Sunday, 26 September

As you may know, today was my birthday. Someone told my students and they asked Andy to bring the camera and me to the classroom at 8.30--not before!

When I arrived, they had gotten me this beautiful--and delicious--cake. The icing is fluffy and delicious; the white cake is filled with fresh fruit between the two layers. Wonderful!

It came complete with lotus greeting. You light the center and it lights the candles which cause the petals to open. It then plays "happy birthday" for an incredibly long time considering

the size of the battery!

To make matters even better, the staff had also gotten me a birthday cake! It was the same inside but with chocolate sprinkles on the outside--mmmm, good!

So even though we had to teach on a Sunday, it was a great day and a wonderful birthday.

Hope you teachers out there have students as great as mine!!

More later . . .

Thursday morning in Dalian

We had the morning free so we went for a walk after breakfast. After walking about 5 miles (easily!) at the zoo , we were glad the world's largest square wasn't far from the HJ (Howard Johnson) Hotel. It is incredible. Surrounded on 3 sides by modern buildings and on the 4th by the Bay. Swimmers were out in force as were children playing. The entire square is surrounded by sculptures depicting the different Olympic events. It's part amusement park, part beach, part green space and all business!

All in all, it was a great holiday.

Dalian and the arial tram

While at the zoo, you could travel from one park to the other--over the mountains! They provided a wonderful view of the city and coast. The final shot is 'going down'!

Wednesday and the Dalian Forest Zoo

When they described it as Forest, they weren't kidding. The zoo is nestled between two mountains in a forested area with several streams running through it. Many of the animals were roaming free while others were confined to large areas.

These few pictures can't begin to give you a true picture. It was incredible!

Zoo - Thursday #1

Here are some signs we saw!!

Obviously, the Chinese don't believe everything they read!

Autumn Holiday 22-24 September

Tuesday

The Chinese celebrate Autumn Holiday, this year on the 22nd. Our school (and many businesses) expand the holiday so people will have more time to travel home. Like most Chinese holidays, family is the first consideration. Many of my students were sad because they could not travel home to family--not something we expect from their counterparts in the U.S.! This holiday especially is known as the reunion holiday.

On Wednesday, we flew to Dalian. It is a 40 minute flight across the Bohai Bay north. Dalian is a younger city and was occupied/settled by the Russians, Japanese and Germans at different times. There is a Brazilian contingent as well (also in Yantai) because of the petroleum industry. It is technically larger than Yantai.

We have attached some pictures to give you an idea of the area. Dalian is a coastal city; we were warned that it is very polluted! We splurged and stayed at a Howard Johnson's! Yes, that was a splurge. We had a TUB, king sized bed and soft(er) mattress. Here it is a 5 star hotel--comparable to a Ritz in the states! It also cost us about twice as much as the 3 starred hotels we stayed in during our travels in August ($89US/night!). BUT they did have American food (croissants, sandwiches, french fries, lamb chops, toast, salad); these are not what we normally get! Tuesday afternoon we went to a buffet and were actually charged an 'extra food' fee since Andy went back so many times!--Why doesn't that surprise anyone???

The pictures show two of the teachers at the Dalian branch of WECL as well as buildings in the Russian district.

More to follow.

Greetings from Yantai!

Monday was Fun Day at WECL-Yantai. Starting at 1.30, the 5 different classes competed in 'dress up' (pull on items, run to base and back, undress and then the next person does the same), water balloon toss, 3 legged race, tie the wet noodles together and a ball toss. We had a ball! The Chinese love games and they don't have to be sophisticated. We have 16-43 year olds playing. Watermelon followed and the winning team got a cake yesterday. My class only had 7 people participating but we overcame the opposition--we won! I'll send pictures of the cake later. It was a fruit cake; translation: it was a white cake with fresh fruit inside and decorated with fresh fruit on top. The icing was delicious!!

After a week of sunshine, it started raining on Sunday and we feared Fun Day might be cancelled but the weather cooperated and a good time was had by all. The rain also brought cooler weather--yesterday (Tuesday) the umbrellas were out in force as the wind was gusting and it rained off and on--the temps dropped into the low 60's--it was wonderful! The temps are the same today but supposed to get back to the 70's by late afternoon today or tomorrow. Still nice.

Our class schedule gets a little squirrelly about now. We conducted classes Sunday, Monday and Tuesday; have today (Wednesday), Thursday and Friday off; hold classes Sat-Sun-Mon-Tues-Wed-Thurs and then have 1 Oct-7 Oct off for National Holiday. When we return, we'll have classes on Fri and Sat and then return to the M-F schedule. If it Autumn Holiday tomorrow; it celebrates the illicit love affair between a fairy and a mortal (they get together once a year). Moon cakes (round like the moon) are plentiful; it is a time of reunions. Families are VERY important in China and spending time with them.

We are headed to Dalian over the 3 day break. WECL has another school there and we have met the teachers. They have a zoo--complete with pandas! Pictures to follow.

Berkeley sent us a care package which arrived safely after 16 days--20 lbs of CHOCOLATE!! The dark chocolate Hershey kisses are my favorites! We'll use most of the bars as gifts for our Chinese friends. You can get chocolate here but it's not as rich and good as Ghiradelli's or Hershey's!!

Hopefully the pictures will give you some idea of the fun we had Monday.

Until next time . . . .