My Z Visa has arrived!!

This afternoon I was out picking up all sorts of pharmaceuticals and personal items to bring with me to China.  There was a pleasant surprise waiting for me when I returned home.  I saw it as soon as I came in the door- a letter size Purolator package on the ledge where Mom puts my mail. I knew it could only mean one thing- yes- my Chinese Working Visa has finally arrived!!

My flight is booked, my e-ticket has been emailed to me by the travel agent, and the last piece of the puzzle (my visa) has finally arrived.  I will be leaving from Moncton, NB Monday at 10:00 am to Toronto, leave Toronto Monday at 2:55 pm, and after a total of about 15 hours in the air, arrive in Beijing on Tuesday around 4 in the afternoon - yes... I will be travelling through space AND time!  But don't worry, when I return I will get my day back!

Once I arrive I will be met at the airport by someone from the school.  I have supper plans already for that evening and I am also booked for a tour of the Great Wall and Ming Tombs for Thursday, Oct. 8th.  China here I come!

For the love of Hunter

I want to introduce you, my blog readers and whomever else stumbles across my little piece of the web, to one of the great loves of my life, our family dog Hunter.  I love him and I will miss him very, very much while I am in China.  We saved Hunter from the local SPCA two years ago around this time of year.  He was healthy, rambunctious, completely untrained, six months of puppy, and a ton of work (you did wonders with him mom!) and is a wonderful addition to our family. If only he could fit into my suitcase! I would go on about how beautiful he is, but I thought it better to let you see for yourself.   

This is Hunter:

He loves to swim:

He loves to play fetch and will often catch the ball mid-air:

He loves the beach:

And he loves me!

...Or at least tolerates me and all the pictures I take of him :)

Love you Hunter!

Hanging onto summer

Even though the fall season has officially arrived, I found myself buying lime flavoured beer today.  Lime flavoured you say? But that's a summer flavour! I guess I'm just not ready to give up summer and the flavours that go with it.  I have always taken the adjustment out of summer and the progression into fall and winter a bit hard.  There are many things I love about this time of year, the changing leaves and the moderate temperatures for example, then the first snow and all the fun outdoor winter sports (snow shoeing anyone?). But I hate waking up in the dark; I hate having to close my window at night; I hate feeling tired at 8pm because the sun is already set.  

The fall season also means a cold. It happens almost the same time every year, and happens the same way almost every time.  For a minimum of a solid week every September I find it almost impossible to breath through my nose.  I am miserable to the people around me and I hate getting out of bed.  The only thing that makes it tolerable, or maybe the only that makes me tolerable is a good dose of night time medicine. The nighttime sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, so you can feel better the next morning kind of medicine to be exact.  I know there are way worse things in the world than the common cold, but I can't help complaining. I think it makes me crazy because I don't feel bad enough to stay home, but I don't really feel like working or going out in public either. I take it as a good sign that my seasonal cold has caught up to me now because this (hopefully) means I will have lots of time to re-cooperate before my big move.


This is probably my tenth attempt at editing/posting to this blog entry, but during my comment about how much I dislike this season, I forgot how much I love Halloween.  It is my favourite holiday after Christmas.  From the time I was very, very young, to my late high school years, my mom made me an amazing home-made costume.  Sometimes she wouldn't make what I wanted (Halloween is about being ugly and scary or at least original she would tell me), but always was the costume outstanding and a thousand times better than anything that could be purchased in a store.  The costumes that make my most memorable list:


A ninja turtle (the one with the nun chucks)
Marvin the Martian (I won first place at the middle school dance) 
A monarch butterfly (still amazed she pulled this one off, I was about 5 and very insistent) 
Lunette the Clown (Big Comfy Couch anyone?)
Frankenstein (originally made for my brother, re-used by me the next year)


I can only hope to live up to my mom's Halloween costumes with my own (future) children.  Or maybe I will just enlist her to do the job : )

Modern Dating

My cell phone bleeps,
For a moment I hold my breath.
Is it a text from you?
No.
Just a friend
Wondering what I am up to.

Shop Class

If you read the 'about me' section, you would know that I am a teacher, and that I will be moving to China to teach very soon.  What you might not know (at least from reading my blog) is that I decided to stay on the supply teaching list to make a few bucks and get back into the groove of working before heading out into the big unknown. Supply teaching is one of the craziest jobs in the world.

I got my first call on Monday. It was at 7 in the morning and I couldn't figure out why the phone was ringing, and ringing, and ringing. That was when I remembered that I was on the supply list and it might be work.  They asked if I could fill in for the shop teacher.  I said yes, because I never say no to work.  I hung up the phone and wondered if that was a mistake.  I don't know anything about shop class; I never took shop class; I certainly do not know how to handle a room full of bored teenage boys.  I think being young, female, and having a sense of humour about the situation worked to my advantage because both days (yes, I even went back a second time) the kids were all in all pretty great.  They didn't get very much work done, but at least they were nice about it.  Most of them even humoured me by opening up their books to look like they were working. Some of them even did the assignment. I came home exhausted but happy enough to do it again the next day.

Supplying at the high school is an interesting experience for me overall now that I think about it.  I would say that Monday was fairly successful as I was only mistaken for a student twice (once by a teacher, once by students). And it is much better than the time I was mistaken for a student at the middle school (I know I look young...but middle school?!)  I heard my younger cousin's friend say "she can't be a teacher, she's too pretty to be a teacher" and while that was a nice boost to my already inflated ego, it made me wonder what that implies.  Is it because she just thinks [women] teachers should be frumpy middle aged women? Or does she think that young, pretty women couldn't possibly be qualified to teach?  Coincedentally I went to parent/teacher open house the other day with my mom (for my brother) and she noted that all the teachers seem to be in very good physical condition. I thought about it for a moment and she is right.  At the high school the teachers are, as a general rule, in great shape.  I also noted that many of the women teachers are quite pretty, so I came to the conclusion that the comment had a lot more to do with how young I look than anything else.

If only I would have known

If only I would have known how difficult it is to stay unattached! I started dating someone about a week ago and I am so totally a wreck about it. I'm a wreck for no other reason than because I'm leaving so soon.  We have so many things in common and get along so well it's like a dream. I don't even know if I've ever dreamed up someone who fits with me so well.  I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but I think there could be  something really solid here.  I don't know if or how things will change after going away for nine months (re: China) so soon after things began, but for right now, its perfect. If I knew you weren't reading this I'd probably go on a bit more, but for the sake of things I will leave it at this.

p.s. I can't believe how lucky I am lately!

Time to leave is fast approaching!

I got my travel itinerary for China a couple of days ago.  This is still going to depend on my Visa, but right now I am scheduled to leave October 5.   Unfortunately this will not be in time for the big Military Parade/Celebrations, but maybe that's a good thing?  On the other hand, this means I will be arriving during a holiday and will have a few days to settle/explore/prepare before jumping into the classroom.  I received a very enthusiastic email from the school principal yesterday with a few details and some very welcoming remarks.  Starting this week the supply teacher should be emailing me and keeping me updated on the class- on what will soon be my class!  I think the hardest part will be joining a class already a month into the school year.