Engagement Photos

January 2012

Here’s the first blog of 2012. My new years resolution this year is to push myself harder with my Chinese and to stay on top of my blogs. Thank you to those of you who maintain an interest in my writing by the way.

Well last year was a busy year! I started at a new school, am engaged, and am planning two weddings. The wedding in China is easy to plan because Jin’s mom pretty much takes care of everything and the wedding in Canada has been made LOADS easier thanks to my mom doing all the legwork for me. I finished my first semester with flying colors and am looking forward to next semester. I am hoping however, to be able to cut back some of my part time and private lessons.

It snowed again in Wenzhou this year and once again you could see snowmen hitching rides on the top of cars.

Linnea has made it to China!!! She will be working at a school called Mike’s English starting Feb 1. So far we have had welcome dinner for her, gone carpet shopping, been to my school, had coffee at Starbucks (a couple times) and gone out to the local pub.

I think this entry is just going to be based on pictures I’ve taken over the last year.

- My school: my classroom is on the 6^th floor and although there is one elevator, it’s all the way across campus and it only goes to the 5^th floor.

- My students: all the students gathered on the track field for the morning assembly and national anthem. I teach approximately half of those students.

- My student’s talents: This is their version of the paper airplane. Ours suck!

- Animals Of Wenzhou 1: Jin and I were walking one day and ran across this little guy. His sleek body and tiny frame made it impossible for me to not take a picture. While Jin was squirming and questioning me about my fear of bugs and not lizards, I snapped a picture.

- Animals Of Wenzhou 2: After a long day of work I returned home to find this poor guy trapped. With no way to escape out of the slippery walled sink he was forced to wait for me to get home and save him…or kill him. But I couldn’t possibly bring myself to killing him of course so I decided to try to save him. In this apartment I lived on the 6^th floor. I didn’t want to touch him for fear he might emit some kind of poison or something so I grabbed a piece of paper and slowly scooped him up, carried him to my kitchen window and started to lower the paper to the window ledge. Before the paper ever reached the ledge though the little guy took his chance for escape and leapt from the paper. Unfortunately for him he misjudged the jump and went right past the ledge. There was a moment of silence before I heard a clang come from the awning of a third floor window. I do hope he’s ok.

- Animals Of Wenzhou 3: No major story here, but I picked up my school bag one day at school and this intriguing creature scared the c*** out of me! He’s pretty big too, probably 2/3rds the size of a penny. After taking a picture of him I shooed him out of my classroom.

- Animals Of Wenzhou 4: I was leaving the apartment one day and saw this guy waiting at my door. I’m assuming he’s waiting to be let in but I denied him the pleasure because I already have enough houseguests.

- Animals Of Wenzhou 5: this guy is the size of my hand. He was chilling out in the girls washroom sink at school.

- Cars of Wenzhou 1: This is a typical scene to see fancy cars parked (and blocking traffic) along the streets.

- Cars of Wenzhou 2: There is a trike hiding under that haystack somewhere.

- Funny 1: What are those babies looking at?

- Funny 2: On the bottom of the babies picture you can see that they offer “The World Best Edoucation.”

- Funny 3: Funny? The baby doesn’t look like a goon to me.

- Funny 4: Pardon???

- Funny 5: kinda counter productive I think.

- Funny 6: I don’t even know what to think.

- Just Wenzhou 1: This is a view from Jin’s parent’s apartment. That is Jiang Xing Island (the spelling is wrong I’m sure).

- Just Wenzhou 2: Some papermaking. This paper later gets turned into the toilet paper they use here.

- Just Wenzhou 3: One of the bus stops in a small village just outside Wenzhou.

- Just Wenzhou 4: A guy taking a nap during his lunch break.

- Just Wenzhou 5: This is a light store in Wenzhou. They definitely are way more fancy than we are.

- Just Wenzhou 6: One of the nice views of Wenzhou.

- Fujin 1: Jin and I had this room all to ourselves in Fujin; a city in the neighboring province.

- Fujin 2: This is the seafood restaurant street in Fujin.

- Fujin 3: A cool statue in Fujin.

- Halloween 1-7: These are a few pictures of different Halloween costumes this year. I was Robin Hood, Jin and his friends were “Nudists on Strike”, Craig was the man behind the mask, Pauline made her own skeleton costume by strategically cutting everything from paper, her friend makes a great avatar, Anna as the living bride and her friend as the dead bride, Rachel as a smurf, Sissi as Snow White, Heidi in her PJ’s, Austin was James Bond but I didn’t get a good pic of him.

August - October, 2011

August – October 2011

Hello all,

I finally have a free moment to catch up with all of you.

