Flight of the gibbons

Our third day in Thailand was spent zip lining through the jungles outside Chiang Mai. After travelling an hour outside of the city we found ourselves in thick forests up in the mountains. We spent hours traveling from one tree to the next, hundreds of feet above ground. It was hard jumping off a platform so high in the ground, hoping that one wire and one metal hook will safe you from plummeting to the ground. It was also a great rush! We did a lot of zip lining, walked a couple of suspended bridges and took a few leaps of some REALLY high platforms. Mom, you would have hated every second of it. We left with our adrenaline pumping. Afterwards we visited a huge waterfall and then were treated to a chicken curry meal (which most of us will say was the best curry we had in Thailand). It was a great day!

Chiang Mai

So yesterday we did our big trip to elephant orphanage. It started bright and early at 8am when we were picked up at our hostel and driven to the outskirts of the city. Along the way we learned a little bit more about what we would be doing for the day as well as stories of the elephants pasts. We had a quick orientation and were then taken to see our first elephants! We were able to touch them, pet them and kiss their trunks. Soon afterwards we gave them their first feeding, breakfast! It was small bananas and watermelons and pumpkins in a very large basket. We were told to hold out the fruit and the elephant would take it from us using their trunk. They were very hungry and ate a basket of fruit the size of a university load of laundry, each. If they didn't like food they would drop it until you gave them the fruit they wanted. Then we went to see the baby elephants. When they're younger they are much more rambunctious and can be dangerous at times, so we were told to keep our distance. Needless to say Greg still got head butted by one of them. After that we walked over to the river at the orphanage, grabbed some brushes and buckets and jumped into the water with them for their bath. It is quite interesting to see such large animals roll around freely in water like they are little kids. We threw water onto their backs and scrubbed their sides clean. This did seem quite rewarding until a few minutes later when they got out of the water and threw dirt on themselves. Dirt is an elephants sunscreen for the day. Then the elephants went to their favorite trees for a good scratch before they took off to roam in the open fields. We were given an amazing buffet style Thai meal in the meantime. After lunch we pretty much repeated the whole morning over again. We also had a small break where we learned a lot about the woman who started and owns the orphanage. We also learned many heart breaking stories about some of the elephants that were rescued and how most elephants are treated in the country. Elephants in the streets of thailand are used for begging. They can make their owners up to a months worth of income in one night. But to get them ready for the streets they go through torturous training and are forced to live in the city where they are traumatized by traffic, humans and could be killed easily by a car. We learned the stories of several elephants who were tortured and blinded by their owners, one who was used only as a breeding tool and suffered many broken bones and are now disformed, elephants who were rescued as babies because their mothers were killed, and one that stepped on a land mine. Most of the elephants are now recovering safely in this sanctuary, but there are still many others out in the streets being abused and traumatized. The orphanage makes money on tourists who come and volunteer as well as those who donate money to help purchase an elephant from the street to bring them there. All in all we learned a lot yesterday about elephants in Thailand and we experienced something I'm sure we will never forget. it was amazing!! Pictures to come soon.

We made it safe and sound in Bangkok last night at 2am. We had a long three hour flight, or at least it seemed long because my seat wouldn't lend back and I wanted to sleep. I had to sleep sitting straight upright, I think I pulled something in my neck along the way, but the pain is gone now. In Thailand there is a bit of a time difference when it's 10pm in Bathurst it's 9am here. So take off an hour and change am to pm. We stayed last night at a little hostel called 'Take a nap'. I'm up early here now and decided I would use the free internet service. We had to fight with the cabbi last night about putting on his meter (he wanted to charge us a flat rate, but we didn't trust him). In the end we paid almost the same amount using the taxi meter as we would have with his offer. We had a good laugh about that. We leave again tonight from Bangkok to go to Chiang Mei for the next few days. Our elephant orphanage day is tomorrow and I'm REALLY REALLY excited about it. I promise to take lots of pictures. Speaking of pictures, Greg got me a new digital camera for Christmas! It's really nice, 10 megapixel, and can go UNDERWATER up to 3 meters!! So I can take it to the beach without worrying about it. Or leave it out in the rain at the beach lot. hahaha. Anywho we had a great small Christmas opening in our room and thank everyone for the parcels and packages that were sent. Hopefully finding internet will this easy throughout the whole trip and we can update you often.

