Good morning Vietnam!

Wow its been a while. We've been so busy trying to figure things out as well as walking around and the computers at the hostel are quite slow.
Anyhow, we arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam on Saturday April 26th in the afternoon. I had booked a hostel with the recommendation of the trustee lonely planet so that we would have a destination. I didn't want to get picked up at the airport because i was nervous about the set price and the hotel manager wouldn't get back to me with the acual price. Anyhow, we arrived at the airport and a lot of people were being greated my family and friends and we were joking that our friends were also going to meet us and welcome us. Just then, Julie looked over to a sign and said, "hey isn't that your name?" ahahaha. The hotel had sent for a pick up without us expecting it. The driver was really nice, him and is friend drove us into the old part of Hanoi to the hotel. This is where the craziness began.
We had heard about trying to walk and cross the streets in Hanoi however i had no idea it was going to be this insane. There are traffic lights at the odd intersection however there really aren't any rules oh which way to drive or a right of way. IT is acually like the game frogger where you slowly make your way accross the road hoping not to get it. We found that it was best not to look and just walk because it really doens't make much difference.
Hanoi is really neat. Its developping really quickly however still has a completely asian feel. It has a lot of markets as well as a large lake in the middle of the old section of the city which you would think would help with navigating the city however everytime we leave the hotel we get lost for an hour or more! The roads literally change names in the middle of nowhere for no reason. At least there is a lot to see.
Julie has a cousin who lives in Hanoi therefore her husband and her came to pick us up at the hotel on skooters and brought us out for a great meal. We also went to the ngiht market and to see the house where Julie's father was born. It was great to travel around Hanoi or motorbikes, there were points that i had to close my eyes.
Our hotel is really niceas well and the hotel manager is a workaholic. He is always there wether its 10 at night or 5 in the morning. He arranged our Laos visas for us as welll as our tour to Halong Bay and CatBa (where we are now).
The boat tour to Halong Bay was absolutely amazing! There were only 10 of us on the boat that picked us up in Halong City at which point we had a great lunch and chekced into our bunkees on board. We cruised to Halong Bay to see the caves and went kayaking around the moutnains for a while. We got back on board and hung out of the top deck with great lounge chairs and listened to music, read a biut and had a snooze... rough life eh? Then it was dinner time! We met a really sweet English couple as well as a girl from Australia who has been travelling with a Russian Punk star...so halarious... He acually played with one of the Ramones! HArdcore!
What else???? WE slept on the boat last night which was really nice and woke up for breakfast and a cruise to the Cat Ba island where we were brought to the Cat Ba national park. Unforunately we didn't see any monkeys. We did an hour treck to the top of a samll mountain. Unfortunately we didn't know this was the plan and had to do the trek in our flip flops! We sucked it up and did it anyhow! At the top of the mountain was a rickety old rusty lookout tower that had a sign posted that read '5 people at a time' the other side read '20 people at a time'.... we decided to go with the 5 people rule just to be safe although our guide kept flipping it to the 20 people side....SKETCHY! Then we spent the afternoon on a beautiful beach! We will be staying here for a few days.
On Friday morning we will be headed back to Hanoi to then find our way to Loas.
Tonight we hope to find our way to a Kareoke bar to rock out with Dennis the Russian Punk Star!

Talk to you soon,
miss you all, really... except those of you who my mom has pushed this blog onto and that i don't really know because i wouldn't know to miss you would i?

China vs Italy / Jade lady

hello hello!
Only 1.5 days left of teachers college! can you believe it! We are getting ready to start our south east asia adventure, packing up our stuff and getting a package of 'teacher clothes' ready to send home to be replaced by bummin' it clothing that will be more suitable for lounging around and trecking through the jungle. I can't wait to be a smellly backpacker and not have to think about what to wear! So nice!
Last night our teachers took us our for an amzing seafood dinner and tomorrow night we will be having another dinner here at Boren.
I have begun to notice the similarities between Chinese and Italian cultures. the most apparent one being food! EAT EAT EAT, is it okay? do you like it? do you want more? However, the chinese have many more rituals and things to do before dinner begins and they don't drink as much wine. Also, their goodbyes are not half as long as the infamous Italian goodbye i've experienced my whole life (oh the pain in my fathers eyes!) Also those damn chopstiks. I'm begining to improve in my chopstick skills and have also adopted my own freestyle way of handling the little buggers but it is still a struggle to eat noodles. That's another similarity. Lots of noodles.
another difference is the volume. Italian=loud, chinese not so much.
One thing that i love about both cultures is the importance of family. Here, the grandparents are always with their grandchildren. It's especially cute to see the grandfathers come to pick up their grandchildren from school and take their backpacks for them. They walk home holding hands and the there is a sea of grandfathers wearing bright pink miniature 'hello kittie' or ninja warrior packs or their backs.

