First time being very sick in China

Fri. night was nothing! Sat. I was pretty good.... Sun. was the WORSE. I woke up running to the washroom and throwing up. I am NOT pregnant!!! I either had food poisoning or the stomach flu. I tried to drink water and then I threw up again. I even had Pepto Bismol for nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. It stayed in my stomach for a little while but then that came out too. I had to stay hydrated so I had little sips of water throughout the day and slept all day. I was either really hot or had the chills. I did not have any solids the whole entire Sun. I really wanted my mommy =( I am a big baby when I am sick. My parents were concerned of course because I haven't been so sick for a very long time. I couldn't even stay awake for 1.5 hours before I got dizzy or a huge headache. Today, I stayed home and woke up at 9am and slowly started eating solids again because I was too weak. Then I took another LONG nap. I have so much work to catch-up on....

Thank you for all the caring people who came to my rescue!!! Catherine, the ginger and honey water stayed down and the Sprite did too =) I had the chicken breast for dinner today. Thank you for all the phone calls and knocks on the door. Also, thanks to people who offered to cook for me =) Will, thank you for offering me an oatmeal cookie, I promise I will try it next time. We will have a bake off!

Food Poisoning =(

I've been in China for almost 14 weeks. I haven't had food poisoning until LAST NIGHT! Let's start in the beginning. I had quite a long week because the Ministry inspectors from BC were at our school and I was starting to burn out. Yesterday, we went into KFQ for the evening and went for dinner to celebrate that we had survived for the week and to be with Anjali. We went to the East Hotel for dinner. Before dinner, I bought a very big loaf of banana bread for $2.00 (15 RMB) =) We were going to order something for A La Cart but we decided to go for the buffet because there were many different options for the buffet. The buffet was about $18.00 (115 RMB). You can just see from my pictures of the variety of food. There were pastas, soup, potatoes, pizza, turkey, sashimi, fresh oysters, mini crabs, scallop, all sorts of meat and you can pick the ones you want barbecue, etc.

After dinner, I was so FULL. I went to buy a few things and walked around a bit. I even had a cup of Toffee Nut Latte at Starbucks. However, around 9:15pm I felt like I wanted to vomit. I ran outside with my stuff to get some fresh air. Our school shopping bus was going to pick us up at 9:30pm but I was not in any good condition to go on the old, smelly, cramp, and no air circulation bus. Carrie, Catherine, Anjali and I took the taxi home instead. I was holding a plastic bag the whole entire way. The taxi driver was amazing, not like majority of the China taxi drivers, I was able to hold it in the whole way home and then I had to use the washroom at home... I will spare you the details. I haven't felt that horrible for a VERY long time. Today I just relaxed and did barely anything. Not sure if I'll go back to the East Hotel for dinner anytime soon.

Another Relaxing Weekend

On Fri. night we had a ladies night and we watched "Leap Year" on Sui Ki's L shaped couch. I do not have a couch at my place =( Catherine, thank you for the delicious 4 layers nachos dip. It was so nice to just relax and watch a movie with the ladies.

On Sat. I slept in a little and then I went out to the market to get some groceries for the week. Erin and I played "Love Jenga" again. It is definitely a good ice-breaker game. I'll let you decide on what some of the actions/comments asks you to do. Pictures attached this time. I ordered ice-cream again =) Does anyone know what ti zi is? It tastes like taro ice-cream to me. In the evening, I did go back to school to get some work done. There is just not enough time in a day to get everything done so I have to stay late at school or go in during the weekend. Anjali and I are in the same office so we work in the evenings together and we walk each other home. On our way home on Sat. night, we walked home before the campus lights went out at 10pm, we saw a man riding his bicycle and holding a flashlight with his left hand for his front bike lights. At least he had lights on!

Today, I woke up early and went into Dalian City with Anjali. I went to the tailors and I am getting 3 wool dress pants made. I gave him a pair of dress pants I have now and he measured me and told me that I have lost weight so he can't copy the one I gave him =) I walk a lot here and go up and down many flights of stairs each day. At 11am, we went to a church in Dalian for worship and also for a Thanksgiving lunch. Thank you for inviting us ladies! After lunch, Anjali and I hired a driver to drive us to IKEA, Metro and home to buy some groceries and more furniture for our places. I need to stop spending money at IKEA!