These last 4 months have been some of the most hectic months I’ve ever been through. Between teaching, lesson plans, organizing things for the new house, cleaning the new house, and wedding preparations; I have had very little time left to myself. This is not necessarily a bad thing either. Let’s start with a quick history from when I first got back here.

So I landed back in April, I got set up with my school and figured out it’s routine just in time to make and grade final exams. Just as I finished handing in the report cards to the school my landlord had asked if I could move out a little bit earlier so his new tenants could move in closer to the beginning of the month. At this stage the new house would be finished within the month at the latest so I agreed to move into Jing’s parents house until the new place was ready. Packing and moving took place between my summer lessons, which wasn’t much time. My summer consisted of 12-hour days 6 days a week and on Sunday only one lesson, but the rest of Sunday was making lesson plans for all those classes. It was pretty busy, but because of it I was able to contribute some money to help with the cost of construction in the new place. Yayy!

This brings us to where I am now. Construction was delayed so I ended up staying at Jing’s parents place longer than anticipated. I didn’t see Jing’s dad too much, but did hang out with his mom a bunch. Our official move in date to the new place was October 3rd. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my time here. Jin has really made a comfortable home for me. I’ve baked bread a few times in my new oven and cookies are next on the list. The steam oven we have is amazing, I’ll have to bring one back to Canada. It’s essentially an oven but instead of heat, it steams the food. It’s quicker and retains more vitamins. I love it.

School has been pretty decent. Busy as usual, but I am back in the groove of it and it’s great to see the kids again. My private lessons are going well. I’ve even been offered a job at a competing school. They said they could offer me a competitive contract, unfortunately though, I’m going to take Chinese lessons at the university next year. Well, not unfortunately for me, it’s unfortunate to the school.

I’ve made a few new friends. Pauline is from Scotland and Naomi is from Canada but lives in Israel. They are fantastic people; a lot of fun.

Thanks to Jin’s mom, my wedding is starting to come together. We will be having a very traditional Chinese wedding. Our candy bags will be going out in the next couple of weeks, unfortunately anyone who doesn’t live in Wenzhou won’t be getting a candy bag. Sorry guys. :-(

Well that concludes my quick; long waited blog. I’ll try to give more details next time.

Zai jian ~ Julia

June - July 2011

June-July 2011

I know I promised to write at the end of May, but circumstances have delayed me.

Firs of all, Jing proposed to me!!!! I said yes and since then have been busy with minor wedding preparations. If you’d like to see his proposal to me you can go to this website: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/0bcE4R7yTmA/ . It’s very romantic; Jing really outdid himself. Our wedding day is March 24^th, 2012 in Wenzhou, China. We are planning to have a traditional Chinese wedding. I’m not sure when, but we do want to have a reception in Canada as well. It will be a traditional western style ha ha ha. I’m thinking one year after the wedding here so that we can have time to save up, but that’s just a guess.

June was mostly just writing up final exams for the students and marking them. At the end of the month I had lots of schools offering me part time jobs for the summer, which I greedily accepted.

Work over the summer has been insanely busy! All of July was filled from 9 am to 9 pm. I did end up getting that job with the high school, which is what made my daytime schedule so busy. Now that August is here, I only have evening classes and have time during the day to catch up on emails, blogs, and hobbies.

I was really hoping that all my hard work would go towards my business, but because of a certain proposal, I have had to pause that dream for a short time. Once Jing and I figure out what costs are needed for the wedding, I’ll be able to start saving money again for my shoe company. Jing has been helping me with finding an appropriate factory for my shoes, and I have been doing research on different kinds of leathers and materials. I’m hoping that I won’t have to delay it for too long, but we’ll see how everything unfolds first.

Well there it is; short and sweet!

Talk to you sooner than last time I hope!

Julia

April - May 2011

April-May 2011, (Pictures to follow)

Here’s to the first blog of 2011. Well my trip back to Canada was wonderful! I got to see all my friends and family for longer than I anticipated. I arrived in Calgary on January 18^th 2011 and was scheduled to go back to China on Feb 10^th 2011. Due to visa troubles I was held up until April 15^th 2011. As I write this I am on the plane heading back to China.

I gorged on delicious, fattening foods that are not as accessible in Wenzhou and by doing so have gained 10 lbs. I would like to say it’s been worth it, but most of the time the richness of the food upset my stomach.

My visits were nice; I got to spend a couple weeks with my grandparents, a couple weeks with Nea, a couple weeks with my mom, and a couple weeks with my brother. I went for coffee frequently with my friends and was able to see almost everyone; us girls even managed a girls night in all the hustle and bustle.

Because of the hold up on the visa I had a wonderful time and was very grateful for the delay.