The Christmas Season in China

For a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas China does a very good job of being festive. Every big mall and store has been decorated for at least a month. You can find large Christmas trees at any large shopping location and English Christmas music is never far from it. Decorations can even be found around the corner at the local grocery store. Our school has been practicing for weeks for our upcoming Christmas concert. Every grade from Kindergarten to grade 12 performs a song. They’re encouraged not to choose a Christmas song, but rather something relating to winter or the season. I have been put in charge of the elementary grade’s drama play called “the giving tree”. Their director left early for Christmas vacation and put me in charge of the Christmas performance….I’m a bit worried. I can’t even remember the kids’ lines nor the dance moves to their song. It should be interesting. I have also been put in charge of the grade 6 homeroom temporarily which means this last week of school is going to BE CRAAAZY! Our school takes this concert very seriously. It’s a much different set up than at home. On Monday each class books a time in the theatre to take their class in and do a quick rehearsal. Then on Tuesday we do a quick run-through of the whole concert so that the tech. guy knows who needs microphones and when to turn on the music. On Wednesday the whole school watches the full concert during morning classes because this time it’s a dress rehearsal. This also happens because during the night of the actual concert, the auditorium is too small and can only hold the parents. So Wednesday morning is the only time the students get to watch the show. Wednesday night is when all the magic happens. As teachers we will be in our classrooms entertaining our students until it’s their time to perform and then for the time afterwards. I’m sure I’ll be pooped by the end of the night. This week also ends with a half day on Friday. I think Friday after school Greg and I am going to open our gifts and have a small fake Christmas. We’ve received four parcels so far and several Christmas cards. Thank to all those who sent us one!!! They definitely make me feel very happy inside and I can not freakin’ WAIT to open them.
Greg and I have also been attending some Christmas parties. We had a 4th floor party last week after we decorated the whole floor in Christmas decorations. Then last Monday we had our International school staff party, complete with Yankee gift exchange (I guess it’s not appropriate to call it a Chinese gift exchange when you’re in the country). The party was held at this delicious all you can eat Western BBQ restaurant close by and went really well. Then this past Sunday night our Canadian staff from both school held a Christmas potluck upstairs in our residence. A turkey, gravy and stuffing were all ordered from a local restaurant. There were mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes casserole, Kimbob (Korean sushi that I am in love with), broccoli salad, taco salad (made by us of course) and many other great dishes. We had cakes, cookies and homemade carrot cake for dessert. By the end of the evening my tummy felt just like it does on a Christmas afternoon in Janeville, except that I probably ate even more than usually because homemade Canadian food is so rare. My belly really hurt afterwards and I felt very much like a zombie. We ended the night singing Christmas carols off a laptop and watching ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’.
Greg and I have also spent the last week running around getting ready for our big trip to Thailand. We’ve bought some swim suits, a large backpack, and a beach volley ball in preparation. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to start packing during the week because we leave on Friday evening THIS WEEK! We hope to bring the laptop with us so that we can update you on our adventure. Or at least journal about it and post it all when we come back so you have a great story to read. I will try and take a lot of photos, but my camera hasn’t been working well (tear :( ) so I’ll see what we can do. If this is for some reason our last post before Christmas, I do wish all our friends, family and random readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Below is a link to my art course websites. Just in case anyone wanted to see what I was up to at work and the skill these students have. Click on 'Artists of the Month' to be wowed!

http://210.21.225.84/issc/jessicachapman/MainPage.htm

Cold Front

If you haven’t heard yet it’s been usually cold here over the past week. Temperatures have dropped to a bone chilling 15 degrees. That may not sound cold to you Eskimos over in Canada, but we don’t live in igloos over here. I have had to pull out my pants, buy leggings, wear socks and even purchase sweaters. We even contemplated buying mitts and scarves. All of our air conditioners have been replaced with heaters and the students have been arriving at school with 3 to 4 layers of clothing worn underneath their jackets. The mice have also been appearing in our rooms looking for a warmer place to go about their mouse business. Thankfully our temperatures are getting closer to normal lately and the socks have been put away.