I do not have a lot of time off during Christmas and New Year's here so I will not be coming back to Vancouver, Canada. However, I do have a long weekend from Dec. 31st- Jan 2nd. Here are my options: go to Harbin, China for the ice-sculpture city festival and the temperature is usually around -30 or go to Sanya, China, on Hainan Island, where it's going to be hot and sunny. Sanya supposedly is the beach paradise in China. I might go to Harbin because I think it might be a mild winter so it'll be a good winter to go but the ladies will be going to Sanya and it'll be much warmer. Any input?

I promise I will start catching up with my emails...

Motorcycle Ride

I went for dinner with a few colleagues, Carrie, Jim, and Cole, at the American School near where I live for a buffet. Every week there is a different theme, this week it was Western theme. The potato salad and apple pie were delicious! There was a lot of cinnamon. Thank goodness it was not red bean. Sometimes I think some of the pastries have cinnamon on it but it's red bean. It's not the same....

Jim and Carrie both own motorcycles. Cole rode with Jim and I rode with Carrie. I know I was too scared to ride on one in Vancouver. I rode on one in China instead! I did not have a helmet on either and it was freezing cold. I thought I was going to take the taxi home so I was not dressed appropriately. I held on to the back part and just went for a ride. We went around the corners very slowly. We lost Jim and Cole for the last part because we were busy talking and followed another motorcycle. Carrie found a way home. It was fairly dark so we drove slowly to make sure we were actually driving on a road. We drove along the beach and it was quite nice. The small white bridge is lit with fluorescent green lights at night and there are many big sculptures on the beach, such as a crab. Where we live, we conserve a lot of energy by turning the lights off quite early and there aren't a lot of street lights. The sun starts setting around 3:30pm. Overall, it was a fun ride home and I might ride on another motorcycle in the near future.

Clapping Shrimp

Many of you know that I love baked goods. I've been trying a few bakeries around where I live and also in KFQ. I have found a few that I would definitely go to. BreadTalk for their very famous Chinese dry shredded pork buns. KEI bakery for their red bean filled donuts and Mexican buns. Donuts is very hard to come by here. Heisei bakery translates to black bakery for their delicious Chinese birthday cakes and Portuguese egg tarts. I find many of the other bakeries serve very dry and/ oily pastries.

I love grocery shopping. hahaha... NOT but I am starting to cook more often now =) I finally found teriyaki sauce at one of my most favourite import store, "Deli Harbour"!!! I do not drink a lot of milk in China unless it's in my coffee, tea or with cereal. I don't like the taste at all... However, I know I need to have calcium so I have been eating and drinking a lot of yogurt. Drinking??? The yogurt here is like YOP at home. I bought the small containers of yogurt so when I'm walking to school, I can drink it with a straw. Buying toilet paper takes me quite awhile because I need toilet papers' with a roll/hole in the center so it fits in my toilet paper holder at home but the paper must be soft enough. Some of the toilet papers here are quite weak and rough. That just won't do it.

The name of my post for today is "Clapping Shrimp" because I went to a Korean restaurant for dinner tonight and they always provide some side dishes to eat before the meal. There was a side dish with cooked tiny shrimps with the shells still on. I like seafood so I tried it. Morgan was petrified. I ate a few, it was yummy but chewy. The last one I ate had the antennas and two small claws that looked like mini lobster claws still attached. I wasn't going to eat it but I did!!! I haven't had anything too crazy in China yet. One step at a time...

Relaxing weekend...

