My Own Boss

Last night was my last Sunday I will be teaching at EF. I am weekend-free, baby. Well, i've still a few classes to finish off but technically I'll be doing it as a part-time teacher, and during the weekDAYS. It feels fantastic. It's also a bit strange as this is the first time in my life where i'm not in school and/or working at some organization/company. I am the master of my own time. It is extremely liberating.

Ever since i've handed in my resignation at EF, I've been receiving these random and some not-so-random requests to learn English, some from students, friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends of friends. You get the idea. I don't want to take just anyone so i've been quite picky as to who i'm actually taking on. What's more interesting is how I've been approached by quite a handful of people wanting to learn FRENCH! There is a huge market here for learning foreign languages other than English, it's kind of astonishing. So anyways, here is a great chance for me to brush up on my French and to relive my days as a French teacher when i was at Bowmore PS. Not to mention at good ol' Rockland!

I've got a class of 6 students starting next week, every Tues and Thurs for 2 hours each time. All adults, Uyghur, most are married and with children, most of them work for the international company called 'Carrefour', the French grocery chain. One of them is an English teacher at a local Uyghur Language School and his reason for wanting to learn French is that "French is the most romantic language in the world". Or like we'd say "la langue d'amour." This will be a great chance for me to pick up a few Uyghur words and phrases. I'm hopeful and excited.

As the Urumqi ex-pat community is so interconnected, I've also managed to score another student through grapevine connections, an eager 23 year old who will be going to France to study in the fall. With pretty much zero French knowledge, it will require some hard work from both of us to bring her to par in order to pass the exam at the French Embassy in Beijing in July. This morning we had our first lesson here at home (I've decided that having the students come to our home is easiest; this also translates to zero travel time for me). We have a really good deal: she'll come everyday in the morning, 5 days a week (Mon-Fri), and after 2 hours of hardcore French, she will teach me some Chinese, from the textbook I have and also just conversation stuff. A job for me, but i'm also learning in the meantime - killing two birds with one stone. We get along really well and i'm just really happy, not to mention relieved, about that. What's more, her English is not that great so I get to practice a lot of my Chinese with her anyway. I just really want to become fluent in spoken Chinese and am not too interested in the reading or writing. It hit me hard while we were drilling "bonjour, comment ca va?" that we were actually using three languages interchangeably, quite a concept for my brain to get used to.

Learning Chinese has been one of my big goals for coming back to China, and i have to admit i've been slacking in that department. I think I need to find some sort of activity outside of the classroom so that i can utilize my learned Chinese. Joining a band, a sports club... with locals ???

I've also decided to continue with one of my little VIP student, Jollery, twice a week. She's cute and adorable (is 12 yrs. old but looks about 8) and really takes a liking to me, as does her mother (whom i've taught once). It's nice when students form this personal attachment to you, cause it happens the other way around too.

My biggest worry about leaving EF and free-lancing was that I'd become bored. Some say that doing nothing is still doing something, but there is a limit. I don't want my days to be wasted by just puttering around. I know it's ultimately up to me to decide how to best utilize my time. Definitely keeping my feet in the teaching world is important to me, and learning Chinese, but to also do something in the creative field, like keeping up with piano and continuing to struggle with my guitar... ah, so many things.... I have to also realize that the next 6 months are quite busy with a visit from Estelle (early April), a visit from parents and sis (mid-april), the Labour Holiday in May, our trip to Jersey and Canada (last half of July), Matt's parents visit in early September... and in between it all, planning a wedding! So keeping some allocated free time will be crucial. But in the meantime, having my students pencilled in on a weekly basis will provide me with structure and routine, something that I do require to an extent in order to feel 'productive'.

Another awesome door has opened just when i handed in my resignation... a friend of mine, Cath(erine), who was also former EF teacher and actually the mastermind behind setting Matt and I together... has received approval for a small grants scheme from the British Embassy (she's half british, half Chinese), and we are going to be co-project coordinators on a development project up in Yili, the north of Xinjiang.

