Life...after China...

Suzhou Garden Annual Card

My wife and I spent the better part of the morning waiting in line to get the Suzhou Garden Card.  For 160RMB (about $20USD) we have access to 18 gardens in Suzhou for up to 100 visit starting today.  It makes it even more difficult by the fact that the Suzhou Government only issues the cards for the months of June and December.  Today was the last Saturday that we could get the cards until the first weekend of December.  I think that half of the population of Suzhou also realized this!  Actually, the line was not too long and it was very fast.  It only took us about 30 minutes to get it all handled.  So after we got the cards we headed nearby to a smaller garden called the Garden of Harmony. I have put some photos up on my Webshots page. Enjoy!

Posted by: wjreagin at 06/25/05 18:20 | link | comments (1)
china

Summer Travel Plans; Closer to Confirmation

We are closer to knowing all the details of our trip plans for this summer.  School ends next Friday.  We will be packing up and moving the following week.  If all goes according to plan we will be leaving Suzhou on Monday, July 11th.  We have decided to start the trip with a visit to my in-laws in Dalian.  This will be our starting point for our journey to the western province of Xinjiang.  From Dalian our plan is to only take trains until we reach Kashgar.  I will outline the final trip ASAP.  I have worked out how many miles/kilometers we will be trains.  The final figure is around 2351miles/5233 KM!  It is not a small trip and our estimate for length is 33 days.  Photos and stories to follow...

Posted by: wjreagin at 06/23/05 12:32 | link | comments
china, silk road trip

Suzhou Link

Just found a link that may be of interest to those people who would like to know more about Suzhou.  The Suzhou Government maintains an English site with the latest on Suzhou news.  Check it out...

Posted by: wjreagin at 06/19/05 11:25 | link | comments (3)
china

Recent Story on 'NowPublic.com'

Yesterday I got an e-mail from one of the editors of NowPublic.com inviting me to register and contribute news stories from China.  I gave it a try by re-publishing a blog entry from June 18, 2004 about the Chinese building boom.  Here is the story again, see the site for photos of before and after:

"I have now lived in China for four years.  In that time I have seen time and time again that China is one huge construction site.  The pics are the view from my apartment window from Jan. 04 - May 05.  I used to be able to see for much further, but...

Dictionary.com defines 'Crane' as
"Any of various large wading birds of the family Gruidae, having a long neck, long legs, and a long bill"

For thousands of years the 'crane' bird has been a symbol of China and for good fortune and long life. You can see them painted everywhere. Especially, during spring festival and national day (October 1st). However, after many, many years, the crane is threatened!

Also, according to Dictionary.com defines 'Crane' as:
"A machine for hoisting and moving heavy objects by means of cables attached to a movable boom."

The building boom in China is at a fevered pace. I have been living in Suzhou for almost one year and in that time I have seen countless numbers of cranes and building go up and litter the skyline. From my apartment window this morning I could count 15+ cranes in a single sweep of the skyline! Last August, my apartment has a nice grassy, plain area just to the side, now there are 6 highrise apartment buildings being built. I am all for the growth of China from a third-world country to one of the 'modern' countries, but does have to do it in a day?"

Posted by: wjreagin at 06/17/05 09:06 | link | comments
china

End-of-the-year details

Well, my ESL teaching days are drawing to a close, for a while anyway.  I must admit that I have really enjoyed the ESL teaching field, but it is time for a change.  Starting next school year I will be teaching grades 6-10 computer technology and design technology.  I know that this is a departure from ESL teaching, but my school is composed of many second language speakers and it will be a useful tool for me that I can teach to ESL students.  Anyway, as stated, in 12 days I will finish this school year and I must say it will not come a moment too soon.  I think that every teacher feels the same way at the end of every school year. 

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As a part of the end of the year duties this year we will all be packing up our classrooms to move to the new school campus.  This move is a huge undertaking.  Also, we still need to fill out our student reports and mark all the exams.  It is usually a busy time anyway, but add to that all the stuff with the move to the new campus it just makes it very stressful this year.  My wife and I were asleep by 8pm last night and we woke up still a little tired.  Oh well, in 12 days it won't matter anymore!

Posted by: wjreagin at 06/15/05 14:47 | link | comments (1)
teaching, esl , china

New School Site Visit

Yesterday, myself and 5 colleagues visited the construction site of our new school campus.  Our current school building is on about 2 hectares of land.  The new site has just over 14 hectares.  Currently the school buildings is two buildings connected by a small breezeway.  The new school (as you can see from the above photo) will have 11 buildings in phase one.  The above artist concept drawing of the new school site is actually once the 3 phases are complete. 

I was very impressed with the progress of the building.  We are scheduled to have the first day of class on the 29th of August this year.  I think that it will be cutting it close, but I am hopeful that it will workout.  I was able to stand inside the new 700-seat theatre area which is very impressive and was able to see my new classroom.  There will be a two-floor canteen and a 25-meter pool.  I will be sure to post photos of the completed building later on.

On another note, it is really great to see that 'Just in from Cowtown' is back blogging.  Welcome back!

Posted by: wjreagin at 06/09/05 06:32 | link | comments (4)
teaching, esl , china

The Last Week: Redux

It seems that no matter where you teach the end of the school year is ALWAYS crazy.  This year has been no exception.  Lots of things have been happening and it has made life much busier than normal.  The 5th grade teachers and I have been preparing a list of students to be placed in 6th grade homerooms for next school year.  We are trying to get a balanced mix of gender, nationality, langauge ability, attitude, etc. in all the homeroom classes.  Add to that the various levels of English among the students and it becomes an arduous task.  Furthermore, this past week we held the SPORTS DAY for the students. It was an entire day of events and ended with a 'tug-of-war' which was very exciting for the students, teachers, and parents.  I lost most of my voice trying to 'encourage' the kids to pull.  Following that was yesterday's 'INTERNATIONAL DAY' that is a festival/carnaval that our school puts on every year to raise money for disadvantaged kids in the Suzhou area.  It was a nice day of activities and my job was to introduce the performances in English and there was a Chinese speaking lady to introduce in Chinese.  As I mentioned earlier that I lost my voice the day before so it proved to be an interesting day of intros! 

Posted by: wjreagin at 06/05/05 08:47 | link | comments
teaching, esl , china