Yesterday we went to buy jade from a store recommended by our teacher. Luckily Julie speaks cantonese therefore we were able to speak to the woman about her life and situation as well as the meaning of al the beautiful jade peices in the store. She was telling us about her children (3 girls, we expect she was trying for a boy) and the extra tax she had to pay for each child after the first. Se said that each of them cost an extra 40,000 RMB which is just about 6,000 Canadian. However noe the price has gone up to 70,000 RMB (which is about 10,000 CDN). We talked her down for the peices we wanted with our limited budjet and once we came to an aggreed price she began to put the peices together for us to pick up later that afternoon.
When we returned to the store she had made us both a beautiful necklace with a jade pendant representing "from the heavens" and "wealth in life" as a gift for us to take home. We are all putting together a package to drop by the store for her kids. some canadian things (that were all made in china)!

Well thats all for now, the next post will most likely be from Vietnam!!!!!!!
Talk to you soon!

Our last Monday before the adventures begin

Hello. I hope you all had an exciting weekend. Ours was pretty low key. The weater called for a typhoon, which is a lot cooler than it sounds. It is really just a big rain storm that lasts for a long time and its is also fairly windy. Other that that not too exciting.
Let's see.... oh i wrote to you saturday morning... oh saturday afternoon we took a ittle day trip to Haiping which is about an hour and half away from Jiangmen. The weather was awful so there wasn't too much to do and we had to pull over a few times because of the weather warnings. Haiping is a relly old town with a lot of european influence. The streets are really narrow and the buildings are all very decrepit. We saw it in a rain storm so i thin kmost of the towns people were indoors. It felt a little bit lef tbehind especially compared to the business we've bcome accustomed to. It did however feel very peaceful.
In Haiping we also vistied a movie studio that a lot of Chinese movies are filmed in. It was really neat to see the studio leaking durin gthe rainstorm. It looked like an abandoned village with an enormous mansion however the closer i looked i realized everything that looked like teek was acually made of foam!
After this we walked down the covered streets and stumbled upon a kung fu school/studio kind of....we saw to girls in the back who were on high wooden shoes to practise balancing while learning manoevers. They were realy friedly and were both 15 years old. Here, we also baugt beautiful silk chinese fans from the owner.
We continued our trip by bus to the watchtowers jsut outside of town hat were built in the late 18 C. or early 19C. to protect China from Japanese intruders as well as thieves from abroad. Some of the watchtowers were over 6 stories high, made of stone with a lookout at the top. They gave a great view of the countryside.
After this we headed back to Jiangmen but first sopped for something to eat (i thin kit was still Haiping but i'm not sure) We had some rice bowls and vegetables. I met a few school grils who waanted to practise teir english. It was the first time they had seen a white person in real life so they were very excited. Julie started poking me to ensure them that i was real.
Sunday we travelled to Guangzhou to a few pars and temples that i don't remember the names of righ tnow but i'll post later. We shopped around a bit and found some cheap tank tops for the next part of the trip. Since we were in a large city we ate McDonalds (McDonald's count is now at 2, not including ice cream, it doesn't count)!

Today i was a tthe elemtnary school in town and the kids were so excited and enthusiastic. It looked like they were in pain with their hands up because they wanted to participate so badly...
oh super time, i'll write more later.
bye for now.

by bum is too big for china : (

hello everyone!
I can't beleive two weeks have already passed. Next week i'll be teaching at Zicha elementary school and then off to explore.