Details are still being ironed out, but essentially we will be helping to expand a current project that is run by friends of ours, called HOUSE OF HOPE. An elderly couple has taken in 5 children (mainly orphans, disadvantaged and at risk) as foster kids, putting them through school, giving them an 'up in life' so they can find work later on. They want to eventually expand to 10 kids, so part of our grant money will go towards helping them get more resources and hiring an extra pair of hands to help around the house. In addition we will be starting a woman's training centre where we will have 4 women trained as professional bakers who will be able to bake and generate an income for themselves. They will also be required to go to school and learn life skills. It is our intention that these women will also take other apprentices under their wing the following year, to keep the project sustainable when the grant money has run out.

Anyways, Cath and i have never done anything like this before, and although i've had my share of NGO work/volunteer, this is something that is quite exciting and as we've already discovered, challenging. Since she is living up in Yining, I am considered the Urumqi-arm of the project, and perhaps just as important, the relayer of Urumqi-expat-gossip during lengthy phone conversations, it's great. I'm super excited, and everything just seems to have worked out well, getting some private students to make some pocket money but also getting back into development work, and best of all, having more free time and flexible hours.

Tonight i'm having the students from my adult class over to have a graduation-ceremony/ thank-you-for-being-such-a-great-class party. We'll make pizzas with nan and bake em in our oven!! Yup, we have this new mini oven that is also a grill. Although the microwave is also a substitute 'oven', for some reason i can't get over the fact that one must microwave a cake, whereas it should really be baked in a conventional oven. Just one of my quirks i guess.

in a chipper mood

It's so obvious: plenty of exercise, three square balanced meals (with intermittant snacking), creating music, and having an uninterrupted sleep. That is what we're told is the key to leading a healthy, happy lifestyle. All that and plenty of laughter, smiles and affection of course.

Have been going for quickee swims the past few days, and i feel better than ever. There are certain things you know you should do, but for some reason you shove them aside, make excuses or just can't muster the energy/motivation/desire to get up and do them. I feel so much better just having finished a swim or playing the piano, even if it's just for ten minutes.

I don't know exactly where this is going, only that i want to write this out so that when i am feeling lazy and unmotivated, I can tell myself that it is worth it in the end.

Class in 18 minutes. We've been talking about Family Life and getting into quite serious debates about (anti)abortion, marriage, child-rearing, sex education, and religion. There are only 4 students in the class (2 Chinese, 1 Uyghur and 1 Kazakh). It's an interesting mix of ethnicities, viewpoints, and age. Hmm.... not sure what else to say so i should log off and prepare for class.

Big hugs to y'all. For some reason, i'm feeling quite loving and affectionate today... must be the warm weather, spring is in the air la dee daa.....

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY!!

It's crazy, today is like a day where women are placed on some pedestal and pampered to no end.

It's International Women's Day and female employees get the day off.. coughcough *how sexist* is my first instinct! There is no such thing as International Man's Day, now is there? I'm just kinda blown away. I received a bouquet of wild flowers from a student yesterday. And all the female employees at EF received this ginormous bouquet of flowers wrapped really elegantly and makes quite a statement when you walk into a room.

Oh, i failed to mention in previous entries that I am now the proud owner of a cell phone!! Yup, i have caved and i now carry this little gadget around with me wherever i go. I secretly admit it's fun to send text messages and to receive them too, kinda like little pleasant surprises that pop up during the day when you least expect it, oh i'm so easily pleased.

So Matt went out and bought us a couple of new ones the other day. My first 'mobile', as they call them here, was pretty big compared to modern day phones and it kept turning off and on, and the battery kept coming out of its socket. I asked him to pick the ugliest/tackiest one he could find, just to go along with the tacky Chinese theme. He did well. Now I am the proud owner of a flip phone with pink flower prints on the cover, oh and the best part is the DIAMOND STUD; everytime i get a message or when the phone rings, it blinks a brilliant bright blue. To add on top of the tackiness, on the screen there's a cute little teddy bear standing on a red heart against a green background with bubbles blowing every which way. It's sooooooooooo Chinese, i love it!

