used as I think I met a million people crowded in each car & that was a slow day! We ate a variety Chinese food by regions, all of them very tasty. It was my first time to have Peking Duck & to be honest not one of my favorites. One afternoon we saw the Legend of Kung Fu Show. Wow! It is a fictional story with kung fu specialists acting out the story with some modern dancers & plenty of smoke & lights. It was ancient marital arts meets Hollywood.

The entire time there was great, but the two most stunning things we saw was a mini-van engulfed in flames on the freeway while we were heading to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. The other one was the leftover of the 60 story Beijing Mandarin Hotel which caught fire in February this year. You should search the net for photos & it will take your breath away. Get this, only one person died.

We had dinner with a friend & his future wife. He is from the States & she is from Mexico. They both have been in Beijing for a number of years & speak the language quite well. They told us many things, but one thing they told us was that China, especially in the big cities, is where things are happening in the world. There is an excitement for the future in this place despite all the difficulties the culture is going through.

Later we took the slick high speed train to Tianjin which is by the coast. It was heavily influenced by the Europeans in the early 19th century. The center of town has many European style buildings that are being renovated into very nice restaurants & shops. Tianjin is the home city of the first Chinese born Olympic gold medal winner, Eric Liddell. His story was made famous in the 1981 Oscar movie of the year, "Chariots of Fire" about himself & Harold Abrahams. Because Mr. Liddell was born in Tianjin, we went to see his home. When we were there I found out that Mr. Liddell proposed to his wife at the Kiessling Restaurant which is over a 100 years old & still in operation. It is a great series of restaurants with a bakery, Russian, German, & French restaurant each one a separate floor. The French restaurant was fabulous where Eileen & I recreated the proposal scene.

We also went to an art museum that had a collection of blown up photographs from a British photographer, Thomson from the 1870's. It was fantastic.

So you can tell we really enjoyed our vacation. Now it is back to work to finish off the school year. It will be a mad dash to the end. There is much more to say but I hope this summer to see most of you to tell you all other details I cannot here. Take care!

The Beggers are Back

It is now March and I've noticed the increase numbers of the "begging community" in our neighborhood. This community is made up of truly poor people asking for handouts to con artists. It is hard to tell the difference. Well, their numbers have greatly increase as the weather has become warmer. They must be like snow birds in the winter and fly south to stay warm. They all have a strategy to hit up expats. They never, in my experience, ask a fellow national. Tonight I was accosted by one of the common strategies. A "mother" with her rather chubby well dressed child in her arms pulls on your arm for money and follows you for quite a distance. I've seen the "community" hang around my Shekou neighborhood because the area where I live (Sea World) is full of expats and the stores, shops, and restaurants that cater to expats. The "community" head for their homes sometime late at night. When I walk to school to set up my classroom, around 7:00am, they are not many around. This is one of number of problems living in this neighborhood. I expect the number of the "community" to grow rather large as the economic downturn is hitting this area rather hard. Til later!