We were supposed to participate in a hike up a mountain with one of the elementary schools in town (an event to celebrate the olympics) but a typhoon is coming so it got cancelled. However, we are still making our afternoon trip to Haiping (our coordinator Peter's wife's village). I'm not too sure why one things is cancelled and not the other but..... when in China.... (don't worry mom i'll stay safe).

Tomorrow we'll be going to Guangzhou for the day. It is the largest city around however i've heard it is very polluted and difficult to breathe clearly. I hope the experience will be better than it sounds!

Yesterday i had the afternoon off and walked around Jiangmen while people stared at the white girl trying to buy a pair of pants (my bum is too big for China), I kept saying "b-i-g-g-e-r" and widening my arms apart. Nothing. Only size 25 or 28 at the largest! All the cute little chinese girls laughed! So after my self esteem was nice and low i did what any other foreigner would do and had a soft serve swirl cone at McDonalds! The chocolate and vanilla one, yummy!
Later, I met Julie and we went to get our hair washed and a head massage. ITs like at the normal salon when they wash your hair except that you're lying down on a comfortable bed instead of having an awkward kink in your neck. They suds up your hair and massage your head, neck, back, shoulders and legs too (Which was really ticklish and i kept squirming). Oh they even do this ear cleaning thing (not as grosse as it sounds!) Then i got my hair trimmed very presisely. All this for under $5 Cdn!
Friday night on our way out around 9 pm. a mini bus came to deliver live chickens to the school cafeteria. We were all waiting for cabs to the bar so he offered us a ride; after dropping off the chickens ofcourse. We jumped in and cruised to the bar in the chicken bu. It was acually a fancy mini bus, i don't know what the chikens were doing in it? Guess what was for lunch the next day??? yup FRESH chicken! We attended Class Bar and played drinking games after the chiken bus dropped us off and then moved on to Baby Feel (weird name, i know)for some dancing.

Thats about all the excitement at the moment! I've been working on planning our trip for the next month which is exciting and will consist of boats, treehouses and beach huts! STAY TUNED!

EVERYTHING IS LOCKED.

Hello again everyone.
A few pictures will be coming soon i hope. Not many, but this IS a blog and therefore you are most likely to read my ramblings on...

I've been asked a lot of questions about the day to day and school life here in Jiangmen. The school i live and teach at called Boren Sino-Candian school is about 15minutes from anything in the city of Jiangmen. Some of the student teachers i came with are teaching downtown Jiangmen and are experiencing more of the day to day chinese culture. Lucklily i will be continuing with my last week their to observe chinese schools, large class sizes and to observe how teachers teach.

My classes are going alright however it is ofcourse not what i was expecting at all. The students have a low level of english (or they just don't feel comfortable speaking)and i am trying to teach them enlgish renaissance poetry which is an entirely different language again.... They often look at me like i have three heads. A classroom discussion is not the easiest thing to get through. I was told that the students speak english well since they are teaching the ontario curriculum here, however this is not the case. I have been able to play a few games and activities with them. They likfe to Canada souvenir prizes and become more engaged in class this way.

During the day i teach 8- 10:10 and i mostly prepare for lessons or check email and writre in my journal. Our dorms are locked from 7:30-12:00 and then again from 2:30-5:00 and then again from 7:00-9:00 we (teachers)are either locked up or down during those times because the students live here too and are only allowed in their rooms at specific times.
EVERYTHING HERE IS LOCKED or on reserve, paper,markers, every door, western washrooms and elevators, oh even extra toilet paper. We have hot showers from 7-8 or 9:30-10:30 therefore if we go out for dinner or anythign else we have to be back for this. I've only had two hot showers so far but i'm getting used to the cold ones!
There is air condition...sort of, that goes on at certain times (like the showers) and the internet. Nothing is wasted, which i really like. When everything is saved and locked up it is very frustrating to get things done however it also makes a lot of sense since electricity is in high demand and very very expensive.

What else??? I'm getting sick of Chinese cafeteria food so i mostly have fruit for breakfast or rice and apples and peanut butter or noodle soup for lunch. I try to go out for dinner to get out of the school so that i don't go crazy.

We can put our laundry out in bins in the hall although, as some of us found out you must include the detergeant or your clothes smell worse than when you sent them! WE also need to take an inventory of our clothes when they return to ensure we have everything... in trade of a dress my friend ended up with random man's underwear???? Then, we have to try to communicate what we are missing to the laundry ladies by playing a quick game of sherades. They laugh.