I'm going home tonight to put on one of our (Matt and I's) little sticky picture that we took at Bangkok airport. It's those small stamp-size stickers of your head with the background/border of your choice. Extremely popular among the young'ens here. Actually I've done them in Chinatown with my cousins in Toronto too. Cheap pure fun that has a lasting imprinted effect. Again, easily pleased.

Home away from home, with the sounds of music

My home is here now, in Urumqi, with Matthew, and what's more: I FEEL AT HOME.

AH, what could be more beautiful than the sounds of fingers hitting ivory keys (well, plastic in this case), creating a warm feeling of joy and happiness and pure melodious bliss? Nothing. Matt and I have gotten ourselves a piano and I'm just super happy about it!! Originally i was thinking of just renting a room with a piano at the University so i could keep up my practicing. But we found out that we could actually rent one for a cheap price ($30 CDN/month). So off we went on Friday with a friend of ours, Diana (who is Matt's secretary and whom i've somewhat befriended), to look at some pianos. Quite bull-headed and fairly agressive in terms of mannerisms and just getting things done quickly, Diana is a modern Chinese Urumqi woman, and if you are in search of a contact person, phone number or piano (!), she's the woman to ask. Maybe this is the best way to describe her: upon seeing my engagement ring which Matt and I had custom-made in a Uyghur jewellery shop so beautifully with Xinjiang silver and part of the seashell Matt found and gave to me in Thailand, her one comment was "oh that is so economical." Haha. Bless her heart.

Anyways, back to the piano. So we took a look around, played on a few of them, tested them out (or "ooooott", i've been teased almost on a daily basis on my Canadian pronounciation for this sound.. I still don't hear it. I'm not even aware i do it until it leaves my mouth or it's blatantly pointed oooot to me).... right, piano. We pay the deposit that day and a few hours later, about five Chinese guys wheel our new baby into our flat. We have moved some stuff around the house, decorated a bit and incorporated the piano into our living room area - just gorgeous! We've been practicing quite intensively, and Matt's been dedicating a lot of his time to downloading sheet music (Fur Elise, Flight of the Bumblebee, Scarborough Fair, the Mission Impossible theme song, Greensleeves, and some basic beginner's blues music).

Oh, good story: so i had to work on Saturday, and when I came home, he told me he had been practicing Fur Elise all day and wanted to play it for me. Just as a side note, i'm extremely impressed at how quickly he learns and puts into practice the theory of music-learning and note-reading. I'm not even trying to be extra nice and complimenting because i'm marrying the boy, he really is like an adult prodigy! Oh, but of course we shouldn't disregard the spectacular abilities of his teacher...

Ok, so anyway i'm there, sitting on the couch waiting to hear the results of his hard work. He's sitting at the piano, back to me, getting ready to blow my socks off. And all of a sudden, instead of Beethoven's Fur Elise, he starts to play "O Canada"! You can imagine my shock and utter disbelief! It was so unbelievably cute AND given the fact that he has only ever heard the Canadian national anthem on television during the Olympics, I was mucho impressed at the accuracy of it all (melody, speed, etc). Great moment in Matt's early piano career!


Oops, gotta run. OPI's (Oral Placement Interviews) summon.. work!!!

it takes pain (and a lot of time) to be beautiful in Urumqi!

Went to get my 'hair done' with Fatima today. On the way we got sidetracked and ended up in beautifully done-up Uyghur restaurant (and not the tacky kind either!), where gorged on all-you-can-eat Pollo (greasy fried rice with chunks of meat in it, peppers and sometimes raisins... a Uyghur staple), veggies and fresh Uyghur yoghurt, all for 10 RMB (about 1.5 Canadian dollars).

We did make our way to the salon where i spent over four hours getting my full head of hair dyed to "Dark Golden Blonde", and then 'Gold' streaks were put in, and then it was washed and cut, blow-dryed and styled... by the end of the night, i was the only customer left (Fatima had class) and i was doted on by at least 10 staff member, all who were trying out their pretty poor english with me. It was really nice though, relaxed and truly enjoyable.

I didn't feel like i was in English Corner whatsoever, which is often the case when you are surrounded by a bunch of non-English speakers who just want to talk to you and ask you questions about where you're from. Most of them were between the ages of 17-25, and it reminded me of being a PL back with Katimavik.... nice warm feeling.