Greg’s Birthday

For those of you who didn’t know, Greg’s birthday has already flown by us. It was on a Thursday, which happened to be our Parent teacher night that was followed by a PT day. Thus no drinking occurred until Friday when we threw Greg a bowling birthday party…yes they bowl in China. We walked to a bowling alley not far from our place and did some big ball bowling. The balls, pins and alleys all look the same here in case you were wondering. We had great fun, even though most of us were pretty bad at it. The one main difference between bowling in Canada compared to China, is that here you can drink as you bowl. Thus your game gets sloppier as the night goes on. We of course went out afterwards for a drink and some boogying. For Greg’s birthday he received a brand new bike from his amazing girlfriend, a quart of Jack, a ping pong racket that was already his but had forgotten at a friends and a light to go on the back of his bike.

Jay Jays

While we were in H.K. Alicia was able to tell us about the Jay Jays that work in the city. They are ladies who come from the Philippians to work as house maids for the rich people of H.K. Most of them have husbands and family back home but were unable to find a job or make enough money. So they’ve travelled there to work as nannies or maids because of the higher salary and better living- some even have university degrees! A lot of the money goes back to their families, which they rarely get to talk to and may only see every 3 years, if they’re lucky. The reason I am telling you this is because we were so surprised at how many Jay Jays there are in H.K. (approx. 140,000….according to Wikipedia, so it could be inaccurate). On Sundays, when they have the day off, they all gather in the streets and lay blankets down on the ground to eat and socialize. We saw so many of them! Alicia says some of them aren’t treated very well and work very hard, but that some might be lucky enough to have a good employer.

Hong Kong for the first time.

Three weekends ago Greg and I had the chance to bus over to Hong Kong to visit my former roommate Alicia from MTA. She is living there now with her father who is working for the Canadian embassy. Hong Kong is only about an hour bus ride away, but it takes much longer to get there because you have to go through customs.
Even though it’s an hour away it feels like you’re a world away. There are a lot more English speakers than here. So many that you could live there without having to learn any Mandarin or Cantonese. Its main areas are more densely populated in comparison to Shenzhen and you can tell immediately that they have a large upper class. The stores are mostly large name brands. It reminded me of the New York City in some areas. What really caught our eye was the abundance of high quality cars. Every 5th or 6th car might have been a Honda or a Toyota (but top of the line ones). The rest were BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, Porche or anything else you can image. We also noticed that they drive a little better, but I figure it’s because they have nicer cars over there that they don’t want to injure. We traveled mostly by subway while we were there. Saturday was spent walking around window shopping and buying a few things that we can’t find in Shenzhen. Hong Kong has a lot more Western groceries than us, so we found some Campbell’s tomato soup, cereal, and cookies that were mushy (as appose to hard as a rock). Greg was also very happy to find a place that served poutine!
Our Sunday was actually spent at the beach with Alicia and some of her friends who had camped over night there. The beach was at the far end of the island where it was less populated and more mountainy ... but Greg thinks it’s more mountainous. We had to take a small boat to get there and were surprised to arrive at a small beach with almost no one in the water. The sand was beautiful with almost no rocks and the water was comparable to home when it’s at its warmest. It was very quiet and peaceful for the bustling island of Hong Kong. We were only able to spend a few hours there before we had to make our long trek back to Shenzhen. We will definitely be going back again. It really was a great weekend and it’s awesome that we have a place to stay when we go.

Mailing Address

I know this is being posted quite late, but if any of you EVER EVER want to send us mail, postcards, or packages below is our mailing address. Be sure to put the names below (they are our passport names). Recieving mail is like winning the lottery here. We love it!