On Friday night, I wanted to just relax after a very busy week; I finished my first set of report cards!!! I went to a massage parlour with a few of my girl friends. Before we started our massages we had to make sure females were giving us massages. We did not want the other kind of massage... We all got the back massage with oil and jade stones for 89 quai which is about $14.00. Firstly, we had to change into other clothes they provided us. I also felt a little violated because she pulled down my shorts and tucked it in and then she sat on my ass while she was massaging me. It was not a very relaxing massage because I was very tense. It was quite painful. I guess if it doesn't hurt, they aren't doing it right. She even massaged me with her feet while standing on me. Thank goodness I have an ass because she balanced on my ass. Yesterday, I was a bit sore and I think bruised too. Today, I feel much better! I think next time I'm going to go for a calm and relaxing massage. I should treat myself to a massage at least once a month.

Yesterday, I woke up early and went into Dalian City. Catherine, Anjali and I went to I55 for all you can eat western breakfast. It was about $11.00/person. There was no one smoking or spitting in the cafe. The ambiance was relaxing and quiet. This is not very common in China. We were there for awhile just chatting and drinking coffee/tea. Anjali and I went to Peace Square where the higher-end stores are located. I bought two sweaters from Giordano and two thick pink long johns. Yes, I did buy PINK long johns. Heeheee...... It is starting to get cold here so I need to be prepared. There are many different designs and materials of long johns. The men long johns have a hole or a button in the front so it is easier for them to use the washroom (WC – water closet). Children have holes in their pants too so they can just use the washroom for no. 1 and 2 in public on the streets. TIP: Do not step in wet puddles. After shopping we went for a snack. We found a place call “Kiss Mango”. We had to go try it out because we both love eating mangoes. We shared three different mango items. It was delicious! We got a drink which is almost like a mango slush bubble tea with mango jelly, a dish with different kinds of fruit with milk, and a mango, grapefruit, vanilla ice-cream, milk and tapioca dish. On our way home on the train, we saw a few students. While we were exiting the station we have to scan our train pass and go through the turning bars. A MALE student was so busy talking that he crashed right into it. OUCH! He could not walk for quite awhile. His friends were laughing so hard that they were almost rolling on the floor and in tears. TIP: Males, please be careful and protect at all times. Overall, it was the most relaxing day I have had in a LONG time.

Today, I went for lunch at a restaurant that serves very good Western food, such as pizzas. Erin ordered her pasta and I ordered a seafood pizza. My order was going to take a little longer so the owner gave us a game to play while we were waiting. The game was “Love Jenga”. The blocks were painted white and pink. Each block had something written on it, such as blow a kiss to an opposite sexuals across from you. A picture and quotes will be in the next weekend blog. After lunch, we went grocery shopping in the fresh fruit and vegetables market and on our way we saw a woman walking on the streets holding her IV bag with the needle still attached to her. That was a China moment. If people are sick in China, they go to the hospital and strapped to an IV. People in China rarely take medications. They think the IV will cure them faster. On the way home, I almost got hit by a car ... Of course, I had to go back to school and get some work done to end my day.

Odd Day

This morning I did not want to get up... "Why is it so dark outside?" I should have stayed in bed. As I was heading to school, my 10 min. walk was a little longer than usual because of the thunderstorm. I was trying to walk in a straight line but it was so windy that I was just trying to balance myself. I did make it to school in one piece! The thunderstorm did stop and it was just cloudy for a few hours. And then, right after lunch, we looked outside and there was an orange tint. Thankfully I made it to my next class before the sandstorm. I was teaching in a theatre today so the kids asked me if I can show them a movie before they die because of the crazy weather. They kept saying "2010" and "The Day After Tomorrow".  In Vancouver, I always pack an umbrella and sunglasses. In Dalian, I pack a toque, gloves, sunglasses, umbrella, a hot baby (small hot water bag that I can just plug into the wall to charge and it will be nice and toasty), scarf, layers of clothes, and a flashlight.

I invigilated a Grade 10 English e-exam today during my prep block. Personally I like writing a test in paper form because I'm always scared that the computer will crash on me and everything will be deleted. I walked into the computer lab and everything was going smoothly. They were doing their exams on a netbook in the classroom I was in. The netbooks are brand new so I thought I did not have to worry. However, about 30-45 min. before the exam was supposed to end, about 8 netbooks ran out of battery life, one side of the wall did not have power to recharge the batteries. The students were starting to get antsy and I had to get some tech people in to figure it out. I found other netbooks with battery life and had to sign them back into their accounts and make sure everything was still there. The e-exams are designed to save every 5 second. We had to move students to another wall or into another computer lab. Thank you Will and the tech. guys for helping me out! I can always trust my friendly neighbour, Will, to help me out at home and at work. Everything worked out in the end!