Better sign off now.. off to the airport to pick up Matt who was away in Beijing and Qingdao for business. Oh i do NOT fare well with long-distance anything...

Thailand and recent developments

Ok ok... due to increased demand and pressure from people far and near, here is my next installment... but where to begin???

Ah, let's see what kind of mumble jumble i can produce now...

Thailand was in one word: indescribable.

After spending a lovely day/night in Kunming (clean city with not the pressing hustle and bustle of other major Chinese cities, very friendly with springtime weather all year round), we headed straight to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand where we did a two-day trek.

We packed as much fun and activity as we possibly could: elephant ride; bamboo raft; overnight at a hilltribe minority group village, the Karen people; warm campfire under the stars drinking Chang beer and having a sing-a-long with the rest of our group members (we were 8 in total, from Korea, Denmark, HK, France, Jersey, and Canada).

Then we flew down to Phuket where we stayed at a beautiful bungalow on Ko Yao Noi Island, surrounded by trees, view from bedroom overlooking the sea, delicious food, great company (hilarious British husband wife team who entertained us with their musical talents, singing everything from Elvis to church hymns!)

The following day a bunch of us (guests) went on a longtail boat and visited several beaches on various islands, stopped off in Ao Nang for some lunch, went snorkelling (was quite disappointed with the poor visibility though), showered in the most gorgeous outdoor shower stall surrounded by tall lush trees and birds chirping from every direction, got engaged, had a tasty meal of indian roti and crepes, went to bed.

Our plan was to go straight into Phuket town early the next morning so we could go scuba-diving. We missed the tour group by half an hour, but then again we hadn’t even signed up yet.

We were going to be flying to Bangkok the next day, and so we were determined to dive that day (also you shouldn’t dive and fly on the same day, so that was really our last chance).

After some Chinese-style pressure from our behalf and asking if there were ANY other alternatives, we ended up chartering our own boat! Yup, so off we went with our own guide, boat, equipment, just like that! When there’s a will…

And we scooted off to Raya Yai Island in the Andaman Sea where we did two dives, had lunch on the boat finishing it off with a nice Burmese cigar (very smooth and tasty, shoulda bought more).

Spent that night on Maikhao Beach, where we had the place to ourselves, beach and all! The place had been hit by the tsunami, and there was still debris and broken tree branches to be cleaned up.

Several of their bungalows were washed away, and they seemed quite happy to have us there, if only for one night. Too bad we damaged their motorbike which they so kindly rented to us the next day... more to come.

We ate right on the beach, watching the sunset. Absolutely gorgeous.

Later on that night, some of them were watching the tsunami video that someone had put together by compiling home videos and editing it to music.

So the following morning we hopped on the, what seemed to be fairly new, motorbike. Stopped off at a national park where we saw a waterfall.

Matt showed me how to drive the bike, and i had a go on it around the roads - really fun!

We continued south along the coast, lunching on Patong Beach, and then decided on the spot that we should try jet-skiing as both of us hadn't done it before.

That was excellent, the speed, the waves, the water, but i do prefer riding the bike.

On the way back from Patong Beach going back north through the 'back roads', and about 15 mintues away from our guesthouse, we were going round a steep corner, when all of a sudden we hit a patch of water and skidded.

Off flew Matt onto his stomach, shaving off inches from his beautiful waistline (just kidding hon), me landing smack on top of him, and the bike on me. Poor Matt had to bear the brunt of our weight, resulting in a badly cut up knee, elbow, hand, and tummy.

Up rushed some people from a nearby hotel, shoving cotton balls and alcohol solution in our faces, insisting that we go to the hospital and see a doctor.

With our persistent refusals of anything but some water, we immediately fished out our camera so we could capture the moment, blood and all.

They were probably thinking to themselves "those silly stubborn foreigners, they ARE crazy!" Yes we are, crazy in love!! Ok, bad one… but hey, it’s true.