Now, on my way back I am looking forward to concentrating on my language learning this year and enjoying many more massages. In fact, that’s one of the first things I have planned on doing as soon as I get back.; shower, massage, then food! YUM I can’t wait!!!

I’m now on movie number two out of a possible six, I’ve read a bit of my book and even napped a bit. Hopefully the trip will go by quickly and I will fill in the rest of the details when I arrive.

So back at it…

School:

School is good. I work 20 hours a week not including my lesson planning time. The kids are grade 7 and 8 and most of the time fairly well behaved. The school was just constructed so still looks clean. I get a free lunch at their cafeteria if I choose to go. I’ve taken a few pictures to show you. I get to choose 4 items from the food they have prepared, then they give me a fruit and I go to collect my soup and rice. Overall I’m pretty happy with it.

Food:

Oh the food! How I have missed thee. It’s so delicious! I’ve had BBQ, noodles, lots of rice, veggies of all kinds and a few select meats; I’m still careful on that.

Weather:

The weather has been nice so far, a couple really hot days as a brief reminder of the days to come but that’s about it. I definitely am not looking forward to the summer heat.

Other:

As far as the rest of my life is going, so far it’s just been catching up. I’ve had my feet massaged and plan to go for a hair washing/cut soon. I’ve gotten into the rhythm of my lessons for the most part and have my daily life all organized. I start my Private lessons soon too.

I bought a mixer the other day. It’s meant to puree anything! I have been making tons of soya bean milk and am getting pretty good at it! ^_^ I also bought a printer which should help me with my lesson plans and worksheets. I’ll have two months off of school for summer vacation, but I have already filled one of them with extra work. I was originally planning to use those months for a Chinese course but the offer was too good to pass up. It’ll be three weeks of work, 6 days a week, 6 hours a day for 15, 000 rmb. That’s about 2,238 Canadian dollars. How could I say no. It’s not set in stone yet, but it was pretty certain last I talked to them.

Okay, so that is all for now… I’ll write again at the end of the month.

Julia

October 1 - November 9, 2010

October 1 - 31

Like I mentioned earlier, I arrived back in Wenzhou from Hong Kong on the 1st of October. I was so tired that I pretty much lazed around for the first two days of the National Holiday. The National Holiday is held from October 1st to the 7th. It is a holiday to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China beginning October 1, 1949.

I managed to get a bit of traveling in. I’ve been to Beijing; the great wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the hero’s monument, and a famous Peking duck restaurant. The great wall is pretty “great” the spot I went to was very touristy though and was packed with people. Whenever I looked at pictures of it I always thought “hmm it’s a wall that runs through the country” but once I got there it was different. Yes the section of the wall that snakes through the hills still looks like the pictures and is relatively the same sensation, but when you see the wall itself and go climbing on it it’s way different. It must have been tough to live and work on that thing. The towers have four small windows that create wind tunnels; in the summer the draft might feel nice, but I can only guess how cold it would get in the winters. Some of the sections of wall are so steep that my muscles were tired after only a few minutes of climbing.

Tiananmen Square was interesting to see, but really only because I got to put a picture to what I learned about. It’s a big square with the government building on one side, Chairman Mao’s memorial building on another and the Forbidden City across from that. The hero’s monument is right in front of Chairman Mao’s memorial building.

Forbidden City was truly amazing! It’s huge and to see only a small portion of the palaces was cool; we took 4 hours to walk through only some of what’s available to the public. It would take days to go through the entire place! The only thing is it wasn’t very pretty; there are a few gardens here and there but it’s all more built for functionality than looks.

The Peking duck was SO delicious. I loved most of the food we ate in Beijing; they have the most delicious snack foods! My favorite was the pancakes. They’re fried breads essentially with bits of veggie and meat in them.

Next I went to Hong Kong to visit for a couple days and to renew my visa. I wasn’t really impressed; it just looks like a very big, crowded city, not to mention all the people pushing you to go see the things they have for sale. The one thing that surprised me was at night time it seemed like you were walking around during the day because there were so many lights and bright signs everywhere.

My family came to visit in October. It was so nice to see them again and it made me miss them more this time around than when I first left. We just stayed around Wenzhou area though because all of us were on budgets. It was still nice though and I think I managed to get the majority of everything that they all needed or wanted. We went to a small village called Yong Jia; where we celebrated our birthday with fireworks and two boxes of giant beers. I had a wonderful time.

November 1 - 9

As far as November goes, I have been a hermit trying to restore my energy levels.

The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City. OOOOOOOOO AAAAAAAAAA

One of the many palaces inside the Forbidden City.

Large stone carving.