Coming home to a clean place =)

This is my first time living on my own and working as a first year teacher in another country. I thought I could manage everything: teaching, cooking, socializing, and cleaning but cleaning takes up A LOT of my valuable time. It is very dusty in China and I'm always working so by the time I come home, I have to make and eat dinner. I hired an Ai Yi (maid), Ms. Bo; she is amazing. Today was her first day and she will come once a week. She not only helps me iron my clothes, sweep and mop my floors, clean my washroom, wipe down the tables and counters, wash my dishes but she also helped me arrange my place to make it more spacious! I feel so spoiled =)

Happy Diwali!

On the weekend, I attended an Expat Diwali event in Dalian City. Sumi was very kind and lent me her salvar kameez. It was a remarkable event. I witnessed a Diwali prayer before dinner. Also, the food was delicious and so much to choose from. They had butter chicken, naan, roasted fish, fried fish, tandoori chicken, chole bhature, and many other dishes I cannot pronounce or spell. There were at least 13 different dishes. There were Indian performances from gorgeous females from the medical school in Dalian. After the performances, we started dancing on the stage and I thought the stage was going to collapse because there were so many people on the stage we were jumping and having such a great time. Dalian City is very multicultural; there are people from Canada, Germany, Pakistan, Korea, Japan, Nigeria, etc. Maybe I'll be in the Dalian Today magazine again!!!

Invigilation

I never thought I would invigilate provincials and midterm exams like my high school teachers. I invigilated as a TOC earlier this year and also at Maple Leaf. I wonder what my high school teachers saw students doing while writing exams... This is what I saw or heard from colleagues: students cleaning their glasses, taking a short nap, picking their nose, killing bugs with their exam papers, fidgeting with pens, drawing on desks, checking their braces, combing their hair, cheating by using their cell phones, playing with a Mentos bottle, and a student found his exam quite "arousing" (he was doing something inappropriate in public... hmmm....). Sorry, no pics included in this post.

Last Sat...

my friend, Erin, and I went into Dalian. I bought a small side table at IKEA the weekend before but there were no screws inside the box. Thank goodness IKEA is super organized, I showed up with my receipt and she found the screws for me. There were hundreds of screws organized right behind her. Of course I had to have an IKEA ice-cream! I bought A LOT of winter clothes at Decathlon. It is similar to MEC in Vancouver but better prices. I bought yoga pants for $5! I bought a pair of sweatpants and I don't need to get them hemmed =)

We then took the train to a city between where I live, Jinshitan and Dalian City. I bought a pink and white Hello Kitty laptop sleeve! I am very happy and proud with my purchase. We then went to new deli in town. They had olive bread and bagels from a European bakery, many different types of cheeses and deli meat. All of these items are hard to come by in China. While we were in the store we met a kind American lady, Lisa. We were talking about different places we can purchase import items. When she was just about to leave, she offered us a ride home because she had a driver. Her husband, Steve, works for Intel so they have their own driver. Erin and I took the offer right away and got into the van. I would never do this in Vancouver. I guess in China, when you find someone that can speak English and generous, you automatically trust them. The driver was amazing, I did not fear for my life at least once. It was the best ride that I had in China thus far. When I got home, I made a cherry tomato, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni bagel for lunch. It was DELICIOUS! 

In the evening, we had Autumn, a friend and a driver, drive us to the Caribbean Bar for our staff Halloween Party. Autumn has driven me to many different places in Dalian and she is a fun and sweet person! The party was awesome. Everyone was dressed up and in creative costumes too. I dressed up as a scarecrow protecting the sunflower. I had my costume made! What should I be next year? hmmm... Overall, it was an amazing Sat. because I met two very warm-hearted people and I had a blast at the Halloween Party.