year 2 - the recap

Dalian

HongKong - Olympic Friendlies

I am now in my second year. This year has been better then the first, traveled more places, evolved to be a better ESL teacher and made even more friends.

so lets begin the year...

arrived in August..crazy landlady returns to haunt me and Tina right out of our place. I moved across the road and now live alone with my cat, Codominance-Cody. I now have a sort-of room mate Jillian, she lives across the hall, this has to be the best set up for room mates ever.

Cody

I am teaching Science 10 and Math 10, coaching girls soccer and doing yoga. I am still trying to learn Chinese, key word trying.

In October I went to the Philippines for a week. I sent the week on the beach in Palawan and feel in love, with the Philippines. I also toured Manila. It was my best Holiday ever.

Underwater Cave on Palawan Island

For Christmas, me and my "room mate" Jillian threw a Christmas party, which i was at for about 30 minutes...damn flu.

For New years I went to for the second time now. I relaxed and walked around.

For my long holiday I went to Cambodia, Loas and Vietnam. I had a great time in each place, and got to meet some great new people. Cambodia was heart breaking and incredible at the same time. Angkor Wat is a must for everyone to see. Laos is the adventure holiday you dream of. And Vietnam was historic.

The girls in Angkor WatView of Luang PrabangMonks in Laos

Hue

Hoi An

Friends I met in Vietnam - Na Trang

Siagon

Back to school, it was hard to do after that holiday. I feel this year I have gotten more involved with the school and the students and experienced Dalian more.
For the May holiday I went to the Philippines, this time Boracay. Beautiful but too touristy for my liking.

We have partied at my place for Don and Janette's Birthdays. Janette's was a roller/80's party.

I have walked the Dalian annual get fit walk.

And just hung out with great friends.

I am now wrapping up my last year at DMLIS. Sad to leave but also excited to try and find a new international school or work in BC, what ever life brings me.

Dandong weekend trip

Looking to get out of Dalian and Kaifaqu for a few days. So me and Lauren go looking for a cheap trip away. As we are booking our tickets to Qingdao we run into 2 student teachers (Kris and Frank) that are going to Dandong next weekend. So we decide to jump in on this deal and check out the North Korea border town.

View of the City.

We drive from Kaifaqu to Dandong Saturday morning, ROAD TRIP! it took about 3 hours an cost 1000 YEN (about 170 CAN) to have our our own personal driver for the next 2 days. Along the drive we got to see a less advance side of China, farming towns, long strips of rice fields and people picking fruits and vegetables. It was nice not to drive next to the huge building that are falling apart that seem to be all love every big city in China. Instead it was small one or two room houses falling apart.

When first arrived in Dandong we went to the war memorial museum. Saw old trucks, planes guns. The Museum of Commemorate US Aggression.

Then we were off to the Great Wall in the North, Tiger Mountain Great Wall. It looked a lot like the mom me and my mom visited in Beijing. We did the hike up and took lots of pictures and looked at the view, trying to decided where North Korea was.

The next stop that day was to the Bridge that used to connect China to North Korea. The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge.

The next day we went home to Dalian, Kaifaqu and Jinshitan, on the way home we stopped at dagu shan, Lonely mountain. It had Taoist temples from the Tang dynasty and beautiful views and a peaceful atmosphere.

This is Kris and Frank Bargaining locals for the incense you burn inside the temple.

Us that the temple.I am trying to be the Dragon, I'm I pulling it off?View from on our way to the top. We never made it all the way.

Trip to Thailand!

After me and mom did the China thing. I was ready for the heat, especially after we where in Dalian and it was the coldest it had been all year. We also were staying at my new place with no furniture because I have a crazy landlady. We slept on a rock hard bed. In China not a lot a people have materses it costs too much. We also had no furnicure, no fridge, no stove. Camping in a house that was about -2 degrees.

We left Dalian for Shanghai and went to Bangkok and Ko Samui all in one day. We spent one day in the HAPPY PLACE on ko samui then moved to a nicer place up the road where I meet up with a friend. We spent some time on Kosamui. I went off the the full moon party with Chantal, Candise, and meet up with Lauren, Bern and Trevor. We had a scary boat ride to Ko Phangnan, shouldn't haev drank before I got on the boat.

The Terracotta Warriors and The Muslim Quarter

The end of our tour was the Terracotta Warriors. They were amazing, we got pushed around at bit at first by the police, apparently someone important was coming and needed one side to themselves so we couldn't go on that side. This did not let mom stop her.

The Last thing we did in Xi'an was walk through the Muslim Quarter. It was very different from other markets I have been to. Busy lots of tourists and a lot of food. Most markets I have been to have been clothing markets.

Xi'an

This is the Bell Tower and the center of the old forbidden city in Xi'an.


Next day off to Xi'an, an early flight gave us another day to explore the city. We spend the afternoon walking around the large streets that lead up to the Bell Tower and walking through the Muslim Quarter. I don't think we saw as much as we could have.

On the 27th we took a tour with the city. It was a great tour, saw a lot of things and just enough time to experience it and get to the next. First we saw the Big Goose Pagoda, heard the story of the name and the entrance of Buddhism into China. The name is from when they where building the pagoda the largest goose flying above and stopped at the site, it was killed and eaten but it is the meat eating Buddhism here.

After the Pagoda we stopped at a site of an ancient city, the Bango Neolithic Village.



























After this we left to the hot springs, Huaqing pool, this is where the emperor and this many women stayed during the winter. It was a beautiful place with many pools.









This one was for the First Emperor of the Tang dynasty's favorite women, Li Yang. The picture after was where she dried her hair.