Our last night in Thailand was spent with Stella in fun-filled Bangkok, catching up over Thai beer, phat thai, Som Tam (really spicy Thai salad), fresh fruit shakes and FALAFELS!!! We did some last minute shopping at the local 7-11, where they seem to pop up every time you round a street corner in Bangkok! Unreal!

The next morning we had to get up very early. Bangkok traffic is crazy. We just made it to the airport, after over an hour and a half in a taxi, which on the way in to the city took us only 20 minutes!

Our supposed short stopover in Kunming last for over 12 hours, and i'll spare you the details, but we eventually made it back to the comfort of our home by morning the next day.... exhausted, sore, but just absolutely glowing too :)

** Oh yeah, so for those who missed it because you were bored by my play-by-play commentary of our holiday and you were just skimming the above, Matt and I got engaged on Koh Yao Noi island!

What can i say, I mean I'm just beyond happy. There is no word for it, i'm just sincerely and deliriously happy!!!...

Thanks to all for the warm wishes! I treasure them with all my heart.

Wedding details will follow soon. We are envisioning an outdoor celebration, somewhere in the grasslands/ mountains of Xinjiang, complete with Uyghur and Kazakh music, fermented camel's milk, big round yurts, huge bonfire, stars, moonlight ... and minimal Baijiu, this wretched throat-burning Chinese alcohol (we might just ban the drink completely)...

There are some traditional Uyghur and Kazakh rituals that a couple must go through before they are married (ie: groom must serenade bride with sweet melodies on the guitar, then he's gotta go and basically beg the bride's family and friends for her to come out of the house/yurt, bribing them with a hefty price in the form of cash, jewellery, livestock.... i'm trying to convince Matt that we should respect this tradition since we are in Xinjiang, and should therefore follow the marriage rituals here.

I don't care much about the jewellery or cash, but having my own proper CAMEL, wow, what a novelty!

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Unable to hold the excitement in any longer, Matt and I are engaged!!!!!

Most of you already know, at least those who would visit this blog, so no biggie surprise, right??? Right!! Haha!

I swear upon my yet-to-be- firstborn-child (and no Marina, there is no “bun in the oven”) that I will write a longer more detailed update within the next few days as soon as my thoughts are gathered and carefully put into words, something that I can’t even do presently in speech!

If it weren't for our bruised and battered bodies, a result from a romantic Valentine's Day motorbike accident in Thailand, i would be jumping up and down and down and up constantly from excess energy and happiness .. but that would probably result in fairly similar injuries anyways!

xxxx bon

Kids, bombs, and freezing cold temperatures

As i sit here typing on the computer, i can see fireworks exploding outside in the chilly night air. Chinese New Year is approaching fast - February 9th this year, year of the Rooster!

The intensives are half way done already (2 out of 4 weeks), and i'm liking the routine, structure and just the fact that that classes are more spread out. Definitely more my kind of working environment.

I have a class that is extremely rambunctious on Saturday afternoons. This week we learned the "If you're happy and you know it" song, you know the one, don't deny it! I got them all in a circle, holding hands, doing a full body workout - it was fabulous. I'm using a lot more TPR techniques with my wee ones, especially to start and end a class. I really believe that coming together as a group, and even doing stretches and (limited) call and response yells is beneficial to learning. Coming from a single-child family, these kids hardly get time to just chill and 'play' with kids their own age. You can see some of the symptoms of "the little emperor" shining through when they refuse to participate and pout in the corner, or in the other extreme, when they scream and yell and basically go bananas, clamping on to the backs and legs of their classmates... or their teacher for that matter! And that's when Teacher decides that everyone should sit down and not get up until class is over. Ah, the power.