Jessica Chapman and Charles Sheppard
ISSC
166 Nanguang Rd.
Nanshan District
Shenzhen, P.R. China
518052

Crazy week

Greg and I have been very busy since our last blog entry. I still haven't posted pictures from our last adventure. My digital camera isn't working well so it's taking me long than excepted to get them up. Next week we have to enter our marks for our first report cards, which means this week I have anywhere from 200-250 pieces of artwork to mark and record. It's going to be a really long week.

Eric Smith has been in town for the past couple of days giving some PD sessions at the college. He also gave our school a PD session on Word walls yesterday. I was able to receive some halloween snacks and cards from home and he brought me a couple of things that I needed from Canada. It was great!! It's so nice to have him around. He'll be leaving on Thursday for Beijing.

This past weekend Greg went out and bought a full set to Titleist golf clubs. He paid about 200$ Canadian from them and they are apparently worth a couple thousand. He was able to go to a gold range to try them out as well. It's about 200$ Canadain here to go for one round of golf, so the driving range will have to do for now. Land is so exspensive that golfing is only for the most elite members of China.

For now I have to go back to lesson planning and marking.

ps. I tried wearing pants last week and learned my lesson. I'm back in skirts everyday.

October

Sorry we have not written in a while. We've become lost in the everyday life of China. Since we last wrote Greg has purchased a new guitar that he has been playing on a regular basis. He has also started coaching the basketball team along with volley ball and basketball as an after school activity. At lunch he is even sharing his talents with a few students by giving them guitar lessons. I have finally joined a gym near by, but other than that find that I'm spending a lot of time preparing for my classes each day. I was able to see an orthodontist on Monday who spoke very clear English and was able to change my wire and elastics. I plan to see him every two months. It is most definitely cheap to have dental work done here than back home. If ever you in China go get some work done!
On the 11th we were fortunate enough to have a staff Thanksgiving potluck, which was very yummy. We had turkey, gravy, double baked potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Greg and I brought a punch (that we made last minute and at random) which was a big hit!
The following night, on the 12th, was Greg and my 8th year anniversary. Greg bought me a plant that I have fallen in love with. (I got him nothing cause I'm a bum) and we went out to a fancy restaurant for supper. It was called LSD party. Greg and I sat at table that could probably sit 8 people. We each had a large white sofa to ourselves. The ceiling was full of white branches, lights and many many plastic bubbles. It was very dark int he room, most likely so we could see the projection on the large wall to our left. To eat we started with a "large" bowl of caeser salad and a bottle of white wine. Greg ordered smoked duck breast with mashed potatoes and gravy. I had cod with asparagus and saute tomatoes. We both shared a side of pesto. They definitely side with quality over quantity... but the food was very tasty!! Greg gives his duck an A cup at best. Since we still had a bit of room in our bellies after our 519 RMB meal we decided to stop at Starbucks for a slice of new york cheese cake, coffee and a tea.
This past weekend we celebrated one of friends birthdays by going to the nearby skating rink for some amusement. The rink is hidden on the 4th floor of a mall complex that is about a 10 minute walk from us. Greg says it was a full size hockey rink, but it looked like it was being used for a lot more figure skating than hockey. We were able to rent skates there (Greg's were 3 sizes too small, but that was the biggest they had). The rink was quite warm, so I have no clue how the ice wasn't melting, but we were able to wear shorts and t-shirts. There were quite a few Chinese people on it. A lot of children were getting taught figure skating in the middle as the rest of us circled around.
We have also been going to a park nearby for a random stroll every so often. It is only 2 blocks away from us and it very well kept. A lot of people go there to fly kites, play card games on table, sit with their families in the shade, or just run some laps (one man even ran with an umbrella to keep himself cool). The temperature here has still been quite warm, but the nights are finally cooling down. I might try to wear pants one day soon. I have been living in summer dresses for way too long.
...pictures about some of these events will be posted soon!