Next week will be interresting to see the primary /junior elementary school ,the kids are so cute and excited about learning english!
I'm looking forward to going into the city tongiht to try to get some dresses made at the tailors. Julie (my cantones speaking roomate)will help me!

That's all for now, i hope that gives you a better idea of whats up!
I'm not sure about this wekeend.... i'll keep you posted.
Linds

SYSTEM OVERLOAD

WHOA! SYSTEM OVERLAOD! We arrived back at the dorms from Hong Kong last ngiht after a three hour fairy ride that was quite enjoyable. Back to timed showers and hard beds. Our hotel in Hong Kong was amazing... hot water, beautiful view of the ocean and a lot of buildings of course..... we suished three to a room and pushed two single beds together. I was a champ and slept in the crack without a pillow! I didn't want to get to comfortable knowing we were coming back here.
The first day we arrived in Hong Kong by ferry and our guide from the school, Mark (who is the guidance councilor and Hong Kongese... yes that's how you say it but i like Hong Kongian more) brought us out for way toooooo much Dim Sum which was beautiful and then we walked throught the crazy narrow streets of the city to the jade market where we bought some souvenirs. Oh, and yes Ted you are right, random drops from the sky and building do fall everywhere and their is a haze over the city.. they say its fog... i'm not too sure. But the city is great!
What else... Oh yes we then went to Repulse Bay along the shore of the south island (this is where the british would repulse someone attacking the island... i need to do more research, i'm a little slow.....) WE took a lot of photos here ofcourse. We then went on to dinner at a really fancy floating restaurant (in running shoes and lulu pants!) called THE JUMBO... then we took a walk to the top of Hong Kong to overlook the city and Victoria bay at night. My friend Melanie got great photos with her camera, i'll try to post some eventually. And then back to our room for a nice rest and a LONG HOT shower : )
Yesterday we (Melanie, Julie and I) took public transit back to the south island to Stanley Market where i bought few beautiful souvenirs and had apeice of pizza.. western food! so good! The market was also full of western people with tour guides and name tags... i saw Bob and Tammy (such tourist names)hahah. I also saw a lot of families travelling together and missed mom, dad and ash : (
Then we took the bus and subway back to the ferry dock. We were very prod of ourselves for navigating the city and the crazy double decker streetcars and busses.
Phew... i'm tired..... thats a lot of details. I'm sure i missed alot but i think anyone who is still reading is ready to stop. So, Dustin said he would post some pictures for me! Check back soon!
Hong Kong really was amazing. There were so many buildings! The building are all so high and super skinny. they also seemed so high because they are all so close together. There are also a lot of escapes from the city, a lot of parks and island to go to which is nice. I don't really know how else to explain it! Dirty, Clean, Beautiful, huge, tall, smelly, fun.....everything really.

So Sorry!

Hello everyone!
I'm sorry to say that China will not let me upload images to the blog! I've figured out a way to view it however it takes a little searching! If anyone has facebook i have posted a few pictures there. I will try to post in HongKong this weekend. If that doesn't work i'd imagine i might be able to in Vietnam.
Sorry again, i wish i could share with everyone.
take care
Lindsey

day by day

I started teaching today and it went fairly well. I teach the same class over three times which gets boring for me but at least i can improve on the teaching each time. My M.T. (mentor teacher for those of you outside education) has just thrown me in there without demonstration so i'm doing my best! The kids are really nice however if their english isn't too good they get board really fast; imagine sitting through a lesson on poetry in mandarin or cantonese? BORING> I have one more class to teach this afternoon.
I tried uploading photos but it didn't work, i'll try later tonight (well this morning for you) and see if i can get it to work.
We went for a great walk last night around Jiangmen with Anna, one of the other teachers who has been here for 3 years. She took us to a great Korean restaurant because we are quickly getting tired of chinese cafeteria food. Maybe Thai tonight! The whole meal for 6 of us was only 246 RMB which is 46ish each which is like 8 dollars Canadian.. if was a lot of food and drinks and a realy fancy place so you could imagine how much food at a normal restaurant would be.
I'll definately try to post some pictures of the walk, its was great. Down alleys and
through shops. Alot of markets as well. Even a few guys tyring to sell live turtles, frogs and eels all tied together so they wouldn't get away! (to eat ofcourse).
Well, its almost lunch so i'm off to have a rest and prep for my next lesson.
This weekend we'll be in Hong Kong.