As taxing and draining it is to control a group of kids in the morning, some of them are just precious precious precious. Poor little Blue (yes i have a student named Blue, and funnily enough, he is always wearing blue) has all this pent up energy that needs some major directing. A bright little boy, he has what i think is the most baby-beautiful face i've seen. His eyes shine and dance, but it's also as if they long for more. More life, more challenges, just MORE. I don't know, but just looking at him is like looking into a bottomless oasis. Bob, another spunky kid in the same class, is so hyper and just adrenalized (is that even a word?) he is constantly sweating. Not in a disgusting kind of way, but his face is always moist with perspiration and normally it would be a bit gross but this kid, a bit chubby with a round face and spiky hair, c'est cute. Without fail, I would have to tell Bob to "sit down" about a dozen times each class. He is the one who constantly falls out of his chair (the EF chairs are connected to the desks, which are extremely tiny even for 7 year olds) and once he falls, down goes the textbook, workbook, crayons, pencil case and all its contents. Anyways, Bob is worth a mention in this journal because if he isn't sitting in his desk, or falling out of it for that matter, he is on the floor crawling under desks or wriggling around on the floor like a worm. I've caught myself laughing out loud, almost to the point of tears too. It's just so funny! When i would turn my back to the board to write something, and turn back around to face them, there would be Bob - face down squirming like some fish out of water. Why the other students don't laugh or make fun of him or even seem to think it's weird/obscure/strange is beyond me. "Bob, sit down please," I say, trying to sound annoyed that i have to remind him all the time. "Ok, Teacher," he says, eyes wide open, sweat dripping down his rosy cheeks. My heart just goes out to him; I'm a sucker for kids, i admit it. Hey, kids are kids.

There were two explosions on Jan. 22nd. The first one happened when a short-distance bus travelling from Karamay city to Usu city in northern Xinjiang exploded on a highway, killing 12 and injuring many more. About four hours later, a blast killed two people and injured 10 others in the Uyghur area of Urumqi, leaving a nine square meter (97 square foot) hole in the ground. At first we weren't sure what the cause of these attacks were, besides relying on rumours, only that they were hours apart and it just happened to be on one of the Muslim holidays. The one in town is said to be caused by a natural gas leak.

It's been hovering around -27 degrees for the past few days, a bitter bitter cold, the kind that can snap in two if you could actually snap a substance like air. Every part of me is dry, I cannot wait for the sunshine and tropical humidity in Thailand! Wahoo! One week baby!

overdue

Overdue entry, i know. But here goes, my attempt to summarize what has been happening in the past few weeks.

Christmas was filled with lots of fun gatherings with friends and colleagues. Susi and I hosted a Christmas Party on Dec.24 - lots of people showed up (more than i ever expected actually), and after pretty much everyone had left, Uli and I went clubbing down the road in some underground club, excellent times!

Kids EF Xmas Party was on December 26th at the Yindu Hotel. Lots of games, food, screaming, songs, yelling, dancing, and finally... beer for the teachers!

New Year's was celebrated amongst the biggest gathering of foreigners i have yet seen in Urumqi. We gathered at the Silk Road bar, where one of my colleagues had the intention of setting up his discs and tunes.

Unfortunately one of the wires busted and we were left only with the cacaphony of random drunken slurs of people manoevering their way through conversations about mountaineering in the desolate Xinjiang mountains to the debates of whether China should become a democratic nation.

We welcomed a couple more teachers since the last time I wrote.

Alina, who hails from Canada also (Windsor!), arrived a week ago with experience in electrical engineering and various stints of ESL teaching in Eastern China, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Peter, a British bloke (from the North, a very important distinction I've gathered), who landed a couple of days ago with his mountain bike and will be part of the new school of EF. He's been biking around the dodgy streets of Urumqi and getting to know the city well, although he did pass through the area 4 years ago when he biked across a part of central Asia and China.. and ?

The winter intensive courses are begining tomorrow. They run for 4 weeks. This means I have almost 40 AC hours (1AC hour = 40 minutes) of teaching to do, not including the 'chores' that we are assigned weekly, such as Social Clubs, OPI's (Oral Placement Interview), etc.

I'm actually really looking forward to them, getting to know the students on a more personal level since i'll be seeing them several times a week. This is good motivation for me to conduct a good class, something that i've been needing as of late i feel.

Went skiing with a bunch of friends a few weeks back. Of course, it was nothing like many of the Canadian ski hills that most of you are used to, but it was good fun nonetheless.

There were a few runs, some powdery snow, and a lot of first-timers on the 'bunny run', which i think proved a lot more difficult than the 'advanced run', only due to the fact that you had to manoever your way around these people who would literally set themselves up on the top of the hill where they could see a straight line down the mountain that would prove the least dangerous.