Guilin/Yangshuo

As you have already read, we have been spoiled here with a week off of holidays already. We joined in with a group of 9 teachers from our school to travel to the beautiful cities of Guilin and Yangshuo. We left bright and early Thursday morning at 6:30am to catch our one hour flight from Shenzhen airport to Guilin airport. We decided to leave early because October 1st is one of the busiest travelling holidays of the year. Thankfully we beat the crowds, but we did have a long wait until our flight…but Starbucks was found and all was good.
The closer and closer the plan flew to Guilin the odder the landscape became. The best way I could describe it is looking at flat terrain with mountain side rocks sitting on it. It almost looked like God had stuck his fingers up through the earth to create these weird shaped mountains. You’ll have to look at picture to understand. Upon arriving we jumped a cab to our “International” hotel, which ended up being a really nice hotel (expect for the fact that they spoke very little English and had very little recognizable food at the restaurant). In the end we discovered that a short bus ride would take us where ever we need to go and we were able to find some good food. Some of us ran into the old Guilin University (which is now a tourist attraction) and explored its old buildings, learnt some history and even climbed a very steep rocklike mountain that gave a beautiful view of the city. Mom you would have had a heart attack on the way up, one again at the view at the top and probably would have died looking at the steps going down… it was quite steep. All in all our first night went well.
Early Friday morning we packed our bags again and took a taxi to our river cruise to Yangshuo. The port was filled with many tourist (Chinese as well as others) who were all gung-ho to take a relaxing cruise down the river. Most of the boats were about the same size. Each had an upper and lower deck and could probably hold about 60 people. The chairs were all leather couches and the boat had a small bar and kitchen on board. We had booked tickets to sit on the top deck, which was awesome! And spent four hours boating through rock-like mountains and beautiful rural scenery. Most mountains had historic meanings and were said to be shaped like certain animals. The best part was when we travelled through the mountains that are printed on the 20 yuan bill. Everyone really went nuts for their cameras then. We also took many pictures of water buffalo that could be found eating along the short lines, locals fishing on bamboo rafts and rock-mountains that were apparently shaped like animals and people (although most times we could find them). Interestingly there was a group of six adults who sat in the seats behind us who were from Calgary! They were all Chinese, but lived in Canada and were touring on their vacation. We compared travel plans and had a great ride with them. Our meal on the boat was provided with our tickets and thankfully was quite normal; however they did come around at one point to ask if we would like a shot of snake wine. This invite was given to us from a Chinese lady would was holding a large glad bottle of yellow tinted water which actually contained several snake skins and other random unidentifiable objects. Of course Greg and our friends Ross and Amy all decided to live a little and try one. As disgusting as the bottle look, the shot (apparently) wasn’t that bad. No thanks!
Several hours later we grabbed our luggage and got off the boat into the city of Yangshou. Here we were met with many tourist shops and hundreds of tourists. We blew past them to get a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at the Snow Lion Resort about 10 minutes outside of the very busy city. William, the owner of the hotel provided us with everything we needed; taxis to and from wherever we need to go, day adventures, and a lot of valuable travelling information. He was fluent in English and extremely helpful. Our hotel was small, but had everything we needed. We were able to book tours, rent bikes, eat Chinese or Western food and most importantly we were able to meet so many others travellers who were staying there. It had the relaxing atmosphere of a hotel with the luxury of a hotel. It was perfect! Our first evening was spent downtown Yangshuo, going through the many shops bartering for souvenirs and eating supper at a not so amazing restaurant.
Saturday morning at 9am Greg and I had the bright idea that we were going to tour the country side on bicycles and then climb a well known rock-mountain. With our backpack in hand and water bottles full we headed out to travel through some of China’s rural small towns. We meet many stray chickens, saw countless fields of crop, and shouted ‘Ni-hoa’ to almost every local we passed. The trails were at time quite bumpy, but the views were breathtaking. After three hours of biking, several stops in the shade and over 4 water bottles, 3 sprites and one beer we decided that we might have bitten off more than we could chew. Our butts were in full fledge pain from the stiff bicycle seats and the sun had taken its toll on our skin. We were still full of adventure and still wanting to soak in as much of China’s countryside as we possible could, but we didn’t know how much our bodies could handle it without a good meal and a long rest. We got lost a few times, played charades with some locals to figure out