we're here

Okay, We're here! I can't seem to have access to the blog however i can still publish entries so hopefully this works!
We arrived in Hong Kong Saturday at 11:00 a.m. The fligth has acually really comfortable and we all had our own televeision and choice of movies and many television staitions so this made the time pass a lot faster. The turbulance on the plane was pretty bad in the beginning, my stomach dropped a couple times and anxious looks were past between strangers. The flight attendants seemed okay so i thought i would be okay. And then, a woman and the back scremed a couple of times which acually brought humour to the situation. The fligth attendants still seems okay so i thought i would only start panicking if the oxigen mask dropped. They didn't and the turbulance eventually past. I will say that i no longer enjoy flying very much.

The past couple days have been very busy and we havn't had access to computers since last weekend was a long weekend and the school was closed. Everything is very pretty here in Jiangmen, palm trees, beautiful flowers and hot weather. Last ngiht we went out for an authentic chinese dinner with our associate teachers and tried to manoever chop sticks, they were all very amused. I didn't do too bad. I was proud of myself for not defaulting to a fork. We toured around Jiangmen yesterday and got some snacks and other necessities (tea, bed sheet, flip flops) at the super market. My roomate Julie has been extremeley helpful to all of us with her knowledge of Cantonese and has made friends with the cafeteria ladies here at the school. I benefit from this because it means less sherades out in public! Damn foreigners looking like monkeys!
We then went to a park in the mountains. We took a van bus up to the top; following the zigzag roads in a manual vehicle all up hill is not the most fun experience. Our coordinator Judy decided to walk back down instead of taking the bus. Lets just say the edge was close and there were rarely guards. It was beautiful and i decided that the experience met my quota of 'doing one thing a day that scares me'. (the turbulance would have to have been the other.... (i'm beginning to see a transportation phobia developping).

I just finished teaching my first two classes and the students all seem very nice and interrested (thats a lie, some of them slept a lot...its monday!) . We watched the 'Dead poet's society' since i will be teaching poetry for the three weeks i am here. I now have a break to get some work done and have a siesta. Their luch is two hours which leaves them time to eat and sleep or catch up on work.
I guess i will leave it at that. Things are good though i am a little bit homesick and missing hot showers ofcourse.

Talk to you soon!
Lindsey

Anxious

First post!
Wow, i've never 'blogged' before, i feel like such a hipster. This is so formal and as soon as i press publish its out there for all to see (well my friends anyway).

Details Details Details...
This year, York is starting an international practicum placement program sending 9 students from York to China, more specifically to the city of Jiangmen in the Guangdong province. After an application and interview i quickly became one of the 9 students leaving all that is cozy for the unknown! I will be teaching at an International school that teaches the ontario curriculum. More specifically i will be teaching three grade 10 classes poetry. I don't really remember learning poetry so the past week has been a crash course, and they don't make a 'poetry for dummies' book; i checked. I'll be teaching until April 25th and then the un-attended adventures begin! My roomate (Julie) and i, along with others too maybe, will be heading to Vietnam, Loas, Thailand and Cambodia and then up to Beijing and home. Our E.T.A back in Canada wil be June 18th.
I'm already tired!
We will be leaving friday morning at 9:00 on a 17 hour flight to Hong Kong.

I am currently getting prepared for the trip, as much as i can in this short amount of time. Today was my last day at York and although i will definately not miss the freaking ROCKET EXPRESS BUS 196A i will miss seeing everyone and venting about our stresses. (shout out to KFA).

List of things to do:
-laundry
-clean up the clothes spread out all over my bedroom floor!
-read three poetry books tonight (ya right)
-eat a bag of popcorn
-call my friend Adam in Vancouver (i miss you)
-pack
-unpack what i don't really need
-get the meds sorted out

thats not too bad....if anyone has any tips on what to bring, see, don't see, don't bring... i would love the advice.