Then watch out, cause once they're off, they speed like rockets down the hill oblivious to whatever is in their path. Perhaps oblivious is not the proper word, i do think they are completely aware of what lies ahead of them, but the fact that most haven't mastered the skill of turning or even slowing down renders the object that unfortunately happens to be in the way, redundant, and sooner than later, hit/squashed/pummelled/smashed to bits.

Had a teen class yesterday where I invited some 'guest speakers' to come in and do a mini presentation of their home country.

Each student had to choose a country to research on and present in class. Michael talked about Canada and even sang a Lumberjack song, much to the students' amusement. Fatima talked a bit a bit about El Salvador and showed us how to swing our hips to Latin beats. And Matt introduced us to the charms and treasures of tiny Jersey Island, entrancing the students with stunning pictures and captivating stories. Good variety for the class, and an opportunity to hear different English accents!

Making plans for Chinese New Year (Feb.7-13), where pretty much the entire country is on some sort of 'holiday'. We at EF get one week off. To avoid the vicious crowds that will be undoubtedly be travelling en masse to all sorts of in-China destinations, not to mention clogging up the modes of transport like trains and buses, Matt and I are heading down to Thailand for one week! I'm getting super excited as i've never been to South-East Asia before, and Thailand will just be a taste of what can be experienced there, probably leaving me with an urge to keep travelling and seeing the surrounding countries. Going to stop on the way back to see Stella-bean in Bangkok who is doing an internship there right now - yay!!! It will be very very nice to see a familiar friend from back home!

We are planning on going up north to Chiang Mai for some trekking, and then flying down south to Phuket for some sun-infused times. At first we thought of going to the East side, thinking the south/west was still too devastated from the horrible tsunami disaster. Upon more research and thinking and talking, we decided that the best way to help a situation that has brought so much devastation to a single country is to reply to its many urges of tourists to return to their hotels and beaches so that their financial situation can pick up again. Matt and I have said that if we see something or someone that needs help, we will do so, not limiting ourselves in any way. It will be interesting to see first-hand how it really is, and not just read about it.

I organized a mini-drive at EF amongst colleagues to see how much money we could raise for the Canadian Red Cross. I was so thrilled at how many of the local staff also contributed, well aware of the fact that their salary is only a slight percentage of what we foreign teachers get paid. The good news was that with the money we gathered together, my dad at SDM doubled that, and then the Cdn. Gov. also doubled that amount. Let's just say that the total amount raised (in Chinese RMB) is equivalent to seventy years salary for a local farmer here. A little certainly goes a long way.

We went through a rather nasty cold spell, and we are experiencing the tail end of it, although i'm sure we'll get another one before spring comes. It got down to -32 on Xmas day, the coldest i've ever been here! Nowadays, there is a lot of fog and pollution, ugh. I'm sitting up on the 25th floor and all i see outside is this pasty-milky fog/haze. It's so dense i can't even see the ground. Somedays the drab of the city in winter really does get to people, me included, and we hibernate and recoil into our homes and thoughts and spirits. I'm trying to keep happy and surround myself with happiness, which at the moment is NOT a problem (!), so even though i feel as if i'm floating on clouds, at other times i do think Urumqi needs a big heads-up on what constitutes good clean air and how to manage it...

So to sum up, this month has basically consisted of a lot of growth, discovery and sharing. Intense as everything is, i'm standing solid on the ground with my wings spread. There are emotions errupting inside of me that I have never felt before. Let me try and paint a word-picture: Think beautiful rays of a sunrise, when it first peaks beyond the sealine or mountain peak, of how its radiant glow just captures the childish awe in you, enveloping you in its warm embrace. Imagine how the sun rises, quickly but steadily, and as it does everything in its path is touched by all its glory and light, and those things in turn begin to breathe and smile... unjustifiable words i'm using to describe to you this feeling inside of me. But there you have it. Lots of good memories and appreciative lessons learned in so many different and (sometimes) difficult circumstances; they have only prepared me for what I know will be a truly incredible 2005.