where we were on our small map and after what seemed like 5 years we found the well known rock-mountain we were hoping to climb. Here we were able to eat a good full meal and rest for half an hour as we waited for our friend Maria and Ross to meet up with us. Then we climbed up Moon Hill, which took us a total of 30 minutes, but seemed like pure torture after our bike ride. The apparently 800 steps on the way up were very steep, and sometimes crooked, but there were many breaking areas and the end view was well worth it. We were able to look out on a nearby village as well as see the neighbouring mountain that contained a half moon like shaped whole right through it. The climb down was much easier. Our bike ride back to the hotel was supposed to be direct and much much shorter, but we ended up getting lost again (the map we had extremely inadequate). We did eventually get home (it was almost 6pm), but it took over an hour and made me never want to ride a bike ever again. Our evening was spent at the hotel celebrating the moon festival. The hotel had decided to put on a buffet/party for anyone in the hotel who wanted to participate. For 60yuan (10 Canadian) we had all we can eat. The BBQ was set up on the terrace outside of the hotel, lights were strung in the trees and table and chairs were set out so we could really enjoy the countryside. After supper William (the owner) brought out fireworks to set off. As you can image we were both completely pooped and headed to bed early.
Our next morning we decided to keep our adventure going and joined a small group of staff members to go visit this butterfly park. After the biking adventure we thought it would be best to just taxi around Yangshuo for the day. The butterfly, to make a long story short, was rather disappointing. It did have a waterfall and we went through a few small caves, but it took very little time to walk through and we saw a total of 2 butterflies. With much of the day left we decided to taxi into town for more shopping and lunch at a wood fire pizza restaurant. Our afternoon was spent relaxing at the hotel. We had wanted to go to this spectacular light show that night, but the tickets were all sold out, so we ate at the hotel and enjoyed each others company.
While at the market in Yangshuo Greg fell in love with these old coins that were at some of the antique shops. After bargaining with many different vendors for a good price he ended up purchasing 10 of these small coins. The coins are about the same size as our Canadian nickel. They have a small square hole in the middle of them and very different symbols on each side. We were later able to ask William what they were. He said they were used back in an ancient dynasty when their emperor was from Mongolia. One side of the coin has the currency written in Chinese and the other side is written in Mongolian symbols. Even though those symbols were used for a period of time only 10% of the Chinese population would be able to read them. The square in the middle is there for two reasons; 1. So that people could keep their money on a string instead of carry around wallets. They would just attach it all together and second because the square was the represent earth. At that time they thought the earth was square and the sky was round and that on the corners of the earth there were large poles to keep up the sky. That is why the coin is round, to represent the sky. I thought it was pretty neat.
On our last day of our adventure we got up early to take a 4 hour van ride to these beautiful rice terraced fields. Past the odd shaped rock mountains, in a different part of the countryside, many small villages can be found way up in several sets of rolling mountains. Before we started our drive up the mountains our driver thankfully let us grab a snack and a washroom break. Here is where I found one of the most disgusting bathroom I have ever seen in my entire life (comparable to rural Mexico, but in a different way). There were stalls, but no doors and in the stall there was only a trough to be found. This trough ran from one stall to the next. All you could do was squat, hold your breath and hope your aim was good. There was no place to put your toilet paper, so there was a pile of T.P. (and other ‘supplies’) stacked in the corner of every stall. It was horrible! But I did it. After our lovely bathroom experience we began our very long drive up the winding, thin, high roads of the mountains. If you are scared of heights you could only close your eyes and pray you made through the mountains. When we finally did arrive to the rice terraced fields we were not disappointed. They were amazing. To see endless man made fields all made on the mountain to help the villagers grow crops. It looks like giants steps up and down each side. To see how many they made is shocking. They appear never ending. We were able to climb up to the top of one of these fields and get a real view of the scenery. The hike was over an hour and a half to the top and less than half and hour on the way down. It was a great workout and candy for the eyes. I will never forget it.
Our last night was spent in Guilin. We just had a quite supper at an Italian restaurant, and then Greg wasn’t feeling bed so we went to bed early to be ready for our flight home the next morning. Now we are back home with a few days off until we start classes again. I’ve been working on my year plans while Greg is playing his new guitar.