Odds and Ends

Just thought I'd put some odds and ends on the blog while I'm trying to take it easy this weekend. The first ones are some Car0l and I took in Beijing.

It has been nice just relaxing today - instead of riding a bus for 9 hours. It was raining when I got up this morning and continued on and off until early afternoon. The entire day has been really hazy so it was nice to stay inside. About 5:30 this evening I decided to walk up to the little grocery by the buffet tray place (Carol, you will know the one). I picked up a few things, stopped by the bakery down the street and picked up some bread. Barbara had been telling me that the New Island Coffee Company was a good place to eat, so I decided to check it out. I ordered a small pizza and a coke - with ice. After about 20 minutes they finally brought the ice - no coke. Finally I asked another waitress about my coke and the first one hadn't put it on the ticket. After another 20 minutes I finally got the pizza (sausage). From the first bite I knew I wasn't going to get it down. It was covered in green and red peppers and onions. There was some kind of sweet sauce along with the sausage - not my idea of good ole sausage pizza. I finally managed to get some of the slice down, paid the bill and left. I decided I would have done better going to the buffet place - oh well, live and learn.

This is the Hostel Carol and I stayed in, there are goldfish in the big brass urn - we didn't know how they survived in that water! The wisteria was gorgeous and Carol is standing by one of the lions at Tiannamen Square. The weather sure was nice tonight walking home although a little misty. It was certainly a welcome change from the hot, humid weather we have been having. Here is some of the local traffic - how about the truck with the motor out in the front? The lady with the three-wheeler with the child in it are at the wet market. There are several other vehicles parked on the left where the farmers have brought their goods to the market. It is straight ahead under the plastic strips (blue green)

Well, this post has been a little scattered, but hope you enjoy the pictures. Time for some shut eye. G'Night!

Other Hobby

Since I am posting, I thought I might as well include some of my efforts to learn sketching and painting while I am here. I even had a stamp made with my Chinese name, (the red square). As you can tell, I sure have a l-o-o-n-g way to go and I hope my teacher (my director's wife) doesn't give up on me! (Thanks Marion for all your encouragement and direction). Using water colors is quite a challenge in itself. Oh well, a Picasso I won't ever be but I sure am enjoying doing it in what spare time I can muster.

I am also trying to learn the shading techniques for portraits. There are some gorgeous ones done here in China by street vendors and they make it look so easy.

Drawing pagodas is no easy feat either! Mine looks like it might fall down!....lots of room for improvement there. And my first attempt at mountains...in water colors!! (sigh) Oh well, I am having fun trying anyway.

On The Downhill Slope!

It's hard to believe that I only have four weeks of school and the final week of testing/marking and my year at the Changzhou International will be finished. This past week my dad celebrated his 81st birthday. I am amazed at all the things he keeps on doing...such as things like this!

Dad, sorry I missed your birthday - YOU ARE AWESOME!! (Hey Andy, you look cool on my blog!)
Well, back to China - I am trying to get in as much travel time as possible before the end of term when Jim, Diana and Ron come over. Our school informed us that they were having a new teaher orientation on Saturday (the school term is more than half over - oh well, just go with the flow) and we would not have to teach so yesterday (Saturday) a couple of teachers and I went to Nanjing for the day. We were supposed to take the fast train at 8:03 but when we got to the waiting lounge the leave time was posted for 8:15. Within 5 minutes the time was reposted to 8:38. After about 15 minutes it was reposted again to 8:45. In China passengers are always sent to the dock about 10 minutes before the train is to arrive and finally at 8:42 we were sent to the dock. We had to wait out there for another 20 minutes. Needless to say, we were an hour late leaving Changzhou. We were to meet up with another former colleague from Wuxi in Nanjing. We finally arrived by 10:30 and caught the Metro to the Confucious Temple area and met up with Celia. There was plenty of shopping to do and lovely gardens in the temple area. Janet and I hadn't eaten any breakfast so she grabbed a couple of meat sticks and we ducked in to the one and only (McDonalds) for me to grab a big mac. It sure tasted good since I hadn't had any western food in quite a while. Janet wanted to go through the temple so Celia and I hung out and did some serious window shopping. Ray had gone off on his own. We all met up again at12:30. Celia went back to meet with her colleagues and the three of us caught a taxi to another temple up by the Yangtze River. After we had paid our money and walked through the turnstyle we noticed that some people were just walking up the road and catching the lift to the top (and of course we followed suit) - not sure why we had to pay the 30 quai. At any rate, as soon as we stepped out at the top we were mobbed by hordes of school children all wanting to practice their English. We finally were able to extricate ourselves after one of the children insisted that he wanted to give me a set of wooden clackers (which I graciously accepted). He is the one running up the steps. The view was great from the top and after taking photos we ascended the many many steps to the bottom. We were able to take a couple of photos of part of the old wall that had been rebuilt and also saw the children loading into their buses. They spotted us and all began waving and yelling "Goodbye!" It was a treat for them and us.

Since the day was so hot we decided to go back to the train station and kill time for the last two hours before the train back home. When we arrived we found that straight out from the station was a beautiful lake. So Janet and I rented a motorboat and drove around the lake for an hour. It was wonderful and there was a great breeze. They were building these awesome lanterns like these trees for some upcoming festival. We were both surprised to see an amusement park with a water slide! We both decided that this was the way to wait on a train! This is a picture of the train station from the lake. By the time we got back it was time to go in to catch the train. We rode the new D train back home which only took one hour. It looks like an airplane (on the outside and inside). All in all, it was a great day.