to all our friends and readers of our blog. Thanks for “following” us through our
We have started looking for jobs back in
we are slightly. Especially now with Christmas coming up, we would like to be closer to our families.
is winding down. With only two weeks to go, we are mostly teaching about Christmas. Today, Johanna had her students act out the Story of Nativity… and captured it on camera. So if you come visit, we’ll surely bore you with that kind of thing!
So far we have got five definite visitors: The first one is Ivano (the guy who leaves most and most funny comments on our website… if there was such a thing as a blog comment leaver Oscar, you’d get it!), who comes here in February. Looking forward to exploring
Also, Johanna’s sis Anna will come visit with her friend Vanessa. Around the same time, we are expecting Catherine and Cornelia to be coming here. We will probably go on the Jangtze River Cruise, where they are building the “Three Gorges” Dam, and which will be inaccessible after 2008.
We had an arrangement with our families not to exchange pressies this year. Yet, we got a lovely little reindeer along with a long letter from Lee’s sister Sue. Thanks a lot, it is hanging in our window and it always brings a smile to our face when people are staring at it in amazement (it’s not a pig, it’s not a dragon… what is it?).
So, despite being in
We have been fortunate enough to get some sunny days back… which makes life so much more enjoyable.
We found this weeks "Picture of the Week" on a bar entrance in Xian. Being a "Politically Correct" westerner, we were amused by the blatant incorrectness of it. Sadly though, it does reflect a really deep dislike for their rising sun neighbors.
Watching the English Channel CCTV-9, we are often bombarded by documentaries of how brutal the Japanese were during the war, or how a Chinese soldier single handedly fought a thousand of them before they destroyed his village. Recently on the news, a group of old ladies were trying to sue the Japanese government since they were used as prostitutes during the last war.
During my lessons I subtly ask my students (some are teachers here) about their relationship with the Japanese, and they confirm our beliefs.
Despite the superficial Japaphobia, they still prize their Japanese consumer products, so maybe its more “family bickering” than anything serious.
Yippie! It's not only weekend, but there are also only three more weeks to go before our holidays start... and the last week doesn't really count, since Johanna will be showing ALL her students a Christmas movie. We haven't decided on one yet, so if you know an excellent Christmas related movie, please let us know NOW. THX! We'd be grateful for a good one, since we'll probably be able to recite it after watching it ten times...
Lee's difficult computer classes have now finished, and he will only be teaching 9 hours/ week as compared to his 24 hours/ week he taught before. So now there is no excuse for him not to be studying hard on Chinese.
Belgium weather has caught up with us here (don't tell us it's sunny over there, because we know it can't be!!). But the thought of the summer in New Zealand is keeping us happy.
Talking of which, thanks to Isa and Tanja for the tips on New Zealand: As a matter of fact, we will be going there in January, Isa, which you warned us about... I am looking forward to meet half of my fellow Germans!
We will keep you posted on our Christmas experience here in Golden C.
Right now we are planning our trip to New Zealand in January. We are looking forward to a "Western refill" including eating familiar food and buying clothes outside the maternity shops (which Johanna does here). Also, it will be summer there, so we can recharge our sun-batteries as well! If any of you have an insider tip on where to go or what to do, we'd be grateful for you to share it with us! So long, Lee and Johanna
Dear friends,
Nothing much new in the East, except that Lee and I were dragged out deep into the nightlife of Guilin, since it was the birthday of a friend of ours. It is almost surreal watching the Chinese partying, playing dices, eating pieces of watermelon and drinking beer out of shot glasses. Conversation does not appear to on the menu. Also, the music was quite bad. As you can imagine, "We are not amused", and left rather early. If we had been single, on the other hand, it might have turned into a great night...
Talking of a great night, we recently found Belgian beer here, and had a glass each, which made us miss good old Belgium!
We did not actually witness this story, but it comes from a good source... A friend was out in a Chinese club one night, and one of the party goers had drunk too much. He started to vomit on the table. The normal reaction would be take him home, but his friends would just clean up the sick after each time he pucked up. Apparently, this went on for quite a while.. which seems to be common practice!
